Perth Voice Interactive

STIRLING council’s attempt to get a trackless tram running through is steaming along, with councillors voting 11-1 to put the business case to the state and federal governments. 

Traffic and parking congestion is a big issue in the area: It was one of the main issues brought up by residents in a recent city-wide survey, and by two more residents’ at the October 31 council meeting who stood up at public question time urging for some action on parking shortfalls.

Mayor Mark Irwin envisions an Australia-first trackless tram system as part of the solution, linking Stirling’s centre at Glendalough Station with Scarborough Beach.

$864 million

The business case estimates with 90 per cent confidence that the capital cost of a trackless tram system would come in around $864 million, but that it’d be a good investment overall.

The report’s authors reckon there’s a cost:benefit ratio of 1.96.

While $2m federal funding was granted to Stirling in 2021 to pay for its investigations into the technology, there have still been a couple of ardent critics who say local government shouldn’t get involved in public transport and that it’s a bad use of staff and councillors’ time.

Cr Elizabeth Re, the only councillor who voted against putting the business case to state and federal governments, said “we have buses coming every 10, 15 minutes down Scarborough Beach Road. That hasn’t stopped any of the parking issues”.

Cr Re said: “I don’t see this as a priority for our council. 

“We’re already doing so many things that are going outside or normal remit at the moment, and I look at some of our buildings that we’re not maintaining at the moment – we’ve still got asbestos in them, we’ve still got buildings that are 60 years old, what are we doing, waiting for them to fall down? We should be upgrading what we’ve got.”

Parking

Deputy mayor Susan Migdale said: “This is not something our residents will be paying for… our rate dollars will not be going to this trackless tram” and added “we’ll resolve many parking issues in pockets of the city by being able to move people easily and speedily”.

Mr Irwin said with population density increasing “it’s important that better transport solutions are implemented”. 

Councillors voted 11-1 to endorse the CEO to now advocate to state and federal governments to implement the project.

by DAVID BELL