Western Australia Minister for Transport Troy Buswell

Bus Station Next Step In Perth City Link Project

Victor P Taffa

• State Government seeking proposals to sink bus station
• Dynamic stand-allocation station to be an Australian-first

With the task of sinking a huge tract of CBD rail yards in the home stretch, the State Government’s visionary Perth City Link project is preparing for the next big step – sinking the Wellington Street Bus Station (WSBS).

The bus station, which was opened in March 1973, is the last significant obstacle to the long-awaited dream of reconnecting Northbridge and the CBD.

The Perth City Link project will create a 5.2ha precinct between the Horseshoe Bridge and Perth Arena which will connect the CBD to Northbridge, creating thousands of residences as well as new workplaces for about 13,500 people.

Transport Minister Troy Buswell said the Public Transport Authority (PTA) would today issue a request for proposals (RFP) from parties interested in tendering to design and build a new, state-of-the-art underground bus station.

“This is a major step as the sinking of the bus station is the last public transport component of the Perth City Link project which will transform our city by reconnecting the CBD and Northbridge.” Mr. Buswell said.

“The project involves building a new underground bus station with Australia’s first dynamic stand-allocation system, in which incoming buses pull up at – and subsequently leave from – the next available bay.”

“The RFP is being issued today through the PTA and the main alliance construction contract is expected to be worth about $175Million, with the project as a whole close to $250Million.”

“The difference represents the cost of the Intelligent Transportation System – needed to manage traffic through the new facility – temporary works and related PTA costs, and work being undertaken as part of the Rail Alliance job.”

The Minister said that, as was the case with the rail work, the WSBS project would be carried out through an alliance contract.

“Because we want the transition from the rail side of the project to the WSBS work to be seamless, we are giving plenty of notice to those organisations which might be interested in undertaking such a landmark job.” Mr. Buswell said.

“This is especially important given the task of sinking the railway is already more than 50 % complete and our experience with the rail contract suggests the process of briefing potential tenderers, development and subsequent evaluation of bids, final negotiation, and formulation and signing of an alliance contract can take almost a year.”

The underground Wellington Street Bus Station will allow an uninterrupted street level connection to run from Queen Street to Nick’s Lane once the City Link project is complete. About 12,000 passenger boardings per day are expected at the new bus terminal.

Fact File

• Under Liberal National Government bus network has been expanded 11.7% providing more than 4.54 Million additional bus service kilometres in 2011-12
• Liberal National Govt invested $241M to build northern suburbs rail extension to Butler