Kevin McQuoid posed the question to us at our recent meeting: Is Perth’s passenger railway system being revitalised – yes or no? The old Metronet project was restarted by the State Government in 1983, but it remained dormant for many years until it was resurrected by the Labor Party prior to the 2013 election. Four years later a multi-government agency was formed under the Metronet name to manage extensions to Perth’s railway network, the rationale being that Perth’s population will eventually grow to around 4 million by about 2030. In 2013 Kevin himself proposed an urban rail network that would cater for 4 million people, but nothing happened until the Government altered the diagram to a very stylised version that depicted a Circle Line from Fremantle via the airport to Joondalup. In 2019 the Government formed a highly politicised body called Infrastructure WA, which has on it’s Board four Government appointees from the Departments of Treasury, Planning, Premier/Cabinet, and Transport. Decentralisation emerged as a major theme, but the concept has been ignored by the bureaucrats as the wrestling between road and rail persists. In fact, a Geraldton to Esperance Decentralisation via Rapid Rail Transit diagram doesn’t even rate a mention in the Infrastructure WA documents! Kevin has also proposed a “Sandgroper-Central Subway” system for the Perth CBD, but that too has been ignored. It seems as if the Minister has sidelined the Committee and is marking time in terms of making any real progress.