Morley railway station is a suburban railway station on the Ellenbrook line in Embleton and Morley, suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. Located in the median strip of Tonkin Highway at the Broun Avenue flyover, Morley station consists of an island platform at ground level with entrances on both sides of the Broun Avenue bridge. A bus interchange is located on the southern side of the bridge and a multi-storey car park is to the south-west.
Early works under the Tonkin Gap project started in November 2020, which included the replacement of the Broun Avenue bridge, which occurred throughout 2022. The main contract for the construction of the Ellenbrook line was awarded to Laing O'Rourke in October 2020. Morley station reached completion in November 2024, and on 8 December 2024, the Ellenbrook line opened.
During peak, trains stop at Morley station every twelve minutes in each direction, increasing to every fifteen minutes off-peak and on weekends and public holidays. At night, trains are half-hourly or hourly. The journey to Perth station takes fifteen minutes. Feeder bus routes serve the surrounding area, including the Galleria Shopping Centre.
Description
Station platformMulti-storey car park
Morley station is located on the boundary of Embleton and Morley, north-western suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. The station is within the median strip of Tonkin Highway at the Broun Avenue flyover and is on the Ellenbrook line, which is part of the Transperth system. The next stations are Noranda to the north and Bayswater to the south, where the Ellenbrook line connects to the Airport and Midland lines. Morley station is 10.3 kilometres (6.4 mi) from Perth station and is in fare zone two.
Morley station consists of an island platform within the Tonkin Highway median strip underneath a bridge. The station has entrances on both sides of the bridge, each with stairs and lifts. On the southern portion of the bridge is a bus interchange with twelve bus stands, while the northern side of the bridge is for Broun Avenue. In the south-west quadrant is a multi-storey car park with four hundred parking bays. Other facilities include toilets, bike shelters and a kiosk. The station is fully accessible.[1][2]
The North-East Corridor Structure Plan was published in 1994, and called for the rezoning of Ellenbrook for urban development and the reservation of a public transport corridor to Ellenbrook.[7]: 11 Later that year, the government commissioned the North-East Corridor Transit Route Reserve Study to determine a route for the corridor between the Reid Highway / Lord Street junction and the Midland line.[8]: 1 The route recommended by the study was via the Tonkin Highway median strip, with one of the reasons being that the route is the closest to the Morley regional centre.[8]: 4 [9] The study did not consider a station at Broun Avenue, only considering stations for Morley at Walter Road or Morley Drive, with the Walter Road site favoured due to there being no highway interchange there.[8]: 12 In 1996, the land required for that route was reserved in the Metropolitan Region Scheme, including a small section of land at Walter Road on the east side of Tonkin Highway.[10][11]
Construction
Constructing the Ellenbrook line by 2023 as part of the Metronet project was committed to by the Labor Party before it won the 2017 state election.[12][13][14] During planning and construction, the line was known as the Morley–Ellenbrook line.[15] The route of the Ellenbrook line was officially revealed in August 2019, confirming that it would run in the Tonkin Highway median strip and that Morley station would be located at Broun Avenue.[16][17][18]
As part of the Tonkin Gap project, enabling works were completed for the Ellenbrook line, which included modifications to drainage and barriers along Tonkin Highway and a rebuild of the Broun Avenue bridge for the Morley station bus interchange. Construction for the Tonkin Gap Ellenbrook line enabling works began in November 2020.[19]
The A$753million main construction contract for the Morley–Ellenbrook line was awarded to the MELconnx Consortium, consisting of Laing O'Rourke, in October 2020.[20][21][22]
In April 2022, the thirty-eight-year-old Broun Avenue bridge was demolished, which required a weekend shutdown of Tonkin Highway.[23] The final bridge beam out of eighteen beams was installed by September 2022.[24]
Multi-storey car park under construction, February 2024
To make way for the Morley station multi-storey car park, the Wotton Skate Park had to be relocated. After several different locations were considered, the opposite side of Wotton Reserve was chosen as the location for the new skate park. The skate park was built by the City of Bayswater using $2.5million of state government funding. Construction began in April 2022.[25][26] The new City of Bayswater Skate Park opened to the public in November 2022.[27] On 10 December 2022, a 3.9-metre-tall (13 ft) and 13.5-metre-wide (44 ft) vert ramp, the largest one in Perth, was opened.[28][29]
Morley station under construction, February 2024
By November 2024, Morley station was complete.[30] The station and the rest of the line were officially opened on Sunday, 8 December 2024 by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Premier Roger Cook and Transport Minister Rita Saffioti, with community events held at each of the five new stations.[31][32][33] To avoid confusion with Morley station, Morley bus station was renamed Galleria bus station upon the Ellenbrook line's opening.[34]
Services
Bus interchange on the bridge across Tonkin Highway
During peak, trains will stop at Morley station every twelve minutes in each direction, increasing to every fifteen minutes off-peak and on weekends and public holidays. At night, trains will be half-hourly or hourly. The journey to Perth station will take fifteen minutes.[35] It is projected that Morley station will have 1,365 daily boardings by 2031.[7]: 45
^ abcDepartment of Planning and Urban Development; Department of Transport; Main Roads Western Australia; Westrail (August 1994). North-East Corridor Transit Route Reserve Study (Report).
^Metropolitan Region Scheme Amendment No. 974/33: Eastern Corridor Omnibus (1995) Amendment. Western Australian Planning Commission. November 1995. pp. 4–5, figures 10a, 10b.
^Metropolitan Region Scheme Amendment No. 974/33: Eastern Corridor Omnibus (No. 2): Report on Submissions. Western Australian Planning Commission. August 1996. pp. 12–13. ISBN978-0-7309-5388-3.
