Satisfaction ratings for key service characteristics of Transperth’s train services (other than passenger safety) are shown below:

The Passenger Satisfaction Monitor 2005 also indicated that the satisfaction level with the architecture and design of train stations had increased significantly, from 66 per cent in 2004 to 73 per cent in 2005.

Passenger Safety

The following graph shows the proportion of respondents who “always or usually feel safe” at specified times/locations on the train network. The responses were to the following prompt in the Transperth Passenger Satisfaction Monitor: “How safe do you generally feel from personal interference or threat from other passengers?” The results for the past five years show that the proportion of train passengers who felt generally safe on board trains and at stations/interchanges during daytime has remained high. However, the proportion of train users who generally felt safe on trains at night fell between 2004 and 2005 while the proportion who generally felt safe at stations/interchanges remained unchanged.

Transperth is committed to ensuring that passengers feel safe on the train network at all times. Measures taken to achieve this objective include the deployment of 194 Transit Guards as at 30 June 2005, with a further 45 in training, and the $27 million Urban Security Initiatives Project (USIP).

USIP consists of a wide-ranging series of safety and security initiatives at stations and platforms across the system. The project reached substantial completion during 2004/05.

The highest profile of its initiatives has been the design, installation and implementation of a state-of-the-art closed-circuit television surveillance system and associated Central Monitoring Room.

This system, which includes 600 cameras (with the capacity to expand to approximately 1000 when the Southern Suburbs Railway is completed), is arguably the best of its kind in the world. During the year, it demonstrated its significant role in the reduction of anti-social and criminal activity on the rail network.

Other outputs of USIP include improved lighting (to the “white light” Australian Standard) at all train stations and car parks; a centrally controlled public address system on every train station (due for completion in 2005/06); selected secured car parks; a new passenger information system; audio loops for the hearing-impaired; and the redesign of the platform emergency call-button system.

To maintain a high readiness for an emergency involving passengers, a field exercise was conducted at Armadale during the year in coordination with the emergency services.

New MetroRail Progress

The New MetroRail (NMR) Project is the largest ever public transport undertaking in Western Australia. After a thorough review of the scope and cost of the project in April 2005, the Government approved an increase in the overall budget to $1563 million. Due to delays in the works in the Perth Central Business District, the time for completion to Mandurah was revised to April 2007, still ahead of its original December 2007 target.

Progress on the project is well advanced. More than 60 per cent of the new rollingstock had been accepted into service at the end of the year. Expenditure on the project to 30 June 2005 stood at approximately $830 million or about 53 per cent of the overall budget.Total expenditure in 2004/05 was $429.0 million against the budget of $411.55 million.