State-of-the-art operation control centre on track for opening

Public Transport Authority's state-of-the-art network control centre ready for operations.

Management of the passenger rail network will soon reach new heights, with the Public Transport Authority's state-of-the-art network control centre now ready for operations.

The network control centre is housed in the new purpose-built Public Transport Operations Control Centre (PTOCC) building in East Perth.

The building will also be home to a new central monitoring room – which connects to the thousands of CCTV cameras across the network.

The new control centre, which covers roughly 1000 square metres, will be responsible for round-the-clock monitoring of Perth's rail network, which includes around 500km of rail, 87 stations and more than 10,000 weekly services.

The main feature of the new network control centre is a 100 square metre mega screen, which maps the entire rail network and provides real time information on every train in service.

The mapping of the network and trains is made possible by thousands of data points constantly feeding information into a bank of servers within the PTOCC building.

The expanded operations centre has been delivered to support Perth's expanding rail network, with around 72 km of new rail and 23 new stations being delivered in recent years.

The opening of the centre comes as the State Government continues to deliver its 10-year High Capacity Signalling Project, which will modernise trains control systems.

High capacity signalling, which is utilised on major train networks around the world, will add around 40 per cent capacity to Perth's rail network and allow for more frequent services on the network.

Works to deliver the high-capacity signalling systems will include:

• upgrading signalling along the total length of the Transperth train network (500 kilometres);
• installing more than 7,000 transponders enabling precise train location;
• introducing new in-cab signalling equipment for 125 trains including the Prospector and Australind regional trains; and
• improving passenger information on more than 600 displays on 89 stations across the network.

Both the PTOCC building and the High Capacity Signalling Project are being funded by the State and Federal Governments.