New metro rail Perth 'B' series electric multiple units

In the city of Perth, Western Australia, rail rapid transit forms the core of a public transport system which includes rail, bus and ferry services that are highly integrated to improve the quality of service and meet land use and transport planning objectives. The Perth urban rail network was recently significantly expanded with the opening of the new Southern Suburbs Railway from Perth to Mandurah on 23 December 2007. In preparation for the opening of the new railway and also to provide additional capacity to respond to growth on the existing Northern Suburbs Railway from Perth to Clarkson a fleet of new Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) was procured. The subject of this paper is the 31 x 3-car lBr Series sets that were supplied to meet this need and which entered service from October 2004. The topics addressed in the paper are: Introduction; A technical overview of the trains; The benefits obtained from design evolution (as opposed to revolution) from the successful Perth lAr Series EMUs introduced to service from 1992 onwards; An overview of the Design, Build and Maintain (DBM) contract structure adopted and the reasons for its selection; Discussion of the maintenance contract Key Performance Indicators (KPIs); Review of the performance of the trains in passenger service; and Conclusions.