A long road home for Perth’s B-Series train

07/03/2019

A cross-country journey is in store for the penultimate B-Series train, which left Downer’s Maryborough facility in Queensland last month. Bound for Western Australia, it will join the award-winning fleet servicing the people of Perth.
 
It has been a 14-year journey for Perth’s B-Series train sets which were designed, assembled and maintained in Australia by the Downer Bombardier Joint Venture (JV). With an initial order of 31, the first train entered service in 2004 and the final delivery will see 78 sets in service. There are just two left to deliver to the Public Transport Authority (PTA).
 
The trains travel over 4,000 kilometres through the heart of Australia across the Nullarbor Plain before they are delivered to the Downer Bombardier JV facility in Nowergup, Western Australia. After some final testing at the Nowergup site they will start their life as part of the six-time Canstar award-winning service that transports over 60 million commuters every year.
 
Tim Young, Executive General Manager of Downer’s Rollingstock Services, says: “This delivery milestone has been a testament to our strong partnership with the PTA and we are extremely proud of the efforts of our employees, suppliers and partners. The B-series fleet travels more than 1.3 million kilometres per month and is exceeding all expectations in terms of performance and reliability.
 
“We look forward to growing our existing relationships and supporting the development plans of the Perth public transport network.”