PLANS for a multi-storey car park at Cockburn Central train station have been axed.
Cockburn city council shelved the idea—after spending $25,000 on preliminary designs and due diligence—after learning it would cost $28 million to build.
The council had launched the plan last May in a bid to deal with parking pressures at the site, which is often choked by 7am.
Slattery Australia told the council a 200-bay car park would cost $2.7 million, 400 bays $14.7m; 600 bays $21.5m and 800 bays $28.5m, requiring an eight to 10-storey building.
The Barnett government is unlikely to rescue the plan as it has committed to building an $80m train station at nearby Atwell.
Slattery said parkers would need to be charged $10 a day for the project to break even and most would “prefer to stay in queues of traffic” rather than pay.
Deputy mayor Kevin Allen says ratepayers wouldn’t want to be stuck with the bill.
“It would take too long for it to start paying for itself and would impact on other infrastructure projects,” he says.
“And most of all it would push more traffic onto a road system that just can’t cope out there now”.
Cr Steve Portelli says the project would be worth revisiting in the future.
“I personally would like to see the powerline easement used as off-location parking, with bus services taking them to the train station rather than have a huge parking station sitting right in the middle of the regional centre. We have noted that the increased parking in Knock Place has just added to the congestion.
“In the future we may be able to negotiate developer contributions to pay for these types of infrastructure.”
by BRENDAN FOSTER