FREMANTLE Labor MP Simone McGurk says she has witnesses who dispute the WA public transport authority’s claim there was no fire on a train that suffered a sticky brake Tuesday morning.

Ms McGurk says she fielded calls from constituents reporting flames as the train crossed the bridge over Fremantle harbour.

She was at the train station shortly after the fire brigade hosed down the brakes, and was astonished when its order for the train to stay put till major maintenance was carried out was over-ridden by the PTA, which ordered the driver to turn straight around and head to Claisebrook.

Simone McGurk at Fremantle train station. Photo by Steve Grant

PTA spokesman David Hynes says the organisation is “absolutely certain” there was no fire. “Given that there was never any fire, [the firies] are not qualified to comment on the serviceability of our trains,” he says.

He slapped down the MP’s suggestion WA’s trains are increasingly unreliable because of breakdowns, saying they’re on schedule more than 96 per cent of the time. “It is disappointing that public confidence in a world-class train system may possibly be eroded by baseless information.”

Mr Hynes points to a national survey of train systems throughout WA earlier this year, where WA scored top in all-bar one of eight categories.•