Transport Minister Rita Saffioti has hailed the first year of the $1.65 billion Morley to Ellenbrook line a roaring success, revealing there had been 3.2 million train rides on the network in the first 11 months since it opened on December 8 last year.

The latest available patronage figures reveal October recorded the highest number of boardings at 340,000 compared to 198,000 boardings in its first month of operation. November patronage figures will be available later this week.

By October, Ellenbrook Station recorded an average of 2108 boardings each weekday, making it one of the busiest stations on the network.

Reflecting on the first year of its operations, Saffioti told WAtoday and Nine News Perth that not delivering the project was never an option.

“Really, it’s about the pride in delivering and knowing that I’ve delivered what we said we would,” she said.

“It was such a major issue for people in this area. So for me, it’s [about] making sure I can stand tall in the community, knowing that I delivered our commitment and that I didn’t let them down.

“If we hadn’t delivered it, I just don’t think I could have walked the streets of Ellenbrook again because I would have been so ashamed.”

The Morley to Ellenbrook line has a storied political history – after being canned by the former Barnett Government and being subject to $550 million worth of cost blowouts during Labor’s pursuit of it.

Metronet’s cost blowouts have been employed deftly by the opposition to criticise Labor’s spending priorities and are regularly brought up in parliament.

Earlier this week, shadow treasurer Sandra Brewer again derided the state for pouring so much money into Metronet.

“Where has the money gone? We know what happened; it has gone to Metronet blowouts,” she said.

Saffioti remains defiant, saying her government delivered a huge amount of rail infrastructure for a fraction of the price they were delivered for over east.

“I challenge anyone to get a better value-for-money project across the nation,” she said.

“(The Melbourne Metro Tunnel) project itself cost about $15 billion, so we built an entire Metronet, 23 stations, 72 kilometres of rail line, 15 level crossing removals for $10.6 billion.

“(The Morley to Ellenbrook line), in particular, is very good value for money, 21 kilometres, five new stations.”

The new stations are Ellenbrook, Whiteman Park, Ballajura, Noranda and Morley.

The line has halved the time it took Ellenbrook residents to get into the Perth CBD from one hour by car to 30 minutes by train.

Saffioti said the line changed the way people moved around the city’s north-eastern corridor and had also connected young people with education opportunities.

“I was talking to a couple of young students from Ballajura Primary who got into Perth Modern and one of the things they were telling me...was that the train line would now allow them to attend Perth Modern because of the connections,” she said.

City of Swan councillor and Ellenbrook Community Collective secretary Cate McCullough said the line had also opened up the suburb’s centre to the rest of Perth.

McCullough is organising the Christmas in ‘Elfenbrook’ festival this Saturday, and expected a large cohort of the projected crowd of 25,000 to come from outside the city on the train.

The rail line has also had an impact on median house prices in Ellenbrook, with Real Estate Institute of WA stats showing the median house price jumped from $505,000 in 2023 to $730,000 this year.

The suburb’s five-year growth rate has outpaced Perth’s average growth rate by 4 per cent.

Despite the strong start, the Ellenbrook line will need to double the number of weekday boardings to reach the 18,000 the state projected it would reach by 2031.

To force that increased patronage, the government has established special planning precincts around the Ellenbrook line stations where government-backed built-to-rent apartment buildings will be built.

Saffioti said these would result in thousands of people moving within metres of train stations.

At the Ballajura station, construction will begin on 100 apartments in mid-2026, while a 197-apartment complex across the road from Ellenbrook would start construction within months.

By 2030 Saffioti had hoped to have built four apartment complexes near Ballajura station by 2030.

Ballajura and Morley stations were included in the list of 10 priority station precincts across Perth controlled by the WA government to clear the way for higher-density builds.

That policy was met with significant backlash from Western Suburbs councils, angry that the government had taken planning control from locals.

Saffioti admitted that the Ellenbrook line precincts were smoother prospects.

“There aren’t a lot of people living in close proximity, so you don’t have the normal sort of community issues and the second is the blocks have been defined and are ready to be built on,” she said.