buzzsshaw

Hi everyone,

We are a couple of scots (Me and my wife), moving to Perth next week from New Zealand (New Zealand Passport Holders).

I have a job in Leederville, near the train station and we are looking at renting a 2-3 bedroom place (for 6-12 months) somewhere in the northern suburbs, preferably close to a train station. Can somebody give us an idea of what suburbs we should be looking at and what the commuting times are like ?

P.s Can't wait to get to Perth !

TheHallidays

Hi,

The furthest train station on the Northern line is Clarkson and that takes about 30 minutes to Leederville (I travel that route too as I work in Leederville too) so that's your worst case scenario in terms of train travel which is pretty good really.

One thing to bear in mind though is that not all the trains stop at Leederville at peak times so I often need to get 2 trains so that adds another few minutes and is a bit of a pain. Therefore the best stations to aim at living near are Whitfords, Warwick or Stirling as all the trains stop there!

Depends on what you want for suburbs - beaches? walk to station? local pub? etc etc?

Hope this helps......

worzel

Every second train from Clarkson in the rush hour is a 6 car set which stops at all stations. The other ones are only 3 cars long and don't stop at Glendalough or Leederville. There are also Whitford Shuttles which start, not surprisingly, from Whitfords and stop all stops to the city except Greenwood.

There is a train about every 4 minutes so the wait isn't that long.

One thing to bear in mind is how busy they are. As a general rule you need to get on at Clarkson or maybe Currambine for a window seat, by Joondalup / Edgewater for seat at all or for the non-shuttle services Greenwood to guarantee getting on the first train at all.

Another thing to consider is the parking. Just about every station car park fills up by 7.30am. Currambine is better so long as you are willing to park in the lock and ride and hence not be able to get your car out until after 3.30pm.

There are also sorts of plans for more parking etc but until the new train sets start coming on line in 2010 it just means more overcrowding on the trains and more people unable to get on the train at Warwick, Stirling etc.

As to which suburb, to be honest, you will never be much more than a 5 minute drive from your nearest station anywhere up here. Get it right and be within walking distance and you will make Friday night drinks more sellable to the OH

buzzsshaw

Thanks for the replies, that helps heaps as we where not sure how far out to live but the commuting times sound fine. I also like the sound of walking to a station and the friday night beers !!!!

TheHallidays

[QUOTE=worzel;6204050]Every second train from Clarkson in the rush hour is a 6 car set which stops at all stations. The other ones are only 3 cars long and don't stop at Glendalough or Leederville. There are also Whitford Shuttles which start, not surprisingly, from Whitfords and stop all stops to the city except Greenwood.

No it's not!! Unless of course your definition of rush hour is different to mine

There is a train at 7:25 from Clarkson that stops all stations then the next one is 8:23 - between 7:25 and 8:23 you need to get off at Whitfords or below and swap to a Whitfords which does stop at Leederville.

Coming back from Leederville at home time, it's 2 trains again - the first train from the city (after 'rush hour') stopping at Leederville and going right through to Clarkson reaches Leederville at 5:21 - before that you are on 2 trains, changing at Whitfords - only makes a few mins difference each way, but is a complete ball ache......

worzel

I think it must be. By 7.23 I am usually in the city or not far off.