In April 2018, the
Public Transport Authority called for expressions of interest to build 41 6-carriage electric multiple units. Three consortia were shortlisted to bid: •
Alstom •
Bombardier /
EDI Rail • Momentum West, a consortium of
CAF and
UGL On 18 August 2019, Alstom was announced as the successful bidder. The trains will be assembled in
Bellevue. 17 sets will be delivered to provide rolling stock for network extensions as part of the
Metronet project, while the other 24 will replace the
A-series stock from 2024. In December 2019, Alstom released details of the contract and early renders of what the new trains will look like. Under the contract, worth approximately €800 million (AUD1.3 billion), Alstom will be responsible for the design, supply, manufacturing, testing and commissioning of 41 six-car electric-multiple-unit (EMU) trains for suburban services and four, three-car diesel-multiple-unit (
DMU) trains later named the
ADR/ADS class for the
Australind. The contract would include 50% local content, twenty years maintenance of the EMU trains and maintenance support services for the DMU trains. From 3 April to 18 April 2021, a two thirds length mock-up of a single carriage was made available for the general public to view and provide feedback at Yagan Square. Notable features of the new trains include a mixture of high back seats and bench seating, graphical passenger information displays (that are used the same as its predecessors in service), USB ports and hard-worn flooring instead of the carpet-laid floors of previous trains. The first train was revealed on 14 August 2022, with twelve months of testing along the Joondalup and Mandurah lines set to occur before they are put in passenger service. Testing along the Joondalup line between
Clarkson station and
Butler station commenced on 23 December 2022. The trains entered service on the
Yanchep and
Mandurah lines on 8 April 2024. A commemorative "first journey" occurred the day before on 7 April, with tickets to that open to the public via a lottery. As of 26 March 2026, there are nine C-series trains in service, with all current C-series trains used during weekdays, mostly on full line services. On weekends, approximately five C-series trains run on the Yanchep/Mandurah lines. Since their introduction there have been complaints from passengers about the comfort and utility of the model. This includes complaints about the seats, lack of hanging straps and difficult to use door opening buttons. On 2 April 2025, the Transperth social pages announced that passengers could now "pre select" the doors before the train has fully stopped, similar to the A and B-series trains. == References ==