Perth’s five-year decline in public transport use has been arrested but the result masks worrying trends.

Passenger journeys on Perth’s public transport network rose 0.7 per cent to about 141 million last year — a long way short of its 2013 peak of almost 149 million.

But an analysis of the latest patronage data shows another major fall in numbers on the Fremantle train line, a downward trend in bus passenger numbers and that our love affair with ferry travel since Elizabeth Quay opened is over.

The only bright light was a 500,000 boost in passenger numbers on the Armadale train line — though the increase was mostly because of lower numbers in 2017 caused by delays related to building Perth Stadium.

Fremantle line patronage recorded its seventh consecutive annual decline, falling another 290,000 journeys in 2018.

It is 30 years ago this year that the Court Liberal government closed the Fremantle line because of falling patronage. It was reopened four years later by the Burke Labor government.

After a massive spike in use after Elizabeth Quay opened in 2016, ferry use fell by about 42,000 (5.8 per cent) journeys last year to almost 732,000.

Bus patronage fell by about 520,000 journeys last year, after annual patronage in 2017 dipped below 80 million for the first time in six years.

In an assessment of Perth’s declining public transport use released last year, transport consultants Steven Piotrowski and Ian Wallis identified the need to make the city’s bus network more efficient by introducing more bus-only and queue-jump lanes and removing bus stops that were too close to each other.

Public Transport Authority spokesman David Hynes confirmed the Armadale figures reflected the disruptions caused by work to incorporate the stadium station into the network in 2017.

“This was particularly noticeable in the January comparison — January last year was up almost 50 per cent on January 2017, when we shut the line down for a couple of weeks,” Mr Hynes said.

Since the McGowan Government decided to keep the stadium train station open on non-event weekends, an average of 180 people have been using it on Saturdays and 85 on Sundays.

Transport Minister Rita Saffioti has conceded that patronage numbers could be higher, but she said the latest figures showed that families and visitors were finding the stadium stop useful.

Perth’s least busiest weekend stations are Success Hill (October average of 124 patrons), Seaforth (170) and Chalis (209).