Wharfie Time shouldn’t be the only time on Fremantle Dockers fans’ minds on Thursday evening, with the Public Transport Authority urging game attendees to plan their commutes early.

Tens of thousands of fans are expected to board Perth’s public transport system on their way to Optus Stadium, ready to watch the Freo team battle Hawthorn in the first qualifying final.

Transperth Train Operations Manager Murray Rowe told PerthNow they anticipated between 30,000 and 40,000 attendees would catch the train to and from the match — a staggering 50 per cent of those attending the game.

He urged AFL fans to leave between 40 minutes and one hour early for their commute to the stadium due to the highly-anticipated match coinciding with peak hour traffic throughout Perth.

“As this is a Thursday night match, which will be taking place during the peak CBD commute, we can’t put as many buses and trains on to Stadium services as we would on weekends,” Mr Rowe said.

“Our messaging is simple: travel early. I would be leaving between 40 minutes and an hour before to allow an easy transition between trains.”

The warnings come just a fortnight after a major train delay left Dockers fans stuck at stations and in carriages on their journey to Optus Stadium.

When asked about the previous match’s delay, Mr Rowe acknowledged that “a critical set of points” had failed on that day.

“Unfortunately, there was a little bit of a delay to get there to fix the problem,” he told PerthNow, acknowledging that some fans were stuck on the train for close to 45 minutes.

“Once it was fixed, people were ready to go and move.”

He did stress that the Public Transport Authority had checked the trains before the Dockers match on Thursday, but he was unable to promise fans there would be no delays.

“We’ve checked everything today — we’ve checked the infrastructure, the trains are out there, we’ve got people on standby should something occur, which I can’t promise that it won’t,” he said.

“Staff are at the key stations should these incidents occur, but we are very confident that we can deliver tonight.”

Mr Rowe also revealed that depending on how the Dockers perform tonight, the PTA may delay regular maintenance in the coming fortnight if they clash with any Optus games.

Additional train services will be run on the Armadale and Thornlie-Cockburn lines, with the PTA saying trains will operate every four minutes between 4.05 and 6.20pm.

Direct trains on the Yanchep and Mandurah lines will not be operating before the game due to the peak-hour overlap, but they will be operating after the match.