News & Discussion: Trams

[Nathan]

It's probably not feasible and far too expensive but what if they sunk a tramline under the Port road median? A cut and cover wouldn't be too difficult although they'd be removing hundreds of trees

If you were going to do that, you may as well just keep the heavy rail on the existing corridor and run it underground in Port Adelaide - solving the same problem they're trying to solve with light rail.

[claybro]

It really is time for the South Australian government to make a decision on the Outer harbor corridor, either upgrade the heavy rail infrastructure or turn it into a light rail corridor.
The Bowden/Brompton renewal project is entering a stage where significant numbers of people are moving into the area and deserve
decent rail transport/amenities.
I have made my views known plenty of times in this forum (retain the heavy rail corridor with less stations and increase the residential development substantially around the larger stations, Grange and West Lakes would be light rail to Woodville station)

At very least the Bowden station needs a makeover-like yesterday. Lovely old heritage building, but the condition of the building and the platform and second platform are a shocker-at least last I travelled through there..

[metro]

The plan to downgrade the Western Rail lines to trams is a terrible idea. They should be electrifying the rail line to make the trains faster, putting in better stations and lifting the service frequency to make it far more attractive, of course nobody is attracted to using a slow old diesel train every 30min on rough old tracks with stations that look worse than some bus stops. If they go ahead with this downgrade of the Western Rail Lines then I hate to think what the plan is for the Belair line with even worse patronage, I'm thinking it'll be shut down forever and the tracks given to ARTC.

[ChillyPhilly]

It really is time for the South Australian government to make a decision on the Outer harbor corridor, either upgrade the heavy rail infrastructure or turn it into a light rail corridor.
The Bowden/Brompton renewal project is entering a stage where significant numbers of people are moving into the area and deserve
decent rail transport/amenities.
I have made my views known plenty of times in this forum (retain the heavy rail corridor with less stations and increase the residential development substantially around the larger stations, Grange and West Lakes would be light rail to Woodville station)

At very least the Bowden station needs a makeover-like yesterday. Lovely old heritage building, but the condition of the building and the platform and second platform are a shocker-at least last I travelled through there..

Bowden will be underground in the future.

I don't support turning the whole line into light rail. Not practical because of the distance and the urban form and densities. It'd a painfully long trip for our trams from Outer Harbor to the CBD, let alone any further.

[Waewick]

one to Norwood is all I'm asking.
already densely populated and likely to increase.

[[Shuz]]

A light rail corridor to Kilkenny Road completely defeats the purpose of a rail overpass at South Road.

Is the council even aware of the bloody huge freeway project going straight through its jurisdiction? Are they living under a rock? What on earth is going on?

[Llessur2002]

The more I read it, and all of its spelling mistakes, the more I think it's just a bit of a folly put together by a couple of councillers who don't really understand the big picture. Mullighan has already given it the "it's great councils are looking at it and I'm happy to discuss but we're a bit far along on the South Road project to change it now" treatment so I don't think it will come to anything.

On the positive side, it is great that the Charles Sturt/Playford are taking the issue seriously and at least putting forward plans to keep the issue at the front of the State/Fed governments' minds, but why it had to be such a bizarre and unworkable plan I don't know...

[phenom]

one to Norwood is all I'm asking.
already densely populated and likely to increase.

Agreed. Once they've completed some sort of city loop with the tram (which should be a clear 1st priority - and by loop I mean something that at least goes down grote street to either morphett or west terrace), a Norwood extension (which would presumably also extend it along North Terrace heading east in the CBD) is a no-brainer.

[Llessur2002]

Absolutely. I would have thought the City Loop (plus North Adelaide), Norwood and Prospect would be the real tram priorities. Never really been sure why the PortLINK has been prioritised ahead of all of these as it already has a rail corridor (which arguably could be improved but at least it exists and is functioning).

Saying that, I can see the benefit of a very short tram extension along Port Road from the Entertainment Centre towards South Road (maybe just one extra stop). This strip is slowly gaining some more interesting businesses and it could be further activated by a tram stop. Plus it would serve Coopers Stadium and some of the medium-density developments in Brompton slightly better than the current one. But that would be very far down my list of priorities...

[[Shuz]]

If anything, the short term plan for the Entertainment Centre extension needs to go down Port Road, left to Milner Street, terminating at the intersection of Manson Street to service the Hindmarsh / Coopers Soccer Stadium, with the long term view to a line down Grange Road. None of this folly about using the Outer Harbor line.

[Nathan]

If anything, the short term plan for the Entertainment Centre extension needs to go down Port Road, left to Milner Street, terminating at the intersection of Manson Street to service the Hindmarsh / Coopers Soccer Stadium, with the long term view to a line down Grange Road. None of this folly about using the Outer Harbor line.

I think it's worth investigating.

One thought I had for an alternate solution to Port Adelaide while keeping heavy rail: bring back the Port Dock station.

Get rid of the current police station and courts (they're horrid), and reinstate a significant terminus building on the original location integrating the railway museum as part of it. This could go in hand with the development of the wool stores area with medium to high density mixed used. Run the majority of trains to the Port Dock Station, and treat the existing Port Adelaide > Outer Harbour section as a limited service spur. You could then run a short tram line from the station to Semaphore.

[Ho Really]

Absolutely. I would have thought the City Loop (plus North Adelaide), Norwood and Prospect would be the real tram priorities. Never really been sure why the PortLINK has been prioritised ahead of all of these as it already has a rail corridor (which arguably could be improved but at least it exists and is functioning).

Also add a light rail to the Airport. Whether that be down Henley Beach Road as planned or down Sir Donald Bradman Drive or my preferred option of an Airport-City link running over the Keswick Creek drain.



P.S. Any idea of running light rail up Port Road is BS and a waste of money. They need to bight the bullet and upgrade the heavy rail. The Government/Councils should build TODs all up this corridor and shut the f... up. Then underground the OH line in the city to link up with the Belair line at Keswick or wherever. Same with the Gawler line with Seaford in a different direction underground through the city. Adelaide will then have the best PT rail system of any OZ city (besides propelling our charming metropolis into the 21st Century). End of my rant.

[Ho Really]

One thought I had for an alternate solution to Port Adelaide while keeping heavy rail: bring back the Port Dock station.

Get rid of the current police station and courts (they're horrid), and reinstate a significant terminus building on the original location integrating the railway museum as part of it. This could go in hand with the development of the wool stores area with medium to high density mixed used. Run the majority of trains to the Port Dock Station, and treat the existing Port Adelaide > Outer Harbour section as a limited service spur. You could then run a short tram line from the station to Semaphore.

I think I mentioned this here on S-A several years ago. About the Port Dock and the National Railway Museum being integrated into one edifice. Look...Port Adelaide has so much potential. It has to be renewed! A tram down to Semaphore would be nice too. Not sure about the OH becoming a spur. You got to remember that we get a substantial number of cruise ships now during summer. People from there want to go direct to the city. If...and I say if, Port Adelaide was spruced up, then maybe people would stop there. You've got three museums: Rail, Maritime and Aeronautical all close by. Wonderful. If they all could be integrated into one huge modern building even better! We need to give those tourists from the cruise ships the right impression that Adelaide is modern and progressive. That means giving tourists the best whether that is disembarking off a plane at Adelaide International Airport or at the Passenger Terminal at Outer Harbour. I think you know what I'm getting at.

Cheers

[Raider]

The tram could be extended as Shuz says and then down Manton Street, Grange Road, Crittenden Road, Findon Road & Trimmer Parade to join with the existing Grange line. Connecting to West Lakes Blvd would either have to be Tapleys Hill Road or Todville Street. Not sure how feasible any of this is but it seems a more direct route to me and keeps it from paralleling the Outer Harbor Line.

[jk1237]

IMO leave the Outer Harbor line as existing heavy rail and electrify it. As for the tram, it needs to turn immediately north into the Bowden development then turn a little west and terminate at Ethelbert Square (anyone know where that is) to take advantage of the med-high density housing development. If anyone looks at a map of Bowden/Brompton, there are parts in the middle that are a long walk from any PT, yet we have one of the most densest areas of inner Adelaide, go figure. There is a 5 level apartment block a few streets in from the Brompton pub, that is no where near walking distance (ie under 5 mins) to either Bowden Station, Port Rd, or Hawker st buses, so if the tram could terminate in the middle of Bowden/Brompton it would reach quite a few people

edit, so turn north either run the tram along Drayton St or East St into Bowden, then turn west down Third St, this would serve a lot of people