[U/C] M2 North-South Motorway

[Nathan]

What if the elevated station allied for small shops or cafes underneath facing the park. A proper little village green with an elevated rail

Which was the original plan!

A third solution could have been to have it only partially elevated into Croydon station with the road dipping underneath (a little like Chief St, but less extreme. Considering the station is already slightly raised in relation to the park (and to allow the small subway at the western end).

[crawf]

I completely agree about the railway overpass. A wasted opportunity.

Like majority of Adelaide stations, Croydon is nothing more than a slab of crumbling bitumen and a bus shelter. A new 'elevated' station would have given the local community a modern railway facility and added to the 'village' precinct with cafes and shops running underneath the overpass. To blend in with the street scape, the railway overpass could of been designed in heritage style brick form and covered with a vertical garden or vines.

Not to mention, the Coglin St railway crossing could have also been removed. TBH the shorter railway overpass proposal makes little sense to me, and is just another example of local residents not seeing the bigger picture. Something way to common in this city.

Either way, the station would have ended up elevated. Aside from it's location outside of the main centre, this is one of the main reasons people have an issue with using Port Adelaide railway station - there are perceived safety issues and it seems people can't be bothered with climbing stairs or ramps.

The designing of 'elevated' stations have changed immensely since Port Adelaide. Not to mention the demographic in the Port is still err...interesting.

[alexczarn]

Ah, this went away for a while but now it's back:

http://infrastructure.sa.gov.au/__data/ ... lement.pdf

Lots of interesting info in here if you haven't already read it - including addition of extra on/off ramps just north of Port Road, the preliminary design for the rail overpass and open spaces, greenway improvements along the rail line from South Road to Coglin Street etc.

Except it's dated July 2015 and doesn't include the extension under Torrens Road.

[rev]

I completely agree about the railway overpass. A wasted opportunity.

Like majority of Adelaide stations, Croydon is nothing more than a slab of crumbling bitumen and a bus shelter. A new 'elevated' station would have given the local community a modern railway facility and added to the 'village' precinct with cafes and shops running underneath the overpass. To blend in with the street scape, the railway overpass could of been designed in heritage style brick form and covered with a vertical garden or vines.

Not to mention, the Coglin St railway crossing could have also been removed. TBH the shorter railway overpass proposal makes little sense to me, and is just another example of local residents not seeing the bigger picture. Something way to common in this city.

Either way, the station would have ended up elevated. Aside from it's location outside of the main centre, this is one of the main reasons people have an issue with using Port Adelaide railway station - there are perceived safety issues and it seems people can't be bothered with climbing stairs or ramps.

The designing of 'elevated' stations have changed immensely since Port Adelaide. Not to mention the demographic in the Port is still err...interesting.

Coglin Street, which is blocked off and forces people to go around, is hardly a major traffic hub.
It would be a waste of money to remove that crossing with an elevated line, when there are other areas that could use that money to eliminate the crossing.
Like Torrens road, and Hawker street where instead of doing that they chucked some traffic lights at the crossing instead. Both crossings see freight trains btw, Coglin street doesn't.

[ChillyPhilly]

I do agree about there being a missed opportunity with the overpass. It could have gone either way though. An elevated station could have ruined the existing atmosphere and setup of the small Queen Street precinct, or it could have improved it. We'll now never know.

[Llessur2002]

Except it's dated July 2015 and doesn't include the extension under Torrens Road.

Hence the comment about it going away for a while and then coming back. It was on the T2T website for a couple of weeks when it was first released but the link's been broken ever since. With the recent announcements about temporary greenway diversions it seems to have been fixed.

Thought it was useful as it's the only document I've seen so far which shows any (albeit preliminary) designs for the rail overpass, landscaping, greenway etc. It also shows quite a lot of detail about the Port Road treatment - U turns, median parking etc.

Hopefully something more up to date will be released soon.

[Norman]

I don't think the local population is high enough to support too many shops at the moment. Lets get the density up first and then talk about increasing the amount of shops in the area. We don't want empty shops sitting there for another decade, that's what has happened in Albury. The local council put in an extra 22 small shops underneath a council-owned car park. To date, nothing has opened, and the place is an eyesore. Why did it happen? There were already too many retail spaces in the area, with vacancies.

[Llessur2002]

I hope the greenway gets some serious attention after the South Road and Bowden projects are completed. It’s great that it looks like it’s now being extended eastwards along the railway corridor after the overpass has returned to grade and once Bowden station is undergrounded then this section should be good too (i.e. without the stupid Chief Street detour).

However, west of the overpass it’s less of a greenway, more just a safer route through backstreets. The OH rail corridor is so wide that something along the lines of the Mike Turtur bikeway could easily be accommodated. Hopefully, with whatever eventually happens to the line (light or electrified heavy rail) this can be incorporated into the plans (along with the upgrade of some/most of the stations).

Back to South Road, I also think the little reserve planned for the end of Elizabeth Street could be a nice little addition to the area if done right. It will be interesting to see what sort of treatment the noise wall gets at this location.

I have to say, that even though this development is essentially a massive road, I’m quite excited about seeing the finished result in a couple of years. If done right, this whole stretch of South Road will end up looking much more presentable than it has for many years.

[muzzamo]

Either way, the station would have ended up elevated. Aside from it's location outside of the main centre, this is one of the main reasons people have an issue with using Port Adelaide railway station - there are perceived safety issues and it seems people can't be bothered with climbing stairs or ramps. It is very difficult to integrate things that aren't at ground level into a human-friendly environment - look at all the elevated things built in the 60s which just failed because it turns out that people didn't want to be elevated.

I forget the name of it but there is an urban design principle that is followed that essentially puts safety and visibility above all else to try to address these issues.

You can see this principle used at Oaklands, the South Road Tram overpass, and the Hallett Cove stations in the way that transparent wind resistant sheeting, and lots of lights are used.
I think if you had something the quality of the South Road Tram overpass then much of these issues would be addressed.

[Norman]

Newsletter for February 2016 has been released:
http://www.t2talliance.com.au/wp88/wp-c ... er-WEB.pdf

[Nathan]

Newsletter for February 2016 has been released:
http://www.t2talliance.com.au/wp88/wp-c ... er-WEB.pdf

It's good to see that T2T Alliance supports Eve's Adult Emporium.


Also, I know there was a little bit of chat about not needing to get rid of the Coglin St level crossing, but just like Queen St, the overpass finishes metres before the crossing FFS. Never mind that someone was killed at that level crossing just last year, and visibility of oncoming trains is quite bad (you pretty much have to be right up to the crossing to see trains coming).

[OlympusAnt]

Very busy at Port Rd/South Rd when I went past there yesterday

[how good is he]

I think both sides of Pym St need to be closed off altogether or have no traffic lights with turn left only. How can a piddly intersection with negligible use be allowed to remain as a possible bottleneck in a $896m project??
Surely there needs to be a clear freeway to Regency Road (which needs to be addressed also eventually).
Also the rail bridge coming down at ground level instead of over Elizabeth/Queen St (for a minor increased cost) is a mistake. Even though a vocal community may have wanted it, future generations will regret the unnecessary congestion and delays caused.

[Llessur2002]

future generations will regret the unnecessary congestion and delays caused.

To who though? The crossing doesn't delay the trains at all, and through traffic shouldn't be encouraged on Queen Street anyway due to the kids' park and busy outdoor dining areas. Not really sure how this particular crossing causes any problems other than a relatively minor risk to pedestrians crossing it on foot (which has largely been mitigated at a much lower cost than an extended overpass by 'more than one train' warning lights).

On another note, looks like the high voltage cables are being wound down on the north side of Port Road between South Road and Welland Plaza. Should neaten the area up a little.

[Waewick]

future generations will regret the unnecessary congestion and delays caused.

To who though? The crossing doesn't delay the trains at all, and through traffic shouldn't be encouraged on Queen Street anyway due to the kids' park and busy outdoor dining areas. Not really sure how this particular crossing causes any problems other than a relatively minor risk to pedestrians crossing it on foot (which has largely been mitigated at a much lower cost than an extended overpass by 'more than one train' warning lights).

On another note, looks like the high voltage cables are being wound down on the north side of Port Road between South Road and Welland Plaza. Should neaten the area up a little.

for to the point, how does he know what future generations will and wont be doing.

for all we know Global Wamring could get worse and South Road is under the new Adelaide sea.