News & Discussion: Regional Transport

[Llessur2002]

I appreciate that they have a contractual responsibility to maintain the lines which of which they are most likely in breach but I guess my question is really: are these lines still required at all in 2017?

Again, I have absolutely no opinion one way or the other as I have no background knowledge of regional railways but, whilst I admit to still clinging on to a slight childhood fascination of trains, I also believe there is no point maintaining an asset which is not actually required. Has there been any form of independent feasibility study undertaken which identifies sound economic or social arguments for re-using these lines? If so, which ones?

It’s all very well for the SM to run an article on the degradation of the infrastructure (and again I fully acknowledge that GWA are likely in breach of their contract in this respect) but I would hope that such an article would include a valid business case for any party paying to return the lines to their 1997 condition.

Partly playing devil’s advocate here but I’d also genuinely like to understand the arguments for reusing the lines.

[Heardy_101]

We're advocating for freight and to a lesser extent passengers. I understand where your coming from don't worry - obviously GWA have decided that they have no personal use for the lines other than hanging onto them but that shouldn't preclude another operator wanting to use them if they wanted to.

[SBD]

We're advocating for freight and to a lesser extent passengers. I understand where your coming from don't worry - obviously GWA have decided that they have no personal use for the lines other than hanging onto them but that shouldn't preclude another operator wanting to use them if they wanted to.

The obvious short-term fix to test the resolve of various parties is to rent a train and apply to run a special train somewhere.

It's up to you whether to rent a freight train to move rocks, seeds or heavy earthmoving equipment or a passenger train. I suspect that for a one-off special event, passegers would easily be found to fill the train to capacity. Finding an appropriate broad-gauge train could be an issue - are there stilll any bluebirds close to operating condition? Else it's a 3000-class suburban railcar going bush, which means the novelty is entirely in the destination not the ride. There are very few tourist destinations right close to the Barossa railway. Tanunda township might be the best since the Angaston line has been removed from Nuriootpa. Not many wineries could handle a trainload at once, even less that are close enough ot the railway not to need a bus transfer which misses the point.

I don't think the other branch out of Gawler is serviceable beyond Roseworthy, if it is even available that far. Standard gauge to Pinnaroo or Loxton would be interesting if the track was up to doing it as a day trip on Standard gauge.

[Goodsy]

We're advocating for freight and to a lesser extent passengers. I understand where your coming from don't worry - obviously GWA have decided that they have no personal use for the lines other than hanging onto them but that shouldn't preclude another operator wanting to use them if they wanted to.

The obvious short-term fix to test the resolve of various parties is to rent a train and apply to run a special train somewhere.

It's up to you whether to rent a freight train to move rocks, seeds or heavy earthmoving equipment or a passenger train. I suspect that for a one-off special event, passegers would easily be found to fill the train to capacity. Finding an appropriate broad-gauge train could be an issue - are there stilll any bluebirds close to operating condition? Else it's a 3000-class suburban railcar going bush, which means the novelty is entirely in the destination not the ride. There are very few tourist destinations right close to the Barossa railway. Tanunda township might be the best since the Angaston line has been removed from Nuriootpa. Not many wineries could handle a trainload at once, even less that are close enough ot the railway not to need a bus transfer which misses the point.

I don't think the other branch out of Gawler is serviceable beyond Roseworthy, if it is even available that far. Standard gauge to Pinnaroo or Loxton would be interesting if the track was up to doing it as a day trip on Standard gauge.

Streamranger?

[rhino]

GWA have shareholders who expect a profit. There could still be a profit running trains, but if there's a greater profit closing the tracks and running trucks then they're going to do it.

As far as I am aware, GWA don't run trucks. They had a contract with grain companies (ABB Grain, Viterra, Glencore) to haul grain from those companies' silos to port along the railway. When they decided that maintenance of the right of way was going to cost more than the return from grain haulage, they didn't renew their haulage contract. The issue here is that as far as we are aware, GWA was still required to maintain the lines in working order, under the terms of the deal by which they acquired the lines. They have not done this, and they are not being held to account.

[Heardy_101]

Good morning folks,

We have an article on AdelaideNow, haven't checked the paper yet:

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 41147c029c

[Heardy_101]

Article is also page 72 73 of Sunday Mail.

[Goodsy]

If you can't get around the paywall, this is it.

Campaign to reinstate South Australia’s regional rail network to help boost employment and create economic benefits for towns

FIRST came the unmistakeable vibrations, then the rumble, then the persistent “ker-thump, ker-thump” as the train rattled and rolled its way into town. The whistle sounded. The brakes creaked, then groaned, and then it screeched to a halt.
There were gentlemen at the station. And ladies, too. There were bankers and farmers and merchants. There were mums with young children in tow awaiting the arrival of the morning train, ready to board and be whisked away for an outing, a shopping trip or a visit to a relative or a doctor.
There was a time when the train was a lifeline for people in the bush, for much-needed supplies, or transport, a connection between local communities, to the big smoke, a day at the races, a footy trip or a holiday away.
But today, many of these tracks that once symbolised growth and prosperity lie lonely and abandoned, steel lines rusted, sleepers rotting and overgrown with trees and weeds.
“We would have to get up early at catch the train at 6am ... we all loved it,” says Burra resident Maureen Bevan, 82, recalling the three-hour trips to Adelaide.

“By the time you stopped at the refresher room at Riverton, you’d would be hanging for a cup of tea and a pasty.
“You could have a big day out in the city and then you could come back on the train at night.”
So when the rail’s last passenger service rolled into town in 1984, followed by the last freight service in 1999, it signalled a slow decline for the regional community.
Matt Riley, 73, says up to 15 people were working at the Burra Railway Station, while a further 10 people were maintaining the rails and the closure “definitely had an impact”. “For example, we used to have 14 schools in the Goyder Council District and today there’s about four,” Mr Riley says.
“We also used to have 10 A-grade footy teams and today we have two.”
Now, there is a bold plan to resurrect the regional infrastructure and return it to its former glory, to provide a much-needed jobs boost and to reinvigorate regional communities.

The South Australian Regional Rail Alliance (SARRA) wants the rail link to be reinstated after it was “gifted” to a subsidiary of Genesee & Wyoming Australia for just $1, in 1997.
Under conditions of the sale, the regional tracks were to be maintained to such a standard that trains could operate on them with two weeks notice.
“We believe this state asset — even in the condition it’s in now — should be handed to the State Government,” SARRA spokesman Paul Henley, of Burra, says.
“It could be used by other operators if the government asked for expressions of interest, with the cost to upgrade the lines worn by the potential operators.”
The SARRA group is appealing to the major political parties — ahead of the March state election — to invest in regional SA to help create jobs and provide economic benefits.
Some of the train lines SARRA says should be considered for reopening are from Adelaide to Kapunda, Burra, and Balaklava, Tailem Bend to Loxton.
“Reinstating regional rail networks would create hundreds of jobs and is critical to South Australia’s regional future,” Mr Henley, 54, says.

“When you open a railway you’re not just opening a service for the township at the end of the line, there will be more industries and communities to benefit.”
Jamestown’s Railway Hotel publicans Shelley Woolford and Rob McKenzie say any way to increase tourism to small towns “can only be a good thing”.
“It would be good to have another means of getting people here and if it did open, more businesses might establish,” Ms Woolford says.
The local watering hole opened in 1878 — the same year the first goods train arrived at the Jamestown Railway Station, only a stone’s throw away.
While freight trains still pass through the town, the passenger service finished long ago.
One industry still reliant on the regional freight rail is the grain industry.
In 2015, grain handler Viterra signed a $100 million multi-year contract with GWA to use the SA rail network to move about 50 per cent of the state’s crop to export terminals.
The lines still in use are in the central region and the Eyre Peninsula, as Viterra stopped its rail freight service in the Mallee two years ago, saying that road transport was more cost-effective.

Grain Producers SA chief executive Darren Arney says the Eyre Peninsula line is extremely important to the industry and used to move about 900,000 tonnes of grain a year.
He believes the reopening of the rail link between Tailem Bend and Pinnaroo should be explored, as there is an opportunity to connect the rail to another grain-growing area to Murrayville, just across the border in Victoria.
The Victorian Government is undertaking $416 million of works to upgrade its regional freight network, including Ouyen to Murrayville, allowing farmers to access major ports.
“It would be interesting to see it connect, as there would be a lot more grain that could go either way and into different markets,” Mr Arney says.
If SA is serious about being a tourist state, the SARRA believes passenger trains to the Barossa Valley and Tailem Bend should at least be investigated.

Mr Henley says the three-carriage Barossa Wine Train, which ran from 1998 to 2003, should reopen to give tourists a convenient wine tour option from Adelaide to Tanunda.
As well, a train service link from Adelaide to Murray Bridge would allow easy transport — and fewer potential traffic problems on the South Eastern Freeway and Princes Hwy — for fans attending The Bend Motorsport Park, at Tailem Bend, which opens next August.

“One of the key campaigns of the Labor Party is that tourism is going to be a backbone of helping build industry and support SA,” Mr Henley says.
“This is one thing we could do in SA to support the tourism industry.
“Why not establish passenger services, especially to Murray Bridge for the overseas and interstate visitors expected to travel to the new raceway?”

Currently, the only regional tourism rail lines in service are the Pichi Pichi Railway, from Port Augusta to Quorn, and the Steam Ranger Heritage Railway, in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu region.
Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan says the State Government and Genesee and Wyoming have always been open to re-establishing the regional rail lines.
“But to date no one has been able to demonstrate whether they could attract enough patronage for the services to be viable,” Mr Mullighan says.
A Genesee & Wyoming Australia spokesman says: “GWA is in regular dialogue with the government and is open to discussion on the future of the lines.
“These lines have been dormant for many years due to the fact there has been no viable traffic, nor has any been proposed.”

and surprisingly the comments from the AdelaideNow community are mostly supportive

[Heardy_101]

Thanks for that.

Usually googling the link sometimes gets you around the PayWall

[Heardy_101]

Been trying to get the comments loaded but can't.

[Heardy_101]

SARRA now has a Podcast available at our webpage - www.saregionaltrainscampaign.com/podcasts.html

Feel free to drop a line at our website and tell us your thoughts.

[Norman]

Regional youth 'isolated' by lack of transport options
Stephanie Richards, 27 February 2018

South Australian youth advocates have called on the state's political leaders to address what they describe as a serious lack of public transport in regional and remote areas.

Young people living in regional South Australia are finding it increasingly difficult to access education and employment due to infrequent and costly public transport , says South Australia’s peak youth advocacy group.

“This is a huge issue – whenever we consult young people they raise this across South Australia,” Youth Affairs Council SA CEO Anne Bainbridge told InDaily.

“It’s a huge issue in relation to employment and study. Young people are finding they don’t have the transport means to get from their country town to Adelaide or even just around their regional area.”

People without driver’s licences in regional areas are often restricted to private bus services or “dial-a-ride” taxi services to commute in and around their area.

Full-fare bus services from Port Augusta to Adelaide cost more than $60, more than $50 from Renmark to Adelaide and more than $100 from Ceduna to Adelaide.

West Coast Youth and Community Support Service CEO Joanne Clark said Eyre Peninsula residents had been calling for cheaper bus fares for the past five years.

“We’re a growing region and our youth percentage is quite high here and there’s a lot of young people that need support,” Clark said.

“Between Tumby Bay and Port Lincoln we have young people having to source accommodation in Port Lincoln, wanting to maintain their schooling in Tumby, but they can’t afford the travel cost between the two communities.

“When someone is on a really low income, like many young and old people, and they have medication to pay as well as electricity and food, then that extra money to be able to use transport is an issue.”

For many young people experiencing homelessness in regional areas, often a lack of services in their hometown means they are required to commute to Adelaide to access emergency accommodation.

Clark said young people experiencing homelessness in the Port Lincoln area often struggled to fund their passage to the city.

“It’s quite difficult because you can’t ask a homeless service to hold a bed but then it takes 12 hours to catch a bus to Adelaide, so they get on a bus at 7.30 in the morning but then they won’t get to Adelaide until 6.30 at night.

“Those bus tickets are $150, the plane can be upwards of $300 for a one-way fare if you purchase it on the day. That’s completely out of reach for anyone on youth allowance.”

Youth advocates have also criticised the new Provisional Driver (P1) laws, which were introduced by the State Government in 2013 to improve the safety of young drivers.

Under the laws, drivers under the age of 25 are prohibited from driving past midnight or having more than one passenger aged 16 to 20 years (excluding immediate family members).

Clark said although young people are able to apply for exemptions, often they are unaware of the process.

“If you’re working part-time and you get a job, for example, as a glassie in one of the hotels and your job finishes at midnight and you have to then drive 45 minutes to get home, you’re out of the 12 o’clock (curfew)….

“Young people travelling 80, 90, 100 kilometres, sometimes a lot more than that to get to work or schools now are no longer able to carpool either.

“There’s all these added implications that occur and I don’t always think people in Adelaide or Canberra understand our country communities.”

SA Best Legislative Council candidate and Port Augusta mayor Sam Johnson said he could relate to people’s frustration.

“I live in a regional area myself and I know too well the frustration a lack of regular and affordable public transport can bring,” he said.

“To be brutally honest [the SA Best Party] don’t have a policy on regional transport.

“This would be a priority for me to improve services to regional communities.”

He said he would be meeting with Bus SA this Wednesday and had already spoken to a group concerned about the safety of young drivers.

Liberal transport spokesperson David Pisoni said his party would review the operation of regional school bus contracts to see if there were opportunities for the greater use of the bus fleet outside of school hours.

“We will work closely with local communities, the contractors, schools and local government to identify these opportunities,” he said.

A Labor spokesperson said the government already funded a range of public transport services in regional areas under service contracts with private operators.

“The State Government provides a range of subsidies and concession reimbursements to attract private operators to provide the services,” the spokesperson said.

“We are always looking to expand our public transport networks, particularly in regional areas, however, it is also necessary to ensure there is enough patronage to make new services viable.”

Clark said the government and community needed to look at a unified approach to improving transport options in regional areas.

“There is a movement happening but I think there’s no strategic direction for the issue,” she said.

“It’s an ongoing issue and probably you need some strategic direction to look at how it’s going to be addressed.”

What young people are saying
Responses to YACSA’s 2014 and 2018 election surveys:

“Transport will be a big concern for me in the future. I hope to start university in the next couple of years, and I cannot think of a viable way for me to get to Adelaide, and since job availability is extremely low, I don’t even know if I will be able to afford driving.”

“It’s hard for us, even if there is a job it’s in town and it’s too far for us to go.”

“I haven’t accepted an ideal job in town because of the travel.”

“You can only work certain shifts [and it’s] dependent on someone that can take you and pick you up.”

“There’s no public transport. Too hard to find a job – have to get my dad to drop me in and out.”

https://indaily.com.au/news/2018/02/27/ ... t-options/

Unfortunately, regional public transport has for long been a mess in SA. If I want to go from Melbourne to a regional Victorian town, I can easily book that all through the V/Line website. If I want to go from a regional NSW town to Sydney, I can book that through the NSW TrainLink (formerly CountryLink) website.

Why isn't there a Bus SA website that I can use to book a trip to Port Augusta or Mount Gambier?

There was once a time that there actually a website with country bus information and a state network map. Now it's a list of private operators hidden somewhere on the Adelaide Metro website in an FAQ section. We need to move forwards, not backwards.

[Heardy_101]

SA-BEST have announced plans to launch an inquiry as to why rural railway lines have been left to rot despite the fact they're supposed to be maintained.

This is fantastic news and we hope this inquiry is supported by ALL parties.

SA Best Plans For South Coast Bus And Regional Rail

05 March 2018

SA Best plan on expanding the changes to the south coast bus service should they win the balance of power at the upcoming state election.

Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie has already lobbied the State Government for changes to services from Goolwa and Victor Harbor to the city, with the SA best candidates for Finnis and Mawson on Friday expanding the promise to include direct services, a metro ticketed coach service and smaller community buses that will connect towns from Middleton through the Yankalilla and Clayton Bay to Mt Barker. "South coast communities have been denied access to an affordable bus service for far too long,” Candidate for Finniss Joe Hill said. “This Plan – which SA-BEST will send out to public tender - will provide greater access, particularly for young people and senior citizens, to health services, shops and employment while also addressing the barriers of social isolation.”

Meanwhile party leader Nick Xenophon has also promised to launch an inquiry into why SA’s regional rail network has been left to degrade overtime rather than be maintained should it be needed in the future.

“This is another example where rural South Australians have been abandoned by a city-centric government which can find hundreds of millions of dollars to bring back trams but has forgotten rail freight and public transport needs in regions,” Nick said. “SA BEST supports all South Australians, wherever they live, and we acknowledge that rural SA will play a dominant part in driving SA’s economy forward in the years ahead. “If we were able to revitalise rural rail, it would lead to a multitude of new jobs not only in rural SA, but also in metropolitan Adelaide, as services and supply of necessary component infrastructure becomes necessary."

Source: [img width=16 height=16]moz-extension://d0857ec9-9026-4b60-a1fe-d159cec7a814/TMToolbar/image/tooltip/webicon_green.png[/img]https://www.powerfmsa.com.au/.../80315- ... -plans-for...
Local News
© Power FM SA

[Heardy_101]

SA-BEST MEDIA RELEASE

SA-BEST will launch an inquiry into why South Australia’s regional and rural rail lines have been left to go to ruin if it wins the balance of power at the March 17 election.

SA BEST Leader, Nick Xenophon, and the party’s candidate for Schubert, Paul Brown, were dismayed to learn that hundreds of kilometers of tracks in the regions have been left to go to rack and ruin instead of being maintained to a standard where they could be quickly used.

“This is another example where rural South Australians have been abandoned by a city-centric government which can find hundreds of millions of dollars to bring back trams but has forgotten rail freight and public transport needs in regions,” Nick said.

“SA BEST supports all South Australians, wherever they live, and we acknowledge that rural SA will play a dominant part in driving SA’s economy forward in the years ahead.

“If we were able to revitalise rural rail, it would lead to a multitude of new jobs not only in rural SA, but also in metropolitan Adelaide, as services and supply of necessary component infrastructure becomes necessary.

Nick said the poor state of rural rail line maintenance was raised at his recent debate with the Liberal member for Schubert, Stephan Knoll, at Sandy Creek in the Barossa Valley.

“I was reminded by a member of the audience that the lines’ control was granted to the current lessee for just one dollar, in 1997 - conditional upon a legally-binding contract that in black-and-white states that the lines must be kept in operational order. That contact clearly has not been met,” Nick said.

“Rural rail lines in SA are in total disarray - except for some lines on the Eyre Peninsula where, even there, they are in such poor condition that grain trains can only operate at a snail’s pace due to lack of maintenance.

“I have also had discussions with grain growers in the Pinnaroo region who would like to send their grain by rail to ports in SA, but because of the total degradation of SA rural rail lines, must send their grain for export via rail through Victoria.

“This is just not good enough.”

SA BEST candidate for Schubert, Paul Brown, said the resurgence of rural rail was critical to rural residents who needed to travel to Adelaide for a host of reasons, including medical appointments and medical treatment, and students who needed access to city-based educational facilities and entertainment.

“Many regional South Australians are totally isolated because they can’t travel to the city by car. Even limited rural rail transport services would be a hundred-percent better than what they have presently,” Paul said.

Paul, the former Chair of the Australian Tourism Export Council in SA, said many unique tourism destinations in rural SA also suffered because of a lack of reliable rail-transport links.

“The Barossa Valley is an indisputable gem in the firmament of SA tourism and we have announced we will commit $300,000 over three years to fund a full-time events coordinator for the Barossa Valley," Paul said.

“The Barossa currently has the only potentially-viable rail line running through it, and our three-year commitment to improving Barossa tourism would benefit greatly by getting a Barossa wine train up and running again.

“Despite what the other parties say, the Barossa line could be renovated at reasonable cost - a cost that need not be borne by SA taxpayers."

The Barossa Line (and the Mid North lines to Burra and Hamley Bridge) are still technically owned by the State Government, however, since 1997, they have been leased to Genesee Wyoming Australia (GWA), a subsidiary of American railroad company, Genesee Wyoming Railroad.

As a part of the lease’s terms and conditions, GWA must:
• Keep the lines and associated infrastructure in clean and in good condition
• In case of fire or flood or “act of god”, GWA are to repair the line

“The current regrowth on the track is a fire hazard and, in places, is next to the bike track. The railway line could become a fire corridor, something the Government and local member seem unconcerned about,” Paul said

“We know that GWA has already been served notice of their obligations to maintain the lines in such a way that a ‘train can run at two weeks’ notice.

“There is obvious evidence with the poor state of some sections of rail lines that GWA have not kept their end of the bargain. We need to know why, and only a parliamentary inquiry can get to the bottom of it, and only SA BEST will make it happen,” Paul said.

[Waewick]

Excellent move by Nick.

I wonder if the Libs wil support it?