News & Discussion: Adelaide Metro Trains

[jk1237]

Well I am amazed. I didnt realise the bridge over the Onka would be that expensive. Im gonna have to go down and have a look closely at this side of the city. I thought the Onka was a small stream about 3 mtrs wide that would need just a little bridge. Is it like an estuary or something?

[Shuz]

I don't think its got so much to do with the width of the Onkaparinga, but rather the floodplain that surrounds the river. Its actually quite a wide valley - as it used to be a 'major' river (bigger than the Torrens actually) before the dams went up along its course.

[Bulldozer]

I think someone screwed up big time with that story, as the mentioned tunnel wouldn't do anything that can't be acheived already with a simple cutting of where it says the tunnel would go. With a cutting you'd need a bridge for where the line passes under Goldsmith Drive and over Old Honeypot Road. After that you'd still need bridges and a viaduct over River Road, the Onkaparinga and estuary - which I suspect would be the most expensive part.

I don't know much about tunnelling, but I'd say that if you went under the river it'd be a lot more expensive. The problem with a bridge though is that the route is aligned with a North-South reach of the river next to the sludge ponds (sewage sludge is pumped over from the Christies Beach Plant to dry out) - it'd pretty much follow the route of the existing power transmission lines. If you go drive down to the carpark at the northern end of Saubiers Road you'll see what I mean. The line would most probably need to be on a viaduct through the park anyway to keep National Parks and the resident kangaroos happy.

[rhino]

Bulldozer, They would not be tunnelling under the river - they would still cross that on a bridge. The idea of a tunnel instead of a cutting is that the land above it could still be sold, therefore more revenue than a cutting. Admittedly, the tunnel would cost more to build than a cutting - we can only assume that the sums were done and the tunnel model came out ahead. Also, I imagine that the tunnel will be on a grade, so that the southern portal would be lower than the northern portal, because the line has to get down to almost sea level to cross the river (which is at sea level at that point). A cutting that deep would also be required to be relatively wide at the top, eating into the land that a tunnel would be freeing up for re-sale.

[Bulldozer]

I doubt they'd make much from selling the land for houses as the topography of the area means the tunnel would be rather close to the surface. Anything built on top would be subject to noise and vibration. It also would have to emerge on the river end at a level high enough to allow road traffic to pass under on River Road. If they tunnel under Old Honeypot Road then I'm doubtful the gradients in and out of that crossing would be acceptable. Seems stupid really, as the main cost of the extension would almost certainly be in the bridge and/or viaduct over the Onkaparinga and estuary.

[Pistol]

I have been keeping tabs on a recent thread on ssc on Perth's trains and network. I think that all of us should have a little gander at the possibilities for our network and see just how proactive the government is in Perth on public transport.

Have a look http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=512286

In the mean time, I thought I would post one of the shots that got me drooling...

[jk1237]

Yeah Ive noticed that thread as well. Fortunately for them, their filthy rich government is rolling around in billions of $. If only we could lobby the federal govt to fund our upgrade. Ive heard they contributed quite alot to Perths upgrade. I reckon if the same amount of money is spent on our train system as theres, ours will be even better than Perths. Much better. We can only dream.
Now that quite a lot of housing is being built around stations on the Gawler line, I wonder if there will be a surge in use of that line in the next few years

[SRW]

Yeah Ive noticed that thread as well. Fortunately for them, their filthy rich government is rolling around in billions of $. If only we could lobby the federal govt to fund our upgrade. Ive heard they contributed quite alot to Perths upgrade. I reckon if the same amount of money is spent on our train system as theres, ours will be even better than Perths. Much better. We can only dream.
Now that quite a lot of housing is being built around stations on the Gawler line, I wonder if there will be a surge in use of that line in the next few years

I think the Commonwealth has funded standard gauge conversions in the past, so we should be able to count on a contribution to at least that aspect, should it be pursued.

[Ho Really]

In the mean time, I thought I would post one of the shots that got me drooling...

Nice photo Pistol78. I bet you those on that train were rubbing their hands with glee watching all those cars crawling on the freeway.

I agree jk1237, that if we had a similar system in Adelaide ours would be better. If only we got those tunnels done in the city years ago.

Cheers

[Will409]

That photo of the TransPerth B set got me looking on youtube for a video of them and I found one. The comparison of the accelaration rate between TransAdelaide and TransPerth is simply amazing. The first video is of a TransPerth B set leaving Clarkson.



The second one is of a TransAdelaide 3100 set leaving my home station of Parafield Gardens.



To railfans like myself, it is common to say that the only thing that TransAdelaide and TransPerth have in common is the 'trans' in the name. If only we had the money like Perth does.

[AtD]

Shows off the advantage of sparks.

[skyliner]

Despite all the negative feelings expressed, at least there is talk about electrification. When was the last time - 1973?
24 years on now and we have a bigger city and older railways. They did talk electification earlier again than 1973 - - evidenced by what railfans affectionately called 'dogboxes'. 4th time round might do it!! Pressures are mounting as time goes by.

The current shameful set up has got to be addressed eventually, I travelled by train in Adelaide to see what this was like in Jan. and felt sick at what I saw - and what happened to the lighting system of Adelaide central? How a once glorious system featuring the highest cutting edge engineering possible has fallen.

I hold out with you guys for the future - let's not give up!

[jk1237]

Hey skyliner, where is fassifern?
Adelaide railway station is the only good thing about our rail system. Its such a grand old station, and those 2 newish cafes in the grand foyer are a great addition. Once you leave the station the standard of our railways just deteriorates into embarasment. Yep there is hope, one day!

[jimmy_2486]

Well along with electrification of our lines, we would have to make a subway system such that the north and the south can be linked up as a throughfare service, so that all the trains dont all end up at north tce. I mean if our trains were electrified they would be running faster between stops, so more services would most likely be introduced. When this happens expecially at peak hour it will be a mess with dozens of trains banked up in the city. Imagine double the amount of trains rocking up to leave the city at 5pm for example.....would be crazy to organise and the amount of screw ups would be annoying.

[Will409]

Until the construction of the Bakewell Underpass in April when the points near Mile End were removed, it was indeed possible to have a direct North-South service. When you take an Outer Harbour or Gawler Central train towards Adelaide, you will notice just after crossing the Torrens River a set of points by the old Adelaide Gaol. There are two tracks. One is the interstate standard gauge mainline and the other is the now somewhat overgrown broad gauge TransAdelaide 'gaol loop'. It hasn't seen a train over it since either the 2002 or 2003 Royal Show when Showground Central was opened. Previously, the Gawler Central line had showground specials (with a headboard as such in the observer's side window). After the Torrens River, the train would snake it's way onto the loop ands make it's way towards Mile End. At Mile End station, the loop rejoined the Noarlunga/Belair lines and the show special finished it's run at Goodwood. It was also occasionally used to turn railcars to even out the wheel wear.

In April, the Mile End points were removed but the rest of the line is still inplace. However, it is highly doubtful (though technically possible) that the loop will be reconnected because of the limited usage.