News & Discussion: Trams

[rubberman]

I would have called 11th March "Ambitious". However, let's see. I can't see them having North Terrace and Riverside all finished.

Maybe that date is when the trams start running for testing etc?

I truly do not know.

[Haso]

I would have called 11th March "Ambitious". However, let's see. I can't see them having North Terrace and Riverside all finished.

Maybe that date is when the trams start running for testing etc?

I truly do not know.

I would not call 11 March “ambitious”… but as you said… will see.

Meanwhile, the price of each 28 Day Pass is being reduced from 3 April and regular will cost $99… now is $124.50… concession will drop from $71.60 to $49 and students will have to pay $25 and that is $16.50 less + we will have some new options…
https://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/Announ ... metroCARDs

Medo

P.S. If this news is posted somewhere else… my apologies… I found this today and decide to share…

[muzzamo]

I would not call 11 March “ambitious”… but as you said… will see.

Meanwhile, the price of each 28 Day Pass is being reduced from 3 April and regular will cost $99… now is $124.50… concession will drop from $71.60 to $49 and students will have to pay $25 and that is $16.50 less + we will have some new options…
https://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/Announ ... metroCARDs

Medo

P.S. If this news is posted somewhere else… my apologies… I found this today and decide to share…

I have been using the 28 day pass since it came out, but had recently been considering ditching it. As a 9-5, 5 day a week commuter the savings that you got from it could be quite quickly wiped out by a couple of sick days/leave days/public holidays/lifts with someone/cycling in/etc. Commute by public transport a few days less than 20 of the 28 days and the benefits are gone.

At $99, its a much sharper proposition.

[omada]

I think its disappointing that the fare reduction applies only to the 28 day passes.

I don't think it solves the lack of PT uptake in Adelaide (worst of Australian capital cities), the fare reductions should apply more broadly, to encourage new users to PT.

Also leads to another point, why isn't there more promotion of PT routes, benefits etc - they need to SELL it, like any other product.

[Norman]

The point of the reduction is to encourage ongoing use of the public transport system. For those who don't need it for the full 28 days, there is also a 14 day pass now, and new users are encouraged by the removal of the card purchase fee, which was previously $5.

[Haso]

I think it is move in the right direction. Since I arrived here I have noticed improvements in frequency and route options, but not that much in corresponding numbers of passengers, at least in the directions and routes I am using. Hope this will help others to change their habits. There are days I share my daily ride with one or two passengers… even when I go to the city in peak hours I can anticipate a seat for myself, or someone will vacant their seat for me as I am getting older, believe it or not that still happens occasionally. Occasionally I venture into other areas of the city, and yes, I have a car and as a bonus, I have a motorbike but I prefer using public transport during a week.
Some objections to using public transport are fairly pathetic… including not having enough private space, dependence on time-tables and so on… I know that now and then I/we will share “the public space” with some peculiar characters… but that’s life. Personally I am finding these characters pretty amusing and sometimes interesting in my daily commuting routine… but that’s me, otherwise I will read whatever I have stored on my Kindle.

[rubberman]

For all those who think DPTI has not been managing the project well, here's a report on Sydney:

https://www.9news.com.au/national/2018/ ... d-schedule

Cost blowouts (from a base cost that was only 50% higher than the Nth Tce job to double what we are paying per km).
Time blowout.
George Street shut down for near to a year, compared to the access this Adelaide project has managed for almost the entire time.

The 9 News report is a bit confusing in that it talks of 28km of track. They are talking of single track. That is, the route itself is about 14km (actually it's about 13km of route, so they might be including depot track as well).

Bottom line for me is that if the Sydney mob were doing North Terrace, we'd be looking at a June opening date (which they wouldn't be meeting), $160m, and North Terrace being completely closed all that time.

Edit. I forgot to add that the rail profile adopted for the George Street tramway is slightly different from the rail profile for the other tramway it crosses, which heads out past Darling Harbour. That means they can't switch trams easily from one system to the other if the need arises, since the wheel profiles are different. My information is that they can travel slowly on the other system if needing to, but not at service speed. How smart is that?

I'd say Adelaide is doing pretty well.

[Ben]

The wires sure are ugly. I'm hoping some of these are temporary.

[timtam20292]

Don’t think I’ve seen anything like that ever on the wires in Melbourne.

[[Shuz]]

Looks normal for tram wires to me. Dunno what you lot are complaining about.

[Llessur2002]

The wires sure are ugly. I'm hoping some of these are temporary.

To be fair that's over the KWS/NT intersection where there are essentially 7 lines requiring power. The rest of the extension is far less wire-heavy.

[SBD]

Don’t think I’ve seen anything like that ever on the wires in Melbourne.

I think being silhouetted against the sky in a fairly close photo makes them stand out more. Streetview doesn't provide many comparable photos that I have found in Melbourne. Looking down Latrobe Street across the Swanston Street junction shows a bit, or Latrobe and William Streets. But many of the inner intersections have tram tracks crossing at right angles, with no turns at all.

[Llessur2002]

Don’t think I’ve seen anything like that ever on the wires in Melbourne.

Here's the Balaclava grand union in Melbourne. Our poles are nicer

[Kasey771]

So not much of a difference there to my untrained eye.

[rubberman]

So not much of a difference there to my untrained eye.

Yes. The Adelaide one will become a trifle less obvious once the wire loses its bright copper sheen, and not having the extra curve to North Terrace also helps.