News & Discussion: Adelaide Metro Trains

[jimmy_2486]

Yeah I know what you mean Will but rejoining it there would be a waste of time.

We need to have a subway system with multiple stations around the city that allows, say, trains coming from gawler to goto north tce station and continue along through through the city underground and back onto the noalunga line. Its annoying knowing that there is one stop in the city and it isnt in the most convienent spot for most people.

[Pistol]

^^ Hop on a tram... Seriously you are dreaming if you think that we will ever have a city subway system. I would rather a comprehensive network of trams running around the city than a subway that would cost billions. Lets just get the train system electrified before we think of GRAND plans.

[rhino]

^^ Hop on a tram... Seriously you are dreaming if you think that we will ever have a city subway system. I would rather a comprehensive network of trams running around the city than a subway that would cost billions. Lets just get the train system electrified before we think of GRAND plans.

Wise words

[jimmy_2486]

Good point....I am a little lazy.....however a question I would like answered is how would we benefit (other than saving the environment) with ONLY electrifying the train network (and possibly adding more track work)?? You could argue that we would get to and from places faster however this could possibly be a problem with our north tce station being a termination point. I mean the station gets a little crowded with trains as it is in peak hour with each platform catering for multiple services. So would you think that they would purposely run the trains slower so that they would not have to add extra services and not start overcrowding the city station even more?

This was the main reason why I suggested to provide a city link between north and south lines.....the subway stations were the added bonus!

[muzzamo]

Adelaide will NEVER see a North - South railway.

If anything the only feasable thing would be a city loop through the parklands but that would never happen either, just look at the fight over the grandstand in in victoria park at the moment.

[duke]

^^ Hop on a tram... Seriously you are dreaming if you think that we will ever have a city subway system. I would rather a comprehensive network of trams running around the city than a subway that would cost billions. Lets just get the train system electrified before we think of GRAND plans.

Anyone know the costs involved in building Perth's new subway system?

[jimmy_2486]

Adelaide will NEVER see a North - South railway.

If anything the only feasable thing would be a city loop through the parklands but that would never happen either, just look at the fight over the grandstand in in victoria park at the moment.

That is a fair statement to call.....do you work for the ACC or something??

These options you stated do not adress the issues I have raised in my last post and I am yet to see any other options as to how we can fully benefit from the electrification of our railways. IMO if we do not figure out a way to get trains moving in and out of the city quickly (to avoid over-congestion in the city) then we will wont ever see more train services or more efficient train services for that matter.

The only other option is to add extra platforms which is a cheap patch up solution IMO, and even then I dont think there is any room to do that.

Hence our train system will stay as it is I guess.

[jimmy_2486]

^^ Hop on a tram... Seriously you are dreaming if you think that we will ever have a city subway system. I would rather a comprehensive network of trams running around the city than a subway that would cost billions. Lets just get the train system electrified before we think of GRAND plans.

Anyone know the costs involved in building Perth's new subway system?

I seriously doubt it is as much as people claim it too be.

However I wouldnt have a clue.

[Pistol]

^^ Hop on a tram... Seriously you are dreaming if you think that we will ever have a city subway system. I would rather a comprehensive network of trams running around the city than a subway that would cost billions. Lets just get the train system electrified before we think of GRAND plans.

Anyone know the costs involved in building Perth's new subway system?

I was in Perth when they released this project. They said that it was a $2 billion project but that includes the line down to Mandurah so I don't know the exact cost of the city subway.

[skyliner]

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!

Fassifern is 85km SW of Brisbane. It is 'the bush' - a similar distance that the Barosaa is from Adelaide and a similar area except that it is all market gardening. Closest urban area is Ipswich - 40 Km to the north with a pop. of 136000.
I am an hour's distance from Brisbane CBD.

I agree that the Adelaide central stn. is THE feature of the system - except the concourse lighting. The building itself is a product of those far of glorious SA railway days - a magnificent piece of architecture!!

ADELAIDE -TOWARDS A GREATER CITY SKYLINE

[Ho Really]

...I am yet to see any other options as to how we can fully benefit from the electrification of our railways. IMO if we do not figure out a way to get trains moving in and out of the city quickly (to avoid over-congestion in the city) then we will wont ever see more train services or more efficient train services for that matter.

I agree with you. I think we need those underground loops in the city to Keswick or Goodwood.

The only other option is to add extra platforms which is a cheap patch up solution IMO, and even then I dont think there is any room to do that.

There's no room if you want extra platforms. If you have a loop it could go underground somewhere around the Morphett Street Bridge and then under North Terrrace with platforms accessed from the street above and the Railway Station concourse below. That's my solution anyway.

Hence our train system will stay as it is I guess.

That sucks doesn't it?

Cheers

[Bulldozer]

The city is too small for more than one train station, unless you have one in the city and one in North Adelaide. To be effective, stations have to be at least 1KM apart. Since Adelaide is a square mile, that means if you whack a subway station in the middle of Victoria Square you have around 1KM at most to walk to any part of the city. If you're too lazy or pressed for time to walk then grab a tram.

Anyway, that's why I'm all for a cut-and-fill subway tunnel up Grote with a station under Victoria Sq and a subway loop down Wakefield to connect to the Modbury line (aka "O-Bahn") and a subway loop under the southern parklands to connect back up to the rail lines on the western edge. Although I must say that a north-south subway up King William would be better for providing a station in North Adelaide, even though it would be a lot more expensive due to the need to tunnel under the Torrens.

Point is, Adelaide station needs to go as it's a dead end and in a bung place these days. I do agree though that electrification and upgrading the lines (plus moving to standard gauge) is the highest priority.

[AG]

Anyone here ever heard of engineering limitations? Cut and cover (bottom-up method) is impractical because it is too disruptive. Dunno about the top-down method though, they did successfully do it in Hong Kong in several locations on a small scale. At one subway station, Causeway Bay, they constructed the station "blind" by building all the columns and supports for the underground first, then blasted the rock around the supports away to open the area up.

The current Adelaide Station is quite close to capacity during peak hour concerning the number of trains arriving and departing. The turnaround time for terminating trains limits the capacity of the entire network. There isn't any room above ground, but there's certainly a fair bit of space underground for more platforms, particularly for through-trains. The platforms that serve through-trains can serve more trains an hour than terminating platforms as Melbourne found out when it constructed the City Loop, and Flinders Street began serving primarily for through-trains instead of terminating trains.

[jimmy_2486]

Question for anyone who knows.....Are there any other cities in Aus that operate broad gauge, or is it just us?

What is the advantage of operating broad gauge anyway? Was it just because we wanted those trains that are ment for broad gauge lines??

I actually heard on sunrise this morning that ACC is going to push for a carbon friendly city by 2012 or something and to be completly carbon neutral by 2020. So they must have some big grand plan with our PT system that we dont know about??

But probably considering our CBD setup is like the melbourne CBD, the best bet is to have a subway loop circling near the perimeter of the cbd. Possibly having stations near each corner square (hurtle sq, light sq etc) would be efficient. Linking this to an extended O-bahn would be great for modbury/golden grove and Southern trains could come in from just after the keswick station and loop back to the northern lines. This way we could fully benefit from an electrified standard gauge line and have an ultra fast train service saving people as long as probably 15-20 min for a trip. This would have a follow on effect of more frequent services and will get much more people wanting to catch the trains.

Also one last thing. I for one have become fed up not only with our train system, but the trains themselves. I wanted to look out the window today to see how the progress of the bakewell underpass was going, however the windows were that badly scratched and damaged that it was impossible to see outside! This is a common occurance on most trains here.

[Cruise]

Screw Electricfacation.

Hydrogen,
Hydrogen the only real fuel of the future.
Electricfacation is a total farce.