News & Discussion: Trams

[Bob]

Adelaide Street Directory 1949 (CBD part one) showing tram lines

[Bob]

Part 2

[SBD]

That looks like three grand union junctions down King William Street? (it's hard to tell as the street directory does not show two tracks), and also Wakefield/Pulteney/Hanson Streets?

Did the trams run both ways on one side of Whitmore Square, or did that section only go northbound? It looks like that end of Sturt Street fed into West Terrace to Currie Street as part of a city loop (no straight on drawn in West Terrace at Currie or Sturt Streets.

[Haso]

That looks like three grand union junctions down King William Street? (it's hard to tell as the street directory does not show two tracks), and also Wakefield/Pulteney/Hanson Streets?

Did the trams run both ways on one side of Whitmore Square, or did that section only go northbound? It looks like that end of Sturt Street fed into West Terrace to Currie Street as part of a city loop (no straight on drawn in West Terrace at Currie or Sturt Streets.

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The State Library of South Australia has a lot of photos of Brown st. (today Morphett Street) and Sturt Street, but only a few of Whitmore Square before sixties and none with tracks. Trams were running both ways along Brown Street and Sturt Street so there is a good chance that same will apply for Whitmore Square.

I am not sure about the copyright so here are the links for the photos
Brown Street, 1918 - https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/reso ... 0/1/39/480
Brown Street, 1926 - https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+3229
Sturt street, 1928 - https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+4777

More about Brown Street - http://sahistoryhub.com.au/places/brown-street
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[adelaide transport]

Driving down North Terrace today(at slower than walking pace) there didn't appear to being any work undertaken. Still a lot of finishing work and tidying up to do.
I think the previous Government Minister Mullighan wasted $10 million dollars which was supposed to speed up the job-it couldn't be any further from the truth!
My best earliest guess looking at the amount still left to be done would be April 29th?

[[Shuz]]

Took a walk myself down today as I hadnt seen it in person yet. What stuck out for me is how much the light poles seem to be leaning in.

[Matt]

Tiser article yesterday re: airport tram - did anyone catch it?
Saw the headline but couldn’t make it past the paywall.

[Ben]

Apparently the government failed to submit a proposal to infrastructure Australia in time for the May budget deadline.

[Nathan]

Apparently the government failed to submit a proposal to infrastructure Australia in time for the May budget deadline.

The article implies they did, but that it didn't make Infrastructure Australia's list of priority projects.

[Haso]

Apparently the government failed to submit a proposal to infrastructure Australia in time for the May budget deadline.

The article implies they did, but that it didn't make Infrastructure Australia's list of priority projects.

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I also couldn’t make it past the paywall but the summary sound somehow triumphant… maybe the article is a bit different...hope so.

airport tram.jpg (41.77 KiB) Viewed 3867 times

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[Nathan]

Reminder:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta ... ehme?hl=en

[Goodsy]

A TRAM link to Adelaide Airport the former Weatherill government hoped would gain federal funding this year has failed to win essential backing from independent umpire Infrastructure Australia.

Inclusion on Infrastructure Australia’s priority list is usually essential for projects seeking federal Government funding.

The former South Australian Labor government included improved road access and a tram link to the airport on a “wishlist” of projects it wanted to gain Infrastructure Australia backing for in time for the May federal Budget.

The airport project failed to make it on to a list of priority projects to be released by Infrastructure Australia chief executive Philip Davies on Tuesday.

The airport plan was also left off a list of projects to be formally assessed by Infrastructure Australia.

“We continue to work with the South Australian Government to provide advice and feedback on their submissions,’’ Mr Davies said.

New state Transport and Infrastructure Minister Stephan Knoll plans to establish an SA version of Infrastructure Australia to prioritise major projects based on merit.

“The Marshall Liberal Government will establish Infrastructure South Australia to deliver much better outcomes in developing productive infrastructure for our state,’’ Mr Knoll said.

“Infrastructure South Australia will deliver a continual pipeline of infrastructure work to grow more jobs in a growing economy.’’

Infrastructure Australia backed an upgrade of the Gawler rail line between Salisbury and Gawler as a “High Priority Initiative”, but said a business case must be further developed before it proceeded. It warned that rising passenger numbers could push the Gawler line to capacity within five to 10 years.

The agency also classified the completion of the North-South Corridor upgrade as a priority initiative to reduce congestion on the road network.

Projects to support the development of new mines considered essential to SA’s future prosperity were given “Priority Initiative” status by Infrastructure Australia.

These included the development of a regional mineral port and rail access to the Gawler Craton minerals region northwest of the Eyre Peninsula. The region, which extends into the Woomera Prohibited Area, contains copper, gold, silver and iron ore deposit.

Infrastructure Australia backed a long-term upgrade of rail links to Victoria to ensure freight could be moved quickly. A failure to improve interstate rail access could compromise future mining projects.

An upgrade of the Strzelecki Track so that it could carry triple road trains was also a priority initiative, as was enhancing the Sturt Highway to meet freight demands.

Priority infrastructure

Priority Project

■ Eyre Peninsula deep water port and railway for mining project

High Priority or Priority initiatives that need full business cases

■ Gawler line: Salisbury to Gawler upgrade

■ North-South corridor upgrades

■ Strz elecki Track improvement and mobile coverage upgrade

■ Regional mineral port

■ Sturt Highway upgrade, including Truro bypass

■ Gawler Craton rail access for mining

■ Melbourne-Adelaide-Perth railway upgrade

Under assessment

■ South Rd Regency to Pym St upgrade

■ Gawler line electrification

[rubberman]

Driving down North Terrace today(at slower than walking pace) there didn't appear to being any work undertaken. Still a lot of finishing work and tidying up to do.
I think the previous Government Minister Mullighan wasted $10 million dollars which was supposed to speed up the job-it couldn't be any further from the truth!
My best earliest guess looking at the amount still left to be done would be April 29th?

I go past the works most days. What struck me was that for three weeks before the election, work was pretty much stopped. I can't understand that. If they had the same number of workers on it as they had for the rest of it, it would be finished by now. Why they stopped work 3 weeks before the election is a question to answer.

[Matt]

I mean, I’m shocked that the federal government have refused to fund a public transport project.

Shocked.

[rubberman]

Took a walk myself down today as I hadnt seen it in person yet. What stuck out for me is how much the light poles seem to be leaning in.

Hmm, it's almost as if they should have used poles designed for holding up tram overhead, rather than fancy light poles.

I wonder where they could have gotten some original tram poles designed for the purpose? The poles used by the MTT had much thicker steel walls. If you go to the tram museum at St Kilda and look at the depot fan, you can see tram poles holding up a darn sight more wires, but the deflection is hardly noticeable.

Seriously, I wonder about the structural integrity of poles bent that far out of shape. They will also get further loads as the pantagraphs go past jiggling the overhead up and down. If I were the DPTI Project Manager, I'd be insisting on a structural engineer's certification before I accepted it.