COM: Glenelg Tramline Upgrade

[skyliner]

Beehive corner photo v. atmospheric and hints at a European city. Impressive work Bill - again The H class trams themselves will be hard for me to separate from Adelaide when they do finally disappear. They have sure lasted 'the distance' - from 1929 till now.I gather they replaced steam locomotives run by private railways down the line. Once extended ON THE BEACH sand from Moseley Sq. to Brighton to let people off directly on the beach. (Found out in my research to put together a book on broad gauge steam locomotives in SA).

ADELAIDE - SENSATIONAL!

[BillD]

Thanks for the kind words about my photo's. Here's another from last night's test run, with the H's in the southern side of the city City-West terminus. The camera is facing east.

[Will409]

More photos. There has once again been plenty of work since my mid week report.



A rather suprising developement has been the installation of new traffic light poles at the intersection of North Terrace and Victoria Street which is about half way between Railway Station and City West stops. Looks asif they were bought in flat packs from Ikea!




City West stop. BillD in his H class test shots did point out that the top layer of concrete had gone down during the week. The new 'buffer stops' have also gone in too.


New traffic and pedestrian light at the western end of Railway Station stop and under the railway station balcony itself.




Railway Station stop underway. The paving is almost done except for the centre section which has paver artwork incorperated. Pirie Street and Rundle Mall stops are also at the same stage.


Pedestrian path alongside the tramway now complete except for new eart around it.


Pedestrian crossing at Grote Street very nearly completed.


More work still being done at Victoria Square stop.


Wiring being under taken at Victoria Square stop.



New roofing material being installed. Only a few sections are in place at the moment with 3/4 of the roof still yet to be installed. The edges of the roof however are of clear material. It may very well be a case of solar power generating capability in the roof panels because they did look somewhat 'slotted'.


103 at the stop. The new roofing material does make a difference in the amount of sunlight let through as you can see.


Earth filling in the median strip on King William Street.

[Norman]

Thanks for the update Will. The brown stobie poles and traffic lights look insanely attractive IMO. Can't wait for this to be finished, I hope services commence soon.

[AtD]

Cheers for the updates Will. The traffic light poles around Victoria Street have been up for some time. It's amazing how an 'empty' pole just blends into the streetscape.

[cruel_world00]

Just quickly, will those shelters actually do any sheltering from the elements such as rain? Or even provide shade in the hot summer months?

[Ho Really]

Just quickly, will those shelters actually do any sheltering from the elements such as rain? Or even provide shade in the hot summer months?

Very good question. I have my doubts too. I took the new tram for the first time on Sunday with my wife and kids. I was shocked to see that several of the ribbed tiles on the platform were cracked. Now you'd expect this in a third-world country but not here! Let's hope they fix them. Also that footpath in bitumen is aesthetically a shocker. I hope that's temporary as someone already mentioned. The tram itself is fine. The seats for such a long journey to Glenelg are too hard. The track is a little bumpy in one or two places, but I guess that's what you get when most of this tram line is really no more than a railway line.

Can't wait for the rest of the line to be completed in the city, because it is there that the tram will shine, and if people take to them it may spurr the government to plan more lines across the square mile.

Cheers

[urban]

I can't wait until October when the track is complete and the 4 new trams arrive together with a new timetable.

[Froggy]

It's good to see that what was once a beautiful street is now ugly with those horrendous power poles and lines all over the place, it is an absolute disgrace. Oh and lets thank the tram for adding a 4th set of traffic lights in 500 metres on North Terrace, I'm sure that everyone's thrilled with that. Let's remember why the tram was taken out in the first place, to stop traffic congestion. What has it done since it has been put back in? Added at least 10 minute travel time across the city in non peak and 20+ in peak well done SA Gov. The tramline STILL goes to no where and has cleverly been done in a way where no patronage base can be attributed to it's success or not by making trips free. The gov KNOWS that it will not get much use besides the initial rail lovers jamming on it for a 1 km trip.

I give them 10 years max before they fill it in - again.

[Ben]

Let's remember why the tram was taken out in the first place, to stop traffic congestion. What has it done since it has been put back in? Added at least 10 minute travel time across the city in non peak and 20+ in peak well done SA Gov.

:wank: Do you get to the city much? As I work in town Monday to Friday and live 2 mins from the CBD I am in there nearly every day and the traffic flows so much easier now people aren't quing behind cars as they turn right ect and if they need to they can turn right onto North terrace.

How old are you Froggy out of curiousity?

[Froggy]

Let's remember why the tram was taken out in the first place, to stop traffic congestion. What has it done since it has been put back in? Added at least 10 minute travel time across the city in non peak and 20+ in peak well done SA Gov.

:wank: Do you get to the city much? As I work in town Monday to Friday and live 2 mins from the CBD I am in there nearly every day and the traffic flows so much easier now people aren't quing behind cars as they turn right ect and if they need to they can turn right onto North terrace.

How old are you Froggy out of curiousity?

Mate I work in the city I am overlooking North Terrace. The traffic DOES NOT flow easier now, the cars are queued up constantly betweeen 5 - 6:30 which never happened before the tramline and surprise surprise when you get past the tramline going out of town there's hardly any cars, clearly because the tramline has caused a bottleneck. It is effectively one lane once you get to the north terrace king william street intersection because of busses in the left hand lane, there is not enough room to get past them so everyone has to merge into the right hand lane. If might flow easier along king william but its still a HUGE pain int he arse for anyone who is coming in that needs to turn right down these roads to get to car parks etc, they now have to go a full circuit to get to what was once a simple right hand turn.

[rhino]

Let's remember why the tram was taken out in the first place, to stop traffic congestion.

WRONG.

The tramlines were removed in the 1950s because:
a) the lines were worn and needed replacing, and the govt was not cashed up enough to do it, busses were a cheaper option.
b) Tom Playford headed us in the direction of an automobile-based state in order to get companies the likes of Holden, Chrysler (now Mitsis) and Bridgestone to invest in South Australia, which they did.

The tramlines never did congest traffic, (there was stuff-all traffic in the 1950s anyway), and that is not the reason they were removed.

[Froggy]

Let's remember why the tram was taken out in the first place, to stop traffic congestion.

WRONG.

The tramlines were removed in the 1950s because:
a) the lines were worn and needed replacing, and the govt was not cashed up enough to do it, busses were a cheaper option.
b) Tom Playford headed us in the direction of an automobile-based state in order to get companies the likes of Holden, Chrysler (now Mitsis) and Bridgestone to invest in South Australia, which they did.

The tramlines never did congest traffic, (there was stuff-all traffic in the 1950s anyway), and that is not the reason they were removed.

No, it was because of the growing use of the automobile which meant more road was needed and tram patronage was low, hence they were removed to stop any traffic congestion. wiki it for your own good.

[urban]

Froggy if you remove the tram you add 60 cars to the road which causing more congestion. The rise of the car as the primary mode of transport in Adelaide has encouraged the thoughtless sprawl of suburbs into our best food producing land while creating an incredibly inefficient city. The car culture of Adelaide is directly responsible for our infrastructure backlog which has subsequently hindered the economic development of our state. The govt has spent too much of it's money for too many years providing infrastructure and services to poorly planned and inefficient housing growth on our suburban fringes.

Extend the tram the full length of Grange Rd watch the traffic congestion ease in the city and the value of properties along Grange Rd increase.

[Froggy]

Let's remember why the tram was taken out in the first place, to stop traffic congestion. What has it done since it has been put back in? Added at least 10 minute travel time across the city in non peak and 20+ in peak well done SA Gov.

:wank: Do you get to the city much? As I work in town Monday to Friday and live 2 mins from the CBD I am in there nearly every day and the traffic flows so much easier now people aren't quing behind cars as they turn right ect and if they need to they can turn right onto North terrace.

How old are you Froggy out of curiousity?

Oh and BTW I have no doubt I'm older than you and from the feeling I get you don't drive past the Casino or down North Terrace. Maybe catch a bus in from North Adelaide every morning and go home the same way at night? Please, come back to me when you have some real experience with the traffic problems it's caused.