COM: Glenelg Tramline Upgrade

[duke]

They should make pirie street one way, run a tram down it the other way, and loop it down to the east/south side of town
Pirie street has a lot of foot trafic and would make a good location for free transport I think. I can't imagine too many people agreeing with my one way traffic idea though

[Bulldozer]

Thanks for the vids PhilH. Those trams sure do move off the line fast!

How's that girl in the first Victoria Sq one - sqeezing between the handrail and the tram as it moves off! If only common sense was actually common.

One of my Dad's friends once told me about a tram accident he saw when Le Cornu's was the Chrysler factory and trams ran everywhere - he was on his way home from work and saw a cyclist get squished between the side of a tram and a car. Said it was the worst thing he's ever seen in his 70+ years.

[Ho Really]

They should make pirie street one way, run a tram down it the other way, and loop it down to the east/south side of town
Pirie street has a lot of foot trafic and would make a good location for free transport I think. I can't imagine too many people agreeing with my one way traffic idea though

The one-way issue has been discussed before elsewhere. If a tram were to go down Pirie-Waymouth Street it would take up most of the street. It would be best to make them pedestrian malls rather than have traffic so close to trams. The traffic from Pirie-Waymouth would have to be re-directed to Grenfell-Currie and Flinders-Franklin Streets and traffic flow improved. Pedestrian crossings in Grenfell and Currie Streets would have to be undergrounded to keep traffic flowing. Currently in that short stretch traffic has to encounter 2 or 3 unsynchronised traffic and pedestrian lights.

Cheers

[Shuz]

I think the trams should run every two blocks of the city grid east/west, so that they run along North Terrace, Currie/Grenfell Sts, Waymouth/Pirie Sts, Angas/Gouger Sts, forget the Sts next.. lol, and South Terrace.

[PhilH]

Thanks for the vids PhilH. Those trams sure do move off the line fast!

How's that girl in the first Victoria Sq one - sqeezing between the handrail and the tram as it moves off! If only common sense was actually common.

Hi Bulldozer,

I did consider adding a comment about that, but I'm not absolutely sure whether the driver was stopping to avoid that girl or stopped because the signal had just turned red, so I gave the girl the benefit of the doubt...this time! Also, when I got on that shuttle at South Terrace, the driver told me "Can't use your camera in here, mate... it'll set off the security alarm". Is that true, and has anyone else had a similar experience?

Now then. This coming weekend is the initial one for both the Flexis and the H's running in regular service over the extension at the same time, and consulting the timetable, it looks like southbound H's and northbound Flexis should be passing each other probably on the North Terrace intersection at approx 11:04 am, 2:34 pm, and 4:04 pm on both Saturday and Sunday, so a few photo/video opportunities there. I'm going to try for Saturday morning, so does anyone want to meet up, say by the statue in front of Government House, just before 11?

PhilH

[Norman]

I think we should start giving trams numbers according to their service like Melbourne.

Say for instance 99 for the tram shuttle, 1 for the glenelg tram and the 1F for the tram that runs express from greenhill road to marion road, 1G for the trams that are starting from morphett road to glenelg, and 1H for the heritage service.
If we start adding more tram services, then if we use numbers now, people will be used to it by the time we get different services.

Some of the numbers sound useless i know, but it will make the transport authority seem more organised which will give people confidence in the tram system.

Any comments on this?

If anything, the express tram should be 1X... F buses still pick up on the outbound route and set down on the inbound route.

They should make pirie street one way, run a tram down it the other way, and loop it down to the east/south side of town
Pirie street has a lot of foot trafic and would make a good location for free transport I think. I can't imagine too many people agreeing with my one way traffic idea though

The one-way issue has been discussed before elsewhere. If a tram were to go down Pirie-Waymouth Street it would take up most of the street. It would be best to make them pedestrian malls rather than have traffic so close to trams. The traffic from Pirie-Waymouth would have to be re-directed to Grenfell-Currie and Flinders-Franklin Streets and traffic flow improved. Pedestrian crossings in Grenfell and Currie Streets would have to be undergrounded to keep traffic flowing. Currently in that short stretch traffic has to encounter 2 or 3 unsynchronised traffic and pedestrian lights.

Cheers

I think Hindley Street should be closed of to cars, just like Rundle Mall. It would make KWS better for the trams and for the cars for that matter.

Thanks for the vids PhilH. Those trams sure do move off the line fast!

How's that girl in the first Victoria Sq one - sqeezing between the handrail and the tram as it moves off! If only common sense was actually common.

Hi Bulldozer,

I did consider adding a comment about that, but I'm not absolutely sure whether the driver was stopping to avoid that girl or stopped because the signal had just turned red, so I gave the girl the benefit of the doubt...this time! Also, when I got on that shuttle at South Terrace, the driver told me "Can't use your camera in here, mate... it'll set off the security alarm". Is that true, and has anyone else had a similar experience?

Now then. This coming weekend is the initial one for both the Flexis and the H's running in regular service over the extension at the same time, and consulting the timetable, it looks like southbound H's and northbound Flexis should be passing each other probably on the North Terrace intersection at approx 11:04 am, 2:34 pm, and 4:04 pm on both Saturday and Sunday, so a few photo/video opportunities there. I'm going to try for Saturday morning, so does anyone want to meet up, say by the statue in front of Government House, just before 11?

PhilH

I would, if I was in Adelaide

I'd love to see the pics though.

And as for the cameas, nothing here mate, for photos or movies.

[PhilH]

An addendum to the Saturday/Sunday info: I didn't notice the H's earlier departure time from Glenelg, which will mean that the old and new trams should also be passing each other at North Terrace/KWS 15 minutes earlier than the times indicated above, so at approx 10:49 the H should be going around the intersection on the way down to City West while a Flexi is coming up; the H will then come back up at 11:04 passing another flexi on the way down. Hopefully my train from Outer Harbor train (due in at 10:36) won't be too late for me to view the 10:49 passing - the train's Saturday timekeeping has been a bit iffy lately.

[Norman]

From what I know the timetable on the OH line is shockingly out of touch with reality. It needs to be changed immediately.

[jimmy_2486]

I think we should start giving trams numbers according to their service like Melbourne.

Say for instance 99 for the tram shuttle, 1 for the glenelg tram and the 1F for the tram that runs express from greenhill road to marion road, 1G for the trams that are starting from morphett road to glenelg, and 1H for the heritage service.
If we start adding more tram services, then if we use numbers now, people will be used to it by the time we get different services.

Some of the numbers sound useless i know, but it will make the transport authority seem more organised which will give people confidence in the tram system.

Any comments on this?

If anything, the express tram should be 1X... F buses still pick up on the outbound route and set down on the inbound route.

Makes more sense.....how silly of me!

[jimmy_2486]

Well it has been amost a full working week since the new services have been put in place and the trams are still pretty much over capacity pretty much all the time.

I caught the tram at about quarter to 10 this time and there were soo many people on it that once it had entered the city stops, people were forced to leave the tram untill others had gotton of and then they would have to re-enter the tram.

I think the Tram Authority needs to go back on ebay to buy some more trams and have say 8-10 min intervals cos I think we need it!

[Dave_The_Planner]

It is a great problem to have though (too many tram passengers).

This is a direct result of providing a clean, fast, efficient and FREE service. 5 minute intervals would be good from 4.30pm through to 6.00pm weekdays and perhaps the same for the morning. I guess the PTB are keeping their eyes on this, keeping in mind there is probably a budget in place for this *free* service.

[Tom]

For all those near a radio, Conlon will be on 5AA somtime before 4pm talking to Amanda Blair about the Tramline, 1395AM

[jimmy_2486]

It is a great problem to have though (too many tram passengers).

This is a direct result of providing a clean, fast, efficient and FREE service. 5 minute intervals would be good from 4.30pm through to 6.00pm weekdays and perhaps the same for the morning. I guess the PTB are keeping their eyes on this, keeping in mind there is probably a budget in place for this *free* service.

Yeah 5 min intervals in peak, and 8-10 min during interpeak.

However if they were to say branch the trams off down say marion road to marion shopping centre to replace the buses that go there, this will mean there will be more trams running through most of the corridor anyways.

Maybe a temporary solution is to have more trams run down the corridor but make them stop at marion road maybe. Therefore if they put a track down that road, then those extra services could be extended there??

[jk1237]

I heard reports that morning trams from Glenelg get full-to-capacity by South Rd. There would prob by a lot of growth in passengers from Forrestville to the city, because previously their nearby buses took the right into town. For example at Goodwood Rd stop, more people used to wait for the bus to town rather than the tram, caus the bus took them right up to North Tce without changing. Now its a different story.
What Im on about is maybe add an extra service that runs from Forestville and the city (because there is already a crossover at Frstville) so we can have a 15 min interval tram from Glenelg, a 7.5 min intervals from Forrestville, and 3-4 min interval trams from South Terrace, all to City West

[Will409]

It is great to see the Glenelg line and the extension are enjoying what must surely be record patronage. However, the only way that the service can grow with increased frequencies is a larger fleet of trams and an expanded depot to take them all. In my opinion, a 7.5 minute frequency service down the whole line would be ideal. Several of the busier lines in Melbourne to the best of my knowledge are of a similar length to the Glenelg line and run at a frequency like that. I recommend the whole line to a 7.5 minute frequency during peak periods and a 10-15 minute frequency off peak because a large number of passengers do board at stop 15 (ex stop 19) Brighton Road.

While overcrowding is an issue, it does prove that the combined upgrade and extension of the Glenelg line over the past couple of years has proven to be a huge success. Just need to get some more Flexis or return the H class to everyday service and we should be happy.