News & Discussion: O-Bahn

[[Shuz]]

Once OBahn reaches its end of life it should be converted to heavy rail.

[SRW]

Are people proposing heavy rail conversion assuming a budget for tunnel or viaduct construction because a ballasted track would be wholly unsuitable for the River Torrens environs.

[SBD]

Are people proposing heavy rail conversion assuming a budget for tunnel or viaduct construction because a ballasted track would be wholly unsuitable for the River Torrens environs.

There are a few things I don't know from a technical standpoint to answer this, including:

• What goes wrong if trains are run on tracks without ballast, but fixed similar to the current O-Bahn tracks? eg rails on concrete sleepers attached directly to longitudinal beams.
• Could trams be run on a fixed track even if trains can't? Why the difference?
• How steep is the track beyond Paradise and climbing out of the city access tunnel? Would it be too steep for trains, but OK for trams?

[ChillyPhilly]

Once OBahn reaches its end of life it should be converted to heavy rail.

The urban form of the north-east suburbs disagree.

[rooshooter]

Heavy rail - no way. The additional infrastructure required to run heavy, presumably electrified, rail would not suit the river Torrens environment.
It’s taken decades for the area around the busway and river to reach a decent maturity and is one of the best environmental outcomes of any gov transport projects I’ve seen in Australia.
We barely get a few trees and some unmanaged grasses for most projects these days.
Why can’t we rebuild / repair the busway to modern standards and buy / build buses to suit? Is it that hard?

[Nort]

Once OBahn reaches its end of life it should be converted to heavy rail.

Hard disagree. Would reduce convenience, increase travel times, destroy a nice green corridor, and also almost certainly cost much more than even completely rebuilding the whole O-Bahn track and building more buses locally for it.

[1NEEDS2POST]

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sou ... 42bcc63c98

July 16, 2023

The state government is doubling maintenance spending to $120,000 this year.

That's incredibly cheap compared to heavy rail or anything else apart from walking.

[rubberman]

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sou ... 42bcc63c98

July 16, 2023

The state government is doubling maintenance spending to $120,000 this year.

That's incredibly cheap compared to heavy rail or anything else apart from walking.

That amount would cover the barest amount of maintenance. That's about one person's labour for a year working weekdays. Or one person for 6 months at night...which it's likely to be due to buses running. Of course for safety, two people are needed. So, two people, one week in four. This would cover cosmetic improvements. The heavy rail equivalent would be keeping the weeds down. The present regime has allowed the track to deteriorate to the point of needing speed restrictions, pretty much the same as would happen with heavy rail.

[ml69]

Once OBahn reaches its end of life it should be converted to heavy rail.

Hard disagree. Would reduce convenience, increase travel times, destroy a nice green corridor, and also almost certainly cost much more than even completely rebuilding the whole O-Bahn track and building more buses locally for it.

Overhaul and rebuild the track, replace with modern low-floor electric buses. Simple

[Spotto]

The present regime has allowed the track to deteriorate to the point of needing speed restrictions, pretty much the same as would happen with heavy rail.

The “present regime” has only been in office for 16 months…

Looking back at Rann and Weatherill would be more appropriate.

[cocoiadrop]

The speed restrictions were put in place towards the later end of Weatherill's gov surely? And even then it was a safety measure to prevent accidents like that of Paradise in 2016 and vibrations on the Scanias.

[Eurostar]

The speed restrictions were put in place towards the later end of Weatherill's gov surely? And even then it was a safety measure to prevent accidents like that of Paradise in 2016 and vibrations on the Scanias.

State Government should of stuck with Mercedes-Benz O405NH, 1542 runs smoothly on the O-Bahn. Or chosen the Volvo B12BLE/B12BLEA

[rubberman]

The present regime has allowed the track to deteriorate to the point of needing speed restrictions, pretty much the same as would happen with heavy rail.

The “present regime” has only been in office for 16 months…

Looking back at Rann and Weatherill would be more appropriate.

Apologies for the misunderstanding. I meant maintenance regime rather than political regime. That is $60k and $120k annual maintenance.

[rubberman]

Once OBahn reaches its end of life it should be converted to heavy rail.

Hard disagree. Would reduce convenience, increase travel times, destroy a nice green corridor, and also almost certainly cost much more than even completely rebuilding the whole O-Bahn track and building more buses locally for it.

Overhaul and rebuild the track, replace with modern low-floor electric buses. Simple

Especially consider trolley/battery bus hybrid. These minimise battery size. This is important because larger batteries require more internal space, plus are quite heavy. So the bigger the battery, the more energy required to cart it round, the more steel reinforcing framework required, and the fewer passengers carried. The hybrids use trolley wire in the suburbs, but run through the CBD wire-free.

[MT269]

The speed restrictions were put in place towards the later end of Weatherill's gov surely? And even then it was a safety measure to prevent accidents like that of Paradise in 2016 and vibrations on the Scanias.

State Government should of stuck with Mercedes-Benz O405NH, 1542 runs smoothly on the O-Bahn. Or chosen the Volvo B12BLE/B12BLEA

It overheats regularly due to the tiny radiator, which is part of the chassis. O500LEs might have been a better option. 6 times quieter than the Swedish builds.