News & Discussion: Adelaide Metro Trains

[Waewick]

Albert Park and Seaton Park are ideal for medium density development....as for East Grange and Grange no way...never...rich people who live in big houses with 4 bedrooms and 2 cars....
"We don't need public transport!"

Semi related, similar vibe the local Liberals near the seats of Uni SA campus are already starting to push against future development there because of 'traffic'

Now to be fair, Magil Rd, the Parade and Kensi Rds are already diabolical. But stopping homes being built isn't the answer.

Making PT convenient is though, 30 minutes seems a long long time

[ChillyPhilly]

Albert Park and Seaton Park are ideal for medium density development....as for East Grange and Grange no way...never...rich people who live in big houses with 4 bedrooms and 2 cars....
"We don't need public transport!"

Density around Grange is already quite moderate and I am sure with good outcomes it can be increased further. Demolishing the servo right next to the station is a good start.

As for the line as a whole, my pipe dream is to extend it south and back east to the CBD, with underground stops at Henley Beach, West Beach, Harbour Town, Adelaide Airport, and maybe Hilton before feeding back into the CBD Rail Loop.

[PeFe]

Mile End train station renovations....well its really just some murals.

All photos sourced from Tom Koutsantois's Facebook page.

[A-Town]

Mile End train station renovations....well its really just some murals.

All photos sourced from Tom Koutsantois's Facebook page.

Lipstick on a pig. And there's still graffiti on the seat!

[Patrick_27]

Mile End should either be closed, or rebuilt adjacent to Santos Stadium so it can provide a transport link for schools, community groups, SA Institute of Sport using the stadium and Netball SA arena. It's current location seems redundant.

[ChillyPhilly]

Mile End should either be closed, or rebuilt adjacent to Santos Stadium so it can provide a transport link for schools, community groups, SA Institute of Sport using the stadium and Netball SA arena. It's current location seems redundant.

Mile End serves Adelaide High and Temple Christian College. It would be better to rebuild the station over Glover Ave/Henley Beach Road, allowing for better connections all round.

[dbl96]

Frequencies of 30 minutes.....hardly conducive to get people to use public transport.

I would prefer to see the Grange line become a spur only, with people transferring at Woodville.

Then make Port Dock all stoppers to the city, Outer Harbour express to Woodville.

Frequencies count....having a train every 15 minutes makes people believe they can just turn up and a service will come within a reasonable time....30 minutes just doesn't cut it.

I would rather see Grange close and government redirect and planned investment and annual expenditure saved elsewhere within the network, having travelled Grange both peak and inter peak, the line is virtually redundant and seems to only exist now out of the fact that neither party when in government want to face down the community uproar if they were to close it, even though the community don't seem to utilise the line whilst it's still there. I want to see the Adelaide metropolitan rail network expand and whilst Outer Harbour remains diesel this will not happen, and I suspect it remains diesel because the government are at a crossroad on whether or not to invest in the electrification of Grange or not.

We have a line that’s already there, in good condition but is severely under-utilised. Surely a better use of money than closing and demolishing it would be to rezone the surrounding land to encourage dense living in the style of Bowden and Tonsley?

Take advantage of the infrastructure that already exists and use it to its potential!

Wasn’t the entire business case for the Port Dock extension to serve new dense living under construction? It would be the same thing for the Grange Line, only in reverse.

Density around Grange is already quite moderate and I am sure with good outcomes it can be increased further. Demolishing the servo right next to the station is a good start.

As for the line as a whole, my pipe dream is to extend it south and back east to the CBD, with underground stops at Henley Beach, West Beach, Harbour Town, Adelaide Airport, and maybe Hilton before feeding back into the CBD Rail Loop.

The best option for the Grange line is for it to be converted to light rail and extended a short distance to major activity centres at Henley Beach and Arndale to increase its utility.

The corridor is too good an opportunity to waste by actually closing the line. It has the potential to be a highly functional interconnector between major activity centres in the western suburbs, but it is not achieving that in its current form, and the investment (in tunnelling etc) required to achieve that with heavy rail could not be justified considering the relatively moderate passenger numbers that could be expected on this kind of route. Light rail is a much better fit, and could be achieved very affordably. Yes, it would require an interchange at Woodville for travel to/from the City and Port, but this is hardly a big issue if there are reasonable frequencies and timetable coordination with the Port line.

None of this is dependant on the Outer Harbor line being converted to light rail. The rebuilt and extended Grange line could function as a standalone light rail line, but would more sensibly be linked to the rest of network via the Adelink lines which were proposed along Henley Beach and Grange Rds.

My personal opinion is that the Outer Harbor line from the Port to the City is a major trunk line which supports and so should remain heavy rail/metro. There are significant opportunities for major uplift in population around many of the stations on this section, and for the whole region’s transport network to be oriented around and feed into the railway line. On the other hand, the Outer Harbor line beyond Port Adelaide probably doesn’t have the catchment to justify heavy rail (the Lefevre Peninsula is pretty narrow), and has much higher station density. As such it would best be converted to light rail, interchanging with the heavy rail line at Port Dock.

The light rail lines using the Grange and LeFevre (Outer Harbor) corridors could be linked to each other via an extended version of the long-contemplated West Lakes spur line.

In the long term there is the potential to extend the truncated Port Line over/under the Port River to serve the Osborne Shipyards via an express (minimal station) route paralleling the freight line on the eastern side of the peninsula. This could be linked to a Barker Inlet (Outer Harbor - St Kilda) bridge, should it ever be built, and from their onwards to the northern suburbs.

At some point I will try to draw up a map to make it clearer how all of this would work.

[Eurostar]

It'll be best for any light rail to go direct along Grange Road to Grange

[1NEEDS2POST]

Frequencies of 30 minutes.....hardly conducive to get people to use public transport.

I would prefer to see the Grange line become a spur only, with people transferring at Woodville.

Then make Port Dock all stoppers to the city, Outer Harbour express to Woodville.

Frequencies count....having a train every 15 minutes makes people believe they can just turn up and a service will come within a reasonable time....30 minutes just doesn't cut it.

This is the most likely solution if they want to get decent frequencies. Another option, that would also work and increase frequencies everywhere, is to couple a 3000 class railcar behind a 3100 class set. From Adelaide to Alberton, it's one train, then at Alberton the the 3100 class set uncouples and drives to Outer Harbor and the 3000 class railcar drives to Port Dock (then reverses and drives to Dry Creek when that's relaid ). They have Scharfenberg couplers that take a few seconds to couple and uncouple, so there's no technical reason why this can't be done.

[claybro]

Frequencies of 30 minutes.....hardly conducive to get people to use public transport.

I would prefer to see the Grange line become a spur only, with people transferring at Woodville.

Then make Port Dock all stoppers to the city, Outer Harbour express to Woodville.

Frequencies count....having a train every 15 minutes makes people believe they can just turn up and a service will come within a reasonable time....30 minutes just doesn't cut it.

This is the most likely solution if they want to get decent frequencies. Another option, that would also work and increase frequencies everywhere, is to couple a 3000 class railcar behind a 3100 class set. From Adelaide to Alberton, it's one train, then at Alberton the the 3100 class set uncouples and drives to Outer Harbor and the 3000 class railcar drives to Port Dock (then reverses and drives to Dry Creek when that's relaid ). They have Scharfenberg couplers that take a few seconds to couple and uncouple, so there's no technical reason why this can't be done.

That works in places like Germany and Japan… but let’s face it… we can’t even get trams to sync with traffic lights.. so heavy rail sync and coupling.. dreaming unfortunately.?

[1NEEDS2POST]

Frequencies of 30 minutes.....hardly conducive to get people to use public transport.

I would prefer to see the Grange line become a spur only, with people transferring at Woodville.

Then make Port Dock all stoppers to the city, Outer Harbour express to Woodville.

Frequencies count....having a train every 15 minutes makes people believe they can just turn up and a service will come within a reasonable time....30 minutes just doesn't cut it.

This is the most likely solution if they want to get decent frequencies. Another option, that would also work and increase frequencies everywhere, is to couple a 3000 class railcar behind a 3100 class set. From Adelaide to Alberton, it's one train, then at Alberton the the 3100 class set uncouples and drives to Outer Harbor and the 3000 class railcar drives to Port Dock (then reverses and drives to Dry Creek when that's relaid ). They have Scharfenberg couplers that take a few seconds to couple and uncouple, so there's no technical reason why this can't be done.

That works in places like Germany and Japan… but let’s face it… we can’t even get trams to sync with traffic lights.. so heavy rail sync and coupling.. dreaming unfortunately.?

There's not much traffic on the Outer Harbor line. Just have a driver wait at Alberton to drive one of the railcars from the city, then on the return trip they couple their railcar and get out at Alberton. There isn't much need for timing.

[RetroGamer87]

I would rather see Grange close and government redirect and planned investment and annual expenditure saved elsewhere within the network, having travelled Grange both peak and inter peak, the line is virtually redundant and seems to only exist now out of the fact that neither party when in government want to face down the community uproar if they were to close it, even though the community don't seem to utilise the line whilst it's still there. I want to see the Adelaide metropolitan rail network expand and whilst Outer Harbour remains diesel this will not happen, and I suspect it remains diesel because the government are at a crossroad on whether or not to invest in the electrification of Grange or not.

We have a line that’s already there, in good condition but is severely under-utilised. Surely a better use of money than closing and demolishing it would be to rezone the surrounding land to encourage dense living in the style of Bowden and Tonsley?

Take advantage of the infrastructure that already exists and use it to its potential!

Wasn’t the entire business case for the Port Dock extension to serve new dense living under construction? It would be the same thing for the Grange Line, only in reverse.

Density around Grange is already quite moderate and I am sure with good outcomes it can be increased further. Demolishing the servo right next to the station is a good start.

As for the line as a whole, my pipe dream is to extend it south and back east to the CBD, with underground stops at Henley Beach, West Beach, Harbour Town, Adelaide Airport, and maybe Hilton before feeding back into the CBD Rail Loop.

The best option for the Grange line is for it to be converted to light rail and extended a short distance to major activity centres at Henley Beach and Arndale to increase its utility.

The corridor is too good an opportunity to waste by actually closing the line. It has the potential to be a highly functional interconnector between major activity centres in the western suburbs, but it is not achieving that in its current form, and the investment (in tunnelling etc) required to achieve that with heavy rail could not be justified considering the relatively moderate passenger numbers that could be expected on this kind of route. Light rail is a much better fit, and could be achieved very affordably. Yes, it would require an interchange at Woodville for travel to/from the City and Port, but this is hardly a big issue if there are reasonable frequencies and timetable coordination with the Port line.

None of this is dependant on the Outer Harbor line being converted to light rail. The rebuilt and extended Grange line could function as a standalone light rail line, but would more sensibly be linked to the rest of network via the Adelink lines which were proposed along Henley Beach and Grange Rds.

My personal opinion is that the Outer Harbor line from the Port to the City is a major trunk line which supports and so should remain heavy rail/metro. There are significant opportunities for major uplift in population around many of the stations on this section, and for the whole region’s transport network to be oriented around and feed into the railway line. On the other hand, the Outer Harbor line beyond Port Adelaide probably doesn’t have the catchment to justify heavy rail (the Lefevre Peninsula is pretty narrow), and has much higher station density. As such it would best be converted to light rail, interchanging with the heavy rail line at Port Dock.

The light rail lines using the Grange and LeFevre (Outer Harbor) corridors could be linked to each other via an extended version of the long-contemplated West Lakes spur line.

In the long term there is the potential to extend the truncated Port Line over/under the Port River to serve the Osborne Shipyards via an express (minimal station) route paralleling the freight line on the eastern side of the peninsula. This could be linked to a Barker Inlet (Outer Harbor - St Kilda) bridge, should it ever be built, and from their onwards to the northern suburbs.

At some point I will try to draw up a map to make it clearer how all of this would work.

A light rail running out of Port Dock? The last time we had street running arount the Port Adelaide area it caused severe traffic problems. The viaduct was built for a reason. We should continue to use it.

[claybro]

We have a line that’s already there, in good condition but is severely under-utilised. Surely a better use of money than closing and demolishing it would be to rezone the surrounding land to encourage dense living in the style of Bowden and Tonsley?

Take advantage of the infrastructure that already exists and use it to its potential!

Wasn’t the entire business case for the Port Dock extension to serve new dense living under construction? It would be the same thing for the Grange Line, only in reverse.

Density around Grange is already quite moderate and I am sure with good outcomes it can be increased further. Demolishing the servo right next to the station is a good start.

As for the line as a whole, my pipe dream is to extend it south and back east to the CBD, with underground stops at Henley Beach, West Beach, Harbour Town, Adelaide Airport, and maybe Hilton before feeding back into the CBD Rail Loop.

The best option for the Grange line is for it to be converted to light rail and extended a short distance to major activity centres at Henley Beach and Arndale to increase its utility.

The corridor is too good an opportunity to waste by actually closing the line. It has the potential to be a highly functional interconnector between major activity centres in the western suburbs, but it is not achieving that in its current form, and the investment (in tunnelling etc) required to achieve that with heavy rail could not be justified considering the relatively moderate passenger numbers that could be expected on this kind of route. Light rail is a much better fit, and could be achieved very affordably. Yes, it would require an interchange at Woodville for travel to/from the City and Port, but this is hardly a big issue if there are reasonable frequencies and timetable coordination with the Port line.

None of this is dependant on the Outer Harbor line being converted to light rail. The rebuilt and extended Grange line could function as a standalone light rail line, but would more sensibly be linked to the rest of network via the Adelink lines which were proposed along Henley Beach and Grange Rds.

My personal opinion is that the Outer Harbor line from the Port to the City is a major trunk line which supports and so should remain heavy rail/metro. There are significant opportunities for major uplift in population around many of the stations on this section, and for the whole region’s transport network to be oriented around and feed into the railway line. On the other hand, the Outer Harbor line beyond Port Adelaide probably doesn’t have the catchment to justify heavy rail (the Lefevre Peninsula is pretty narrow), and has much higher station density. As such it would best be converted to light rail, interchanging with the heavy rail line at Port Dock.

The light rail lines using the Grange and LeFevre (Outer Harbor) corridors could be linked to each other via an extended version of the long-contemplated West Lakes spur line.

In the long term there is the potential to extend the truncated Port Line over/under the Port River to serve the Osborne Shipyards via an express (minimal station) route paralleling the freight line on the eastern side of the peninsula. This could be linked to a Barker Inlet (Outer Harbor - St Kilda) bridge, should it ever be built, and from their onwards to the northern suburbs.

At some point I will try to draw up a map to make it clearer how all of this would work.

A light rail running out of Port Dock? The last time we had street running arount the Port Adelaide area it caused severe traffic problems. The viaduct was built for a reason. We should continue to use it.

Trams were not the cause of congestion on roads around the port. When last trams were in the port, it was a thriving industrial and logistics centre, with inner harbour working, and all services located on St Vincent street like banks, post office, cinemas and shops.This caused all the congestion of any CBD. Then services largely moved over to West Lakes in the 70's along with the bulk of retail, and the inner harbour activity slowly faded to other docks further up river. As the port is now to become more high density housing, some sort of tram service at least running from Port Dock to Semaphore might be worth investigating. Taking it all the way to OH I'm not so sure, but I don't believe the passenger numbers on OH are huge so it may be an option. As always though, it is just not worth spending the money on standalone light rail, that does not connect to the wider system, and Port Dock spur as heavy rail put to bed any light rail on the peninsula.

[I Follow PAFC]

Rail closure - Outer Harbor line between Glanville and Osborne - Sunday 11 August.
Due to a technical issue on the Outer Harbor line at Midlunga, train services are currently only operating between Adelaide and Glanville in both directions.

https://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/servic ... -11-august

[ChillyPhilly]

A look at the concept of new development at Aldinga, but significantly, the location of the reserved rail corridor.