News & Discussion: Adelaide Metro Trains

[Wilfy 2007]

All facts for the Sensational-Adelaide rail fact sheet to be posted here. I'll start up a new thread on Railsa to see if I can get info from there as well to post here. Get the members there who have a deeper knowledge of the railways then I to contribute. The points below are some of the basic details as to what is wrong around the system.

Track:
-Chipping/shelling of the rail head.
-Rail buckling.
-Mechanically jointed in places.
-Snapped timber sleepers.
-Rotten timber sleepers.
-High dirt concentration in the ballast causing poor drainage.
-Shallow ballast in places which if not looked after can again lead to poor drainage.

Stations:
-The majority of them are rundown with only the most basic of facilities.
-Poor lighting (although this is being slowly rectified).
-Substandard passenger accomodation in certain examples such as Elizabeth South.
-Poor security at a large number of stations.

Rollingstock
-More rollingstock needed to cater from growing traffic.
-Poorly kept windows (heavily scratched and covered in white muck).

Signalling/Public Address/Ticketing:
-Crouzet style ticketing system still in use 21 years after it was first launched to the public. Spare parts now very hard nigh impossible to acquire.

Will 409,
two things that have stood out in these threads about improving services are,
1 Free Train travel before 7.00am and after 8.00pm.

2 Express services at certain times of the day that dont normally have them.
For example when passengers are retunrning from their nights out on the town.
Perhaps Express services could be run at 12.00 Midday, 8.00pm 12.00 midnight and 2.00am
The Midday one would be for people who have had to be in the CBD for appointments at 8.00am,8.30am and 9.00.

Regards,
Wilfy 2007.

[Norman]

If you're gonna have a train at night, it would be pointless to make it express, as you'd want to stop at more stations, serving more people.

[Will409]

Just want to add that any additional points raised in this thread will be added to the leading post. All points that I havn't raised will be in italics, the ones I have pointed out will be in normal text.

[monotonehell]

Any chance of a brief explanation of what the points are and what's wrong that needs repairing for esoteric terms like

Chipping/shelling of the rail head.

for us people without "one track" minds?

[Will409]

Chipping and shelling of the rail head basically means the smooth running surface of the rail head has been damaged. Chipping is when a few small fragments of the head are missing. Shelling on the overhand is when a small, smooth dip is formed in the rail surface. I have a photo of rail shelling at Parafield station which I will upload on due time. The end result of both defects is a degraded running surface and a visible sign of rail being damaged by rollingstock running over rough track.

[monotonehell]

Chipping and shelling of the rail head basically means the smooth running surface of the rail head has been damaged. Chipping is when a few small fragments of the head are missing. Shelling on the overhand is when a small, smooth dip is formed in the rail surface. I have a photo of rail shelling at Parafield station which I will upload on due time. The end result of both defects is a degraded running surface and a visible sign of rail being damaged by rollingstock running over rough track.

Thanks for that, however I meant all of the esoteric terms should be defined in your fact sheet for people who aren't familiar with them.

One Solution To Rule Them All: Rip up track, replace with OBahn...

[Will409]

I'll do my best to translate the lingo into 'common english' for this but it can be tricky at times. Reminds me of the old phrase, "to a railfan, no explanation is needed, but you however, no explanation is possible!"

[monotonehell]

I'll do my best to translate the lingo into 'common english' for this but it can be tricky at times. Reminds me of the old phrase, "to a railfan, no explanation is needed, but you however, no explanation is possible!"

Bloody anoraks

[Will409]

Updated the main list on post 1.

[Norman]

A few more for Trams (if related)
-Speed up process on extending the Flexies
-Investigate increasing the number of Overpasses on the Glenelg tram
-Order more rollingstock for the Glenelg Tram
-Consider extending the City Shuttle to Beckman Street in late morning and early afternoon peak hour times (9am-11pm, 2pm-5pm)

[Will409]

I was aiming at concentrating on the heavy rail system with this fact sheet since that is where a huge amount of work needs to be done, urgently. However, all your points are valid but since the tramline has been rebuilt/modernised/extended over the past 3 years, I think it can sit on the backburner for a little bit.

[Bulldozer]

Junction with freight line at Goodwood causes delays to peak-period Noarlunga trains.
Level crossings impede traffic flow and compromise safety of motorists and pedestrians.
Adelaide Station prevents more frequent services because it's a terminating station.

[skyliner]

I think the biggest issues are
A. Getting track up to standard for electification.
B. Getting rid of those excuses for shelters on the platforms and replacing with something bigger and more weatherproof. Couple this with better lighting and electronic destination boards.
C. Update and expand the passenger rolling stock - I gather much of it is round 25 y.o.
D. TT(timetables) may need addressing.

NOTE - The system has been running down steadily for at least 40 years except for two brief reprieves - one when steam locomotion ended in 1968 (coupled with replacement by the redhens) and one with the introduction of the current passenger rolling stockI.Now, however it would need a major visionary government commintment to turn it all around. A PEAK OIL wakeup call and all that it entails is just what is needed.

ADELAIDE - CITY ON THE MOVE (Not so fast in this case)

[Will409]

I just want to thankyou all for your input into this fact sheet. Just going to edit Bulldozer's suggestion about level crossings into the list. The other two issues can be solved by simple operational changes in train control.

Just thinking with the information sheet, perhaps what we should do is make it a 2 sheet, 4 page pamphlet in A4 format (like TransAdelaide Express 'magazine') with two pages dedicated to the various issues, in HUMAN, not TECHNICAL English where possible, before having the other two pages dedicated to what can be done as well as contact details to various ministers and the Premier/Opposition. These would be reasonably simple and cheap to produce en masse for widespead distribution (I believe so anyway!).What does everyone think about that?

[Norman]

How will this be funded?