News & Discussion: Public Transport Contracts, Service & Policy

[Mr.Frodo]

There is certainly some knowledgeable people on these forums, after a few beers, wines and bourbons I have found the courage to ask a few question.make comments s about the o-bahn vs trains debate, I hope I can add some constructive comments, otherwise I apologise for my rambling.

Is there an issue with the gradient past paradise interchange that could cause issue IF the corridor was rail? (Not that I support rail here anyway) It does seem quite steep at the moment. Maybe it could be rectified with some serious cutting?
The amount of passengers travelling on the current o-bahn seems MASSIVE compared to the Gawler line, (I regularly use both) If the o-bahn was replaced with rail, there would need to be a LOT of trains, and being that the plaza is the current end-point, there would need to be some sort of MASSIVE interchange to cater for the volume of people needing to get from TTP to the City.

I think the o-bahn in Adelaide is a huge success, it seems a case of a good solution to a problem. Sure, if the expansion of the NE suburbs had been planned better, rail may have been a better solution, but even so, there would have been a lot of feeder buses anyway coming from the steeper areas that rail can't service.

Rail in Adelaide really sucks.(North wise anyway) Considering how many people live out north that would work in the city, the rail corridor seems very under-utilised from my experience, you have these buses cruising all the way down main north road (222 etc) when they should just drive/use bus to transfer to a local station, and then you should be able to FLY in to the city. Problem is, the diesel trains are crap, slow, the rail track itself is crap, overall it's just crap...it's just easier to go on a bus all the way to the city (incoherent rambling....)

I agree with previous posts, the rail should be used to move LOTS of people with few stations, at HIGH speed. This is one area where the o-bahn does work well, there is only 2 stations all the way from TTP, the buses reach 100kmh (legal, although i have seen 120 no problem) and you get there QUICK. The o-bahn would not be so good for longer distances, eg Gawler to Adelaide, but the much shorter distance from Modbury to Adelaide is idea.

What about track maintenance, is o-bahn maintenance cheap, i thought the concrete track lasts ages, and then you can always replace a short stretch quite easily, much easier I would have thought compared to rail.

Rail would be a lot better in SA if it were electrified (quiet, less local pollution) but still I don't think it could better the o-bahn service.

Anyway, I probably have not added anything to the discussion , but hey...

[Somebody]

Lol:


You'd still need route 222 down Main North Rd no matter how good the Gawler Central Line's service was, as it's ages away from there. The route that follows the rail line past Dudley Park etc could be cut.

Some of Adelaide's bus routes are so wasteful - look at Route 228 (Smithfield to CBD) and the Outer South routes (721 etc) which run into the CBD & mostly express after Flinders Uni. Neither of these should run all the way into the CBD - the former should feed the GC line, and the latter should feed a proper Flinders Uni/Tonsley line service then continue to Westfield Marion.

[fabricator]

66% Bus
18% Train
13% Obahn

I think that proves the train network hasn't kept up with the growth and demands of the city. Traditionally Industry was built next to train lines in Adelaide, hence some areas with stations that have little use besides from workers.

[jk1237]

slightly off topic, but does anyone find it odd that there is no direct bus service from the Salisbury area to Port Adelaide. The Port River Expressway and the Salisbury Highway connector is now one of the busiest roads in Adelaide, as there is large proportion of the people living in the city of Salisbury that commute to the Port Adelaide/Wingfield area for work. Surely a bus from Mawson Lakes via Dry Creek, and Cormack Rd Wingfield (to service the thousands of blue collar jobs) to Port Adelaide would be a good idea, and wouldnt break the budget

[fabricator]

slightly off topic, but does anyone find it odd that there is no direct bus service from the Salisbury area to Port Adelaide. The Port River Expressway and the Salisbury Highway connector is now one of the busiest roads in Adelaide, as there is large proportion of the people living in the city of Salisbury that commute to the Port Adelaide/Wingfield area for work. Surely a bus from Mawson Lakes via Dry Creek, and Cormack Rd Wingfield (to service the thousands of blue collar jobs) to Port Adelaide would be a good idea, and wouldnt break the budget

Yes it is strange, more to the point there isn't a bus that goes from the Gawler train line to Port Adelaide.

I think the real reason such a bus route doesn't exist is Industry think public transport is only used by unreliable workers, and they like to call people up at 1 hours notice for shifts. :wank:

There used to be a train that ran From Northfield (Bridge Road) to Adelaide (via Dry Creek Station), and another that went via Dry Creek Station to Port Adelaide (that track is now a freight only line). Making it as one train service with connecting buses (and trains to Adelaide) would work I think.

[Norman]

Just found this via another board, Google Transit has been fully implemented now

http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&dirf ... 9,0.241699

Looks like we keep going in the right direction. We are really modernising these days

[AtD]

It's a start. It thinks Adelaide Airport is in Harbourtown. It also makes comparing PT to driving times very easy.

[Shuz]

I'm so using that heaps. Such a masterful creation!

[sam]

Great!

*Leaving work Monday at 17:30 I will just miss the previous bus as I'll get to the stop 2 minutes after it left, so would be interesting to see if there could be a checkbox saying that you are happy to run if necessary to make an earlier bus..
*Considering how badly buses (at least O-Bahn ones anyway) actually stick to schedule it would be interesting if you could get real-time updates as to where your specific bus is.

[Omicron]

For interest's sake, I used this newfangled Transit whatsit to plan my route to work tomorrow morning......and it suggested my existing route as the optimal solution. I feel newly empowered and efficient!

On a serious note, it's a damn good idea, and I'll certainly be using it in the future.

[deano91]

Yeah, I've got to make a trip to Semaphore on Monday morning, which is 50km from my house. I can't be bothered driving all that way so I'm going to use public transport. This new program is certainly much easier to use than having to call up the Adelaide Metro people to get them to tell me which busses/trains to use. It's also nice to see that Adelaide Metro have now added this to their website homepage, so you enter the trip details and it then takes you to the Google Transit area.

[SRW]

*Considering how badly buses (at least O-Bahn ones anyway) actually stick to schedule it would be interesting if you could get real-time updates as to where your specific bus is.

Hopefully that's the next stage. It would be an absolute godsend.

[AG]

*Considering how badly buses (at least O-Bahn ones anyway) actually stick to schedule it would be interesting if you could get real-time updates as to where your specific bus is.

Hopefully that's the next stage. It would be an absolute godsend.

It's certainly a possibility. It has already been done for the London Underground on certain lines: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnew ... ureboards/

[Prince George]

Considering how badly buses (at least O-Bahn ones anyway) actually stick to schedule it would be interesting if you could get real-time updates as to where your specific bus is.

It's certainly a possibility. It has already been done for the London Underground on certain lines: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnew ... ureboards/

And up here, King County Metro have it for all their bus routes - http://tracker-map.metrokc.gov/

[monotonehell]

Considering how badly buses (at least O-Bahn ones anyway) actually stick to schedule it would be interesting if you could get real-time updates as to where your specific bus is.

It's certainly a possibility. It has already been done for the London Underground on certain lines: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravelnew ... ureboards/

And up here, King County Metro have it for all their bus routes - http://tracker-map.metrokc.gov/

Well of course it's possible. They've been trialling it here in Adelaide for years, on the through routes down Henley Beach Road, Grenfell street and The Parade.
http://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/routes/smart_stops.html

I'm guessing the phenomenal cost to implement it system wide, plus the embarrassment of having timed stop is what's stopped it being rolled out.