COM: Glenelg Tramline Upgrade

[baytram366]

I walked from the railway station to catch a bus on King William today and noticed a tram going toward City West using the Glenelg - Moseley Square desto. I thought the destos would be easily programed to read anything they like. Are the onboard announcements fixed yet?

[rhino]

Therer seem to be a lot more people at the stops, waiting to use this tram service, than there ever were waiting for the B-Line Bus. Great to see everything running so successfully.

[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?

[Cruise]

Crawf, the destos on the Flexity trams have not yet been reprogrammed to show City West or South Terrace. There has been a lot of trams stopped at the signal before the single track approaching City West in the past couple of days as trams have been bunching up into groups and filling up the two platforms at City West leaving no space for a third approaching tram and forcing those at City West to turn around very quickly.

rather than resetting the destos i got an easier way on how to decifer which way the trams are going, if you see a tram heading north on king william chances are it is heading to city west. Like wise if you see a tram heading south on king william chances are it is heading to south terrace.

Now come on guys its not rocket science.

[ozisnowman]

Having the announcements call the stop number or likewise busstops
having a number is one of the things that makes Adelaide easy
for visitors to get around. Try catching a bus to a mates place
in melbourne and unless you have prior knowledge of what the
area and stop you should get off at looks like you have no
chance in hell... You even ask the bus driver and often they
have no idea where you need to get off.

With Adelaide's system you can tell someone to get on a
tram or bus and say to them get off at stop 10 and they
cant get it wrong...

[Ben]

From the Messenger:

Tram fans enjoy trip

Chris Day

16Oct07

ROLLING out the city's new tramline even further will rest on whether or not people take the latest extension to heart, Premier Mike Rann says.

Mr Rann this week said ``I want the trams back in the city'' but he is waiting on the public's verdict to the extension from Victoria Square to North Tce before committing more funds.

He has little to worry about judging by the reaction on the first day of regular service, on Monday (October 15).

It was standing room only as trams ambled out of Victoria Square on the way to UniSA's City West Campus.

``I think it's great,'' Sean Riley, of Goodwood, said as the tram passed Town Hall.

``I hate cars and think they should ban them from the city centre here's our solution.''

Lyn Thomas who grew up in Glenelg and now lives in New Zealand was there out of pure curiosity: ``I'm always telling people in New Zealand about the trams from the city to Glenelg.'' UniSA student Stephanie Wu, of Wayville, said the new service saved her time as it ran every seven minutes twice as often as the Beeline Bus.

At the City West stop, Attorney General Michael Atkinson joined the ride back to Victoria Square to attend this week's Cabinet meeting.
``I'm a tram tragic,'' Mr Atkinson said.

``I was a militant supporter (of the project) in Cabinet as I grew up at Glenelg and used the trams a lot. Light rail seems to get people back on public transport in a way that buses don't.''

At the extension's official launch on Sunday (October 14) Mr Rann said he eventually wanted a tram loop through the West End back to Victoria Square.
``I'm in no hurry but I've always seen this as a first step,'' he said.

``I want to see what the reaction is to this (first).''

There were problems on the first day, with some passengers delayed by up to 40 minutes because of signalling issues at the City South stop. Office of Major Projects chief executive Rod Hook asked passenger to bear with the new service as it ``worked through inevitable teething problems''.

[jimmy_2486]

Living near the line, I think its a great improvement that costed us very little money, as not only does it help people in the south west, but also people wanting to get around the city.

However I feel that it should be something that should be in reach for much more areas, and I dont think the amount of extra patronage the tram is having will die down. I mean who the heck would want to go back to a bus after using a tram?

Im very confident we will see another extension which should be another big hit, and then hopfully rann will put more plans forward to have trams service other areas.

[crawf]

Crawf, the destos on the Flexity trams have not yet been reprogrammed to show City West or South Terrace. There has been a lot of trams stopped at the signal before the single track approaching City West in the past couple of days as trams have been bunching up into groups and filling up the two platforms at City West leaving no space for a third approaching tram and forcing those at City West to turn around very quickly.

rather than resetting the destos i got an easier way on how to decifer which way the trams are going, if you see a tram heading north on king william chances are it is heading to city west. Like wise if you see a tram heading south on king william chances are it is heading to south terrace.

Now come on guys its not rocket science.

Tourists don't know this

[PhilH]

I had to go to South Terrace on business at lunchtime, so that gave me the opportunity to shoot some videos at Pirie Street, South Terrace, Victoria Square and Pirie Street again. I think TA must have taken Will409's suggestion to heart, because the shuttle back to the CBD waited in the siding at South Terrace for several minutes before pulling into the platform. Anyway, I'll start uploading these videos to YouTube shortly, as well as one of the square taken from up high(-ish) in City Central Tower 1 late afternoon. Something else I observed from the CCT1 window about mid-morning was a car waiting at the traffic lights to turn right from KWS into Angas Street. So what, you say? Well, it was waiting on the effing track in front of a tram, wasn't it?!?

[jk1237]

Well I have one positive concern, its been the 3rd day and so many trams are packed. I wonder if its time to order some more trams for extra services. Its only goin to grow and grow. Now I dont know where I heard this, I may have been dreaming, but I once heard that after the extension was complete, the govt was going to order 2 'super flexis'. The current flexis are 3 sections long, and i thought there was going to be 2 that were 4 sections long, in the future. If you watch a flexi roll up to a stop, there is atleast 3 metres + of platform space free to allow for longer trams. Does anyone know, or was I hearing in my sleep.

[Will409]

I made another run into the City this arvo to make an 'inspection' of the services on the extension. I am very impressed with the progress that has been made since Monday with a much better on time performance. AsPhilH has already said, it does appear that the shuttle trams are being shunted into the lay by siding at South Terrace for a few minutes before pulling into the 'UP' platform at South Terrace. My previous theory does however appear to have been thrown out because all shuttle runs that I could see where either on time or no more then 3 minutes. The main late runners (although no more then 5 minutes) where the through services from Glenelg but bearing in mind the extra 9 or so kilometres they have to run along the line, it should perhaps serve as no suprise. Generally, the service is already improving very well since opening day. The point/signal equipment at South Terrace is still being monitored by signal technitions but atleast they would have had a reasonably easy day. Bunching up of services isn't as prevelant as it was a couple of days ago and only one bunch up during peak period was noticed at Victoria Square stop with 109 (shuttle) coming up to 104 (through service).

The main issue that the conductor I was talking to on the shuttle tram was the traffic light sequence at the intersection of King William Street and North Terrace. Basically, the sequence is simply not fast enough to cope with the tram traffic at the present time. Reprogramming the sequence wouldn't be all too hard if it were done on say a weekend. In Melbourne, the traffic light sequences are apparently twice as fast as they are here which does allow for more punctual running. However, the drivers on the line are getting better at meeting the lights at the right time decreasing travel time on the line. Things are certainly getting better.

[jimmy_2486]

I agree with everything that Will409 has been saying...

Ive been catching the new tram service everyday from Monday, and everyday feels like its getting that little bit faster in the city.

The only thing that might be a little bit annoying to some people would be the section under the morphett st bridge where it goes to one track and has to stop for a while. Will it stay that way or can it be duplicated back to 2 tracks in the future??

I had been to Melbourne a few weeks ago and caught the trams there religiously. Those tram drivers know how to drive a tram!!! The speed in the city is much faster there than here, but it seems they are still testing here so they are being cautious.

However the service could be better if they reprogrammed the traffic lights to give better priority to the trams as Will409 said. But maybe they just have some sought of basic setup programmed which might be played around with as testing goes on.

[AtD]

One un-intended side effect this line has had, I've noticed, is ambulances now get though traffic faster than ever.

[PhilH]

Video spam!

First of all, on Pirie Street platform on my way to South Terrace:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHrNO8mD9rg


Next, Glenelg-bound service at South Terrace whilst shuttle waits in the siding:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXNa2atLetE


Shuttle leaves siding and arrives at UP platform:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otg7MVrmn5g

A couple of bits at Vicky Square:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0vqUE7L_JE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz5XNbPMkSA


Back at Pirie Street, this time filmed from the western side of KWS, almost directly opposite my vantage point on Sunday afternoon. This clip is longer, because the traffic lights took what seemed like forever to change!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiREO-zbL-Q

Lastly, a bird's-eye view from City Central Tower 1, just before 5 pm. I panned up to show the SA Water HQ under construction on the site of the old MTT HQ & tram barn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OedQJq4-Mg

[Will409]

Right from the beginning, all emergency service vehicles (firies, police and ambos) were given the green light so to say to use the extension corridore as a private reservation for them.

The single track arrangement at Morphett Street is deliberatly designed like that to be a slightly cheaper version of a 'scissor crossing' (like the original Victoria Square terminus). It does the same job but dispenses with 2 sets of points and a diamond crossing. This arrangment (although much shorter) was used at the pre 2005 Moseley Square terminus and was also apparently popular on the former Syndey tram system before it closed in 1961. In my personal opinion, it will be possible to duplicate that section of track in the future because if the loop is built, that section will serve as nothing but a bottle neck. The only reason it was built like that was to provide a right turn lane to the convention centre! You may have noticed on the approach to City West that the median strip is very very wide. It is easily wide enough to take a second line and City West wouldn't be too hard to make into a through stop. All you need are another two sets of points, some rail and wiring and you are done.