News & Discussion: Trams

[Nort]

I'm still hoping they aren't crazy enough to dig up the KWS/North Terrace intersection again just to add a pointless right turn.

[rubberman]

I'm still hoping they aren't crazy enough to dig up the KWS/North Terrace intersection again just to add a pointless right turn.

It would certainly be silly. If they did it and ran trams three ways, the disruption would be immediate and obvious and leave egg on their faces.

I also question the $37m price tag. The crossing pieces can be easily fabricated by cutting and welding standard tram rail in any well set up machine shop. This was standard practice in Australia as an alternative to the cast pieces. Most workshops would be cheating you to charge more than $50k. Then there's a few days cutting out the existing rail. That's some concrete saw and a mechanical cutter operators, plus traffic control for a couple of days. 100m of copper wire and fittings. A set of points with point motors. Reprogram the traffic lights, and done. Anything over half a million is outright robbery. The tram museum at St Kilda got a local engineering firm to machine crossing blocks for some of its turnouts as an alternative to using railway crossings, and new tramway crossings were unaffordable. Cheap as chips.

If they put it in, they will have problems with tram jams in King William Street. How they extricate themselves from that would be interesting.

[[Shuz]]

I'm happy for the right turn to be an 'election promise' that they break. It's just an absolute waste of money.

[Honey of a City]

I'm still hoping they aren't crazy enough to dig up the KWS/North Terrace intersection again just to add a pointless right turn.

They have to. It was a key election promise much trumpeted and megaphoned by the Advertiser for weeks. (They probable won't).

[Kasey771]

I'm still hoping they aren't crazy enough to dig up the KWS/North Terrace intersection again just to add a pointless right turn.

They have to. It was a key election promise much trumpeted and megaphoned by the Advertiser for weeks. (They probable won't).

Yes. The Advertiser basically egged them on and goaded them into Promising it:( Great way to make public policy that
Note I'd be more than happy for them to just cut the ribbon now that the "Labor imperitive" to have it done before the election is over and say "we'll investigate the turn later" like they say they're "investigating" everything else in their threadbare transport policy.

[I Follow PAFC]

Temporary CBD tram closure for City Tram Extension Project night works

When: From Monday 19 March 2018 to Thursday 22 March 2018.

https://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/Announ ... ght-works2

[adelaide transport]

8 minute gap between tram arrival and bus departure, same with bus from Entertainment Centre to Victoria Square-seems excessive!

[Nort]

I'm still hoping they aren't crazy enough to dig up the KWS/North Terrace intersection again just to add a pointless right turn.

They have to. It was a key election promise much trumpeted and megaphoned by the Advertiser for weeks. (They probable won't).

Yes. The Advertiser basically egged them on and goaded them into Promising it:( Great way to make public policy that
Note I'd be more than happy for them to just cut the ribbon now that the "Labor imperitive" to have it done before the election is over and say "we'll investigate the turn later" like they say they're "investigating" everything else in their threadbare transport policy.

I still maintain that the most likely outcome is a few months of silence on the topic of trams where they keep referring to the right turn, trumpet how much it would cost to "fix" and then shelve the whole tram expansion idea.

[rubberman]

I'm still hoping they aren't crazy enough to dig up the KWS/North Terrace intersection again just to add a pointless right turn.

They have to. It was a key election promise much trumpeted and megaphoned by the Advertiser for weeks. (They probable won't).

Yes. The Advertiser basically egged them on and goaded them into Promising it:( Great way to make public policy that
Note I'd be more than happy for them to just cut the ribbon now that the "Labor imperitive" to have it done before the election is over and say "we'll investigate the turn later" like they say they're "investigating" everything else in their threadbare transport policy.

I notice the workers are now back working on the stops.

[how good is he]

The Liberals commitment is to spend $37m just for the tram to do turn right onto North Terrace from KW Rd. Can anyone confirm if the amount is correct and why the cost is so high [even if as it involves the total removal of the the grand junction [work just finished] for it to all be done again.

[adelaide transport]

We currently do not have a grand junction there and when the right-hand turn is completed we still won't have a Grand Junction.
The reason for the cost is the amount of roadwork to level the intersection.

[SBD]

We currently do not have a grand junction there and when the right-hand turn is completed we still won't have a Grand Junction.
The reason for the cost is the amount of roadwork to level the intersection.

Is the alleged complexity that in fact "level" is not enough? Do tram tracks on curves need the outside track slightly higher to create a cambered curve, and this increases complexity as the rail crosses all need to maintain running height in two directions? I can't imagine exactly how that looks if the camber needs to be 5 or 10 mm. Tram geometry and intended running speeds could be different now than they were 60 years ago.

[rubberman]

Code: Select all

We currently do not have a grand junction there and when the right-hand turn is completed we still won't have a Grand Junction.
The reason for the cost is the amount of roadwork to level the intersection.

It looks pretty level for the turn from King William Street into North Terrace which is the one the Liberals want to add. You might be thinking of the other direction.

As a tram nerd, I've seen a few grand unions, and they don't need to be perfectly flat (though it helps).

[rubberman]

We currently do not have a grand junction there and when the right-hand turn is completed we still won't have a Grand Junction.
The reason for the cost is the amount of roadwork to level the intersection.

Is the alleged complexity that in fact "level" is not enough? Do tram tracks on curves need the outside track slightly higher to create a cambered curve, and this increases complexity as the rail crosses all need to maintain running height in two directions? I can't imagine exactly how that looks if the camber needs to be 5 or 10 mm. Tram geometry and intended running speeds could be different now than they were 60 years ago.

They don't need to be cambered at slow speeds. However, the gauge does need to be slightly widened on sharp curves.

[Patrick_27]

The $37m price tag was a whipped up during the election campaign by one of the Parliament House staffers with details provided by the Greens. IMO, I'd rather see that $37 go towards taking the tram over the Torrens and halfway to O'Connell Street.