Sensational-Adelaide.com

Brucetiki wrote:The full closure of the Gawler line's now been extended to November

https://adelaidemetro.com.au/Announceme ... e-closures

Wonder what Wingard's excuse is?

I’m hoping the diesels can start to use the depot again at Dry Creek at some point this year, instead of them all coming up and down the Seaford Line throughout the day and night.


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Brucetiki wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 01, 2021 4:48 pm

The full closure of the Gawler line's now been extended to November

https://adelaidemetro.com.au/Announceme ... e-closures

Wonder what Wingard's excuse is?

By strange coincidence it'll coincide with the start of the 3 month election campaign for March 2022

Brucetiki wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 01, 2021 4:48 pm

The full closure of the Gawler line's now been extended to November

They shouldn’t have bothered with the partial closures and openings in the first place and just done a full closure from the start. Yes inconvenient but easier to manage than reopening the line for 2-4 week intervals and saves disappointment.

Looking at the dates, the closures started October 2020 and hopefully the line will be open in November 2021, about 13 months. The Seaford line was fully closed for 12 months, so at least the timeline of the Gawler line adds up.

ok this is getting a bit of a worry. Correct me if Im wrong but the great western line in the UK that connects London to Bristol and to Cardiff has been electrified in stages over the past 5-7 years and has probably 300km+ of tracks atleast, but I don't recall the line being closed and trains cancelled for a year. Is this a case of the conservatives deeming this project of such low priority (being the northern suburbs Labor voters) so putting virtually no effort in getting this project completed quickly?

AndyWelsh wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 10:32 am

Brucetiki wrote:The full closure of the Gawler line's now been extended to November

https://adelaidemetro.com.au/Announceme ... e-closures

Wonder what Wingard's excuse is?

I’m hoping the diesels can start to use the depot again at Dry Creek at some point this year, instead of them all coming up and down the Seaford Line throughout the day and night.


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There have been ongoing empty stock movements between Adelaide and Dry Creek depot during the closure. The ones I know of have been in the mid evening. There have been track occupations during the working day which have precluded daytime transfers, but electrics have continued to appear at Dry Creek for servicing.

It seems a coincidence that the line was planned for opening in a few weeks and they impose this on Easter weekend. Wingards excuse must be political for it to be opened to the public on the 8th of November.

Its not just people in the north this is inconvenient too. It's also screwing up people in the western suburbs with full line closures during school holidays and the entire network being shut. The only line that would be open during school holidays is the seaford line between seaford and Brighton, that's it.

Yeah fair enough it's school holidays but not everyone would be on holidays, especially uni students and people who work in the city.

They shouldve done the yard area earlier than now when they closed the line from Adelaide to Salisbury initially and the Dry Creek depot wasn't empty like it is now.

Hopefully they work hard between now and November 8th to get this done. Then before you know it, line is gonna be shut again to accommodate the ovingham level crossing which is due for completion a year after electrification is finished

Jacob_ULG3 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 2:17 pm

It seems a coincidence that the line was planned for opening in a few weeks and they impose this on Easter weekend. Wingards excuse must be political for it to be opened to the public on the 8th of November.

Its not just people in the north this is inconvenient too. It's also screwing up people in the western suburbs with full line closures during school holidays and the entire network being shut. The only line that would be open during school holidays is the seaford line between seaford and Brighton, that's it.

Yeah fair enough it's school holidays but not everyone would be on holidays, especially uni students and people who work in the city.

They shouldve done the yard area earlier than now when they closed the line from Adelaide to Salisbury initially and the Dry Creek depot wasn't empty like it is now.

Hopefully they work hard between now and November 8th to get this done. Then before you know it, line is gonna be shut again to accommodate the ovingham level crossing which is due for completion a year after electrification is finished

Might this extended closure enable the parts of the Ovingham work that require rail closure to be completed in this timeframe too? Then the other parts of the full project can be completed with trains running underneath. Presumably rail closure has to be coordinated with ARTC as well.

SBD wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 5:43 pm

Might this extended closure enable the parts of the Ovingham work that require rail closure to be completed in this timeframe too? Then the other parts of the full project can be completed with trains running underneath. Presumably rail closure has to be coordinated with ARTC as well.

The project concept design https://www.dit.sa.gov.au/__data/assets ... Design.pdf shows the bridge supported on 3 sets of 4 piers. The easternmost piers are to the east of Devonport Tce and the central piers are to the west of Exeter Tce, both sets being well clear of the rail corridor. Thus the piers can be constructed without any interference to rail operations. I assume that the bridge will then be constructed by lifting pre-fabricated spans on to the piers, which will minimise the disruption to both ARTC and AdMet services. This would have been a major consideration in the design of the bridge. The project map shows the bridge located to the north of the present level crossing which means it will be over the southern end of the station.

Jacob_ULG3 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 2:17 pm

It seems a coincidence that the line was planned for opening in a few weeks and they impose this on Easter weekend. Wingards excuse must be political for it to be opened to the public on the 8th of November.

Its not just people in the north this is inconvenient too. It's also screwing up people in the western suburbs with full line closures during school holidays and the entire network being shut. The only line that would be open during school holidays is the seaford line between seaford and Brighton, that's it.

Yeah fair enough it's school holidays but not everyone would be on holidays, especially uni students and people who work in the city.

They shouldve done the yard area earlier than now when they closed the line from Adelaide to Salisbury initially and the Dry Creek depot wasn't empty like it is now.

Hopefully they work hard between now and November 8th to get this done. Then before you know it, line is gonna be shut again to accommodate the ovingham level crossing which is due for completion a year after electrification is finished

My impression is that in the last 3-4 months there was concerted effort to progress the overhead and signalling components of the project between Torrens Bridge and Salisbury, together with track maintenance. However I guess that there would have been a deadline for deciding whether the service to Mawson Lakes could recommence at the of this month. On this occasion the 3 weeks notice of the closure extension is similar to the notice given in early December of the closure from Boxing Day. One of the aspects that requires planning is the provision of additional substitute buses.

In my view it was inevitable that the overhead works in Adelaide Yard would necessitate closures of the other lines, particular because of the complex series of connections from the Port and Gawler lines into Platforms 5-9 and to cut in the connections to the already energised Seaford and Belair lines. Electrical switching and protection arrangements have to be commissioned as well as the power feed at Kilburn. Just this week heavy electrical equipment was being craned in at the substation for the 25kV feed.

From what I have seen recently there are a considerable number of DEMUs at Dry Creek mainly in the northern stabling yard. I would expect more railcars now at the depot than when the Salisbury - Gawler service was still running.

The whole shutdown just re-enforces that the rail service in Adelaide is just an inconvenient afterthought, rather than an integral part of a modern PT network. And no point just blaming the current government, because during the previous electrification work on Seaford, the whole system was shut down-supposedly for wiring the Adelaide yard. It is just lazy unaccountable stuff on behalf of the project planners, allowed for by an incompetent department responsible.

jk1237 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 02, 2021 11:32 am

ok this is getting a bit of a worry. Correct me if Im wrong but the great western line in the UK that connects London to Bristol and to Cardiff has been electrified in stages over the past 5-7 years and has probably 300km+ of tracks atleast, but I don't recall the line being closed and trains cancelled for a year. Is this a case of the conservatives deeming this project of such low priority (being the northern suburbs Labor voters) so putting virtually no effort in getting this project completed quickly?

Yeah spot on about the UK. Also between London and Reading, the line was never closed, did it in sections, on weekends it was closed or limited services but peak times operated normal.

We just do things differently here.

Curious to hear all thoughts about a passenger service to Mount Barker. What do we need to see happen to enable it? Realignment of freight corridor around northern Adelaide? A new time-competitive corridor alignment to enable faster travel between Barker and Adelaide? Electrification?

whatstheirnamesmom wrote:Curious to hear all thoughts about a passenger service to Mount Barker. What do we need to see happen to enable it? Realignment of freight corridor around northern Adelaide? A new time-competitive corridor alignment to enable faster travel between Barker and Adelaide? Electrification?

Plenty of development there so maybe there will be some demand in the future

There's already plenty of development.

The route through the hills is currently inefficient.

Also the gauge problem... you could run a standard gague service but passengers would have to get off at the parklands terminal or something. Or transfer to a different train at Belair.

I'd say if our metro network ever went to standard gauge or if we moved freight away so they could convert the hills line, there would be a chance. Still not a super efficent route though, although I reckon for Mt Barker the travel time to the city would be comparable to a bus down the freeway.