Sensational-Adelaide.com

If they built a high speed line to Mount Barker via belair i doubt i would take 1 hour to get their by train
Also when petrol hits $3 a litre and above in the next couple of years i would hope that you arent living
at mount barker crawf...

Its good that they will standardise the lines... i didnt read that comment in any of the editorials
but i didnt have time to read the full report.

ozisnowman wrote:If they built a high speed line to Mount Barker via belair i doubt i would take 1 hour to get their by train

It's the bit from Adelaide to Belair that is the time-waster. It's a very out-of-the-way route to Mount Barker, but because trains can't negotiate steep hills, it's what yer stuck with. Give it up! Even when fuel prices get sky high, the bus (by then running on green gas) is going to do the trip quicker than any train. Not enough capacity? Get more busses. Any govt that wastes a few hundred million dollars on a commuter train to Mount Barker should not be governing.

And if I recall correctly, it used to take over an hour just to get to Bridgewater.

I am sick to fucking deaf of hearing about a mount barker rail line!!!

What's the name of that town in the hills, Mt Something? starts with a B i think?

Yeah, B-something. Theres a barking dog up there.

Cruise wrote:I am sick to fucking deaf of hearing about a mount barker rail line!!!

Was that a deliberate pun, Cruise?

PhilH wrote:

Cruise wrote:I am sick to fucking deaf of hearing about a mount barker rail line!!!

Was that a deliberate pun, Cruise?

You know, i never noticed that

Is there some kind of Federal review of the rail line through the hills? I thought that's why they are not doing the Belair line yet. I think a rail line that goes further than Belair would be good: Stirling, Aldgate, Bridgewater etc.

I like the way that you can hop on a train to regional centres like Newcastle or Wollongong from Sydney Central Station. Don't really know much about all the practicalities of transport engineering but it would be good to extend the network further IM extremely HO. Barossa too

shiftaling wrote:Is there some kind of Federal review of the rail line through the hills? I thought that's why they are not doing the Belair line yet. I think a rail line that goes further than Belair would be good: Stirling, Aldgate, Bridgewater etc.

I like the way that you can hop on a train to regional centres like Newcastle or Wollongong from Sydney Central Station. Don't really know much about all the practicalities of transport engineering but it would be good to extend the network further IM extremely HO. Barossa too

I too would love to see SA acquire its own regional network - Barossa, Victor Harbor and Murray Bridge being the key locations. However, our population base is a bit too small just yet to support such a system. If Mount Barker had 50,000 and Murray Bridge had 30,000 people, I'd consider it feasible.
Barossa would need about 30-40k across the three towns to support it, and the Victor/Goolwa region would need about 50k at least.

Shuz wrote: I too would love to see SA acquire its own regional network - Barossa, Victor Harbor and Murray Bridge being the key locations. However, our population base is a bit too small just yet to support such a system. If Mount Barker had 50,000 and Murray Bridge had 30,000 people, I'd consider it feasible.
Barossa would need about 30-40k across the three towns to support it, and the Victor/Goolwa region would need about 50k at least.

Fair comment - SA ain't exactly a field of dreams I guess. But build it and they might possibly consider coming...

Shuz wrote:

shiftaling wrote:Is there some kind of Federal review of the rail line through the hills? I thought that's why they are not doing the Belair line yet. I think a rail line that goes further than Belair would be good: Stirling, Aldgate, Bridgewater etc.

I like the way that you can hop on a train to regional centres like Newcastle or Wollongong from Sydney Central Station. Don't really know much about all the practicalities of transport engineering but it would be good to extend the network further IM extremely HO. Barossa too

I too would love to see SA acquire its own regional network - Barossa, Victor Harbor and Murray Bridge being the key locations. However, our population base is a bit too small just yet to support such a system. If Mount Barker had 50,000 and Murray Bridge had 30,000 people, I'd consider it feasible.
Barossa would need about 30-40k across the three towns to support it, and the Victor/Goolwa region would need about 50k at least.

Barossa? But that's north of the Little Para River so it must be demolished due to your dumb answers to SA problems

Which reminds me of this perfectly accurate cartoon of Valdman's on June 6th this year:
it depicts Mr. Foley proudly announcing to the press that after this year's budget, we will have a rail system as good as the one we had in 1958.

It's rare that I understand these cartoons, and frankly I preferred Atchison, but I laughed at this one.

shiftaling wrote:Is there some kind of Federal review of the rail line through the hills? I thought that's why they are not doing the Belair line yet. I think a rail line that goes further than Belair would be good: Stirling, Aldgate, Bridgewater etc.

I like the way that you can hop on a train to regional centres like Newcastle or Wollongong from Sydney Central Station. Don't really know much about all the practicalities of transport engineering but it would be good to extend the network further IM extremely HO. Barossa too

I think the federal review is looking at the feasibility of rerouting the interstate freight route to avoid the hills by coming round the north and joining onto the existing heavy rail route through the northern suburbs. The theory being that despite having to travel further it would take the same time because the trains would avoid the steep winding sections which currently dramatically slow the travel speeds.

urban wrote:

shiftaling wrote:Is there some kind of Federal review of the rail line through the hills? I thought that's why they are not doing the Belair line yet. I think a rail line that goes further than Belair would be good: Stirling, Aldgate, Bridgewater etc.

I like the way that you can hop on a train to regional centres like Newcastle or Wollongong from Sydney Central Station. Don't really know much about all the practicalities of transport engineering but it would be good to extend the network further IM extremely HO. Barossa too

I think the federal review is looking at the feasibility of rerouting the interstate freight route to avoid the hills by coming round the north and joining onto the existing heavy rail route through the northern suburbs. The theory being that despite having to travel further it would take the same time because the trains would avoid the steep winding sections which currently dramatically slow the travel speeds.

That should also be safer.

Cheers

The down side is that Adelaide will no-longer be on a through-route. The Adelaide Freight Terminal would be a dead-end siding, meaning that through-freights (eg Melbourne-Perth) will either not carry any Adelaide loading, or will take longer because they have to back-track to get to Adelaide. Time is money, especially in transport, with today's "just-in-time" mentallity, and I would hate to see freight moving back to road because rail just takes too long. Alternatively, the freight terminal could be moved out to Mallala. Don't know if that's a good thing or not.