Sensational-Adelaide.com

jimmy_2486 wrote:Yeah I hope we get way more trams here.

They are much more efficient than having buses in the city.

Id say get all the buses out of the city, and replace the majority of them with tram routes instead.

Being in Melbourne and catching them into the city made me realise that having bugger all buses and heaps of trams in the city made it much easier to commute between the city and inner metro (and around the city). Even in peak hour it took like 10 min to get from heart of the city to 6km out in the metro at st kilda. Compare that to a 30-40 min bus ride on the M44 to travel 6km in peak hour towards marion. You do the math...

The trams are only really good in inner suburban areas where the average speed can rival that of the road traffic around it. They aren't so good for city-suburb travel over long distances, but they serve quite well as feeder services to complement the suburban rail network. Take the 72 from University to Camberwell for example, noone would travel from the city to Camberwell on the tram when there is a train to Camberwell every few minutes. Certainly good when you want to get from somewhere like Camberwell to say South Yarra or Prahran though.

The suburban rail network is largely the backbone of public transport in Melbourne. The trams serve the inner suburban areas mostly while the buses are mostly in the outer metropolitan areas. The trams are pretty convenient getting between inner suburbs, but I prefer the train from the CBD to places such as Richmond and South Yarra.

AG wrote: The suburban rail network is largely the backbone of public transport in Melbourne. The trams serve the inner suburban areas mostly while the buses are mostly in the outer metropolitan areas. The trams are pretty convenient getting between inner suburbs, but I prefer the train from the CBD to places such as Richmond and South Yarra.

Thats all good if you want to go to Richmond and South Yarra. What about other inner suburban such as the inner south near middle park and st kilda where there is no train station within walking distance.

It will be extremely expensive to put train stations within walking distance to every inner metro area.

I mean melbournes trams do the same job as our inner metro buses, but IMO they do the job shit loads better.

Two options that would work... Either we replace inner metro buses with tram routes so that the trams have their right of way at all time, making traveling around the inner metro a breeze, and benefiting a lot of inner dwellers.
Or, we could set the roads up in the inner metro in the same way if we were to have trams run down roads, except just make them a bus only lane instead of a tram track (and possibly taxis). And also put a curb separating the bus lane from normal lanes so that no one decides to travel on them in some areas just as if they were tram lanes.

Maybe we could use the second idea first to see if bus services speed up, then convert the services into tram services if practical.

buy a push bike.

i'll go now

I had to drop my car at a mechanics by the subway on Goodwood Rd this morning. I was on the wrong side of the road when I saw a bus pull up at the stop on South side of subway so decided to walk to first stop after the subway. I passed about 20 cars on my way to the stop and got there well before the bus. If I had continued walking I would have got to the tram stop minutes ahead of the bus. At least 90% of the cars only had one occupant. Something has to be done to get these people out of their cars and into PT.

An express tram/bus/truck lane would dramatically increase the speed of PT along this stretch making it a much more attractive option.

normangerman wrote: Well, Marion isn't 6km away from the City.

Well i meant the bus that goes to marion takes about half an hour to go 6km....as marion is 12km from cbd, the bus ride is approx almost an hour.

A train can go past gawler in an hour, so a tram/bus with a right of way lane would take (for the 6km trip) id say 10 min which is how long it would take to drive to the city with no traffic on the road.

jimmy_2486 wrote:Thats all good if you want to go to Richmond and South Yarra. What about other inner suburban such as the inner south near middle park and st kilda where there is no train station within walking distance.

It will be extremely expensive to put train stations within walking distance to every inner metro area.

I mean melbournes trams do the same job as our inner metro buses, but IMO they do the job shit loads better.

Two options that would work... Either we replace inner metro buses with tram routes so that the trams have their right of way at all time, making traveling around the inner metro a breeze, and benefiting a lot of inner dwellers.
Or, we could set the roads up in the inner metro in the same way if we were to have trams run down roads, except just make them a bus only lane instead of a tram track (and possibly taxis). And also put a curb separating the bus lane from normal lanes so that no one decides to travel on them in some areas just as if they were tram lanes.

Maybe we could use the second idea first to see if bus services speed up, then convert the services into tram services if practical.

There are two corridors in Melbourne that are light rail corridors that used to be suburban rail lines (to St. Kilda and Port Melbourne) that were converted in the late 1980s. Middle Park is along one of those corridors if I remember correctly.

I agree that there isn't much point trying to get the entire inner metro area covered by suburban rail services. It just so happens that both Richmond and South Yarra are served by many of the rail lines on the network as they wind their way from the city to the suburbs.

It would be a bit of a mess reorganising bus routes to allow trams to replace them, particularly along places such as The Parade where 4 routes branch off further from the city. Currently the routes 122-125 pass through The Parade. Probably the best solution for a road like The Parade would be to remove the 122 and 124 altogether (these routes do not diverge from The Parade) and make a new Tram route with the same numbers, then run the 123 and 125 routes from their outer suburban termini to where they interchange with the tram only.

Most bus routes that pass through the CBD go a long way from the CBD, the only short one I can think of is the 291 to Marden via Payneham Road and Sixth Avenue and that isn't very well patronised.

jimmy_2486 wrote:

normangerman wrote: Well, Marion isn't 6km away from the City.

Well i meant the bus that goes to marion takes about half an hour to go 6km....as marion is 12km from cbd, the bus ride is approx almost an hour.

A train can go past gawler in an hour, so a tram/bus with a right of way lane would take (for the 6km trip) id say 10 min which is how long it would take to drive to the city with no traffic on the road.

The tram would NOT take 15 or 20 minutes into the city from Marion.

-The bus takes 35 minutes on average (trust me, I catch the M44 on a daily basis) into town from Marion.
-The tram from Marion Road in Plympton South takes around 20 minutes into the City, so consider that as well as the 7km you have to travel south on Marion Road to Marion. Then you also need to consider the amount of times it has to stop.
-A car on average to the City to Marion takes around about 20-30 minutes on a good traffic day.

AG wrote:

jimmy_2486 wrote:Thats all good if you want to go to Richmond and South Yarra. What about other inner suburban such as the inner south near middle park and st kilda where there is no train station within walking distance.

It will be extremely expensive to put train stations within walking distance to every inner metro area.

I mean melbournes trams do the same job as our inner metro buses, but IMO they do the job shit loads better.

Two options that would work... Either we replace inner metro buses with tram routes so that the trams have their right of way at all time, making traveling around the inner metro a breeze, and benefiting a lot of inner dwellers.
Or, we could set the roads up in the inner metro in the same way if we were to have trams run down roads, except just make them a bus only lane instead of a tram track (and possibly taxis). And also put a curb separating the bus lane from normal lanes so that no one decides to travel on them in some areas just as if they were tram lanes.

Maybe we could use the second idea first to see if bus services speed up, then convert the services into tram services if practical.

There are two corridors in Melbourne that are light rail corridors that used to be suburban rail lines (to St. Kilda and Port Melbourne) that were converted in the late 1980s. Middle Park is along one of those corridors if I remember correctly.

I agree that there isn't much point trying to get the entire inner metro area covered by suburban rail services. It just so happens that both Richmond and South Yarra are served by many of the rail lines on the network as they wind their way from the city to the suburbs.

It would be a bit of a mess reorganising bus routes to allow trams to replace them, particularly along places such as The Parade where 4 routes branch off further from the city. Currently the routes 122-125 pass through The Parade. Probably the best solution for a road like The Parade would be to remove the 122 and 124 altogether (these routes do not diverge from The Parade) and make a new Tram route with the same numbers, then run the 123 and 125 routes from their outer suburban termini to where they interchange with the tram only.

Most bus routes that pass through the CBD go a long way from the CBD, the only short one I can think of is the 291 to Marden via Payneham Road and Sixth Avenue and that isn't very well patronised.

Speaking of re-organizing Bus Routes, I am coming up with a whole new bus plan for my project. I may also do one seperately (ie without the subway, etc)

Living near the South Rd overpass, a car trip to Marion for me takes a good 20/25 minutes, and travelling to the city takes me 15/20, so I think from city to Marion is actually a bit longer 35/40.

momentkiller wrote:Living near the South Rd overpass, a car trip to Marion for me takes a good 20/25 minutes, and travelling to the city takes me 15/20, so I think from city to Marion is actually a bit longer 35/40.

It depends on the traffic. Also, the M44 goes straight down to Marion, not via any detours.

Yeah well either way... the moral of the story is....the inner south is becoming a very annoying place to drive a car.

I think the stress is starting to show up on alot of people as I see people getting beeped at and abused on a daily basis.

So it would be great if our inner metro PT could be reorganised so that it has its own path/lane.

Would even help emergency vehicles as well!!

I think a bus/tram has the potential to do a trip from marion to the city in under half an hour easily with an increased speed limit and its own lane.

normangerman wrote: Also, the M44 goes straight down to Marion, not via any detours.

What is a M44?

Cruise Control wrote:

normangerman wrote: Also, the M44 goes straight down to Marion, not via any detours.

What is a M44?

Look on the Adelaide metro website...

It's a go zone bus that goes from Marion shopping center up Marion rd and anzac hwy through the city and onto the obahn to TTP, then terminating at golden grove.

Since I last posted photos here, the extension has obviously been opened and the Plane trees that line the route are now in full bloom. All these photos were taken yesterday.


102 passing Town Hall in King William Street.


105 at the northern end of Victoria Square.


370 at Rundle Mall stop about to use the crossover.


City West stop looking east.


103 heaing east on North Terrace.


Another shot on North Terrace with 370 crossing another Flexi.

Thanks mate. How was the Modern History exam? I remember last year mine was pretty easy... for the subject anyway.

In other news, I was drunk on the Tram going from Victoria Square to City West and back on Friday night, but I still enjoyed it