Ideally heavy rail would serve all the major shopping centers, for example. Marion is possible technically, just change the Adelaide to Brighton train to Adelaide to Marion SC. But then its a branch line accessible from the south only. Do we divert a train line at great expense, or is it better to run a frequent bus/tram shuttle type service to fill in the gap ? Is simply paying to relocate the entire shopping centre to the train station a cheaper option ?monotonehell wrote:No, that's not what I said at all. Sorry if I was unclear. While examples like the tram extension are a success, they prove only that if you put a rail service where a lot of people want to go a lot of the time, patronage will increase. But if you run services everywhere individuals want to go at any time you end up with a lot of possibly well patronised mostly empty vehicles (think along the lines of cars).fabricator wrote:So your saying that if more of the city has access to light/heavy rail, then their will be less people per vehicle.
Rail needs to be placed where it will be patronised in bulk. So it can better pay for itself. For Adelaide that means the rush time commutes between major centres. I'm sure that there is scope for more rail linking more centres, however.
Any new rail (tram or train) should serve areas which lack any sort of service at the moment, priority to outer suburbs and areas with decent population density. As my map shows, Semaphore doesn't really need a tram, the money would be better spent on trams down The Parade or Henley Beach Road. As a feel good exercise to bring new life to Port Adelaide and Semaphore it has merit, but the government shouldn't be claiming its to fix public transport problems.
Morphett Vale to Adelaide via Tonsley is a good link between housing, industry, a major hospital and the CBD. There are some smaller shopping districts as well which are within walking distance of the corridor. Rail in this area would cause these shopping districts to expand in scale and density, supply and demand.
