Ideas for Adelaide and SA

[potsandpans]

Hi all, this is my first post! I've been following this site for a few years now. Appreciate all the input, updates and info on various developments in our great state.

I have a few ideas to improve Adelaide and SA which may or may not have already been mentioned (sorry if they have):

1. Extend the train line from Seaford to Victor Harbour, stopping at McLaren Vale, Willunga, Goolwa, Middleton, Port Elliot and terminating at Victor Harbour. Or possibly going from Willunga to Victor Harbour, Port Elliot, Middleton and terminating at Goolwa.

2. Extend the train line from Seaford to Normanville stopping at Maslin Beach, Port Willunga, Aldinga, Sellicks Beach, Myponga, Yankalilla and terminating at Normanville. With the possibility of an alternate route stopping at Carrickalinga instead of Yankalilla.

I know there is a plan to extend the train line to Aldinga, but this idea is more long term.

I was just over in Mandurah, WA. The train line from Perth to Mandurah is really good, definitely something Adelaide could aspire too. Which leads me to my next idea:

3. For every train station:
Have a Park'n'Ride facility or a significant amount of more carparks.
Have a bike station where people can leave their bicycles in a secure area.
Have a bus interchange (even if it's a mini one). This can be done by changing any bus routes that are close to a particular train station, so that it stops at that train station.

This will hopefully solve the low patronage problem and encourage people to use public transport, as it seems to have done in WA.

4. This idea is ambitious and would probably be very costly, but:
Build roads above the concrete rivers/waterways we have in Adelaide. Picture a South Road Superway-type structure. There would be pillars of concrete supporting a road above the concrete rivers, with a large space between the top of the river bank and the base of the road structure, (if that makes sense?) so people can still access the river if need-be. It would start, for example, where the Sturt River intersects Sturt Road, travelling along the Sturt River, until it reaches Tapley's Hill Road. This will effectively create either extra roads, stopping at each major intersection along the way, or a few mini-expressways, throughout the city.

5. Increase the population of regional centres/towns, by diverting some of the immigrants that would have settled in Adelaide, to these regional centres. Create new suburbs in regional centres, while only focusing on new residential developments in the city and in fill projects, like Bowden, for Adelaide. I believe this will be more sustainable in the long run, rather than having one massive city, and a few small towns.

Last 2 ideas/points are more about society than developments.

6. In the suburbs there should be more venues for bands, more bars, better advertising/promotion of what's on in your local suburb. Why don't, at night, cafe's turn into bars with DJ's or bands?
It seems like everyone comes out in festival season/on the weekend, so it may take a while for people's "I can only go out on the weekend/festival" mindsets to change, but we do have 1.2 million people in Adelaide, I'm sure some of them want things like this to do locally, during the week, and year-long.

7. When I was in Melbourne several years ago, I was surprised that at 11:30pm, my friend suggested we "go grab something from woolies". It closed at midnight! Something I'd never even heard of, except in movies.
Why can't shops/restaurants/cafes open late in Adelaide? Is there a law saying they can't? I know some do on weekends, but what about during the week?
And I can't understand why a lot of shops open from 9am-5pm because that is when most people work. If they are working they can't be shopping. Why not open 9am-9pm? And why can't supermarkets/cafe/restaurants stay open til midnight? It just makes more sense to me. Also if shops are open longer, wouldn't that mean more employment? I believe people will buy/spend more if shops are open longer, so employing more people won't cause a financial loss to businesses.

Please let me know what you think of my ideas and feel free to add your own.

[Aidan]

Hi all, this is my first post! I've been following this site for a few years now. Appreciate all the input, updates and info on various developments in our great state.

I have a few ideas to improve Adelaide and SA which may or may not have already been mentioned (sorry if they have):

1. Extend the train line from Seaford to Victor Harbour, stopping at McLaren Vale, Willunga, Goolwa, Middleton, Port Elliot and terminating at Victor Harbour. Or possibly going from Willunga to Victor Harbour, Port Elliot, Middleton and terminating at Goolwa.

Victor is nearer than Goolwa, but still a very long way to go to serve a relatively small population.

2. Extend the train line from Seaford to Normanville stopping at Maslin Beach, Port Willunga, Aldinga, Sellicks Beach, Myponga, Yankalilla and terminating at Normanville. With the possibility of an alternate route stopping at Carrickalinga instead of Yankalilla.

I think a coastal route, via Myponga Beach rather than Myoonga, and terminating between Yankalilla and Normanville. A coastal route would enable high value housing development along the way.

I know there is a plan to extend the train line to Aldinga, but this idea is more long term.

I was just over in Mandurah, WA. The train line from Perth to Mandurah is really good, definitely something Adelaide could aspire too. Which leads me to my next idea:

3. For every train station:
Have a Park'n'Ride facility or a significant amount of more carparks.
Have a bike station where people can leave their bicycles in a secure area.
Have a bus interchange (even if it's a mini one). This can be done by changing any bus routes that are close to a particular train station, so that it stops at that train station.

Having Park'n'Ride available is necessary, but there's no need to have it at every station - it doesn't usually take long to drive from one station to the next. Likewise there's not much advantage from diverting a bus route to a train station if it already serves another one, or in the inner suburbs where the extra speed of the train won't make up for the inconvenience or wait.

This will hopefully solve the low patronage problem and encourage people to use public transport, as it seems to have done in WA.

It won't. Solving the problem requires a fast frequent train service to where the passengers want to go.

4. This idea is ambitious and would probably be very costly, but:
Build roads above the concrete rivers/waterways we have in Adelaide. Picture a South Road Superway-type structure. There would be pillars of concrete supporting a road above the concrete rivers, with a large space between the top of the river bank and the base of the road structure, (if that makes sense?) so people can still access the river if need-be. It would start, for example, where the Sturt River intersects Sturt Road, travelling along the Sturt River, until it reaches Tapley's Hill Road. This will effectively create either extra roads, stopping at each major intersection along the way, or a few mini-expressways, throughout the city.

The Sturt is the only concrete waterway we have that's anything like highway width, and even it is narrower for most of its length. Plus it runs through residential suburbs, so the idea's a non starter.

5. Increase the population of regional centres/towns, by diverting some of the immigrants that would have settled in Adelaide, to these regional centres. Create new suburbs in regional centres, while only focusing on new residential developments in the city and in fill projects, like Bowden, for Adelaide. I believe this will be more sustainable in the long run, rather than having one massive city, and a few small towns.

The government doesn't decide where people live, and people prefer to live within easy reach of the City. Eventually high speed rail will make regional centres very attractive, but meanwhile they haven't got much going for them.

Last 2 ideas/points are more about society than developments.

6. In the suburbs there should be more venues for bands, more bars, better advertising/promotion of what's on in your local suburb. Why don't, at night, cafe's turn into bars with DJ's or bands?
It seems like everyone comes out in festival season/on the weekend, so it may take a while for people's "I can only go out on the weekend/festival" mindsets to change, but we do have 1.2 million people in Adelaide, I'm sure some of them want things like this to do locally, during the week, and year-long.

I've heard the pubs used to host a lot of gigs until they were allowed to install pokies.
As for cafés, I'd rather they remain open as cafés at night.

7. When I was in Melbourne several years ago, I was surprised that at 11:30pm, my friend suggested we "go grab something from woolies". It closed at midnight! Something I'd never even heard of, except in movies.
Why can't shops/restaurants/cafes open late in Adelaide? Is there a law saying they can't? I know some do on weekends, but what about during the week?
And I can't understand why a lot of shops open from 9am-5pm because that is when most people work. If they are working they can't be shopping. Why not open 9am-9pm? And why can't supermarkets/cafe/restaurants stay open til midnight? It just makes more sense to me. Also if shops are open longer, wouldn't that mean more employment? I believe people will buy/spend more if shops are open longer, so employing more people won't cause a financial loss to businesses.

Please let me know what you think of my ideas and feel free to add your own.

Regulations annoyingly force the supermarkets to stay closed from 9pm till midnight. For everything else I think it's a commercial decision, albeit sometimes an ill thought out one.

[ouchjars]

3. For every train station:
Have a Park'n'Ride facility or a significant amount of more carparks.
Have a bike station where people can leave their bicycles in a secure area.
Have a bus interchange (even if it's a mini one). This can be done by changing any bus routes that are close to a particular train station, so that it stops at that train station.

It always puzzled me why no southern suburb buses to Marion go that little bit further to Oaklands station. (Same with Flinders Med Centre and Tonsley, but at least that got a litle attention)

[Aidan]

3. For every train station:
Have a Park'n'Ride facility or a significant amount of more carparks.
Have a bike station where people can leave their bicycles in a secure area.
Have a bus interchange (even if it's a mini one). This can be done by changing any bus routes that are close to a particular train station, so that it stops at that train station.

It always puzzled me why no southern suburb buses to Marion go that little bit further to Oaklands station. (Same with Flinders Med Centre and Tonsley, but at least that got a litle attention)

The trains from Oaklands station weren't (and still aren't) fast enough or frequent enough for there to be much advantage in doing so. And originally Oaklands wasn't set up as an interchange - the station was too far from the road and the bus stop too far from the station.

The 733, 734 and 737 had timetabled connections elsewhere with express buses to the City via South Road. The 645 used to be part of the 245 and often still operates as an extension of the M44. The Seacombe Heights bus (647?) used to be part of what the 248 replaced, so did run via Oaklands - as did the 340 which the 640 used to be part of.

[Norman]

3. For every train station:
Have a Park'n'Ride facility or a significant amount of more carparks.
Have a bike station where people can leave their bicycles in a secure area.
Have a bus interchange (even if it's a mini one). This can be done by changing any bus routes that are close to a particular train station, so that it stops at that train station.

It always puzzled me why no southern suburb buses to Marion go that little bit further to Oaklands station. (Same with Flinders Med Centre and Tonsley, but at least that got a litle attention)

The trains from Oaklands station weren't (and still aren't) fast enough or frequent enough for there to be much advantage in doing so. And originally Oaklands wasn't set up as an interchange - the station was too far from the road and the bus stop too far from the station.

The 733, 734 and 737 had timetabled connections elsewhere with express buses to the City via South Road. The 645 used to be part of the 245 and often still operates as an extension of the M44. The Seacombe Heights bus (647?) used to be part of what the 248 replaced, so did run via Oaklands - as did the 340 which the 640 used to be part of.

Not to be pedantic, but the 243 used to service Seaview Downs via Davenport Terrace (now 645) and 246, 247 and 248 serviced Seacombe Heights via Morphett Road (now 646). For a short period of time in 2006 a loop service was operating to these destinations from Marion Shopping Centre.