PRO: Port Adelaide Tramline | $260m

[Norman]

The Messenger is wrong, Outer Harbor line won't be electrified until 2014/15.

[Norman]

Wow its coming a long quite quickly now! But what about the trees!! Its such a major issue that we lost them all

I was looking at the Gold Coast's skilled park and i noticed that they had a tram to the stadium but they have three or four stops to when the game has finished you don;t have 20,000 people trying to get on to one tram that hold 200 people i drew a crummy diagram to explain

That's actually the train depot for the Gold Coast line in Robina.

[Will409]

Just found this after a short search on google, tramline extension report as submitted to the Parliamentary Public Works Committee (December 2008).

http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/NR/rdon ... ideEnt.pdf

And a few small snippets from the report. I've highlighted a few sections that caught my attention.

Recent surveys show that approximately 20,000 people use the tramline every
weekday, around a 20% increase on the combined numbers from the replaced Beeline bus
service and tramline prior to the extension.

1.3 Project Elements

The scope of the project includes:
- Project management and detailed design
- Survey and geotechnical investigations
- Relocation of services
- Track construction
- Electrical supply and overhead system
- A new substation and special rail items such as crossovers
- A siding near the new hospital stop on North Terrace to facilitate the operation of the shuttle
service between South Terrace and West Terrace
- An additional four tram stops and shelters – it is proposed to use the same design as those
built on the earlier extension? Road works adjacent to the track
- Bridgeworks to facilitate track construction
- Pedestrian crossings and signalised intersections
- Modifications to existing traffic signals
- Modifications to existing footpaths

Shuttle Service
? The tramline extension will operate a shuttle service between the Marjorie Jackson Nelson
Hospital stop and the South Terrace stop on Peacock Road, in addition to the through service
from Glenelg to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

4.3 Tram Stops

Stop Locations
There will be four additional stops along the alignment, located on North Terrace near the
proposed Marjorie Jackson Nelson Hospital, and on Port Road at Phillips Street, Light Terrace,
and the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Platforms
The stop platforms will be a raised area of the median ramped up to match the floor level of
tram doorways, and will incorporate a shelter, lighting, timetable and local information and stop
identifiers. The platforms will be 38 metres in length, which caters for both the new Bombardier
Flexity trams, and also for two coupled heritage (H-Class) trams. The stop platforms will be
located between the tracks (centre platforms) and designed to be 4.2 metres wide on Port Road
(as per the existing new stops on North Terrace) and 5.8 metres wide at the new Marjorie
Jackson Nelson Hospital stop and the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. These have been made
wider due to the anticipated higher demand and use.

The stop platforms will be 235 mm above the top of rail and have access ramps to the controlled
pedestrian crossings. The stops will also contain tactile indicators and hand rails where
required. Provision in the underground conduit network will be made for potential future
telecommunication facilities (e.g. real time passenger information display).

PAGE 11

Public art will be considered including the continuation of the previous tramline extension
platforms public art theme.

Shelters
It is proposed to use the same shelter design used on the earlier tramline extension. The
shelters at the tram stops are open, simple and in keeping with the urban design context of the
area. The design incorporates a series of central column supports and a canopy providing a
span of the platform walkway area. The roofs of the shelters are made from solar panels and
are connected to the grid.

Operating Frequency
The current tram service between Glenelg and City West operates with an average frequency of
8-10 minutes during the peak periods and 15 minutes during inter-peak periods. This service is
supplemented by shuttle trams going between North Terrace and South Terrace, giving a
shuttle frequency of 7.5 minutes from 8am to 6pm on weekdays. When the tramline is extended
to the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, the shuttle service will be extended to run between South
Terrace and the new North Terrace tram stop at the Marjorie Jackson Nelson Hospital. The full
service will run between Glenelg and the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. Additional trams will
provide this extended service with approximately the same frequency as the existing service.

[AtD]

Push for a brand new Port

Why is Port Adelaide Enfield determined to remove rail on the peninsula? Of course a line just to the Port is cheaper to build and run than a line to Outer Harbor - it's half the distance!

[Somebody]

Are they actually proposing to get rid of the suburban line that runs all the way up to Outer Harbor ? Can't see how it would run (kept as heavy rail) if the viaduct went and their tram proposal only mentions Semaphore.

Interesting.

[fabricator]

Council probably plan to connect to the Outer Harbor line at Glanville Railway Station.

Multiple problems with this idea, for one at least twice as many trams as the Government proposal. Worse during peak hour. This then creates the problem of traffic congestion in the main street of Port Adelaide, in particular where the tracks verge of port road to go back onto the heavy rail.

As for why the council support the idea, well same reason they support those ugly developments and the demolition of heritage industry buildings, money.

[Will409]

Finally got some more photos from this week uploaded. I got these photos back on Wednesday but I havn't been able to upload them until now. Most of the work was concentrated around West Terrace intersection with nothing else really noteworthy along the rest of the route.

Road work ahead sign for the tramline extension.


Road work equipment on the northern side of North Terrace near West Terrace intersection.




Central traffic island of North Terrace/West Terrace/Port Road intesection has now been completely blocked off.

[adam_stuckey]

Wow its coming a long quite quickly now! But what about the trees!! Its such a major issue that we lost them all

I was looking at the Gold Coast's skilled park and i noticed that they had a tram to the stadium but they have three or four stops to when the game has finished you don;t have 20,000 people trying to get on to one tram that hold 200 people i drew a crummy diagram to explain

That's actually the train depot for the Gold Coast line in Robina.

My bad but i still think its not a bad idea. i just don't really understand why it would be a good idea to have one tram every 15 mins for a massive event like a concert at the entertainment centre or football at hindmarsh, everyone's leaving at the same time so there's only a 30 minute window where everyone would need transport.

[muzzamo]

My bad but i still think its not a bad idea. i just don't really understand why it would be a good idea to have one tram every 15 mins for a massive event like a concert at the entertainment centre or football at hindmarsh, everyone's leaving at the same time so there's only a 30 minute window where everyone would need transport.

How about they put more trams on, even H class? The majority of times when these events start/finish are out of peak hour anyway. When they are in peak hour, use a couple of H's as well.

If you want to see the tram system at absolute maximum capacity use it for the city to bay. Hint: They can't turn them around in time quick enough in the city because they are too incompetent, so use the bus instead

[AG]

Looks like the tram network is getting additional Citadis trams from Alstom.

European trams to bolster our City-Glenelg fleet
RENATO CASTELLO
May 24, 2009 09:30am

THESE are the French-made trams with a Spanish connection that the State Government hopes will help ease the passenger crush on Adelaide's line.

The Sunday Mail understands the Government is close to sealing a deal to import up to six trams from Madrid to run on the City-to-Bay tramline. The French-made Alstom Citadis trams are scheduled to be in service by December.

The Government last year announced a worldwide tender to lease or buy extra trams to run alongside the existing 11 Bombardier Flexity Classic trams.

The Madrid trams will bolster the current fleet, which has recorded a drop in punctuality since the State Government spent $31 million extending the tramline north from Victoria Square to the city's West End in October, 2007.

The Sunday Mail can also reveal:

TRANSADELAIDE electricians plan to boycott major transport projects - including the tramline extension - in a wages battle, and;

PUBLIC transport division head Heather Webster has resigned from her post after 10 years.

Madrid's city transport body, MINTRA, ordered 70 of the Alstom trams under a major light-rail project for the Spanish capital.

But it is understood the project has since been scaled back because of the global recession, with 22 superfluous trams available to buy or lease.

State Transport Minister Patrick Conlon's media spokesman, Sam Ion, declined to comment when contacted by the Sunday Mail. Opposition Transport spokesman Duncan McFetridge said he understood the trams were worth about $3 million each, nearly half the price of the Bombardier trams.

"I am told they are arriving in November, seating is for 54 (passengers) and total capacity about 180, so less seats but slightly more capacity (than current trams). Fine for a city run, but who wants to stand from coast to coast?" he said.

Tram and train electricians held rolling four-hour stoppages on Friday, as they push for a lift in their pay and allowances.

CEPU Electrical, Energy and Services division organiser Simon Pisoni warned the work bans could extend to major projects including the Belair line upgrade, the South Rd tram overpass and possibly the tram extension.

TransAdelaide spokesman Hayden Ryan said discussions with the union were ongoing. He also confirmed Ms Webster had left the Passenger Transport Division (formerly the Passenger Transport Board) to pursue "personal interests" in a family wine business and to concentrate on commitments with professional boards.

[AtD]

Sounds good.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 82,00.html
The article is accompanied by this picture:


I think that can't be the tram they're talking about - just 54 seats? It can't be a five piece tram like the one pictured, could it?

Wikipedia says the Citadis trams on order for Madrid are the 302 model.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadis

The 202 model currently runs in Melbourne as the C Class.


I think this is a 302 currently in service in Madrid. Wiki says the 5-piece tram has 60 seats and a crush capacity of 450!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid_Metro

[AtD]

Doing a bit more research, there's no way a 302 could only have a crush capacity of just 180. They're only made in 5-car sets.

There's actually some 302s running in Melbourne right now.



Exciting stuff. I hope the trams I've pictured are the ones in question. These will handle the peak crowds very well!

[AG]

The details of the specifications of the trams that are planned to be bought or leased from the Madrid system isn't made clear in the article. If the trams being negotiated are 5-module trams, then they may be too long to fit the existing platforms on the network. They seem to be about 30-33m long from what I can find.

EDIT: Annoyingly, I can't find information about specifications of the previous tramline extension to City West anywhere (they seem to have disappeared off of the internet).

[AtD]

A C2 Class in Melbourne is 32.5m long. An Adelaide H-Class car is 16.5m long. If the stops can accommodate the length of two coupled H cars, it should be able to handle a Citadis 302 no problems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C2_class_Melbourne_tram
http://www.adelaidemetro.com.au/guides/ ... _obahn.pdf

I think width is more likely to be a problem than length. I remember the Hs needed to be modified slightly for the new stops, which were built to the Flexity's narrow body specification. Something like that anyway.

Edit: A Flexity is 2.4m wide, A C2 is 2.65m wide, so 7.5cm wider on either side. I think it'll squeeze in.

[Will409]

Just a few details about the Citadis trams from the Alstom website:

http://www.transport.alstom.com/home/pr ... les/trams/

Width: Between 2.30 and 2.65 m
Length: Between 20 and 40 m
Capacity: Between 145 and 302 passengers

To me anyway, it does appear that the Madrid trams are narrower then the Melbourne (actually Mulhouse) C2s but I don't have any actual specifications to back that up (the Alstom website is not as easy to navigate around as the Bombardier one in relation to specification details). That said, I would imagine that the State Government would make sure that the trams would actually fit through the current platforms