News & Discussion: Trams

[adam73837]

I just have to say this, but Adelaide is always progressing slowly. I mean for goodness sake, it took us 2 year and 3 months to build the Bakewell Underpass, it's going to take us the same amount of time to build the south road-anzac highway underpass, and who knows how long it will take us to build the grange Road - Outer Harbour Railway Line underpass on South Road. In Europe, it would take them half the time to build these projects. Yet, we do nothing to say to the construction companies to work more quickly. For those of you who say that that will just make them complete their jobs and leave Adelaide, know that if we continue to complete large projects quickly, more will arise and we'll soon find ourselves progressing quite quickly. By the way, I have found that the government is focusing so much attention on South Road, that meanwhile, roads such as Portrush Road, Glen Osmond Road, Sir Donald Bradman Drive, Marion road, Goodwood Road, Prospect Road and Greenhill road (just mentioning a few) are suffering huge problems in terms of congestion in peak hour. I also think that rann stated that if we were to build freeways or something, it would require setting up road tolls in order to cover the expenses. If that's the case, so be it. Our city needs to progress and we won't be able to do it unless we take risks with our systems, because projects interstate such as the Citylink in melbourne have proven to be very successful.
Cheers.

[AG]

I think many of you forget that buildings and structures don't just build themselves. Much of the slow construction is a result of the lack of appropriate resources in the form of labour to the complete the work. Many of us bitch and moan about how slow projects progress, yet many of you would never consider doing the job yourself.

[muzzamo]

Yes Adam i think you are showing how naive you are - unless you have a background in civil engineering then dont bitch and moan about how long projects take - its not like building a sand castle. Yes things can be speeded up but it costs significantly more to do so.

[Xaragmata]

The construction time of the Bakewell Underpass was 1 year & 3 months (Oct 2006 to Jan 2008) - not unreasonable given the presence
of suburban & interstate rail lines & the need to minimise disruptions to services. The tram extension to City West took about 6 months,
but again needed to be done with minimal disruption.

[Norman]

The Anzac Highway/South Road intersection is hard, because about 100,000 cars go through it per day. It would have been easier to close off the entire area and just do it, but it would have been too disruptive for those 100,000 commuters.

[Mants]

The Anzac Highway/South Road intersection is hard, because about 100,000 cars go through it per day. It would have been easier to close off the entire area and just do it, but it would have been too disruptive for those 100,000 commuters.

same applies to the Portrush Road widening a few years ago. if they just closed off the road and did it, it would have only taken a few months, but this would have caused enormous disruptions to commuters and freight.

[Cruise]

The Anzac Highway/South Road intersection is hard, because about 100,000 cars go through it per day. It would have been easier to close off the entire area and just do it, but it would have been too disruptive for those 100,000 commuters.

lol, 100,000? a slight exaggeration maybe?

[Shuz]

I think its more around 80,000 vpd. What I find so bloody stupid is why theyre building an underpass under Anzac Highway, when the majority of peak hour traffic uses it as a way for getting into the city? And with the underpass design, only 1 lane has been dedicated to divert the load onto Anzac Hwy, which I think will just cause even MORE conjestion.

Back to trams. Extend it already to West Lakes.

[AG]

This map below gives a good idea of the current traffic volumes using Anzac Highway and South Road. It supports the fact that a lot of traffic heading into the city turns right from South Road (northbound) into Anzac Highway and left from Anzac Highway to South Road. Overall there isn't really a significant difference in the daily volume of traffic between South Road and Anzac Highway, but one could argue that taking South Road under Anzac Highway provides the opportunity to incorporate the underpass into a future non-stop corridor.

Source: Transport SA
http://www.transport.sa.gov.au/transpor ... colour.pdf

[jimmy_2486]

I think that report is a little old. The contruction has caused an explosion in the amount of commuters now travelling up marion and goodwood road to work.

[monotonehell]

I think that report is a little old. The contruction has caused an explosion in the amount of commuters now travelling up marion and goodwood road to work.

Well that's to be expected, people will take alternate routes if they expect delays. So the old data would be more useful in estimating how the intersection will be used when complete.

[jimmy_2486]

So are we still considered in the "trial period" because the trams are still as full as ever and people are still not being able to get on the trams in the peak periods??....

[urban]

Time to buy extra trams or extend existing ones. People are not catching trams for the novelty factor anymore, but the trams are still packed. I for one have stopped taking the tram because I can never get on. Increase the frequency and capacity of the trams and patronage will increase.

[AG]

Time to buy extra trams or extend existing ones. People are not catching trams for the novelty factor anymore, but the trams are still packed. I for one have stopped taking the tram because I can never get on. Increase the frequency and capacity of the trams and patronage will increase.

Even if the Government and TransAdelaide can get their hands on several more trams, some of them would be redundant anyway in the current situation because of the capacity constraints formed by the crossings at South and Marion Roads.

[urban]

Time to buy extra trams or extend existing ones. People are not catching trams for the novelty factor anymore, but the trams are still packed. I for one have stopped taking the tram because I can never get on. Increase the frequency and capacity of the trams and patronage will increase.

Even if the Government and TransAdelaide can get their hands on several more trams, some of them would be redundant anyway in the current situation because of the capacity constraints formed by the crossings at South and Marion Roads.

This could be solved by timing the tram crossing with the Anzac Highway lights as they do with Greenhill Rd. Marion Rd would need to be timed with the Cross Rd lights in the morning. South Rd will be solved once the bridge is completed (in a couple of years time).