What is Railways In Adelaide?

The rail network in Adelaide, South Australia, consists of five lines and 81 stations. It is operated by TransAdelaide, and is part of the city-wide Adelaide Metro public transport system. Apart from the Glenelg Tram, Adelaide's railway system is serviced entirely by diesel railcars.

All lines around Adelaide were originally broad gauge (5 ft 3 in, 1600 mm). The main interstate lines out of Adelaide towards Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Darwin have been progressively converted to standard gauge (4 ft 8½ in, 1435 mm), but the suburban system and a few freight-only branch lines to the north remain broad gauge.

Operators

Rail services around Adelaide are provided by a mixture of private & government-owned organisations.

TransAdelaide is a corporate agency of the Government of South Australia and is contracted by the Department for Transport Energy and Infrastructure 'Public Transport Division' to operate the suburban passenger rail network. This comprises five lines from Adelaide Railway Station on North Terrace in the CBD. The State Government retains ownership of all broad gauge lines in the suburban area, together with the Glenelg Tram.

ARTC (Australian Rail Track Corporation), an agency of the Australian federal government, owns standard gauge interstate lines heading north and south, together with the dual gauge freight-only branch from Dry Creek to Port Adelaide and Pelican Point. The ARTC lines bypass the city to the west and do not enter the CBD. The ARTC network extends from Adelaide towards Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Darwin and is used by substantial interstate freight traffic.

Freight trains are operated by a number of private operators, who have access agreements with rail network owners such as ARTC. The largest of these is Pacific National, which handles the majority of interstate traffic and has the largest locomotive fleet. Other logistics companies also operate freight trains to and from interstate destinations and within South Australia.

Australian Railroad Group (ARG) is a private consortium that owns the remaining broad-gauge lines beyond the Adelaide suburban network. These are a handful of lines used mainly to move bulk grain and stone from the Barossa Valley and mid-north region of S.A. to the Port Adelaide area. ARG also operates standard-gauge branches to Apamurra, Loxton and Pinnaroo (all in the Murray Mallee east of Adelaide) and an isolated narrow-gauge line from Port Lincoln into Eyre Peninsula. These transport seasonal grain traffic to ports for export.

Great Southern Railway (GSR) is a private company operating long-distance passenger trains on ARTC’s standard gauge lines, and run from the Keswick Rail Terminal, not from the main city station - Keswick is an industrial suburb just west of the CBD. GSR’s trains are the Indian Pacific to Sydney and Perth, The Ghan to Alice Springs and Darwin and The Overland to Melbourne. The frequencies range from one to four trains per week. There have been no intra-state regional passenger services in South Australia since 1990.

There are several heritage railways in South Australia run by volunteers, but none of these are in the Adelaide area. The closest is SteamRanger at Mount Barker and Goolwa. More distant lines, well outside the Adelaide area, are the Pichi Richi Railway, Limestone Coast Railway and Yorke Peninsula Railway.

Early days

In 1856, the first steam train ran between Adelaide and Port Adelaide, stopping at Bowden, Woodville and Alberton. Soon after, a 30-km line was built from the Town of Gawler to Adelaide to cater for the agricultural and mining industries.

The South Line, through the Adelaide Hills, opened to Aldgate, then Nairne in 1883 and extended to Bordertown in 1886. The first through train between Adelaide and Melbourne – The Intercolonial Express – ran on 19 January 1887, and was the first intercapital rail journey in Australia without changing trains at a break-of-gauge station.

Most of the lines around Adelaide were built before 1900.

The Webb Era

Despite the earlier geographic expansion, by 1920 the infrastructure and rolling stock of South Australia's railways had become run down, inadequate and outdated. Many of the operating practices, such as train control and signalling, were backward by the standards of the time.

However the 1920s saw substantial and expensive improvements in most facets of the SAR’s operations under the leadership of Railways Commissioner William A. Webb. Webb was an American who had substantial operational experience with US railroads, and served as Commissioner between 1922 and 1930.

During his reign, track, bridges, railway workshops, rolling stock and especially steam locomotives were all modernised and upgraded along essentially American lines. Adelaide Station was rebuilt with a handsome sandstone building as a showpiece of the city on North Terrace. The building still stands, converted into a casino.

In 1929, one of the original broad-gauge steam railways to the beach-side suburb of Glenelg was transferred to the Adelaide Municipal Tramways Trust, electrified and converted to a tramway. The Glenelg Tram line is still in operation.

SAR, STA and AN

From early colonial days up until 1978 the SAR had built and operated most of the railway system within the state.

The Commonwealth Railways (CR), owned by the Federal Government, also had a significant role in the northern part of SA, with lines from Port Augusta across the Nullarbor to Kalgoorlie, and to Marree and Alice Springs. None of its lines came close to Adelaide.

During the early 1970s the Labor-controlled Federal Government proposed a strategy to nationalise and standardise the various state rail systems around Australia. South Australia and Tasmania were the only states to participate in this initiative and negotiations were long and drawn out. The result was that in March 1978 the SAR became defunct and South Australia’s railways were split between Commonwealth and State Government ownership.

A new Commonwealth Government organisation, Australian National Railways Commission (ANR), took over all the former SAR and CR track in South Australia outside the metropolitan area. Other rail facilities such as property and workshops were also transferred to ANR. ANR become Australian National (AN) as it refined its corporate identity.

The State Government retained ownership and control of tracks and trains in the Adelaide suburban area under the auspices of the State Transport Authority (STA). The STA had been created in 1974 to co-ordinate all public transport in South Australia.

In 1994 the STA was abolished and reformed as the government-owned corporate body TransAdelaide as a prelude to competitive tendering for operation of bus and rail services in metropolitan Adelaide. TransAdelaide subsequently lost all its bus services to private operators, but has retained the contracts to operate train and tram services.

In November 1997, AN was broken up and sold as part of a Federal Government privatisation agenda. Track, workshops, depots and passenger & freight operations were sold to various private organizations, which has led to today’s operational structure described in an earlier section.

Modern day

Adelaide's metropolitan rail network is the only one in mainland Australia that has not been electrified, despite attempts by several governments throughout the 20th century to electrify the system.

Adelaide's rail network has decreased in size since the 1980s, with the closure of several branches.

The current Rann Labor State Government has attracted increasing criticism for doing little to improve the ailing and dilapidated rail system. The State Government, however, is in the process of developing a State Transport Plan, expected to be released mid-2005. The plan will supposedly set out the framework for upgrading the public transport system.

The five railway lines (all broad gauge) making up the suburban network are:

Outer Harbor Line (21.9 km):

• Adelaide - Port Adelaide built in 1856 - 11.7 km
• Glanville - Outer Harbor built in 1908 - 10.2 km

Gawler Line (42.2 km):

• Adelaide - Gawler Central built in 1857

Grange Line (5.5 km):

• Woodville - Grange built in 1882 - 13 km

Noarlunga Line (30.2 km):

• Goodwood - Marino built in 1913 - 18.3 km
• Marino - Hallett Cove built in 1915 - 3.1 km
• Lonsdale - Christie Downs built in 1976 - 2.2 km
• Christie Downs - Noarlunga built in 1978 - 1.3 km

Belair Line (21.5 km):

• Adelaide - Belair (Previously up to Bridgewater) built in 1883 (Belair to Bridgewater was converted to standard gauge in 1995, with one broad-gauge track from Adelaide to Belair) - 21.5 km

Tonsley Line (3.9 km):

• Woodlands Park - Tonsley - 3.9 km

These railway lines are closed:

• Grange - Henley Beach 1894 (closed and dismantled in 1957)
• Hallett Cove - Willunga built in 1915 (closed in 1969)
• Salisbury - Penfield built in 1941 (closed and dismantled in 1991)
• Northfield (closed in 1987)

Current rolling stock

• 12 2000 class railcars built by Commonwealth Engineering, 1978-1980
• 18 2100 class railcars built by Commonwealth Engineering
• 30 3000 class railcars built by Commonwealth Engineering and Clyde Engineering, 1988-1996
• 40 3100 class railcars built by Commonwealth Engineering and Clyde Engineering, 1988-1996

See also

• List of Adelaide railway stations
• List of closed Adelaide railway stations
• List of suburban and commuter rail systems
• Adelaide Railway Station
• TransAdelaide
• Rail transport in South Australia
• Adelaide Metro

External links

• South Australia Central
• Office of Public Transport
• TransAdelaide
• Adelaide Metro
• National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide
• SteamRanger

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