A hastily-written email to TransAdelaide

[PhilG]

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[heater31]

Can you please contact Mike Rann's office an politely tell him this fact.
You can also tell him that his South Road Tunnels Project is bullsh*t too, come up back to the surface and you hit a friggin Rail line. yeah thats brains Mikey

[PhilG]

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[Dissident]

PhilG - how much does Adelaide rely on it's Train network compared to other cities? Not trying to doubt your fact at all - just seems to me that Adelaide uses more busses than trains. Trains are basically from the far South to the city, far North to the city, and The Port ? Or there abouts ? Not saying that is fact, just trying to work it out.

How does Electricity fix this anyway?

The tram idea is dodgy. Pathetic really.

How about walking for 5 minutes.

[Magpiespower]

Guys and girls - I am a past master at public transport in every capital city in the country, and I can tell you that the rail services rate as follows (IMHO);

1. Sydney

If Sydney is number one, the rest of the country must have $hitful rail services.

State Rail is a joke, an even bigger joke than the Cross City Tunnel.

[heater31]

Heater, Adelaide has been the only capital city without electric trains for nearly two decades (Perth got theirs in 1988 about the same time Brisbane got theirs back after it was ripped up by Bjelke Petersen). So I wouldn't blame the Rann government exclusively.

A link for the road project? I haven't heard about that.

Rann is hellbent on leaving a lasting legacy when he leaves office and 'his' tram project is one of these ideas he wants to leave behind. Also on the Port River express the Labour government has demanded retracting bridges to allow the alledged flow of river traffic through to the channel. the simple fact is that these bridges will be useless to river traffic as the line of traffic will be banked up for miles so the boats will have access to get out of the river but they will have limited usage of it.


The Road project is to reduce the travelling times on South road from the Port River Express/Salisbury Hwy down to Victor Harbor Rd. the tunnels go under Port road and ANZAC Hwy. particularly ANZAC Hwy the tunnel returns to the surface only to hit the tram line that runs across South Road

[Strawb]

My dad did work for Trans Adelaide back in the 90's and i am going to fill you all in on some B/S from the government back then.
1. If the State government had their way all the rail next work would be o'bairn buses.
2. They want more buses than trains.
3. The rail nextwork is crap they should have kept the Hendon line and extended it to West Lakes.
4. The trains are getting older and we will not see an upgrade their in ages.
the all important 5th reason why Adelaide is not electrified.
GMH threatened to pull out of Adelaide if they Electrifed the rail nextwork back in the fifty's so that is why we had the red hens.

[PhilG]

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[ORDoubleBlues]

I am not into rubbishing Adelaide as a rule but when it comes to roads and trains, regardless of which government is in power at the time, they always wan't to do projects that are half-arsed all the time.
From my experience, whenever Perth and Melbourne get an idea for a project, it gets done and generally gets done properly but for some reason in Adelaide there always seems to be fiddly little issues about 'it might affect someones view' or 'it might pass through an unsightly area' or some other ridiculous reason. This new 'link/toll/express' road in Melbourne is a classic example of just bloody doing it. Maybe some of the Victorian residents on this forum might explain how effective it is.
The city block here was well thought out but I don't think much foresight went into the layouts of the suburbs, particularly so in the cases of the newer ones where there has been a greater understanding of modern technology compared to what there was say 100 years ago.

[Magpiespower]

I disagree. Oh sure - there are timetable problems and all that

That there are.

but the frequency of the services is unmatched anywhere in the country.

As well they should for a major city.

Worst thing about the rail network in metro Sydney is that every time you catch a train, you have to hear the dulcate tones of Gretel Killeen!

[Punk Rooster]

I am not into rubbishing Adelaide as a rule but when it comes to roads and trains, regardless of which government is in power at the time, they always wan't to do projects that are half-arsed all the time.
From my experience, whenever Perth and Melbourne get an idea for a project, it gets done and generally gets done properly but for some reason in Adelaide there always seems to be fiddly little issues about 'it might affect someones view' or 'it might pass through an unsightly area' or some other ridiculous reason. This new 'link/toll/express' road in Melbourne is a classic example of just bloody doing it. Maybe some of the Victorian residents on this forum might explain how effective it is.
The city block here was well thought out but I don't think much foresight went into the layouts of the suburbs, particularly so in the cases of the newer ones where there has been a greater understanding of modern technology compared to what there was say 100 years ago.

Exactly, I've always said that.
Imo, Rann should just build the Tram extension, taking it through to North Adelaide (terminus @ Aquatic centre).
Screw what the public opinion is- what's the point of the Tram's current terminus? Might be gepgraphically the centre of the city, but it's 4-5 blocks away from the commercial hub.

[heater31]

I agree Punky Rann's vision dosent go far enough for me. If it went to North Adelaide or even further im all for it

[mick]

Rann and Vision .....an oxymoron

[noone]

there is a much larger vision for the tram network, however due to the shitstorm the advertiser has cooked up over the trams it will go along a a very slow pace. as punk rooster said what is the point of the tram terminating in vic square? in the first post one complaint was a missed connecting service, by extending the tram to north terrace it will allow the tram to connect to the train station.

Im sure adelaide is the only city which at any stage, when any kind of development is proposed everybody brainstorms 101 reasons why we shouldn't do the proposed development.

Adelaide's transport/road system needs a lot of work, but here comes a shock you dont get improvements for free.

[heater31]

but why do a half arsed job when you can bite the bullet and do decent extenstion by spending a sizable amount of money instead of sh*tload for less than 2km of track

[ORDoubleBlues]

Adelaide's transport/road system needs a lot of work, but here comes a shock you dont get improvements for free.

And they didn't get done for free in other cities either.

[noone]

but why do a half arsed job when you can bite the bullet and do decent extenstion by spending a sizable amount of money instead of sh*tload for less than 2km of track

if you look at the plans (cant remember web adress, google it..) it does show possible future extension routes, its just that its not possible to do more than they are doing in the current climate.

I totally agree that a bigger extension is far more logical and useful. However when the media jumps on something and starts beating it, in a one newspaper town its pretty hard to fight the media and win.

[PhilG]

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[heater31]

PPPs look good on paper but they are just not practical.


Rann's refusal to go down this PPP route is the only thing I like about him because he knows he will fu*k it up

[Pseudo]

On the road design - heck, I've heard numerous people complain about how hard it is to get from the southside to the northside. And it's no surprise really when you consider the whole thing has been designed to get from anywhere to Adelaide. Not from anywhere to anywhere else.

You have just touched on one of my best-ever pet peeves. You want to travel across two, maybe three Adelaide suburbs by public transport? No worries - so long as you catch a bus into town, walk to another bus stop, wait half an hour and catch another bus back out.

It amazes me when I hear people complain about Melbourne public transport, or even the London Tube. Such whingers should be forced to live in one of Adelaide's less central suburbs for a month.