For many years the local Mt Gambier newspaper was owned by the local trucking company. That meant strong local media opposition or indifference to the regauging of the Mt Gambier line.
While they're at it, get a rail link to Adelaide for passenger use, if you can get it to a fast enough standard people could commute to work in Adelaide from Mt. Gambier, now that would be a sight. (Oh and a train to Murray Bridge, could do with one of those anyway)
@@jacintaedwards1123 The Rail Tourist Association tried to operate a tour to Barmera but it didn’t proceed for some reason. After the Granville train disaster in Sydney AN got difficult about operating wooden carriages. Towards the end they didn’t want to operate specials anyway.
Agree about Murray Bridge, its big enough to warrant a train service but it would be serviced by a Mt Gambier train anyway. As for Mt Gambier people commuting to work in adelaide.....why would they be so stupid? Whats good about adelaide? Melbourne is actually easier to get to than adelaide anyway. Mt Gambier leaves Adelaide for dead for quality of life!
Won't happen (adel to Mt Gambier), south australian governments and the people themselves don't give a rats arse about anything. You'd have more chance of an international airport being built on Antartica. V/Line service Southern Cross to Mt Gambier would definitely work, Mt Gambier people have always been more closely linked with Melbourne than Adelaide anyway.
Very informative, however the only thing I would pick on is that freight from Melbourne to Perth did not switch wagons in Adelaide, but rather the bogie wheelsets were changed on each.this generally added about 8 hours to the passage through Adelaide. It was also a condition of Federal funding for the SE line to be made broad gauge back in the day, that it would be up to SA to fund if there was ever to be a change of gauge again, which obviously didn’t happen. Also, a lot of pressure applied by large road transport operator in Mt G to get rid of the trains, and their competition!
Thanks for the video.Very interesting information. I'd been told that certain large scale road hauliers also had an input into the decision to scrap rail into the Mount. The rest of the world is building high speed rail infrastructure, unfortunately Australia as a nation lags behind woefully.
An maglev train travelling at 600 km/h top speed from Melbourne to Sydney can be a viable option as long the maglev line is fully elevated with very gentle curves. China is developing a maglev prototype (1st link below) capable of travelling 600 km/h which is similar in design to the German Transrapid maglev (2nd link below). The distance from Melbourne to Sydney of 870 km is simply too great to be used by conventional high speed trains travelling at a top speed of 350 km/h. A steel wheeled high speed train from Melbourne to Sydney is expected to take 3 - 3.5 hours (on the train) which is slower than an aeroplane. Melbourne to Sydney and Sydney to Brisbane are one of the busiest airline routes in the world. Therefore, high speed rail from Melbourne to Sydney and Sydney to Brisbane are unsuitable given their vast distances and uncompetitive travel times when compared to the plane. Maglev links: edition.cnn.com/travel/article/china-highspeed-maglev-prototype/index.html www.monorailsaustralia.com.au/maglev.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_maglev_train
Thanks AW for a timely and informative video! Nice summary of the history of this line and the current moves to get the line to Wolseley re-gauged and reinvigorated for freight. Note that at this stage, there's no talk of reinstating passenger rail, but once the line is operational, you never know. Also worth noting that the line through the city centre would not be activated (ie. no disruption to the wonderful walking & cycling track) as the plan is to look at an intermodal terminal on the Eastern side of the city. Community support will be important for convincing the pollies and bureaucrats that this project should happen, so let's hope there are plenty of vocal folks out there who willing to have their say on this important issue.
Certainly, I don't think I covered it all in the video but yeah they are very decent plans to take the line back to the eastern outskirts and maybe even further west in future. I'm glad you enjoyed the video, I hope to make more about transport in Mount Gambier and the south east soon
What AN did was reduce the daily Bluebird to around 3 days a week, thus patronage dropped and AN could point to falling passenger numbers. In the seventies there was an overnight mixed which was an AD (I think) attached to a goods train. Alas I never rode on it. I did go to Kingston and Millicent and one day the RTA operated a Bluebird to Portland. It was driven by a SA loco instructor and a VR pilot and it tooted the long short long whistle code on level crossings in Victoria.
Even though I live in Sydney, I really feel sorry for Mount Gambier. However, if you look at the 7 states/NT second largest city in each one, you'll notice that Mount Gambier is the second smallest in population at just under 30,000 compared with Gold Coast QLD 700,000; Newcastle NSW just under 500,000; Geelong Vic around 280,000; Launceston Tas just under 90,000; Bunbury WA around 75,000 and Alice Springs NT around 26,000. So I'm guessing they may not get enough people to use it. Secondly, there's the distance, if you compare with the cities already mentioned from their largest city, Mount Gambier comes in second last at 450 km from Adelaide compared with Gold Coast 66 km, Geelong 72 km, Newcastle 162 km, Bunbury 175 km, Launceston 198 km and Alice Springs 1500 km; which means it's going to be time consuming, not to mention the cost of maintaining the track to to with the distance. Then there's the service and the trains itself; the Newcastle from Sydney service is the best with the proposed 10 car NIF Double deck D-Sets and have trains every hour or less. Geelong from Melbourne service is really good with 6 car single deck V/Locitys and have trains every 20 or 40 minutes. Gold Coast from Brisbane service is moderately good with 6 car single deck NGRs and have trains every 30 minutes, but remains underdeveloped as it needs to go to the Airport. Bunbury to Perth service is below average with the Australind only having a twice a day run, while Alice Springs has the twice a week Ghan and Launceston has none from Hobart, so it means Mount Gambier ranks equal last with Launceston on this occasion. A recent article in the ABC website indicates a proposal to build a freight only train line to Mount Gambier and along the line to Heywood, however, passenger trains were only mentioned as a "Long way off". Great video by the way and fingers crossed it may come back in the future.
You forgot one thing. Mount Gambier is more closely linked to Melbourne than adelaide. A Southern Cross to Mt Gambier V/Line service would be a great success. Mount Gambier people are Victorians by default as the Wood and Dairy industries dictate this. South Australian govetnments couldn't run a kids birthday party. Run the train from Ararat down to Hamilton through Dartmoor and Heywood. When I'm back living in Melbourne later this year, if there was a train service (V line) to Mt Gambier I'd definitely make that trip a few times a year.
I'm amazed that the study showed it would be economical to run a Mt Gambier-Melbourne service when you consider the convoluted route it would have to take from Heywood. Perhaps the success of such a project would finally convince the Victorian government to extend the South-West Line to Heywood.
@@jacintaedwards1123 The South West Line never ran further than Port Fairy. The Portland Line runs up through Hamilton to join the Western Line near Ararat. Joining the SW Line to the Mt Gambier-Heywood line would be much easier than either having to have the locomotive change ends at the Portland railhead, or acquire land to construct a loop to get out of Portland without switching. Thinking about the lay of the lines in Portland, you’d probably have to build either reclaim the shunting yards from whoever is using them to store logs if you wanted to go the end-switching solution, or build a loop quite distant from the centre of town (like, somewhere around Westlakes Road).
@@shrikelet Yes I know Portland branched at Ararat. Mt Gambier isn't part of Victoria so I doubt whether that would happen. Portland deserves a regional train service as does Leongatha, Bright, Echuca, Mildura, Mansfield & Robinvale.
@@jacintaedwards1123 The original Mt Gambier-Heywood line was built by Victorian Railways. And too right! The decay of regional railways in Victoria is a disgrace. Country people are woefully underserved by PT.
Hi There Aussie Wirraway, great video and loved it. When could we see a extension of Belair line go to mount barker? In fact even an extension of Gawler line to Barossa Valley? One thing I want to see is a further extension on one of the lines, either seafood to Aldinga, or Gawler to Barossa or Belair to Mount Barker. The current extension of flinders line is great but for such a short distance, I want to see long distance extensions.
of all your suggestions only an extension to Aldinga is likely atm, and a Barossa tourist train probably has about a 20% chance of occurring. Fast rail to mount barker is unlikely to ever occur in my opinion as Mount barker would need a population approaching 100k to justify it (has about 30K now)
@@AussieWirraway, Here's the population of towns within Greater Adelaide with recent data from 205 - 2018 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics: North of Gawler line - Lyndoch: 2,000 - Barossa Valley (Tununda): 4,600 - Nuriootpa: 6,314 - Angaston: 2,095 - Greenrock: 1,087 South of Seaford line - Maslin Beach: 1,152 - McLaren Vale: 3,096 - Aldinga: 573 - Aldinga Beach: 12,345 South East - Stirling: 2,966 - Bridgewater: 3,498 - Aldgate: 3,200 - Handorf: 2,670 - Mount Barker: 18,000 - Strathalbyn: 6,500 Population doesn't always tell the passenger demand of the system. What drives public transport use are adequate frequency, decent capacity, good average speed door to door against the car, reasonable trip time for the distance and land use around transport hubs. Zoning of stations of train, busway or any other mode are also extremely important and should never be overlooked.
I'm from Melbourne, lived in Adelaide 5 years. Stayed in Mount Gambier many times since 1995. I can categorically state that Mt Gambier leaves Adelaide for dead for living standards, weather and people.
the Bluebird used to be way cool! Adelaide to - Moonta - Broken Hill - Burra - Morgan - Port Pirie - Whyalla I went on it quite a few times before I had a car people would use it if it was there
Naracoorte would have to be bypassed due to development on the corridor but at station and freight centre could be re established at Hynam ( QUBE logistics has. Truck only one across from the meat works). The line could be kept seperate from Wolseley to Bordertown to make recreating the junction easier. The amount of grain that travels through western Victoria & the mallee in SA to Portland would create tons of freight/ cash
Agreed, the small minded people are all in Adelaide. I'm from Melbourne, lived here 5 years and never lived in a more narrowminded, childish, backward & illogical place like this where the catchcry is "Its all Victoria's fault". If Adelaide people are proud of their roads, drivers and shitty food then thay says a lot about the genetics of the place.
@@ItAbel-xy3xk really? So nothing in adelaide needs attention? Leave the roads as they are? Maintain exorbitent utility prices? Don't build train services to suburbs that need them? Dont touch Adelaide train station coz its dark, dirty, gloomy and creepy? Don't plant more trees? Don't encourage adelaide people to use public transport? Basically, better to leave things the way they are and keep adelaide as a backward, dull, expensive, bumpy, miserable place that it is or the pessimistic childish people of adelaide will have a cry and get really upset because they don't want to be sucessful like Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.
I’d like to see this, the Barossa line, kapunda line, mt barker, victor habor, the iron triangle and mt gambier would be amazing and would reduce our carbon footprint
I wonder what would happen if the line between Mount Gambier and Wolseley was reopened? Sure that would be quite interesting but would freight still run along the current into Victoria? (via Serviceton, Kaniva, Nhill, Dimboola)
the one way freeway was a reversable road that had a timetable of going north on weekday mornings ,south on weekday afternoons and evening, Saturday , Sunday and Public Holidays south in the morning and north in the afternoon & evenings. Access was controlled by boom gates and lights.. I found that living in Adelaide I could visit the south coast region for the day on the weekend and use the road for the trips to and from the area. I thought of it like the eight lane Sydney Harbour Bridge where the use of overhead green arrow light or red cross control the use of lanes 3,4,5 & 6
When the NG lines to Mt Gambier was converted to BG the thinking in the ‘50s was to introduce SG to all railways and so the iron sleepers had extra holes for SG conversion. If you see any remaining iron sleepers look for the extra holes. Now you can get concrete sleepers with extra Pandrol clips. BTW there was a daily train from Snuggery to Albury where there is a newspaper plant.
Neither AN or V/Line wanted to pay for the line between Heywood and Mt Gambier to be converted to SG. Scott's Transport wanted the line to remain open as there was future growth for woodchips as well as other products which ended up on the road.
With the NBN giving people in larger towns the ability to grow an economy where they live a new aka Bluebird type service 3 times a week to Barossa , MG , Port Lincoln and the Riverland should reopen. We would have less road deaths from drivers hitting the increased amount of Heavy haulage on the Highways. Small freight could be dropped in a wagon. The access to Specialist surgery in Hospitals for country people can occur by catching Rail
For a nation who relies heavily in Air travel where there are only 2 international/domestic airports with parallel runways, I don’t hold my breath in anything positive being built, unless major kickbacks are provided to the government.
Hi Aussie Wirraway, Can you do a video on converting the Adelaide O'bahn busway to a steel wheeled metro system (train/ heavy rail) with electrified third rail? Nobody talks about converting the Adelaide O'bahn busway to a train/ heavy rail, but this O'bahn conversion to a train has potential to unlock capacity bottlenecks of Adelaide's public transport in the North East. Metro trains on the potential North Eastern suburbs of Adelaide can have only 2 carriage trains operating at high frequency (2 - 7 mins) similar to Helsinki Metro and Vancouver Skytrain (see links below). Metros with medium capacity of 2,000 - 5,000 pph (peak) and grade separation are a viable option for Adelaide's backbone routes. The O'bahn buses and the other bus network can be repurposed as frequent cross city routes to serve the suburbs directly along the East rather than Adelaide CBD on excess which increases systemwide patronage of Adelaide's PT. Frequency is freedom and is very attractive to gaining potential passengers. However, keep in mind that high frequency is more expensive regardless of mode. Buses in mixed traffic or even busways/ BRT can't solve our public transport problems in Adelaide. Metros with only two carriage consists: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki_Metro en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catania_Metro
@@jacintaedwards1123, It's a better option to have an upgraded train network with a bus network redesign to a frequent grid rather than a few pointless slow radial tram lines (1st link below) into Adelaide CBD. Adelaide doesn't need an extended tram network at all besides the Glenelg & Botanic tram lines. Faster trains with station removals, railway crossing removals, station upgrades and connectivity to frequent buses in fully integrated interchanges (2nd link below) are much better than reintroducing expensive trams (1st link below) into Adelaide's suburbs. The Mandurah train line in Perth (2nd link below, 1:35 - 3:30) is an excellent example of how to improve Adelaide's entire train network and public transport in general. Although the 2nd link is dated, it's still a good example. Perth's Joondalup (North) and Mandurah (South) train lines are a success story despite the trains operating in car dependent suburbia. Adelaide is spread out like Perth with similar urban densities, so it makes no sense for the SA government to mess around with trams/ light rail. Trams and the O'bahn busway are overhyped by the media in South Australia while trains get no attention. It's time that people understood that trams/ light rail on street level are rubbish public transport. Trams belong in museums, not on public transport systems. The O'bahn busway should or ideally must be converted to a metro system (heavy rail) with connections to frequent cross city buses. th-cam.com/video/zrNj7b6HNBI/w-d-xo.html ("Change the way South Australia moves" - by DIT South Australia) th-cam.com/video/d0kIYfx0fRI/w-d-xo.html (The great rail infrastructure rip-off) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandurah_railway_line en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joondalup_railway_line
@@michaeleverett1479 Yes, trains trains trains. A train to Greenwith, Mt Barker, Aldinga, Virginia & Aberfoyle Park should be the plan. But who's listening to the public's needs?
@@jacintaedwards1123, An extensive bus network operating as a frequent networked grid covers a much larger area of the city over the same cost as several kilometres of expensive radial tram lines into the CBD. The construction costs of re-purposing an existing roadway (asphalt or concrete) lane for a dedicated bus lane with paint are much cheaper than ripping an existing roadway lane apart, moving the utilities below just to install the steel tracks, then pouring concrete over the steel tracks. Although, there must be ongoing maintenance of the asphalt or concrete roadway surface in order to prevent damage from heavy bus traffic. Operating costs of a rigid bus at 12 m long or even articulated buses at 18 m long along the exclusive bus lane are nowhere near as expensive as operating a tram at 30 m long along a steel track with signalling. A busway/ BRT system (see link below) with buses operating along dedicated bus lanes on the existing road network, high frequencies of 3 - 7.5 minutes, good bus shelters, connectivity with other frequent bus lines (at road intersections) and fast all door boarding can be a solid public transport option. Buses can be very popular if they're done right and are fast enough to compete against the car for an equivalent door to door trip. Most people work, shop, live and play in the suburbs or regional centres, so it makes complete sense to have a public transport system operating as a frequent grid. Busways can connect the suburbs directly without resorting the need to spending so billions on trams/ light rail or even trains/ heavy rail. danco.substack.com/p/why-i-dont-love-light-rail-transit
@@jacintaedwards1123, Trams are an absolute waste of money regardless of the route alignment (see link below). Any government who successfully proposes a tram/ light rail line are an absolute idiot. m.soundcloud.com/theeconomist/why-trams-are-a-waste-of-money
Just for your info. AN did a study in the 1980's at replacing both the Bluebirds and Budd railcars. It found with new stock they could achieve a 15percent return on the investment, (which was better they SNCF achieved with the TGV but the Federal Government would not cough up the money.
SA is the laughing stock of Australia when it comes to public transport. There should be regional passenger trains to Whyalla, Clare, Wallaroo, Renmark & Mt Gambier. And Victor Harbor of course. Buses are limited with passenger numbers and they are dangerous on roads.
In Adelaide, buses operate in mixed traffic, trams recieve no traffic light priority and trains have various stopping patterns on the same train line. Also, the wider bus, tram and train network in Adelaide are much lower than the recommended stop spacing of 400 m - 800 m for buses (busways/ BRT too) or trams/ light rail and 1.5 km - 4 km for trains, metro or other fast average speed and high capacity modes (busways/ BRT and monorail). The slow vehicle average speed for Adelaide's entire PT with poor connectivity, low frequency, horrible door to door average speed and trip time substantially reduces patronage. Totally unacceptable that Adelaide is declared one of the most liveable cities (see link below) in the world, but has third world public transport with high levels of car dependence. The Middle to Outer suburbs of Adelaide are similar to a typical Australian or North American city with excessive sprawl, single use zoning with dead end streets. Copenhagen, Toronto and Vienna (see link below) all have amazing pedestrian and cycling infrastructure with frequent public transport. Adelaide's public transport needs a desperate radical reform to beating road congestion and improving Adelaide's liveability standards with high quality pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. Combine cycling, micromobility and shared use vehicles with public transport to solve the first and last mile problem, then Adelaide's public transport patronage will increase. www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/most-livable-cities-on-earth
@@michaeleverett1479 Can't disagree with any of your comments. There is potential in Adelaide however there is a ton of work needed to bring standards up level with places like Perth, Melbourne & Brisbane. A suburban train service to Virginia is desperately needed. Greenhill road needs a complete re-surface.
@@jacintaedwards1123, Virginia and nearby Outer North Western suburbs in Adelaide have far too few people to sustainably support a train line. Frequent feeder and cross city buses connected towards the Gawler line will work fine for Adelaide's Inner to Outer North. Golden Grove to Salisbury need a new train line with the conservation of the O'bahn guided busway. Converting the O'bahn to a train line by retrofitting the existing corridor and busway stations is challenging, but the conversion should be done in the future to increase system wide capacity. Biarticulated buses on the O'bahn are unsuitable due to their shorter vehicle length, lower capacity and inferior ride quality and lack of future proofing extra capacity. Large biarticulated buses (see link below) branching from O'bahn busway stations are like b-doubles trucks on city streets. The point of buses is for lower capacity trips across the suburbs and flexibility where seldomly needed. Run the Biarticulated buses as a closed busway on the O'bahn concrete guideway with feeder buses, then the Biarticulated buses flexibility is wasted. Bogota, Columbia used Biarticulated buses with 8 lines on their busway to output 40,000 pph with 4 lanes total and expensive signaling just for buses. Even biarticulated buses operating at 1 min frequency is doable, but not ideal due to risks of bus bunching and delays of buses behind. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-articulated_bus
@@michaeleverett1479 Salisbury to Golden Grove? thats crazy. You already have a service on the O-Bahn you can change to rail. Angaston needs to be the Barossa terminus. Nuriootpa is not the heart of the Barossa, that title belongs to Tanunda.
I was originally going to use that news report but I couldn’t find it when putting this video together. Unfortunate that is, but the video is up now so I can’t do much about it
This is a unfortunate thing that had happened the loss of the country rail service in South Australia. This most likely happened through various reasons. Unfortunately it will now be far to costly to redo .
"Acceptable modern standard" What does this even mean in Australia. Does this mean to the same quality as ARTC and Victrack or something significantly better.
A couple of points the railway line from Maroona to Portland is in really bad shape and might see one train a month. The other point is the statement he made about the American Rail net work. The American rail system is first class and is envy of the rest of the world it is Amtrak the government run passenger service that struggles nobody uses it.
See my below proposal of a steel wheeled metro system (electrified third rail) from Oaklands to Salisbury operating on an exclusive right of way with total grade separation. A URL link is provided below for more details on a metro, but that standalone system has a specialised fleet of trains which are totally different from the existing suburban 4000 EMU class trains. The O'bahn busway's concrete is expected to reach end life. This would make it a good opportunity to convert the low capacity O'bahn into a metro system with a modified alignment for higher speeds. Stations are 2 - 5 km apart to give the trains maximum operating speed of 110 - 130 km/h with an average speed of 60 km/h - 80 km/h which is similar to Perth's Mandurah line and San Franciso's BART. Faster public transport systems have high capacity and high average speed, but have poor accessibility and low coverage. Adelaide's bus network needs a redesign to feed or provide cross city transfers into that metro system and existing suburban train lines. My metro system proposal needs bike and ride (bicycle cages), park n rides, ticket machines (before boarding), wide passageways and turnstiles for high volumes and rapid turnovers of passsengers. Some metro stations can come with fully integrated interchanges between existing Seaford and Gawler trains at Oaklands and Salisbury stations respectively. - Metro system Adelaide: www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1CoN3gWHFx4NrNshPKoAK3PZUEwjgnqHm&usp=sharing Perth is a low density city like Adelaide, but an underground airport rail link known as the Forrestfield - Airport Link in Perth is built for at a cost of $1.86 billion (see 1st link below) with 8.2 km in twin bored tunnel with a TBM. The Airport Railway Line in Perth is expected to link the existing Midland line near Bayswater station with an opening date of around late 2021 (see 2nd link below). This project includes 3 underground stations, railway track, ventilation, overhead wires, electrical power, signialing, stairs, esclators/ lifts, passageways, turnstiles all for $1.86 billion. The Airport Railway Tunnel tunnel in Perth comes at $226.8 million/km. A technically challenging project for Perth's airport rail link at reasonable price. - www.forrestfieldairportlink.wa.gov.au/ - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_railway_line,_Perth We need to stop messing around with proprietary O'bahn busways and snail at grade trams. What must be done in Adelaide is to get proper contractors who can quickly and properly construct passenger railway tunnels at reasonable prices (per km) as seen in Perth, Australia and other countries China, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain just to name a few. Adelaide definitely should commit to an underground airport rail link with a steel wheeled metro system while converting the O'bahn to a metro for a fast cross city North East and South West railway corridor.
Again I agree with you, the Trams and O-bahn could be described as medium density transport. From what I remember the trams have a peak hour capacity of 1000 people and hour where’s an underground metro line has a capacity of 20,000 people an hour. There’s even the start of a metro tunnel in the city underneath one of the universities.
@@Adelaide_Transit, Fully grade separated railway systems either trams/ light rail or trains/ heavy rail both have potential for high capacity as long there's long platforms and high capacity signaling. Any at grade railway can't match the safety and high capacity of a grade separated railway system due various railway crossings which affects road, pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Most metro systems (see 1st link below) have level high floored steel wheeled rolling stock where large stations have escalators, stairs, lifts, passageways, turnstiles and large platforms to safely accommodate a large turnover of passengers from the trains. Hence, why grade separated metros can easily output high frequency (3 min - 5 min) and high capacity per unit and per hour even with one track per direction. Although, there're busway/ BRT systems in Bogota, Curitiba and Sao Paulo that use biarticulated buses with train like platforms for a rapid turnover of passengers. Proponents of busways/ BRT don't mention is that for buses to carry an 40,000 pph, buses must have exclusive right of way with lots of grade separated infrastructure, 2 bus lanes per direction, park n rides, bike n rides and high capacity signaling. Most cities don't have the space to construct a 4 lane busway like in Bogota. A wide arterial road with a 4 lane busway destroys the pedestrian environment (see 2nd link below). Not much is saved when building a high capacity busway/ BRT over a railway system. Higher frequency substantially increases operating costs regardless of bus or rail. More vehicles in the public transport system results in higher labour with more drivers and higher maintenance costs. The O'bahn guided busway is a direct imitation of a conventional railway system, but with lower capacity vehicles running on very complicated bus routes. A complex hub and spoke system of the O'bahn guided busway lowers its patronage. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro_systems www.thetransportpolitic.com/2011/05/25/the-silly-argument-over-brt-and-rail/
And there's not ever a train to Mount Barker, which is about 40 km South East from Adelaide and has a booming population. Mount Gambier can b the end projective goal, and is done in small steps (Barker, Murray Bridge etc)
It will happen about 5 years after we all get flying cars. Won't happen, if anything the Overlander will be shutdown and end any regional SA trains. Then you have Scott Truck Co. I'm sure they would not have any lobbyists blocking any competition in S.A. parliament.
Nice video, I've been enjoying them. So, I would have thought the reason there are no trains to Mt Gambier is that it is tiny (what, 30,000) and in the middle of nowhere (something like 400k from Adelaide?). I mean, the cost of building and maintaining a railway between those cities would be astronomical, especially when there is both so little freight and passenger traffic. I mean, my suburb has more people than Mt Gambia. In comparison, I now live in Manchester which has around 3 million in the general area. You could count more, but then you start hitting Liverpool's population which is around 2 million. You see, Liverpool is right next door to Manchester, only 54km apart, that's why there's a rail link (the world's first ever rail link too) - in fact, there's more than one and another new one is being planned. Rail needs density, high populations and short distances to work. None of this is part of South Australia's urban fabric.
Worlds first ever rail link? Nope, worlds first railway was actually Canterbury to Barnstaple. If you live in Manchester why would anyone want to travel to a shitty miserable place like Liverpool, its depressing like Blackpool. Firstly, you'll never get a Adel to Mt Gambier service ever again. Southern Cross to Mt Gambier (V Line) yes that would work well as Victorians are the biggest users of trains in the southern hemisphere.
@@garynewton1263 Yep, first true passenger railway line was between Liverpool and Manchester. It was the first scheduled service, the first with train stations, the first fully locomotive, the first double track, the first with signalling. It was the first railway line. Secondly, perhaps you may not want to travel to Liverpool, but a huge number of people do, including those who commute between the cities. Liverpool is also a beautiful city, with fantastic night life, a great cultural scene and fantastic architecture. Each to their own, but damn, it's still a stupid thing to say "who would want to travel there" considering how busy the route between MCR & LVP is.
@@joc6516 people bag different cities all over the world. First railway was Canterbury to Barnstaple, I read about it in the1970s and I just googled it. So sorry you're wrong. Stepehenson's Rocket operated on the Canterbury to Barnstaple line.
@@joc6516 And by the way, as far as cities go, make sure you find out what they are really like. Worlds most beautiful and cleanest cities mean the whole metro area, not just a small section of CBD. So, having said that the greatest cities are: Oslo, Copenhagen, Osaka, Marseille, Barcelona, Melbourne, Vienna, Geneva, Milan, Prague, Montreal, Wellington, Singapore. In Australia, its clearly Melbourne, Perth & Brisbane.
@@garynewton1263 Excellent, you googled it, but you didn't provide links. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article that says this: "The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first inter-city railway in the world. Opened on 15 September 1830. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively on locomotives driven by steam power, with no horse-drawn traffic permitted at any time; the first to be entirely double track throughout its length; the first to have a signalling system; the first to be fully timetabled." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway Now, there were indeed older rails that existed before the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Rails have existed in many forms for over a thousand years. But these were not railways as we know them today, nor were they passenger railways. They were usually made of wood, carts were pulled by horses at walking pace, there were no scheduled services, no train stations and no signalling. As for the Stephenson Rocket ;) Nice try there. But that locomotive is famous for being made for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Here is another Wikipedia Link. Looking forward to yours saying it was made for the Canterbury to Barnstaple line :) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenson%27s_Rocket the great thing about googling something and saying you're right and someone else is wrong, is separating those that do so whilst providing links. Of course, once Stephenson's Rocket became outdated on the Liverpool to Manchester Railway, it was sold off and who knows, maybe at some point it ended up on the Canterbury to Barnstaple line...
I'd support a passenger service from Southern Cross to Mt Gambier but only if they implement a Horsham and Mildura service first. Mount Gambier is an awesome city to visit and leaves shitty adelaide for dead. V/Line trains to Mount Gambier.....YES. And the funny thing is most people in Mount Gambier are pretty much default Victorians anyway as they have a closer relationship to Melbourne than adelaide. Get it done state govt.
@@lachlantaylor552 still close to where it was in the video before. Mawson lakes is around the extent of the works for now, but the Overhead wires seem to be going in around Kilburn. Project seems on track still however
It wasn't done, ...because of total lack of vision by respective Sth. Australian governments over the years. Nothing has changed here, they are still stuck in the past with that stupid 5'3" guage!!
For many years the local Mt Gambier newspaper was owned by the local trucking company. That meant strong local media opposition or indifference to the regauging of the Mt Gambier line.
While they're at it, get a rail link to Adelaide for passenger use, if you can get it to a fast enough standard people could commute to work in Adelaide from Mt. Gambier, now that would be a sight. (Oh and a train to Murray Bridge, could do with one of those anyway)
Victor Harbor, Whyalla, Clare, Renmark & Wallaroo also.
@@jacintaedwards1123 The Rail Tourist Association tried to operate a tour to Barmera but it didn’t proceed for some reason. After the Granville train disaster in Sydney AN got difficult about operating wooden carriages. Towards the end they didn’t want to operate specials anyway.
Agree about Murray Bridge, its big enough to warrant a train service but it would be serviced by a Mt Gambier train anyway. As for Mt Gambier people commuting to work in adelaide.....why would they be so stupid? Whats good about adelaide? Melbourne is actually easier to get to than adelaide anyway. Mt Gambier leaves Adelaide for dead for quality of life!
Can anyone say A line?
Won't happen (adel to Mt Gambier), south australian governments and the people themselves don't give a rats arse about anything. You'd have more chance of an international airport being built on Antartica.
V/Line service Southern Cross to Mt Gambier would definitely work, Mt Gambier people have always been more closely linked with Melbourne than Adelaide anyway.
Dude, well done. Keep doing videos like this. Highly enjoyable.
Would be very keen for a video on the reversable era of the Southern Expressway! Pretty sure it was quite unique globally
Very informative, however the only thing I would pick on is that freight from Melbourne to Perth did not switch wagons in Adelaide, but rather the bogie wheelsets were changed on each.this generally added about 8 hours to the passage through Adelaide. It was also a condition of Federal funding for the SE line to be made broad gauge back in the day, that it would be up to SA to fund if there was ever to be a change of gauge again, which obviously didn’t happen. Also, a lot of pressure applied by large road transport operator in Mt G to get rid of the trains, and their competition!
Thanks for the video.Very interesting information. I'd been told that certain large scale road hauliers also had an input into the decision to scrap rail into the Mount. The rest of the world is building high speed rail infrastructure, unfortunately Australia as a nation lags behind woefully.
Hopefully it can be reactivated one day soon, but we’ll have to see
An maglev train travelling at 600 km/h top speed from Melbourne to Sydney can be a viable option as long the maglev line is fully elevated with very gentle curves. China is developing a maglev prototype (1st link below) capable of travelling 600 km/h which is similar in design to the German Transrapid maglev (2nd link below). The distance from Melbourne to Sydney of 870 km is simply too great to be used by conventional high speed trains travelling at a top speed of 350 km/h. A steel wheeled high speed train from Melbourne to Sydney is expected to take 3 - 3.5 hours (on the train) which is slower than an aeroplane. Melbourne to Sydney and Sydney to Brisbane are one of the busiest airline routes in the world. Therefore, high speed rail from Melbourne to Sydney and Sydney to Brisbane are unsuitable given their vast distances and uncompetitive travel times when compared to the plane.
Maglev links:
edition.cnn.com/travel/article/china-highspeed-maglev-prototype/index.html
www.monorailsaustralia.com.au/maglev.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_maglev_train
@@michaeleverett1479 maglev doesn’t need curves to be as gentle as with regular HSR
Thanks AW for a timely and informative video!
Nice summary of the history of this line and the current moves to get the line to Wolseley re-gauged and reinvigorated for freight.
Note that at this stage, there's no talk of reinstating passenger rail, but once the line is operational, you never know.
Also worth noting that the line through the city centre would not be activated (ie. no disruption to the wonderful walking & cycling track) as the plan is to look at an intermodal terminal on the Eastern side of the city.
Community support will be important for convincing the pollies and bureaucrats that this project should happen, so let's hope there are plenty of vocal folks out there who willing to have their say on this important issue.
Certainly, I don't think I covered it all in the video but yeah they are very decent plans to take the line back to the eastern outskirts and maybe even further west in future. I'm glad you enjoyed the video, I hope to make more about transport in Mount Gambier and the south east soon
What AN did was reduce the daily Bluebird to around 3 days a week, thus patronage dropped and AN could point to falling passenger numbers. In the seventies there was an overnight mixed which was an AD (I think) attached to a goods train. Alas I never rode on it. I did go to Kingston and Millicent and one day the RTA operated a Bluebird to Portland. It was driven by a SA loco instructor and a VR pilot and it tooted the long short long whistle code on level crossings in Victoria.
Even though I live in Sydney, I really feel sorry for Mount Gambier. However, if you look at the 7 states/NT second largest city in each one, you'll notice that Mount Gambier is the second smallest in population at just under 30,000 compared with Gold Coast QLD 700,000; Newcastle NSW just under 500,000; Geelong Vic around 280,000; Launceston Tas just under 90,000; Bunbury WA around 75,000 and Alice Springs NT around 26,000. So I'm guessing they may not get enough people to use it. Secondly, there's the distance, if you compare with the cities already mentioned from their largest city, Mount Gambier comes in second last at 450 km from Adelaide compared with Gold Coast 66 km, Geelong 72 km, Newcastle 162 km, Bunbury 175 km, Launceston 198 km and Alice Springs 1500 km; which means it's going to be time consuming, not to mention the cost of maintaining the track to to with the distance. Then there's the service and the trains itself; the Newcastle from Sydney service is the best with the proposed 10 car NIF Double deck D-Sets and have trains every hour or less. Geelong from Melbourne service is really good with 6 car single deck V/Locitys and have trains every 20 or 40 minutes. Gold Coast from Brisbane service is moderately good with 6 car single deck NGRs and have trains every 30 minutes, but remains underdeveloped as it needs to go to the Airport. Bunbury to Perth service is below average with the Australind only having a twice a day run, while Alice Springs has the twice a week Ghan and Launceston has none from Hobart, so it means Mount Gambier ranks equal last with Launceston on this occasion. A recent article in the ABC website indicates a proposal to build a freight only train line to Mount Gambier and along the line to Heywood, however, passenger trains were only mentioned as a "Long way off". Great video by the way and fingers crossed it may come back in the future.
You forgot one thing. Mount Gambier is more closely linked to Melbourne than adelaide.
A Southern Cross to Mt Gambier V/Line service would be a great success.
Mount Gambier people are Victorians by default as the Wood and Dairy industries dictate this.
South Australian govetnments couldn't run a kids birthday party.
Run the train from Ararat down to Hamilton through Dartmoor and Heywood.
When I'm back living in Melbourne later this year, if there was a train service (V line) to Mt Gambier I'd definitely make that trip a few times a year.
Even for holidays coming from Adelaide takes 4.5hours by road , train would help the South East income because more tourists will speed.
I'm amazed that the study showed it would be economical to run a Mt Gambier-Melbourne service when you consider the convoluted route it would have to take from Heywood. Perhaps the success of such a project would finally convince the Victorian government to extend the South-West Line to Heywood.
For freight it's not as big or an issue really
Why not Portland where it used to run to? Portland is much bigger than Heywood.
@@jacintaedwards1123 The South West Line never ran further than Port Fairy. The Portland Line runs up through Hamilton to join the Western Line near Ararat. Joining the SW Line to the Mt Gambier-Heywood line would be much easier than either having to have the locomotive change ends at the Portland railhead, or acquire land to construct a loop to get out of Portland without switching. Thinking about the lay of the lines in Portland, you’d probably have to build either reclaim the shunting yards from whoever is using them to store logs if you wanted to go the end-switching solution, or build a loop quite distant from the centre of town (like, somewhere around Westlakes Road).
@@shrikelet Yes I know Portland branched at Ararat. Mt Gambier isn't part of Victoria so I doubt whether that would happen. Portland deserves a regional train service as does Leongatha, Bright, Echuca, Mildura, Mansfield & Robinvale.
@@jacintaedwards1123 The original Mt Gambier-Heywood line was built by Victorian Railways. And too right! The decay of regional railways in Victoria is a disgrace. Country people are woefully underserved by PT.
Hi There Aussie Wirraway, great video and loved it. When could we see a extension of Belair line go to mount barker? In fact even an extension of Gawler line to Barossa Valley? One thing I want to see is a further extension on one of the lines, either seafood to Aldinga, or Gawler to Barossa or Belair to Mount Barker. The current extension of flinders line is great but for such a short distance, I want to see long distance extensions.
of all your suggestions only an extension to Aldinga is likely atm, and a Barossa tourist train probably has about a 20% chance of occurring. Fast rail to mount barker is unlikely to ever occur in my opinion as Mount barker would need a population approaching 100k to justify it (has about 30K now)
@@AussieWirraway thank for your response appreciate your answer. Was very useful to hear
@@AussieWirraway, Here's the population of towns within Greater Adelaide with recent data from 205 - 2018 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics:
North of Gawler line
- Lyndoch: 2,000
- Barossa Valley (Tununda): 4,600
- Nuriootpa: 6,314
- Angaston: 2,095
- Greenrock: 1,087
South of Seaford line
- Maslin Beach: 1,152
- McLaren Vale: 3,096
- Aldinga: 573
- Aldinga Beach: 12,345
South East
- Stirling: 2,966
- Bridgewater: 3,498
- Aldgate: 3,200
- Handorf: 2,670
- Mount Barker: 18,000
- Strathalbyn: 6,500
Population doesn't always tell the passenger demand of the system. What drives public transport use are adequate frequency, decent capacity, good average speed door to door against the car, reasonable trip time for the distance and land use around transport hubs. Zoning of stations of train, busway or any other mode are also extremely important and should never be overlooked.
This video is great, your channel deserves to blow up.
This is the only South Australian city I’ve been to and it’s pretty cool
Yeah it's alright, needs a train though!
I'm from Melbourne, lived in Adelaide 5 years. Stayed in Mount Gambier many times since 1995. I can categorically state that Mt Gambier leaves Adelaide for dead for living standards, weather and people.
the Bluebird used to be way cool!
Adelaide to
- Moonta
- Broken Hill
- Burra
- Morgan
- Port Pirie
- Whyalla
I went on it quite a few times before I had a car
people would use it if it was there
Naracoorte would have to be bypassed due to development on the corridor but at station and freight centre could be re established at Hynam ( QUBE logistics has. Truck only one across from the meat works). The line could be kept seperate from Wolseley to Bordertown to make recreating the junction easier. The amount of grain that travels through western Victoria & the mallee in SA to Portland would create tons of freight/ cash
There used to be a BG freight from Snuggery to Wodonga which carried newspaper rolls. Presumably shipped by road to Table Top.
I'm from the mount, and I've always just figured it was because of the small minded people running the state.
not wrong...
Agreed, the small minded people are all in Adelaide. I'm from Melbourne, lived here 5 years and never lived in a more narrowminded, childish, backward & illogical place like this where the catchcry is "Its all Victoria's fault". If Adelaide people are proud of their roads, drivers and shitty food then thay says a lot about the genetics of the place.
@@jacintaedwards1123 excuse me what?
@@jacintaedwards1123 your whole channel consists of hating on adelaide LMAO
@@ItAbel-xy3xk really? So nothing in adelaide needs attention? Leave the roads as they are? Maintain exorbitent utility prices? Don't build train services to suburbs that need them? Dont touch Adelaide train station coz its dark, dirty, gloomy and creepy? Don't plant more trees? Don't encourage adelaide people to use public transport? Basically, better to leave things the way they are and keep adelaide as a backward, dull, expensive, bumpy, miserable place that it is or the pessimistic childish people of adelaide will have a cry and get really upset because they don't want to be sucessful like Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane.
I’d like to see this, the Barossa line, kapunda line, mt barker, victor habor, the iron triangle and mt gambier would be amazing and would reduce our carbon footprint
I wonder what would happen if the line between Mount Gambier and Wolseley was reopened? Sure that would be quite interesting but would freight still run along the current into Victoria? (via Serviceton, Kaniva, Nhill, Dimboola)
"No, not *that* One Nation!"
Just a point - Bluebirds were Diesel Hydraulic like the Red Hens, not Diesel Electric.
the one way freeway was a reversable road that had a timetable of going north on weekday mornings ,south on weekday afternoons and evening, Saturday , Sunday and Public Holidays south in the morning and north in the afternoon & evenings. Access was controlled by boom gates and lights.. I found that living in Adelaide I could visit the south coast region for the day on the weekend and use the road for the trips to and from the area. I thought of it like the eight lane Sydney Harbour Bridge where the use of overhead green arrow light or red cross control the use of lanes 3,4,5 & 6
When the NG lines to Mt Gambier was converted to BG the thinking in the ‘50s was to introduce SG to all railways and so the iron sleepers had extra holes for SG conversion. If you see any remaining iron sleepers look for the extra holes. Now you can get concrete sleepers with extra Pandrol clips.
BTW there was a daily train from Snuggery to Albury where there is a newspaper plant.
Can you do a video on trains that used to run from adelaide to Terowie in the midnorth?
Neither AN or V/Line wanted to pay for the line between Heywood and Mt Gambier to be converted to SG. Scott's Transport wanted the line to remain open as there was future growth for woodchips as well as other products which ended up on the road.
now trucking companies make more $$$ carting freight that should be moved on rail instead.
Is there anything going to happen about the rail line to Gawler?
With the NBN giving people in larger towns the ability to grow an economy where they live a new aka Bluebird type service 3 times a week to Barossa , MG , Port Lincoln and the Riverland should reopen. We would have less road deaths from drivers hitting the increased amount of Heavy haulage on the Highways. Small freight could be dropped in a wagon. The access to Specialist surgery in Hospitals for country people can occur by catching Rail
Why did you do your video at Belair Railway station of the bluebird?
You can find a photo of the last train here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Gambier_railway_line#/media/File:GM_class_loco-Australian_National.jpg
For a nation who relies heavily in Air travel where there are only 2 international/domestic airports with parallel runways, I don’t hold my breath in anything positive being built, unless major kickbacks are provided to the government.
Hi Aussie Wirraway,
Can you do a video on converting the Adelaide O'bahn busway to a steel wheeled metro system (train/ heavy rail) with electrified third rail? Nobody talks about converting the Adelaide O'bahn busway to a train/ heavy rail, but this O'bahn conversion to a train has potential to unlock capacity bottlenecks of Adelaide's public transport in the North East.
Metro trains on the potential North Eastern suburbs of Adelaide can have only 2 carriage trains operating at high frequency (2 - 7 mins) similar to Helsinki Metro and Vancouver Skytrain (see links below). Metros with medium capacity of 2,000 - 5,000 pph (peak) and grade separation are a viable option for Adelaide's backbone routes. The O'bahn buses and the other bus network can be repurposed as frequent cross city routes to serve the suburbs directly along the East rather than Adelaide CBD on excess which increases systemwide patronage of Adelaide's PT. Frequency is freedom and is very attractive to gaining potential passengers. However, keep in mind that high frequency is more expensive regardless of mode. Buses in mixed traffic or even busways/ BRT can't solve our public transport problems in Adelaide.
Metros with only two carriage consists:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki_Metro
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver)
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catania_Metro
Excellent idea. Suburban trains to Greenwith. Trains carry for more people than buses. And the infrastructure is already there to lay train tracks.
@@jacintaedwards1123, It's a better option to have an upgraded train network with a bus network redesign to a frequent grid rather than a few pointless slow radial tram lines (1st link below) into Adelaide CBD. Adelaide doesn't need an extended tram network at all besides the Glenelg & Botanic tram lines. Faster trains with station removals, railway crossing removals, station upgrades and connectivity to frequent buses in fully integrated interchanges (2nd link below) are much better than reintroducing expensive trams (1st link below) into Adelaide's suburbs.
The Mandurah train line in Perth (2nd link below, 1:35 - 3:30) is an excellent example of how to improve Adelaide's entire train network and public transport in general. Although the 2nd link is dated, it's still a good example. Perth's Joondalup (North) and Mandurah (South) train lines are a success story despite the trains operating in car dependent suburbia. Adelaide is spread out like Perth with similar urban densities, so it makes no sense for the SA government to mess around with trams/ light rail.
Trams and the O'bahn busway are overhyped by the media in South Australia while trains get no attention. It's time that people understood that trams/ light rail on street level are rubbish public transport. Trams belong in museums, not on public transport systems. The O'bahn busway should or ideally must be converted to a metro system (heavy rail) with connections to frequent cross city buses.
th-cam.com/video/zrNj7b6HNBI/w-d-xo.html ("Change the way South Australia moves" - by DIT South Australia)
th-cam.com/video/d0kIYfx0fRI/w-d-xo.html (The great rail infrastructure rip-off)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandurah_railway_line
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joondalup_railway_line
@@michaeleverett1479 Yes, trains trains trains. A train to Greenwith, Mt Barker, Aldinga, Virginia & Aberfoyle Park should be the plan. But who's listening to the public's needs?
@@jacintaedwards1123, An extensive bus network operating as a frequent networked grid covers a much larger area of the city over the same cost as several kilometres of expensive radial tram lines into the CBD. The construction costs of re-purposing an existing roadway (asphalt or concrete) lane for a dedicated bus lane with paint are much cheaper than ripping an existing roadway lane apart, moving the utilities below just to install the steel tracks, then pouring concrete over the steel tracks. Although, there must be ongoing maintenance of the asphalt or concrete roadway surface in order to prevent damage from heavy bus traffic. Operating costs of a rigid bus at 12 m long or even articulated buses at 18 m long along the exclusive bus lane are nowhere near as expensive as operating a tram at 30 m long along a steel track with signalling.
A busway/ BRT system (see link below) with buses operating along dedicated bus lanes on the existing road network, high frequencies of 3 - 7.5 minutes, good bus shelters, connectivity with other frequent bus lines (at road intersections) and fast all door boarding can be a solid public transport option. Buses can be very popular if they're done right and are fast enough to compete against the car for an equivalent door to door trip. Most people work, shop, live and play in the suburbs or regional centres, so it makes complete sense to have a public transport system operating as a frequent grid. Busways can connect the suburbs directly without resorting the need to spending so billions on trams/ light rail or even trains/ heavy rail.
danco.substack.com/p/why-i-dont-love-light-rail-transit
@@jacintaedwards1123, Trams are an absolute waste of money regardless of the route alignment (see link below). Any government who successfully proposes a tram/ light rail line are an absolute idiot.
m.soundcloud.com/theeconomist/why-trams-are-a-waste-of-money
Great Video! You explain everything so well -keep it up AW!
Trivia, Millicent was the longest distance by BG from Adelaide.
The Bluebird railcars were not diesel electric. They were diesel hydraulic.
Thanks for correcting me, I really should have looked into that before recording, as I just just assumed they were diesel electric
Interesting. They were good looking trains.
Just for your info. AN did a study in the 1980's at replacing both the Bluebirds and Budd railcars. It found with new stock they could achieve a 15percent return on the investment, (which was better they SNCF achieved with the TGV but the Federal Government would not cough up the money.
SA is the laughing stock of Australia when it comes to public transport. There should be regional passenger trains to Whyalla, Clare, Wallaroo, Renmark & Mt Gambier. And Victor Harbor of course. Buses are limited with passenger numbers and they are dangerous on roads.
In Adelaide, buses operate in mixed traffic, trams recieve no traffic light priority and trains have various stopping patterns on the same train line. Also, the wider bus, tram and train network in Adelaide are much lower than the recommended stop spacing of 400 m - 800 m for buses (busways/ BRT too) or trams/ light rail and 1.5 km - 4 km for trains, metro or other fast average speed and high capacity modes (busways/ BRT and monorail). The slow vehicle average speed for Adelaide's entire PT with poor connectivity, low frequency, horrible door to door average speed and trip time substantially reduces patronage. Totally unacceptable that Adelaide is declared one of the most liveable cities (see link below) in the world, but has third world public transport with high levels of car dependence. The Middle to Outer suburbs of Adelaide are similar to a typical Australian or North American city with excessive sprawl, single use zoning with dead end streets. Copenhagen, Toronto and Vienna (see link below) all have amazing pedestrian and cycling infrastructure with frequent public transport. Adelaide's public transport needs a desperate radical reform to beating road congestion and improving Adelaide's liveability standards with high quality pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. Combine cycling, micromobility and shared use vehicles with public transport to solve the first and last mile problem, then Adelaide's public transport patronage will increase.
www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/most-livable-cities-on-earth
@@michaeleverett1479 Can't disagree with any of your comments. There is potential in Adelaide however there is a ton of work needed to bring standards up level with places like Perth, Melbourne & Brisbane. A suburban train service to Virginia is desperately needed. Greenhill road needs a complete re-surface.
@@jacintaedwards1123, Virginia and nearby Outer North Western suburbs in Adelaide have far too few people to sustainably support a train line. Frequent feeder and cross city buses connected towards the Gawler line will work fine for Adelaide's Inner to Outer North. Golden Grove to Salisbury need a new train line with the conservation of the O'bahn guided busway. Converting the O'bahn to a train line by retrofitting the existing corridor and busway stations is challenging, but the conversion should be done in the future to increase system wide capacity. Biarticulated buses on the O'bahn are unsuitable due to their shorter vehicle length, lower capacity and inferior ride quality and lack of future proofing extra capacity. Large biarticulated buses (see link below) branching from O'bahn busway stations are like b-doubles trucks on city streets. The point of buses is for lower capacity trips across the suburbs and flexibility where seldomly needed. Run the Biarticulated buses as a closed busway on the O'bahn concrete guideway with feeder buses, then the Biarticulated buses flexibility is wasted. Bogota, Columbia used Biarticulated buses with 8 lines on their busway to output 40,000 pph with 4 lanes total and expensive signaling just for buses. Even biarticulated buses operating at 1 min frequency is doable, but not ideal due to risks of bus bunching and delays of buses behind.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-articulated_bus
@@michaeleverett1479 No disagree. I work with a lady who lives in Virginia and she tells me Virginia, Bolivar and Two Wells need train services.
@@michaeleverett1479 Salisbury to Golden Grove? thats crazy. You already have a service on the O-Bahn you can change to rail. Angaston needs to be the Barossa terminus. Nuriootpa is not the heart of the Barossa, that title belongs to Tanunda.
Cool video!! I thought you might have used my clip of the trains from 1990
Just google Blue Lake train service
I was originally going to use that news report but I couldn’t find it when putting this video together. Unfortunate that is, but the video is up now so I can’t do much about it
@@AussieWirraway Ahh no worries! Good content :)
@@adelaidecrowsrdabest thank you!
awesome video!
This is a unfortunate thing that had happened the loss of the country rail service in South Australia. This most likely happened through various reasons. Unfortunately it will now be far to costly to redo .
"Acceptable modern standard" What does this even mean in Australia. Does this mean to the same quality as ARTC and Victrack or something significantly better.
I never known that thanks m8
a service linked to Victoria would not surprise me but roads are winning all the federal funding now days
250/280/100 class or Bluebird railcars, like the 300/400 Redhen railcars, were diesel hydraulic NOT diesel electric!
Cool video!
Thanks!
correction the bluebird trains aren't diesel electric they're full diesel in fact most long distance trains are full diesel
Ok the train station stoped years ago and it’s now a public park
Ask the South Australian Government,and the Victorian Government,as well!.
Should just pull everything up and replace it with standard gauge.
A couple of points the railway line from Maroona to Portland is in really bad shape and might see one train a month. The other point is the statement he made about the American Rail net work. The American rail system is first class and is envy of the rest of the world it is Amtrak the government run passenger service that struggles nobody uses it.
See my below proposal of a steel wheeled metro system (electrified third rail) from Oaklands to Salisbury operating on an exclusive right of way with total grade separation. A URL link is provided below for more details on a metro, but that standalone system has a specialised fleet of trains which are totally different from the existing suburban 4000 EMU class trains. The O'bahn busway's concrete is expected to reach end life. This would make it a good opportunity to convert the low capacity O'bahn into a metro system with a modified alignment for higher speeds. Stations are 2 - 5 km apart to give the trains maximum operating speed of 110 - 130 km/h with an average speed of 60 km/h - 80 km/h which is similar to Perth's Mandurah line and San Franciso's BART. Faster public transport systems have high capacity and high average speed, but have poor accessibility and low coverage. Adelaide's bus network needs a redesign to feed or provide cross city transfers into that metro system and existing suburban train lines. My metro system proposal needs bike and ride (bicycle cages), park n rides, ticket machines (before boarding), wide passageways and turnstiles for high volumes and rapid turnovers of passsengers. Some metro stations can come with fully integrated interchanges between existing Seaford and Gawler trains at Oaklands and Salisbury stations respectively.
- Metro system Adelaide: www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1CoN3gWHFx4NrNshPKoAK3PZUEwjgnqHm&usp=sharing
Perth is a low density city like Adelaide, but an underground airport rail link known as the Forrestfield - Airport Link in Perth is built for at a cost of $1.86 billion (see 1st link below) with 8.2 km in twin bored tunnel with a TBM. The Airport Railway Line in Perth is expected to link the existing Midland line near Bayswater station with an opening date of around late 2021 (see 2nd link below). This project includes 3 underground stations, railway track, ventilation, overhead wires, electrical power, signialing, stairs, esclators/ lifts, passageways, turnstiles all for $1.86 billion. The Airport Railway Tunnel tunnel in Perth comes at $226.8 million/km. A technically challenging project for Perth's airport rail link at reasonable price.
- www.forrestfieldairportlink.wa.gov.au/
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_railway_line,_Perth
We need to stop messing around with proprietary O'bahn busways and snail at grade trams. What must be done in Adelaide is to get proper contractors who can quickly and properly construct passenger railway tunnels at reasonable prices (per km) as seen in Perth, Australia and other countries China, France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain just to name a few. Adelaide definitely should commit to an underground airport rail link with a steel wheeled metro system while converting the O'bahn to a metro for a fast cross city North East and South West railway corridor.
Again I agree with you, the Trams and O-bahn could be described as medium density transport. From what I remember the trams have a peak hour capacity of 1000 people and hour where’s an underground metro line has a capacity of 20,000 people an hour. There’s even the start of a metro tunnel in the city underneath one of the universities.
@@Adelaide_Transit, Fully grade separated railway systems either trams/ light rail or trains/ heavy rail both have potential for high capacity as long there's long platforms and high capacity signaling. Any at grade railway can't match the safety and high capacity of a grade separated railway system due various railway crossings which affects road, pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Most metro systems (see 1st link below) have level high floored steel wheeled rolling stock where large stations have escalators, stairs, lifts, passageways, turnstiles and large platforms to safely accommodate a large turnover of passengers from the trains. Hence, why grade separated metros can easily output high frequency (3 min - 5 min) and high capacity per unit and per hour even with one track per direction. Although, there're busway/ BRT systems in Bogota, Curitiba and Sao Paulo that use biarticulated buses with train like platforms for a rapid turnover of passengers. Proponents of busways/ BRT don't mention is that for buses to carry an 40,000 pph, buses must have exclusive right of way with lots of grade separated infrastructure, 2 bus lanes per direction, park n rides, bike n rides and high capacity signaling. Most cities don't have the space to construct a 4 lane busway like in Bogota. A wide arterial road with a 4 lane busway destroys the pedestrian environment (see 2nd link below). Not much is saved when building a high capacity busway/ BRT over a railway system. Higher frequency substantially increases operating costs regardless of bus or rail. More vehicles in the public transport system results in higher labour with more drivers and higher maintenance costs. The O'bahn guided busway is a direct imitation of a conventional railway system, but with lower capacity vehicles running on very complicated bus routes. A complex hub and spoke system of the O'bahn guided busway lowers its patronage.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metro_systems
www.thetransportpolitic.com/2011/05/25/the-silly-argument-over-brt-and-rail/
And there's not ever a train to Mount Barker, which is about 40 km South East from Adelaide and has a booming population. Mount Gambier can b the end projective goal, and is done in small steps (Barker, Murray Bridge etc)
Southern Cross to Mt Gambier should happen. Victoria should take over Mt Gambier and run it through Hamilton and Portland.
It will happen about 5 years after we all get flying cars. Won't happen, if anything the Overlander will be shutdown and end any regional SA trains. Then you have Scott Truck Co. I'm sure they would not have any lobbyists blocking any competition in S.A. parliament.
its almost 2025 and the only chance of rail to mt gambier is my dad telling a story of how he took the bluebird in the 80s
Nice video, I've been enjoying them. So, I would have thought the reason there are no trains to Mt Gambier is that it is tiny (what, 30,000) and in the middle of nowhere (something like 400k from Adelaide?). I mean, the cost of building and maintaining a railway between those cities would be astronomical, especially when there is both so little freight and passenger traffic. I mean, my suburb has more people than Mt Gambia.
In comparison, I now live in Manchester which has around 3 million in the general area. You could count more, but then you start hitting Liverpool's population which is around 2 million. You see, Liverpool is right next door to Manchester, only 54km apart, that's why there's a rail link (the world's first ever rail link too) - in fact, there's more than one and another new one is being planned. Rail needs density, high populations and short distances to work. None of this is part of South Australia's urban fabric.
Worlds first ever rail link? Nope, worlds first railway was actually Canterbury to Barnstaple.
If you live in Manchester why would anyone want to travel to a shitty miserable place like Liverpool, its depressing like Blackpool.
Firstly, you'll never get a Adel to Mt Gambier service ever again.
Southern Cross to Mt Gambier (V Line) yes that would work well as Victorians are the biggest users of trains in the southern hemisphere.
@@garynewton1263 Yep, first true passenger railway line was between Liverpool and Manchester. It was the first scheduled service, the first with train stations, the first fully locomotive, the first double track, the first with signalling. It was the first railway line. Secondly, perhaps you may not want to travel to Liverpool, but a huge number of people do, including those who commute between the cities. Liverpool is also a beautiful city, with fantastic night life, a great cultural scene and fantastic architecture. Each to their own, but damn, it's still a stupid thing to say "who would want to travel there" considering how busy the route between MCR & LVP is.
@@joc6516 people bag different cities all over the world.
First railway was Canterbury to Barnstaple, I read about it in the1970s and I just googled it. So sorry you're wrong.
Stepehenson's Rocket operated on the Canterbury to Barnstaple line.
@@joc6516 And by the way, as far as cities go, make sure you find out what they are really like.
Worlds most beautiful and cleanest cities mean the whole metro area, not just a small section of CBD. So, having said that the greatest cities are:
Oslo, Copenhagen, Osaka, Marseille, Barcelona, Melbourne, Vienna, Geneva, Milan, Prague, Montreal, Wellington, Singapore.
In Australia, its clearly Melbourne, Perth & Brisbane.
@@garynewton1263 Excellent, you googled it, but you didn't provide links. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article that says this: "The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the first inter-city railway in the world. Opened on 15 September 1830. It was also the first railway to rely exclusively on locomotives driven by steam power, with no horse-drawn traffic permitted at any time; the first to be entirely double track throughout its length; the first to have a signalling system; the first to be fully timetabled."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_and_Manchester_Railway
Now, there were indeed older rails that existed before the Liverpool & Manchester Railway. Rails have existed in many forms for over a thousand years. But these were not railways as we know them today, nor were they passenger railways. They were usually made of wood, carts were pulled by horses at walking pace, there were no scheduled services, no train stations and no signalling.
As for the Stephenson Rocket ;) Nice try there. But that locomotive is famous for being made for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Here is another Wikipedia Link. Looking forward to yours saying it was made for the Canterbury to Barnstaple line :) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephenson%27s_Rocket
the great thing about googling something and saying you're right and someone else is wrong, is separating those that do so whilst providing links.
Of course, once Stephenson's Rocket became outdated on the Liverpool to Manchester Railway, it was sold off and who knows, maybe at some point it ended up on the Canterbury to Barnstaple line...
I'd support a passenger service from Southern Cross to Mt Gambier but only if they implement a Horsham and Mildura service first.
Mount Gambier is an awesome city to visit and leaves shitty adelaide for dead.
V/Line trains to Mount Gambier.....YES.
And the funny thing is most people in Mount Gambier are pretty much default Victorians anyway as they have a closer relationship to Melbourne than adelaide.
Get it done state govt.
Can be a tourist meth train
1st to comment love your work keep it up
Thanks!
Do you have a update on where thay are on the galwer central line as it is had for me to catch busses everywhere
@@lachlantaylor552 still close to where it was in the video before. Mawson lakes is around the extent of the works for now, but the Overhead wires seem to be going in around Kilburn. Project seems on track still however
The roads are terrible here
It wasn't done, ...because of total lack of vision by respective Sth. Australian governments over the years. Nothing has changed here, they are still stuck in the past with that stupid 5'3" guage!!
Bring back the trains get rid of so many trucks
If I was goimg to Mt Gambier I would only get the train, buses are shit.
This will never happen.ill believe it when I see it.