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All lines around Adelaide were originally built to the Broad Gauge (5ft 3in, or 1600mm). The main interstate lines out of Adelaide towards Melbourne , Sydney , Perth and Darwin have been progressively converted to Standard Gauge (4ft 8½ in, or 1435mm). However all of Adelaide's suburban system and a few freight-only branch lines to the north remain on the 1600mm gauge. OPERATORS 3000 & 3100-class diesel-electric railcars are the backbone of the suburban network]] .]] freight from Melbourne to Perth passing Belair in the Adelaide Hills.]] broad gauge limestone train from the Barossa Valley to Osborne passing Birkenhead]] Indian Pacific from Adelaide to Sydney near Hawker Street, Bowden]] Today’s 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 SA Office of Public Transport to operate Adelaide’s suburban passenger rail network. This comprises five lines running from the Adelaide Railway Station on North Terrace in the CBD. The State Government of South Australia retains ownership of all broad gauge tracks in the Adelaide suburban area, together with the Glenelg Tram line. ARTC (Australian Rail Track Corporation), an agency of the Australian federal government, owns standard gauge interstate lines heading north and south from Adelaide, 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 now 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 which owns the remaining broad gauge system beyond the Adelaide suburban network. This comprises 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 system from Port Lincoln into Eyre Peninsula . These exist to transport seasonal grain traffic to ports for export. Great Southern Railway (GSR) is a private company operating long-distance passenger trains from Adelaide. These trains use ARTC’s standard gauge lines and run from the Keswick Rail Terminal , not from Adelaide’s main city station. Keswick Terminal is located in an industrial suburb just west of Adelaide. GSR’s passenger trains are the Indian Pacific to Sydney or Perth, The Ghan to Alice Springs or Darwin and The Overland to Melbourne. The frequencies of GSR’s services from Adelaide range from one to four trains per week, depending on destination. There have been no intra-state regional passenger services in South Australia since 1990. There are several heritage related railways in South Australia run by volunteers, but none of these are based in the Adelaide area. The closest to the city is SteamRanger at Mount Barker and Goolwa . Other 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 30km line was built from the Town Of Gawler to Adelaide to cater for the agricultural and mining industries at the time. The South Line, through the Adelaide Hills , was 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 which could be made 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 1920’s were to see 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 Webb’s 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 very handsome sandstone buildings as a showpiece of the city on North Terrace. These station buildings still stand, although they have now been converted to a casino. In 1929, one of the original Broad Gauge (1600mm) 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 today, still using the original 1929 tram cars. SAR, STA AND AN From early colonial days up until 1978 the State Government-owned South Australian Railways (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. However none of the Commonwealth Railways lines came anywhere close to Adelaide. During the early 1970's 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 even then negotiations were long and drawn out. The result was that from March 1978 the SAR became defunct and South Australia’s railways were split between Commonwealth and State Government ownership. A new Commonwealth Government organization - Australian National Railways Commission (ANR) - took over all of the former SAR and CR owned track in South Australia outside the metropolitan area. Other rail facilities such as property and workshops also transferred to ANR. ANR was later to 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, Australian National was broken up and sold as part of a Federal Government privatisation agenda. Track, workshops, depots and passenger & freight operations have been 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 which has not been electrified. However, there has been evidence of attempts by several governments throughout the 20th century to electrify the system. Adelaide's rail network that has decreased in size since the 1980s, with the closure of several branches. The current . The plan will supposedly set out the framework for upgrading the public transport system. The 5 railway lines (all broad gauge) making up the suburban network are: Outer Harbor Line (21.9km long):
Gawler Line (42.2km long):
Grange Line (5.5km long): Noarlunga Line (30.2km long):
Belair Line (21.5km long):
Tonsley Line (only 3.9km long):
These railway lines are now closed down:
CURRENT ROLLING STOCK Adelaide's suburban railway network is currently made up of:
SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS
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