[img]http://i.imgur.com/mqtBHTo.png[/img]
From the new AlertSA app that was launched over the weekend. Possible draft route for the line beyond Seaford...

Is this a new announcement? A draft route was discussed on forums several years ago.

Alex C

This is the same route which the State Government identified a couple of years ago.

At the time, it was criticised for three reasons:

• The location of the terminus being on the outer edge of the Aldinga area instead of within reasonable walking distance of anything useful.
• The lack of a station for Seaford Heights despite the route going right through there.
• The DPTI media release saying that it would be serviced by trains similar to the A-City EMU which would have a top speed of 260 km/h - probably a typo which should have read 160 km/h.

It still appears as if way too much planning is being done by engineers who look up places like Aldinga on Wikipedia instead of either having or seeking any local knowledge. If that's the way it's going to go then we may as well outsource DPTI to India to cut costs.

Presumably the grey is the cycle route, not further rail reopening.
Maybe they looked at Mandurah where stations are nowhere near destinations, stations are park and ride with bus shuttles. When Mandurah was first mooted there were about 40 daily commuters, now 6 car sets are full.

Just a question on rail construction in SA in general, is it done with possible guage conversion in mind or is it done to whatever the guage is that it is connecting to only?

Presumably the grey is the cycle route, not further rail reopening.

Not exactly, it's the route of the closed railway.

The bikeway does not follow it all the way, even in the screenshot shown there are two segments (the City of Onkaparinga depot near the EMU depot, and from Victor Harbor Road to McLaren Vale) where it does not follow the former rail corridor, and there are five other sections along the route where it doesn't.

If you go on the website https://www.alert.sa.gov.au/map you can enable a map layer which shows rail corridors throughout the state in black (included closed-but-not-closed GWA lines) and all the inactive rail corridors in grey where the land is still held by DPTI - including the short south-pointing spur at Seaford Heights where the land is already owned by DPTI for the Aldinga extension in the future.

What the map layer does not show is former rail corridors where the government no longer owns the land. Some examples include the Penfield line (land was always owned by Defence, even when there were tracks on it), McLaren Vale to Willunga (sold to the City of Onkaparinga for $1 in the 1990s) and the line between Woodville and Gillman.

Just a question on rail construction in SA in general, is it done with possible guage conversion in mind or is it done to whatever the guage is that it is connecting to only?

Dual gauge sleepers are used for new construction, but my understanding is that this is now just out of convenience (i.e. using up an available stockpile) as there is now no intention (neither short or long term) of converting any track to standard gauge.

There was, as part of Mike Rann's campaign for the 2010 state election, a 'proposal' for what they called 'Coast to Coast Light Rail' which involved standardising the suburban network and downgrading the Outer Harbor line to a tramway with branches to West Lakes and Semaphore. It was a typical Mike Rann 'proposal' in that it never eventuated to anything, was certainly never intended for anything other than buying some votes, and involved the corrupt use of government resources including publicity posters being placed at stations and in trams using DPTI's in-house style without having "authorised by the Australian Labor Party" on them as election posters should have.

Dual gauge sleepers are used for new construction, but my understanding is that this is now just out of convenience (i.e. using up an available stockpile) as there is now no intention (neither short or long term) of converting any track to standard gauge.

There was, as part of Mike Rann's campaign for the 2010 state election, a 'proposal' for what they called 'Coast to Coast Light Rail' which involved standardising the suburban network and downgrading the Outer Harbor line to a tramway with branches to West Lakes and Semaphore. It was a typical Mike Rann 'proposal' in that it never eventuated to anything, was certainly never intended for anything other than buying some votes, and involved the corrupt use of government resources including publicity posters being placed at stations and in trams using DPTI's in-house style without having "authorised by the Australian Labor Party" on them as election posters should have.

The correct original plan for the "coast to coast" Light Rail was for trams and trains (light and heavy rail) to share the Outer Harbor line between Bowden and Alberton, with Light rail on the streets from there to Semaphore via Port Adelaide. And Woodville to West Lakes as Light Rail.
Hence the need for SG heavy rail and dual voltage trams.
Basically an ill-conceived plan thought out with little thought to the engineering reality and eventual costs.
As upgrades to metro track had already commenced, gauge convertible sleepers were already being installed. (even after plans for gauge conversion were put on the "back burner")

It was all part of Rann's  Rail Revitalisation which included the Seaford Extension, Electrification and Tramway extensions.

As to your political comment, maybe we should add that the best the Liberal opposition of the time could come up with was a plan to replace ALL public transport rail vehicles with rubber tyred, track guided vehicles (Buses of the O-Bahn style).
Even to the point that the then Liberal Opposition Leader proclaimed the Tram Extension a "Monumental White Elephant" at it's opening!
But strangely the public disagreed with her and the Government had to urgently procure MORE trams because of passenger demand!

As to the "new" map of a proposed alignment for an extension from Seaford to Aldinga, strangely I can remember maps dating from the 1970's of the Aldinga area which showed a "Proposed Railway" alignment pretty much the same as this "new map" except it went through to Sellick's Beach area!
Also of interest the alignment passed close to the location of the Aldinga Central shopping centre.

Ah, I see they're extending the TSR further south

If extension of TSRs counted as improving the rail network, people would be forgetting about systems such as London Underground, Paris RER or MTR in Hong Kong and instead flocking to Adelaide to learn how the best in the world do it.

An extension to Aldinga would add (maybe) another 12km to the overall route - taking it to 47km overall. The Mandurah (Perth) line is 70km overall so an extension to Aldinga wouldn't be out of keeping with other Australian cities and the propensity to spread growth out along coastlines.

An extension to Aldinga would add (maybe) another 12km to the overall route - taking it to 47km overall. The Mandurah (Perth) line is 70km overall so an extension to Aldinga wouldn't be out of keeping with other Australian cities and the propensity to spread growth out along coastlines.

Aldinga / Aldinga Beach area is already undergoing major growth with a massive increase in Housing developments over the last five years.
It is already a far cry from the sleepy little beach holiday hamlet that it was in the past.

The Mandurah line has 9 stations between Mandurah and Perth Underground where as the Seaford Line has 22.

Aldinga / Aldinga Beach area is already undergoing major growth with a massive increase in Housing developments over the last five years.
It is already a far cry from the sleepy little beach holiday hamlet that it was in the past.

It's harder geographically to push development any further south than Selleck's Hill and the attractive beaches pretty much finish there anyway - Aldinga is seemingly the natural terminus for the coastal sprawl coming from Adelaide. The salt farms and mangroves to the north of the city has always restricted the possibilities of creeping up the coast there... although I did read recently that someone wanted to develop those salt crystallisation pans near Mawson Lakes into housing.