Gawler railway line upgrade - News, photos and updates

[Alyx]

More details have been given about upgrade work on the Gawler rail line through Adelaide's north.

There will be multi-million-dollar rebuilds of railway stations at Elizabeth and Munno Para.

Shelter and car parking will be improved and there will be pedestrian overpasses with lifts to improve access to bus interchanges.

Upgrade work is due for completion in 2013.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010 ... 796790.htm

[Alyx]

Coinciding with Federal Cabinet's third visit to South Australia, the Rudd and Rann Labor governments have today released more details about the Gawler Rail Line upgrade.

Federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese and South Australian Transport Minister Pat Conlon have confirmed that the modernisation of the Gawler Line will include multi-million dollar upgrades of the railway stations at Elizabeth and Munno Para.

"Since the announcement of funding just over seven months ago, the South Australian Government has made excellent progress readying this project for the start of major construction activities," said Mr Albanese.

"Once completed in 2013, this nation building project will expand and improve Adelaide's passenger rail network."

The Gawler Rail Line upgrade was one of nine public transport projects funded in last year's Federal budget.

Mr Conlon said the Elizabeth Station is one of the busiest on the Gawler Line and Munno Para services a number of rapidly growing suburbs, so upgrading them now is all about good long term planning.

"Essentially both stations will be rebuilt, with construction due to commence in the middle of this year. Work on the track itself is set to get underway even sooner," said Mr Conlon.

"This is all part of our unprecedented plan to revitalise the public transport system over 10 years providing faster, cleaner and more efficient services for train, tram and bus commuters."

The new Elizabeth Station is expected to cost around $15 million while around $10 million will be spent on Munno Para Station. Artist impressions of the refurbished stations are attached.

The upgrades will include weather resistant shelters, car park improvements, pedestrian overpasses with lifts, improved lighting, new passenger information systems, improved CCTVs, Kiss and Go facilities and better access to bus interchanges.

An expansion of the car parks at Gawler Station and Mawson Lakes interchange is also underway.

http://www.minister.infrastructure.gov. ... 0_2010.htm

Munno Para railway station upgade:


Elizabeth railway station upgrade:


Credit to Xaragmata of Sensational-Adelaide for locating these images.

[Leeds]

Alyx,
Thanks for posting that information about the gawler line.
15million dollars on the Elizabeth station and 10 million dollars for the Munno Parra station, thats a lot of money.
Why not do a similar upgrade to the Gawler Central Station in an upgrade phase for the Line from Gawler Central to Nuriootpa or Tanunda.
It is fairly obvious that the expansion in Gawler/Gawler East is going to need improved rail services so it would make sense to do the upgrades over a period of time and bring on regular services to the barossa as well as Concordia.
Regards.

[Astro]

Because Gawler Central is probably the nicest, cleanest and tidiest station on that line, except perhaps for Gawler. It has a reasonable shelter (thanks to the historic buildings and trees), and has reasonable lighting at night. It also has a nice amount of paving around the place and there is a nice big fence which acts as a barrier to stop people running across the tracks.

As for the upgrade idea, seeing as the government have committed to the upgrade of the Gawler line and not to the extension of services to the Barossa, it kind of makes a lot more sense to upgrade the Gawler line and some stations along there which are particularly run down. From a personal perspective I think its a bit of a shame that Islington was left off of this list, as its a considerably worse station than Elizabeth or Munno Para and could work into the existing overpass to become quite a nice station.

Personally, I'd like to see what is there fixed up before we start thinking about adding to it. Its a pretty big job already.

[Leeds]

Because Gawler Central is probably the nicest, cleanest and tidiest station on that line, except perhaps for Gawler. It has a reasonable shelter (thanks to the historic buildings and trees), and has reasonable lighting at night. It also has a nice amount of paving around the place and there is a nice big fence which acts as a barrier to stop people running across the tracks.

As for the upgrade idea, seeing as the government have committed to the upgrade of the Gawler line and not to the extension of services to the Barossa, it kind of makes a lot more sense to upgrade the Gawler line and some stations along there which are particularly run down. From a personal perspective I think its a bit of a shame that Islington was left off of this list, as its a considerably worse station than Elizabeth or Munno Para and could work into the existing overpass to become quite a nice station.

Personally, I'd like to see what is there fixed up before we start thinking about adding to it. Its a pretty big job already.

Astro,
Yes you are correct, a lot needs to be done to bring the whole system up to a decent standard, but you can't push back the inevitable forever.
Eventually the Gawler Central to the Barossa will have to be done because the local roads will not be able to cope with the capacity.

Regards,

[Astro]

There are currently two big cases being presented for rail expansion by the rail enthusiast fraternity, these are Mount Barker and the Barossa Valley. A comparison shows Mount Barker to be considerably preferable for a commuter service extension.

Firstly, the building of a Northern bypass would free up an express corridor (since the platforms are mostly demolished) allowing it to be pushed through to Mount Barker, a city of nearly 30000 in itself and rapidly expanding. Currently the park and ride is at capacity, it is also located at the Mount Barker railway station, and bus services struggle to keep up with the required capacity for the other stops in the town as well as those along the way (Hahndorf, Bridgewater, Verdun, Aldgate, Stirling etc). Effectively a hills train could draw from a local population of nearly 54000 along its extended route from Belair (if combined with local service buses for towns where the station is located further from the centre). Many modern day hills residents are employed in Adelaide and commute daily.

The combined population a Barossa Valley extension could draw from on the other hand is roughly 20000, many of whom are employed locally. The current bus services between Adelaide and the Barossa attract nowhere near the patronage of Mount Barker services. It should be noted that Mount Barker's narrow roads were designed for a small hills village and are crumbling under the urban traffic the city is now seeing. Add to that that Mount Barker is currently within the Metroticket zone and the Barossa Valley is not.

For these reasons I feel that we probably have a fair way to go before we need to seriously consider a Barossa Valley extension, but that we are probably a little slow on the uptake in terms of a Mount Barker extension on capacity and service population grounds. The current Gawler upgrades, in my opinion, are sufficient for the line for the time being and any extension can wait until the current metro system boundaries (including Seaford) have had their upgrades completed as well.

[Eagle Eye]

All that glass... all those shiny surfaces...

Hopefully the new stations are built vandal-proof, or certainly a big improvement on the current ones.

[secret agent]

I hope after they build that new station at Elizabeth that they provide an armed guard on it 24 hours a day, other wise it will be vandalised before they even finish it and I don't mean graffiti etc! Those stations in the Elizabeth area would have to be some of the worst for vandalisation on the whole system.

But have to agree about Islington, however the DTEI might be holding off on this one to see if the developer of the adjacent new housing would club in with some money or something. One other fact you cannot do them all at once, so Islington might be on the list to do at a later date, but just where on the list is anyones guess!

[NordRheinlander]

I hope after they build that new station at Elizabeth that they provide an armed guard on it 24 hours a day, other wise it will be vandalised before they even finish it and I don't mean graffiti etc! Those stations in the Elizabeth area would have to be some of the worst for vandalisation on the whole system.

more like a 5 guards on the station 24/7, plenty of rail staff/transit police (something this city needs) during the daytime too would be good too.

[85trainfan]

i like the fact they put out these renders, but still include diesel railcars in the pictures

[TOP GUN]

You know david i just thing of that myself. But theres one thing you lot missed, how's GWA going to run the stonie when they do the track upgrade? they cannot run the stonie train on fresh air? I can't believe you lot missed one fine little detail. gees you guys i mean this in the nicest possible way so please don't jump down my throat i'm just letting you all know.

[Alyx]

how's GWA going to run the stonie when they do the track upgrade?

That issue is currently being discussed over in the Trains to the Barossa Valley thread.

[robbie1203]

Heard a radio report recently that projected population increase for Barossa region has been reduced from 135,000 to 110,000.Not sure what time frame the Govt sources mentioned.
From what i can gather,the population increases will be in the Gawler-Roseworthy areas.

Not too sure how the proposed Army Base (7RAR) will affect a population growth in the northern suburbs.

You may know more !

[tskin]

Hi all, was in the valley today (workin), I noticed that they have dual gauged a few of the crossings up there and there was a lot of work being done on new relay boxes etc !I did see 844 on the stony tho, its lookin good !

[stonie]

Hi

Recently at gawler central, there have been 2 containers placed next to the crossing, between murry street crossing and edith street crossing. Today my dad noticed that there were people working next to the line near the road overpass at gawler central, with stop boards in place on the tracks? could this be work for electrification?

Could the containers be for this, or work on the edith street crossing which is meant to be getting a flashing light leval crossing?

Thanks

The Stonie