Train extension: Can we have a bit more?
Onkaparinga Council has called for the rail line to Seaford to be extended a further 1.7km to Seaford Rise.
The council will lobby the State Government to fund the extension, which would also service the 4500 people scheduled to move in to the Seaford Heights development over the next 10 years.
The council’s development manager Terry Sutcliffe said the council would request a terminus at Seaford Rise, west of Main South Rd and south of Dalkeith Rd.
“It’s primarily to make sure that we can service the new community in Seaford Heights with good public transport,” Mr Sutcliffe said.
“The residents in Seaford Rise aren’t very well serviced at the moment either.”
The long-awaited 5.5km extension of the rail line from Noarlunga to Seaford Shopping Centre received $291 million in Federal funding in May, with the first trains to be running by 2013.
Plans for the extension included a station in Seaford Meadows, at the corner of Sauerbiers and Railway roads, a terminus on Lynton Tce near the shopping centre, and a 1.2km bridge over the Onkaparinga River.
A report tabled at this week’s council meeting (July 21) stated the Transport Department was concerned about the feasibility of extending the line to Seaford Rise, the impact on travel times and speeds, and passenger numbers at the Seaford and Seaford Meadows stations.
“Conversely, our initial investigations indicate much higher potential patronage levels for a Seaford Rise station than the (department) estimates, particularly if the station shared a ‘park n ride’ with the proposed Seaford Meadows station, until the eventual extension of the rail line to Aldinga some years in the future,” the report stated.
Mr Sutcliffe said the transport corridor through to Pedler Creek had been reserved, “so it all boiled down to funding”.
In an emailed response, Transport Department spokesman Sam Ion wrote a third station at Seaford Heights was “not part of the current project scope”.
“A decision on that station will depend on funding for a further extension to Aldinga,” Mr Ion wrote.
Seaford District Residents’ Association chairman Ron Jenkins said the area was “growing a bit too quick” so needed the rail extension.
