The council’s recommendations for Adelaide by 2036 also include extending tram routes around the western and eastern ends of Adelaide.

South Australian executive director Nathan Paine said while the airport is modern, it needs to be more accessible.

“While we’ve got one of the best airports in the nation in terms of its proximity to the CBD, the connection between the two is still a bit lacking,” he said.

“Certainly we think that over time we need to look at putting in perhaps a light rail system out to the airport.”

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Fred Hansen is one of the world’s leading transport minds and arrived in Adelaide last Thursday to begin his tenure.

Mr Hansen – general manager of public transport provider TriMet in the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon – said there were clear similarities between Adelaide and his home town.

“Portland had an extensive tram system that was all torn out in the 1950s because people thought the car would dominate,” he said.

“We opened the first new light rail service in Portland in 1986, now have 52 miles of light rail and we’re planning more.”

Adelaide also had an extensive tram network spanning most of the suburban area, until increasing car traffic and an expanding bus fleet saw lines progressively shut down through the 1950s, leaving the Glenelg tram to stand alone from 1963.

Mr Hansen said the extension of the Glenelg tram through the city was a “wonderful investment” that helped “transform the downtown area”.

“It takes into consideration carbon (emissions) and global climate change and that people don’t want to be stuck in cars – they want to have choices,” he said.

During his initial three-week residency, Mr Hansen will focus on issues underpinned by the Government’s Draft 30-year Plan for Greater Adelaide.

He said a well-connected system of light rail, train and bus networks and a focus on transit-oriented development – a key ingredient in the Government’s plan – were important transport options for a city like Adelaide.

“The population is going to be growing here so it’s a question of how to develop those choices,” he said.

Mr Hansen will remain in Adelaide for two more weeks and return for a second visit late next year.

AdelaideNow

LRC mayor Robert Hornsey and chief executive officer Brian Carr met with infrastructure, transport and regional development minister Anthony Albanese as part of the recent community cabinet meeting, and put forward council’s proposal to extend the Gawler line to Roseworthy.

Mr. Hornsey said LRC’s proposition complements the state government’s 30-Year Plan for Greater Adelaide, which earmarks Roseworthy for future residential development and expansion.

“It’s got all the things going for it with its proximity to Adelaide, with the NEXY and Sturt highway duplications, the fact that it has a rail corridor, it’s relatively affordable land,” he said.

Mr. Hornsey said council submitted a discussion paper to Mr. Albanese outlining the $30 to $32 million project.

“The Light Regional Council proposal was to bring to the government’s attention the fact that it’s only eight kilometres further from Gawler to Roseworthy, the railway corridor exists,” he said.

“And that with the government’s planning on upgrading and electrification of the northern rail line to Gawler, that if they were to do that to Roseworthy it could be done relatively cheaply for the extra section if it was all done as one job.”

Mr. Hornsey said council wants the passenger train service extended to Roseworthy before the anticipated residential influx.

“We feel it’s much better if…the infrastructure is put in place to begin with rather than later,” he said.

“We feel that’s a mistake that’s often made, where the infrastructure is put in after the development has taken place and people have already then settled into their ways of how they move and how they get around etc, whereas if the infrastructure is there to start with it may well encourage them to use it.”

However, Mr. Hornsey said no definitive time line has been included in the proposal.

“I don’t want to give the impression to people that tomorrow they’ll start building an electric railway to Roseworthy,” he said.

“We’re talking long-term stuff here.”

Mr. Hornsey said the proposal was well-received, and LRC is now awaiting a response from the federal government.

Bunyip Press

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.

Southern Times Messenger

Three separate sources have told the Sunday Mail the Government is considering converting the Outer Harbor line into a tram-only service instead of running both trams and trains down the line as was promised in the 2008 Budget.

The plan would be consistent with calls by the Port Adelaide Enfield Council which has been agitating since 2006 for a dedicated tramline along the Outer Habor line into the heart of Port Adelaide and servicing Semaphore and Outer Harbor.

The paper also has been told the State Government has cancelled the purchase of hybrid train-trams which would have been able to travel on both the train and tram tracks because of cost pressures and because the technology was relatively untested.

A new tram maintenance depot would be built at Le Fevre Peninsula with the existing Glengowrie depot to act as a stabling yard.

But Mr Conlon told the Sunday Mail on Friday that South Australia’s planned $2 billion transport “revolution” plan, including an electrified tram/rail system to Port Adelaide, had not changed.

“Design and planning for the Government’s unprecedented public transport revitalisation continues,” he said. “We’ll be looking at all different types of rolling stock for the next few years and we don’t have any firm commitments for rolling stock now.”

Port Adelaide Enfield Council revealed a $247 million proposal last month for a tram service into Port Adelaide in a bid to revitalise the heart of the district.

“We’re desperate to get the Port happening again and the only way we’re going to get it happening is to do something like that down Commercial Road,” Port Adelaide Enfield Mayor Gary Johanson said.

The Government is spending $100m on extending the tramline from the city’s West End to the Entertainment Centre with work slated to finish by next April.

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