Outer Harbor railway line

Outer Harbor railway line
Overview
Locale	Adelaide, South Australia
Termini	Adelaide Osborne (peak hour only) Outer Harbor
Stations	Woodville Port Adelaide Glanville
Services	Every 10-20 mins (peak) Every 30 mins (weekday) Every 30 mins (weekend) Every 60 mins (night)
Operation
Opened	1856 (to Port Adelaide) 1908 (to Outer Harbor)
Rolling stock	2000/2100 class 3000/3100 class
Events
Re-sleepered (concrete)	2002, November 2009-March 2010
Technical
Line length	21.9 km (13.6 mi)
Number of tracks	Double track to Midlunga Single track to Outer Harbor
Track gauge	1,600 mm (5 ft 3 in)

The Outer Harbor railway line is a suburban branch line in Adelaide, South Australia.

It runs from Adelaide station through the north western suburbs to Port Adelaide and Outer Harbor. It is 21.9 kilometres in length, and shares part of its run with the Grange line. It is operated by Adelaide Metro.

History

Outer Harbor Line suburban service
Legend
Gauge and interchange key  Broad gauge Standard gauge Adelaide Metro commuter trains Adelaide Metro trams Adelaide Metro buses GSR interstate trains
21.9km 0:40 Outer Harbor Golfcourse Entrance Balloon Loop exit Klingberg Drive 20.5km 0:38 North Haven Osborne Road 19.6km 0:36 Osborne Connection to Pelican Point 18.8km 0:34 Midlunga Gedville Road 18.2km 0:33 Taperoo Strathfield Terrace 17.2km 0:31 Draper Kalopore Avenue 16.4km 0:30 Largs North Fletcher Road Jetty Road 15.5km 0:28 Largs Largs Jetty(Closed 1908) Wills Street Hargrave Street 14.6km 0:26 Peterhead Harris Street Semaphore Road To Semaphore 13.8km 0:25 Glanville Interchange Birkenhead Loop to Pelican Point (Dual gauge) Hart Street 13.1km 0:23 Ethelton Rennie Road Port River Old Port Road Church Street 11.7km 0:21 Port Adelaide(Commercial Road) Lipson Street Proposed tram extension National Railway Museum Grand Junction Road Rosewater Loop to Dry Creek (Dual gauge) 10.2km 0:18 Alberton Fussel Place 9.2km 0:17 Cheltenham Cheltenham Racecourse (Closed 2009) Cheltenham Parade 8.6km 0:15 St Clair To Gillman Junction via Finsbury To Grange 7.5km 0:14 Woodville Woodville Road 6.8km 0:12 Woodville Park Kilkenny Road 6.0km 0:10 Kilkenny Private Road 5.1km 0:09 West Croydon(Over Rosetta Street) 4.2km 0:07 Croydon Elizabeth Street South Road Coglin Street Chief Street East Street 2.7km 0:05 Bowden Gibson Street Gibson Street Proposed tram junction Park Terrace Entertainment Centre To Port Augusta To Gawler Torrens Bridge(Closed 1888) River Torrens To Seaford, Tonsley and Belair West Terrace Adelaide Depot City West Montefiore Road 0km 0:00 Adelaide To Glenelg

The railway between Adelaide and Port Dock railway station was the first railway in Adelaide and the first government-owned railway in the British Empire, opening in 1856.

Port Adelaide junction was created when the railway was extended to cross the Port River to Le Fevre Peninsula. As industry developed on the west side of the Port River, and deeper harbour was required. Initially, this was at Semaphore, with the railway extended in 1882 as the now-closed Semaphore railway line to service the overseas shipping jetty there. The Outer Harbor was developed and the railway extended from Glanville railway station to service it. The line between Port Adelaide Junction and Glanville was dual gauge until early December 2009 when the standard gauge rails were removed. Outer Harbor had a balloon loop railway so that trains could be turned around without shunting or requiring a turntable or triangle. The loop was cut when rail freight moved off the broad gauge Outer Harbor railway to the nearby standard gauge line on the eastern side of the peninsula.

Route

The line is double track from Adelaide to Midlunga, then single for the final three kilometres to Outer Harbour. The northern section of the line runs along the middle of the narrow Lefevre Peninsula with stations at regular intervals.^[1]

Services are operated by 3000 class railcars.

Line guide

Station	Image	Opened	Additional information
Outer Harbor		1926	Bus transfer: 333
North Haven		13 September 1981
Osborne		30 November 1908	Some peak hour services terminate Here Bus transfer: 150 333
Midlunga		1921
Taperoo		30 November 1908	Opened as Silicate Siding, renamed 22 November 1920
Draper		unknown
Largs North		21 August 1916	Opened as Swansea, renamed 1 November 1945
Largs		1907
Peterhead		1911	Bus transfer: 352 353
Glanville		7 January 1878	Bus transfer: 333
Ethelton		1916
Port Adelaide		1916	Opened as Commercial Road; renamed 1981 Bus transfer:150 118 230 232 361
Alberton		April 1856
Cheltenham		1959
St Clair		23 February 2014
Woodville		April 1856	Change for the Grange line Bus Transfer: 100
Woodville Park		December 1936
Kilkenny		1881	Bus Transfer: 231
West Croydon		21 December 1915
Croydon		1888
Bowden		April 1856	Change for the Glenelg Tram
Adelaide		April 1856	Change for the Belair, Gawler, Tonsley and Seaford lines Change for the Glenelg Tram

Future

Various plans to modify the line have been proposed in the 21st century.

In 2008, the State Government announced a plan to rebuild the Outer Harbour line in preparation for the line to be electrified with the Federal Government also to provide funding.^[2] In the 2011 budget, it was announced that electrification of the Outer Harbor line had been deferred until 2016.^[3] In June 2012, the project was cancelled.^[4]

As of 2016, the South Australian Government is again considering electrifying the Outer Harbor line or converting it to light rail. A 2016 report into potential light rail projects in Adelaide considered two options for the future of the line. The first option would electrify the heavy rail line and provide a short spurline to central Port Adelaide. The second option would convert the line to light rail and add a new on-street branch to Semaphore. A light rail conversion would also require the conversion or closure of the Grange line - several options for the future of that line were also presented.^[5]

References

1. Outer Harbor & Grange timetable Adelaide Metro 23 February 2014
2. 2008/09 State Budget South Australian Department of Treasury & Finance June 2008
3. Martin, Sarah (10 June 2011). "SA State Budget 11 - $200m in rail revitalisation work delayed". Adelaide Advertiser. Retrieved 2011-06-10.
4. South Australia cuts back Adelaide electrification International Railway Journal 8 June 2012
5. "AdeLINK Multi-Criteria Analysis Summary Report" (PDF). Department of Transport, Planning and Infrastructure. 2016. pp. 11–13.

• Rails Through Swamp and Sand – A History of the Port Adelaide Railway. M. Thompson pub. Port Dock Station Railway Museum (1988) ISBN 0-9595073-6-1