Port Adelaide railway station, Adelaide

TransAdelaide
colour=#a100ff
station_name=Port Adelaide

---

line=Outer Harbor
street=Commercial Road
Portland Place
Baynes Place
suburb=Port Adelaide
distance=11.7
access=Ramp
rrtd=No
rrts=Yes
platforms=2
platform_arch=2 Side Platforms
toilets=No
parking=Yes
bike=No
lounge=No
kiosk=No
disability=Yes
facilities=None
opened=1916
rebuilt=1971
trainconnect=None
busconnect=118 to Port Adelaide & City
136 to Port Adelaide & City
150 to Osborne & City
153 to Port Adelaide & City
230 to Port Adelaide & City
232 to Port Adelaide & City
254 to Port Adelaide & City
361 to Pt. Adelaide & TTP
previous=Alberton
next=Ethelton

Port Adelaide station is on the suburban rail route between Adelaide and Outer Harbor, 11.7 km (7¼ miles) from Adelaide, in the suburb of Port Adelaide.

Port Adelaide station’s two elevated platforms are located on a viaduct which carries the railway across Commercial Road. The station is unstaffed and now has no buildings or other facilities except basic passenger shelters on each platform.

ervices

Passenger trains are provided by TransAdelaide and operate a 30 minute off-peak frequency on Monday to Fridays. Peak hour services are more frequent, while evening and weekend trains depart hourly. Regular freight trains also pass through Port Adelaide station.

The railway tracks through Port Adelaide station are dual gauge and capable of carrying both broad gauge (1600mm) and standard gauge trains. This allows freight traffic from Dry Creek via the Rosewater loop to access industrial facilities on the LeFevre peninsula and the container terminal at Pelican Point. All TransAdelaide railcars are broad gauge, but freight trains can be either broad gauge or standard gauge, depending on their origin or destination.

History

The line from Adelaide to Port Adelaide was the first railway in South Australia and opened in 1856 ["The Centenary of the Adelaide-Port Adelaide Railway" Strempel, A.A. Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, June, 1956 pp69-83] . However this line had been operating for 60 years before today’s Port Adelaide station came to be built.

The original line from Adelaide ran directly to Port Dock station, the site now occupied by the National Railway Museum. Various lines then continued through the Port Adelaide’s streets to the wharves and, from 1878, along St Vincent St to the seaside town of Semaphore.

Congestion at Port Dock and the delays involved in operating trains along busy streets in the centre of the Port resulted in construction of a viaduct and a new bridge across the Port River in 1916. This diverted all through trains to Semaphore and Outer Harbor via a new station named Port Adelaide – Commercial Road (which is the station in use today).

When built, Port Adelaide Commercial Road was quite a substantial building, with long platforms, an overall roof and a signal cabin. This quickly took over from Port Dock as the town’s principal railway station.

As rail traffic decreased through the 1960’s and 70’s, facilities at Commercial Road station were gradually reduced. In the early 1970’s the roof was removed, platforms shortened and the street level station buildings reconstructed. The ticket office was eventually closed in January 1979 and the station has been unstaffed since then.

With the closure of Port Dock in 1981, Commercial Road station became known simply as Port Adelaide.

Future

Port Adelaide is an area undergoing significant redevelopment, both for new housing and to capitalize on the historic wharf precinct to attract tourism. Today’s Port Adelaide station is an uninviting environment for commuters, tourists and visitors to nearby museums, and some upgrade plans might be anticipated.

However the future of the section of route over the viaduct is uncertain for two reasons:-
* All freight traffic previously travelling via Glanville to the LeFevre peninsula industrial line has been diverted to a new rail bridge. This bridge was completed in August 2008, and crosses the Port River downsteam of the Port Adelaide harbour.
* There are intermittent proposals to upgrade the entire rail route from Adelaide to Port Adelaide and convert it to Light Rail. Nothing has been announced yet regarding the viaduct, but one might reasonably expect any Light Rail project to include street running through the heritage areas of central Port Adelaide.

Both of these initiatives would render the Commercial Road viaduct and today’s Port Adelaide station redundant.

Bus Transfers

AdelaideMetroBusTable/Header
stopname=38 (Commercial Road)AdelaideMetroBusTable/Body
busnumber=118
colour=#939ba1
textcolour=#ffffff
details=City via Tapleys Hill Road, Trimmer Parade & Crittenden RoadAdelaideMetroBusTable/Body
busnumber=136
colour=#005394
textcolour=#ffffff
details=City via West Lakes, Henley Beach & Henley Beach RoadAdelaideMetroBusTable/Body
busnumber=150
colour=#7f4098
textcolour=#ffffff
details=City via Port RoadAdelaideMetroBusTable/Body
busnumber=150
colour=#7f4098
textcolour=#ffffff
details=Osborne via Victoria RoadAdelaideMetroBusTable/Body
busnumber=153
colour=#bec0c2
textcolour=#000000
details=City via Port RoadAdelaideMetroBusTable/Body
busnumber=230
colour=#2c3588
textcolour=#ffffff
details=City via Torrens Road & ArndaleAdelaideMetroBusTable/Body
busnumber=232
colour=#95a0a9
textcolour=#ffffff
details=City via Torrens Road & ArndaleAdelaideMetroBusTable/Body
busnumber=254
colour=#837b30
textcolour=#ffffff
details=City via Hanson Road, Arndale & Hawker Street
(254X does not stop between Arndale & City)AdelaideMetroBusTable/Body
busnumber=361
colour=#5262ac
textcolour=#ffffff
details=Tea Tree Plaza via Grand Junction Road

References

Further reading

*"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

ee also

*List of closed Adelaide railway stations

External links

* [http://www.natrailmuseum.org.au/ National Railway Museum, Port Adelaide]
* [http://www.transadelaide.com.au/ TransAdelaide]
*
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