197903 – Mayne – A Voice and Data Radio Communication System for Adelaide’s Suburban Trains

During 1976 the State Transport Authority of South Australia operated a fleet of 711 railcars comprising 74 single-ended 300-type cars and 37 double-ended 400-type railcars, The 300-type cars work in consist but the 400-type cars can work as single units, two car trains, or in consist with 300-type cars, depending upon traffic requirements are crewed by a driver in his tiny cubicle on the nose of the car, and and time of day, The trains, either in consist or as single cars – all the a Guard whose duty also involves the collection of fares, suburban stations being tan-manned at these late hours.

Unfortunately it is a sign of the times in which we live that elements of a generation which has grown up around us have very little respect for property and in some cases even for life or limb – and this has been manifested by the hazardous position in which Railway Guards find themselves when they are obliged to collect fares in transit from much people who have boarded an empty train or railcar heading towards the outer suburbs where the distances between stations are somewhat extended.

The pattern of assaults was increasing 1974 through 1976 not only to train crews but also to other passengers – culminating in a rather severe attack by six youths on a Guard early in August 1976. Following this incident a direction was given to the Signals and Communications Engineer to examine the possible use of radio to assist in combatting this behaviour either as an aid or an alternative to other suggestions such as providing extra police, using police as passengers, or in adjacent patrol cars, etc. The direction specified that the examination was to cover those lines subjected to this type of vandalism as an initial stage with the remaining lines to be examined as a second stage, The Traffic Branch was to provide figures of the number of railcars required to be equipped to cover those lines it specified as more prone to violence.

A map of Adelaide and its metropolitan services (Figure l) shows it as an elongated city with four main metropolitan lines – one extending 40km to Gawler in the North-East as part of the main North line, another extending 22km to Outer Harbour in the North-West, a third 31km to Noarlunga Centre in the South-West, and a fourth extending 22km to Belair in the South-East as part of the main South line, This last line winds through the Adelaide Hills but the others cover fairly even terrain, There are metropolitan branch lines off the in metropolitan lines.

The particular act of vandalism referred to was on the Outer Harbour line but other recorded incidents appear on the line to Noarlunga Centre, particularly at the extremities and to a less extent on the line to Gawler. There appears to be very little vandalism on the Belair (Bills) line. The Traffic Branch therefore wanted the former three lines covered as the initial stage and requested that of the 711 cars in the fleet, all the 37×400-type cars and 20 of the 300-type cars be equipped so that they could be rostered on those three lines, The remaining line and the remainder of the fleet, that is 54×300-type cars were to be equipped the following year as a second stage.