REGISTER

Mark Williams B.Eng (Civil), MEngSc

South Australian Government

Department for Transport Energy and Infrastructure

The South Australian and Australian Governments are jointly investing $2.6 billion into Adelaide's public transport system between 2007/08 and 2018/19.

To meet Adelaide's population and land use targets there has been a fundamental change in South Australia's planning strategy outlined in the 30 Year Plan for Greater Adelaide, including significant increases in population density adjacent to train stations.

Although there is much interest in the various technical aspects of the investment, that range in a scale factor of a million from the longest bridge in South Australia at 1.2 kilometres to dipped weld correction of 1.2 millimetres, unless the investments deliver a substantial increase in public transport use in Adelaide, and are a catalyst in the development of higher densities within the Adelaide urban area, the public transport investments will be rightly judged by the community as a failure.

At the core of the train service improvements is the aim of providing a weekday 15 minute 7am to 7pm interval service to most railway stations, with key interchanges having a peak service interval of less than 10 minutes.

This paper describes the process that was followed to develop an affordable, feasible plan for the development of train services that is predicted to result in a substantial increase in public transport patronage.