Bowden railway station

Bowden
Railways in Adelaide - List of Railway Stations
Train Services
Grange Line
Outer Harbor Line
Location
Street	Gibson Street
Suburb	Bowden
Distance from Adelaide	2.7 km
Access by	Level pedestrian crossing
Frequency
Hi-Frequency Station	No
Peak Frequency	Every 10–30 Mins
Weekday Frequency	Every 30 Mins
Weekend Frequency	Every 15–45 Mins
Night Frequency	Every 15–45 Mins
Facilities
Real Rail Time Display	No
Real Rail Time Speaker	Yes
Number of Platforms	2
Platform Layout	2 side platforms
Toilets	No
Car Parking	No
Bike Storage	No
Lounge	No
Kiosk	No
Wheelchair access	Yes
Other facilities	None
History
Opened	1856
Transfers
Train transfer	Grange, Outer Harbor
Tram transfer	Glenelg Tram (Port Road)
Bus transfer	150 to Osborne 153 to Port Adelaide (Port Road) 155 to West Lakes (Port Road) 156 to Port Adelaide via West Lakes (Port Road) 157 to Largs Bay (Port Road)
Adjacent Stations
« Previous Adelaide	Next » Croydon

Bowden is the first station on the suburban railway lines from Adelaide to Outer Harbor and Grange. It is 2.7 km (1¾ miles) from Adelaide. The station has the Caution More Than One Train lights. These are used at various times of the day especially peak hour.

Bowden serves the inner-city suburbs of Bowden, Brompton and Hindmarsh. The station mainly caters for workers commuting to nearby factories and patrons of events at the nearby Hindmarsh Stadium and Adelaide Entertainment Centre. The importance of the station has decreased as older industries based in the vicinity have declined.

The station retains its original 1856 brick and stone station building on the northbound platform, although this is now unattended, as are most stations on the TransAdelaide network.

There are plans to rebuild Bowden and make it into a tunnel. This is part of the Bowden project.

Services

All train services are operated by TransAdelaide. There are now no freight services through Bowden. On Monday to Friday, off-peak trains depart every 30 minutes to and from the Grange line (each train makes a connection at Woodville for stations to Outer Harbor). Peak hour services run more frequently, whilst in the evenings and at weekends there is one train per hour to/from the Grange line and one per hour to/from the Outer Harbor line (although departure times are not evenly spaced).

Platform 1:

• Grange line - all stations services to Grange
• Outer Harbor line - sometimes expressess. Sometimes stops and goes to Glanville and Outer Harbor

Platform 2:

• Grange line - all stations services to Adelaide
• Outer Harbor line -Sometimes expressess

History

Bowden was one of the original stations on the Adelaide to Port Adelaide railway when the line opened in April 1856.

In 1871, sidings were constructed at the Woodville end of the station for delivery of coal from Port Adelaide to the adjacent gas works.

With increasing traffic, the single track Adelaide to Port Adelaide line was doubled in 1881, and the sidings at Bowden were extended as the gas works grew.

Two signal cabins were in operation at Bowden between 1884 and 1930, one at East Street (at the Woodville end), the second at Gibson Street (at the Adelaide end). The East Street cabin was closed when colour light signalling was introduced on the Port line in the 1930s.

The S.A. Gas Company sidings were closed in June 1973 and Bowden’s goods yard was closed completely from September 1977 along with the Gibson Street signal cabin. The site of the gas works sidings is still visible on the north side of the line near the Chief Street underpass.

With falling passenger numbers, the station has been unattended since November 1979, which was a far cry from the middle years of the 20th Century when usage was high enough to justify two staffed ticket offices at Bowden – one on the up platform and one on the down.

References

• 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

External links

• TransAdelaide
• Adelaide Metro