Outer Harbor line

Outer Harbor railway line
Overview
Locale	Adelaide, South Australia
Termini	Adelaide Osborne (peak hour only) Outer Harbor
Stations	Woodville Port Adelaide Glanville
Service
Services	Every 10-20 mins (peak) Every 30 mins (weekday) Every 30 mins (weekend) Every 60 mins (night)
Rolling stock	2000/2100 class 3000/3100 class
History
Opened	1856 (to Port Adelaide) 1908 (to Outer Harbor)
Re-sleepered (concrete)	2002, November 2009-March 2010
Technical
Line length	21.9 km (13.6 mi)
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

km Balloon loop closed 1980s 21.9 Outer Harbor Golf course entrance Klingberg Drive 20.5 North Haven Osborne Road 19.6 Osborne 18.8 Midlunga Gedville Road 18.2 Taperoo Strathfield Terrace 17.2 Draper Kolapore Avenue 16.4 Largs North Fletcher Road Jetty Road 15.5 Largs Largs Jetty closed 1908 Wills Street Hargrave Street 14.6 Peterhead Harris Street Semaphore Road Semaphore line 13.8 Glanville Birkenhead Loop to Pelican Point Hart Street 13.1 Ethelton Wirra Drive Port River Old Port Road Church Street 11.7 Port Adelaide over Commercial Road Lipson Street National Railway Museum 12.0 Port Dock under construction Grand Junction Road Rosewater Loop to Dry Creek 10.2 Alberton Fussell Place 9.2 Cheltenham 8.7 Cheltenham Racecourse closed 2009 Cheltenham Parade 8.6 St Clair Finsbury line Grange line 7.5 Woodville Woodville Road 7.5 Woodville Park Kilkenny Road/David Terrace 6.0 Kilkenny Private road 5.1 West Croydon over Rosetta street 4.2 Croydon Queen Street/Elizabeth Street North-South Motorway Coglin Street Chief Street East Street 2.7 Bowden (original site) 1856–2017 Gibson Street 2.4 Bowden Park Terrace to Port Augusta Gawler line 1.7 Torrens Bridge closed 1888 River Torrens to Melbourne Belair, Seaford and Flinders lines Adelaide Depot closed 2011 0.0 Adelaide km

broad gauge standard gauge dual gauge

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.

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. In the 2011 budget, it was announced that electrification of the Outer Harbor line had been deferred until 2016. In June 2012, the project was cancelled.

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.

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