Tram revolution urged for Adelaide

The only tramline in Adelaide runs 10.8km between the CBD and Glenelg. The route was upgraded with new tracks and trams in 2005 and extended by 1.62km last year. The tramline extension is the first since the 1920s and is proving a hit with commuters.

The Property Council of Australia (SA Division) has thrown its weight behind a radical approach to urban design that promises the biggest makeover of Adelaide since the 1950s. In that decade SA Premier Tom Playford envisaged, and achieved, the northern satellite city of Elizabeth.

The aim is for new light rail tracks down Port Road (with a West Lakes spur), another one through the existing former rail corridor to Glenelg, a new line through North Adelaide and Prospect and rail spurs to Goodwood and Mitcham. That equates to approximately 50km of new track.

The council wants an Urban Renewal Commission to oversee implementation of Transit Oriented Development projects – or TOD, throughout Adelaide. Executive director Nathan Paine describes TOD as the new global paradigm for housing growing populations in a sustainable way.

“Few people still question that Adelaide is set for unprecedented population growth, and given the environmental pressures that are growing, it is imperative that we look at ways of doing things,” he says.

“TOD is about locating medium to high density housing on or very close to hard transit lines such as trains and trams. By reducing reliance on private vehicles, TOD has massive potential for reducing community transport-related greenhouse emissions and is another option for housing a growing population rather than relying on urban expansion.”

The Property Council has released a “discussion starter map” of locations for TOD, which shows potential and existing rail corridors – some light, some heavy – and locations for urban renewal where TOD activity centres could be built.

“Even before the state government's extension of the Glenelg to Adelaide tramway there has been a clamour for a light rail extension down Port Road,” says Paine. “We want to start a debate about the best locations for TOD, but we believe completing a `beach to bay' arc from Glenelg to the Port is a great place to start.”