Adelaide Tramway Network Timeline Map: 140 Years of Trams (1878-2018)

[@PeteJohnsMusic]

That was the most fascinating and saddening history of what could have been an amazing tram network to this day.

[@garytnew7504]

And without doubt we wouldn’t have the traffic congestion we now see daily … yes we’ve gone backwards in services

[@steveding2006]

Sydney's is definitely more saddening.

[@tjhyatt]

Can't belive how quickly it was destroyed, almost all gone in 5 years

[@acmenipponair]

Seems like one mayor of that city hated trams.

[@DouglasDC10.30]

Classic western city, ripping out all but 1-2 of their tram lines or ripping them out altogether.

[@IvanLeung-xu6sb]

Yeah, I can’t imagine living in a city where public transit lines are shut down every few months

[@supergiraloz]

What a complete waste that all of this brilliant public infrastructure got torn out in favour of cars!! Adelaide wouldn't have such lacking public transport if we'd just kept the services we already had!

[@kingcoong]

Thanks to Australia copying everything America did and the car industry

[@garytnew7504]

Most definitely agree

[@andrewrussack8647]

Correct!

[@electro_sykes]

at least we kept the glenelg line.

[@davidthegreen]

Excellent. I've been wanting to see a clearly explained map of Adelaide's old tram network for years

[@granttaylor2635]

Born in Adelaide in 1948, and living there until 1970, I travelled many of the tram routes mentioned in the excellent video . I had no idea that there were so many. I lived and was brought up in Pennington with the terminus opposite the Cheltenham Racecourse ( now, also just a memory). and to go to the city we travelled along Torrens Road, I think to South Road and then through North Adelaide, which to a boy from Pennington seemed seemed quite glamorous. I moved to Melbourne a few years ago, and have always wondered why other cities, including Sydney Perth and I think Brisbane got rid of their trams. I may be wrong but I have always had the view that the transport bureaucracy in South Australia during the fifties and sixties strongly favoured buses, and probably were not alone with similar views held in other states. I guess that is progress. Riding the mostly modern trams all over Melbourne makes me very glad the demise of trams across the country did not happen here.

[@billmick782]

Fantastic research, animation, and narration! Never knew of our city’s rich and expansive transportation history; has me thinking of everything else this city has lost to time. 21:30 was heart-wrenching! So much closure in one day.

[@cristoforodelnero5138]

Very interesting, indeed fascinating. I did not know Adelaide had such an extensive HORSE tram network. Long live trams! The destruction of the Adelaide system was tragic. Bring on AdeLINK! Born and raised in Adelaide, I now live in Melbourne. The tram system is great - accessible, flexible, versatile. Melbourne made an inspired decision to keep its tram lines while the other Australian cities were digging them up.

[@BigBlueMan118]

To be fair, we shouldnt just be making the same mistakes of old tram systems, there were good reasons to at least redesign how they work in our street landscapes. Sydneys new George Street and the upcoming opening of the Parramatta Light Rail is a good example of how to do it right and these entire corridor are now the focal points of those cities. Trams work best when they have their own dedicated corridor free from traffic and with lots of foot traffic. They also are even more effective with multiple lines connecting but not sharing track, and running to interchanges with train station rather than trying to take passengers from the trains - it needs to form a true network. Trams have a great weakness which is interacting eith other traffic, as you would have experienced on some lines in Melbourne and was a driving factor behind many of the closures of lines in Sydney. For the AdeLINK project to be successful it would need to fearlessly give priority to the light rail vehicles. I would also suggest that the single biggest difference which would bring Adelaides transport into the 21st century and revolutionise the way people move in the city is a tunnel connecting the Seaford and Flinders lines with the Gawler and Outer Harbour lines straight through the city. You could cut journey times, massively increase the number of trains per hour and provide comfortable modern air conditioned stations in the city like what Brisbane and Auckland are doing.

[@tommyblack7998]

They got rid of the horse trams because the horses used to shit on the route.

[@cristoforodelnero5138]

@@tommyblack7998 When ya gotta go ya gotta go

[@zi8gzag]

Great video

[@darylcheshire1618]

I am from Melbourne and I stayed overnight in Adelaide to ride the old Ghan to Alice Springs. That night in Adelaide I rode the Glenelg tram, the wooden car went like the clappers, a bonus of having it’s own reservation. I think it ran faster than the Melbourne trams and I think faster than the current modern tram. Maybe the feeling of speed is more prounced in an old wooden tram.

[@tangiers365]

probably because it ran on the glenelg train line so it was separated from the road would have felt faster - similar to the st kilda rd bit in melbourne

[@stevejones9062]

It may seem a nit pick but this would make more sense if the road map was contemporary to the dating as it would show population growth that supported the tram network. Even in the 1930's vast areas of the metro area were open paddocks.

[@mktj1]

id love to see this too but i imagine it would be much more difficult to find detailed information on this compared to tramway route opening and closing dates and line maps.

[@tramwaymuseum-stkildasouth1626]

While that would be fantastic to see, it was considered but deemed not feasible for this project. As @TJtheWonderChild correctly pointed out, the research required to accurately create the required maps would be intense in terms of time, research, and additional animation work. By using a contemporary map of metropolitan Adelaide, viewers of today are better able to relate and physically position themselves in relation tramlines of the past.

[@KenanTurkiye]

🚅 don't you all enjoy railroad 🚈 trams, trains etc are just so cool 🚞 take a ride in my ''transportation'' folder, (folder 2) :)

[@notthatntg]

criminally underrated

[@garytnew7504]

What a fantastic piece of history and nostalgia congratulations on marvellous researching 👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@sparkleshyguy85]

Adelaide really is a good size for trams. its main urban core is relatively constrained thanks to the hills east of the city, The rails are in the right place (heavy rail), roughly speaking, and those should be able to handle the main north-south transport task with buses in the outer subrbs connecting to them, and trams closer to the CBd. There are, I think, some easy wins. - Airport tram. Seriously, it’s the perfect transit mode for an airport, level boarding, doesn’t need elaborate stations, and with the CBD so close to the airport it should be able to make the link in a reasonable time even if you add a few stops on the ay there. Add a couple of lines to t the east of city, investigate possible conversion of the Obahn, and I think that’s a solid base network. The airport tram idea though, it’s s obvious for adeliade. It should be next.

[@jimothy40]

Great job Bailey, very interesting!

[@robo113603]

Well out together video, with all relevant information of history

[@gavinkerslake]

excellent video of the madness that is Adelaide.

[@vsvnrg3263]

youve done a really good job here.

[@mktj1]

fantastic video

[@frankbanks7549]

Wonderful. Thank you for all your research and production efforts

[@IntrepidsRus]

This is brilliant. Thank you

[@jeffmcmahon3278]

Thanks a lot General Motors in Detroit. We had to have cars, didn't we?! (And that's not a conspiracy!) So we dug up all the trail lines. Not so Melbourne, and how good is their service still in the 21st century.

[@1BCamden]

fantastic presentation, what next we ask.

[@southaussiegarbo2054]

Yep trams used to terminate at northern end of ramsay ave. That is also the original location of paradise interchange. It consisted of 4 bus stops and a tram stop from what i found.

[@LakshmanandSonisha]

wow! interesting content ! thanks for the video

[@adammurphy6845]

Amazing video team! Easy to follow and thoroughly informative.

[@andrewrussack8647]

Let’s hope there are more (re)extensions to come!

[@s.a.m.9837]

The network Adelaide deserves

[@bluemango7112]

Great presentation , one question , i started school in 1956 travelling from Black Forest to the city on the Glenelg line , i distinctly remember the trams running down King William rd in 56 and 57 to Hyde Pk , or am i dreaming , did it close in 1955 or was it later ?

[@kangab1387]

What I never understood was why there was a tram to Glenelg and also a train line

[@Planetrainguy]

two different companies I think but I really don't know

[@rogehmcclung1461]

Interesting.

[@yewenyi]

When I lived in Adelaide I was told that in the days of horse-drawn trams, they used to put on more horses if the gully winds were strong. Is this correct?

[@dannynguyen2382]

Adelaide what happen???

[@Gopferteckel]

It went backwards whilst other cities went forwards.

[@rheel6747]

They need to remake the Adelaide Oval loop

[@Gopferteckel]

Victorians seen to have more intelligence . They kept their tram network and it works !

[@jmondragqueen]

what's so dumb is the government ripped up the lines and now is talking about putting trams back to port adelaide and prospect. Imagine if the lines stayed open, we'd be as big as Melbourne

[@gill7087]

Politics and a lack of long term planning killed what would now be the envy of most other Australian cities if electrification of our public transport system had survived. A bit like the rail lines in country areas, they closed them at a prodigious rate and promoted road transport and private vehicles (we built Holdens and Chryslers in Adelaide) and encouraged everyone to use private transport by reducing the availability of public transport. Trains can transport huge quantities of goods with few people directly involved, but they didn’t provide the sheer number of jobs that road transport creates. When Rail lines all over the state were closed and the passenger services reduced and they were not used then almost dispensed with entirely. Ironically the advent of diesel electric trains which are much less labour intensive than steam was one reason to close them. Diesels just don’t provide the sheer number of jobs that steam did although diesels are far more efficient. If you are a state government, you need good employment or you won’t win a second term so long term planning of transport, especially public transport is considered a luxury. At the end of ww2 there were many men being demobbed so employment was a priority, fuel was getting cheaper and electric trams were less labour intensive than busses and cars. They had to go.

[@LucyJrts]

You’re as beautiful as the day I lost you… It took us like six years to lose it all…

[@TheVoyagersTrainsAndThings]

And it took us 10 years to lose our rail network from 1980.

[@pipsasqeak820]

Crazy how we somehow had a very cool and complex tram system that if left or updated couldve made adelaiude so much more accesisble but instead we have this harbage roads and train system, and a semi useless tram system

[@tommyblack7998]

We used to have a grey cat in Adelaide.

[@vincentxie3090]

Sadly, the Adelaide tramway network has removed many of the old ones in the past

[@bettysteve322716]

l swear l have seen this map, in black on a dark red brick wall, behind where the brewery used to be in Thebarton. Or was it the old train lines map?

[@ChrisKhaled83]

What a lot of destruction. Governments can be worse than vandals. They did the same in Sydney around the same time. Its lucky that Melbourne even has a tram network at all. Lebanon had a train Network as big as Adelaides present one, Now its gone since the 1980's. They never repaired any of it after the civil war, and they just lot it all go. It also had a tram network as well, same thing happened with it.

[@robertaquilina3848]

another great tram system destroyed

[@Paisly17]

Adelaide went backwards

[@v1e1r1g1e1]

Never should have ended the trams. Major error!

[@robynecclestone7900]

1954 rough range our own oil at last. 1985 bass strait oil peaks. But dont mention the oil oil wars of 56 67 73 81 till 88. 91 kuwait and who can forget 2001 onwards to 2020. Oildependency bad idea.

[@JessyP-u6q]

Horse tram cab Steam engine 1882 Port adelaide Port adelaide Port adelaide Hyde park If my data lost it means nothing ? If your data is lost the entire school faculty gets laptops for free If we protest it means nothing If you protest the entire country is roaring Data Data Data structures Environment Masters degree means nothing Graduating is nothing Transportation is potential sharks