Driver's View Royal Adelaide Hospital to Glenelg

[@scottyerkes1867]

Adelaide has the worst traffic signals for trams. The private right of way is a pleasure. Good speed. No annoying traffic iights. Thanks Tresseleg1😀💚

[@tressteleg1]

The private right away start of life as a steam railway so the tradition of railway style level crossings has fortunately remained. Unfortunately the same attitude was not adopted with street running.

[@0adamlaslett0]

Ah my home town. Live in Hobart now but miss Adelaide. ❤

[@tressteleg1]

I guess you must mean missing the 40+° days 😆. It was actually quite warm when I was there, but not enough to worry me…

[@jamesbradley7306]

Another great driver's view, Tressteleg. Keep those traffic engineers thinking!

[@tressteleg1]

I have long believed that for 80 or more years, Melbourne traffic light programmers have been perfecting the art of delaying trams as much as they can get away with, and most definitely successfully fighting any moves to give trams traffic light priority. I don’t expect them to change their tune any time soon, and as Adelaide seems to be little brother, they won’t do anything different, I believe.

[@jamesbradley7306]

I wrote to the Transport Minister after my last two visits commenting on the woeful tram transit times in the inner city. No response - also woeful.

[@tressteleg1]

When I have nothing better to do, I also intend to write to them about the woeful information on all sorts of things with the transport system at least involving tourists. I made a snap decision to visit Adelaide in February while staying in Melbourne. There is a bus stop just a few minutes walk from the interstate train terminus but it’s no longer possible to purchase tickets from the driver. There is a railway station not terribly far away but there seems to be no ticket sales facilities at any stations which is a sick joke. Luckily an acquaintance brought in a couple of tickets to get me to my accommodation by bus. The suburban ticket retailers are mostly newsagents, and we all know what time of day they shut, long before the Melbourne train gets in. Information at bus stops was largely non-existent and so a disgrace. No wonder tourists don’t go to that place. There is nothing to help them use public transport. It’s just a system for the locals if they are persistent enough.

[@rickn501s]

It does seem that your traffic engineers (or technicians) need some education. Public conveyances should always receive priority over personal transportation. Excessively long traffic signals are a genuine nuisance and contribute to frustration which may translate to accidents. Thanks for the ride and for removing the unnecessary delays.

[@tressteleg1]

Adelaide is quite a small Tramway compared with Big Brother Melbourne, so I suppose it natural that Adelaide should turn to Big Brother for Tramway expertise. However in Melbourne while the traffic lights have no tram priority, they do at least slip in 7 second T lights between traffic light phases at most locations. This does not happen in Adelaide. The T light appears just once in each cycle making it worse than Melbourne, and that’s saying a lot. In general, the new tramways in Sydney, Canberra, and Gold Coast have traffic lights which essentially interrupt road traffic flow and change in favour of trams as they approach each intersection. Clearly this gives a much better journey time. I am not surprised you like me editing out stationary times. 👍

[@wence25games89]

Possibly the best-structured tram line in Australia!

[@tressteleg1]

Maybe, but the total lack of traffic light priority, even lacking extra 7 second T lights between phases is the worst in Australia.

[@tonymccarthy6713]

I used to live at Glenelg. I drove then because I worked at the Airport (shift work).

[@tressteleg1]

Understood. The line is not much use to someone needing to go to the airport.

[@dazza0485]

I love Adelaide and it’s tram system. But can some please tell me why Adelaide’s trams seem so slow and speed restricted even on relatively new rails compared to Melbourne and other tramways? Almost every set of points or bend in the track Adelaide’s trams seem to do 10-20kmh.

[@tressteleg1]

That’s what happens to tramways these days. ‘Experts’ think that drivers are not bright enough to work out sensible curve and other speeds, so set speed limits based on their conservative guesswork, not actual experience. And as I said in the video, traffic lights for trams are even worse than Melbourne’s, and that is saying something!

[@MrSuperleobros]

Light rail in Sydney CBD is the same. There's really no reasons for them to go slow but 'experts' don't realize that it's the pedestrians that have to adapt to trams not the other way around.

[@tressteleg1]

At least most tram intersections in Sydney now have traffic light priority. As for pedestrians, years ago before ‘dumb phones’ in Germany, probably Mannheim, at a tram fan convention a tramway official told us that they found that the FASTER trams went thought their pedestrian mall, the LESS accidents they had.

[@tcpnetworks]

We need a few hundred KM more of light rail and rail lines.... We really need a line to Virginia/Two-Wells to serve the new communities being built there.

[@tressteleg1]

Plans for extra lines around the city at least, I think were proposed by a Labor government a number of years ago, but when the Liberals got in, that was the end of the plans and unfortunately when Labor returned to power, those extensions remained quietly forgotten. Much the same happened in Perth as well.

[@VoightHank314]

Damn it's been a long time since I haven't been on the tram its been 3 years now. It's really Sad 😢 for me. Now i live in Brisbane.

[@tressteleg1]

You could always get your fix by popping down to the Goldie take a ride on my local tram which does not spend hours stuck at traffic lights like the trams in the streets of Adelaide.

[@DooverLackey]

This run is basically a mini train track! Would be a very enjoyable drive

[@tressteleg1]

You don’t realise how true your words are. From Glenelg to Adelaide Station started life as…..a steam railway in 1880, converted to trams in 1929. Personally as a former tram driver, going up and down the same line X times each day would soon become quite boring. Doing a few trips in between Botanic Garden and Entertainment Centre would break the monotony a little.

[@MartintheTinman]

​@@tressteleg1I drove the H type Trams for the STA from '89 to ' 93. A shorter track, Victoria Square to Mosley Square. It wasn't boring at all but we actually had interaction with the travelling public.

[@gregorymiller7828]

love your editing😊

[@tressteleg1]

😊😊👍👍. I just remove things from my videos that annoy me about other people‘s videos.

[@civities]

To be fair Alston citadis 302 motor sounds good I guess

[@tressteleg1]

Maybe…

[@1044fan]

Great video 👍🏻 I have been in Glenelg in 1998.

[@tressteleg1]

Well it sounds like you are due for another visit. There has been a lot of addition to the system in the city since then, as you will have seen from the start of this video.

[@knightman1970]

i have never been to adelaide it was interesting to watch this seeing a different city i am used to seeing sydney all the time i noticed the ferris wheel when you got to glenelg is there some sort of fun park there?

[@tressteleg1]

I’m pleased you liked it. And yes, there is a mini Luna Park on the water’s edge a little to the right of the tram at terminus.

[@MartintheTinman]

Glenelg is nothing like it used to be. They levelled most of the Fun Park that did exist there

[@tressteleg1]

@@MartintheTinman sounds like a typical Clown (town) Council. Would not know an attraction if it bit them on the bum. There’s not a real lot to do in Adelaide and annihilating one of the few attractions, and a fun one, defies logic.

[@MartintheTinman]

@@tressteleg1 they sold the Land to Developers and everyone made a fortune except for the ordinary folk and now it's absolutely horrendous if you remember what it was like. You can go and have a good day if you've never been there before because it's good but it was great

[@MartintheTinman]

@@tressteleg1 Adelaide looks way better than it did. The whole rail infrastructure has been fully revamped. I've been living in Victoria for 24 years and Adelaide is so much better but they ruined Glenelg. They made it really nice because the Pier Hotel was woeful, in the nineties but then they just went nuts in this century

[@stephiianiemay8059]

Exit on the left in the direction ⬅️ of travel.

[@tressteleg1]

We must have been smarter in the past as we did not need a voice to tell us how to get off. It’s just more unnecessary noise pollution, still not as bad as my local Gold Coast tram.

[@TomZhao-t5q]

Are the trams using standard gauge track?

[@tressteleg1]

@@TomZhao-t5q Yes, all trams in Australia these days are standard gauge. The last 3‘6“ trams were gone by around 1960.

[@TomZhao-t5q]

Wow I guessed it 🧠

[@tressteleg1]

@ 😆

[@robertnorman6443]

How were you able to get a camera in to the drivers compartment

[@tressteleg1]

It’s not. It’s against the window behind the driver.

[@marcelmartin7424]

Do the trams really drive that slowly or does it only look like that? In Berlin i got only 1 Minute for every stop including passengers changing. We drive 50kmh on the street.

[@tressteleg1]

The street section can be a bit slow. But on the reservation speeds of around 60km/hour are possible.

[@marcelmartin7424]

@@tressteleg1 ah, thank you for your response. 60kmh is also the highest speed in Berlin. Greetings to Australia!

[@tressteleg1]

No Problem. 60 km/h is a reasonable speed. I have been to Berlin a few times, the last being in 1992. While I think of it, the Adelaide Bombardier trams were a follow-on order from Frankfurt D. As for maximum tram speeds, my local tramway is the Gold Coast Light Rail. The 7km from Good Coast University Hospital to Helensvale railway station is nearly all run at 70km/h as well as about 1.5km further south. That first long section is on open ballast reservation. Some of the videos in the link below may be of interest. Separately I will send a link to one of my Berlin videos. Gold Coast Trams/Light Rail kzbin.info/aero/PLLtOIHp49XNChPr3pQV6NSGE67BlWJ3oL

[@tressteleg1]

@@marcelmartin7424 A Berlin video of mine. Becoming a Tram Driver Berlin 1992 + Freight Locos kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpC3oq2Mr9WhnKM And greetings from Australia 😄

[@marcelmartin7424]

@@tressteleg1 oh my god. What an incredible and interesting coincidence! I have to take a closer look at that. I already have a lot of questions. But I think there are too many for this platform. I want to take a look at your videos in peace first and then get back to you, if I may. Liebe Grüße von Marcel

[@robbieberry9700]

I enjoyed the ride with you 😊

[@tressteleg1]

😊👍

[@civities]

This tram is maybe similar to the Tram in Melbourne

[@tressteleg1]

Same builder as the C1 and C2 Citadis.

[@civities]

good vid

[@tressteleg1]

😊👍

[@civities]

@@tressteleg1 why did you say so???

[@civities]

Anyway 302s Are my fav

[@tressteleg1]

@@civities I simply acknowledged that you liked my video. The 302s are OK but Adelaide drivers prefer the Bombardiers as they toss the drivers around at speed less than the 302s.

[@civities]

@@tressteleg1 ah i see but im 11

[@summerwind1974]

💯 👍 lol

[@civities]

Why 302s are only top speed of 80 compare to 305s 100

[@tressteleg1]

Because like all low floor tram in Australia except the E class which have real bogies, they are only collections of 4 wheel trams with long overhangs and are liable to wobble themselves off the rails if going too fast. From memory in Adelaide they don’t go faster than 60km/h. If you live there, go for a ride and watch the speedo. The old H cars went faster. My Gold Coast tram does 70 in some sections.

[@civities]

I’m in sydney

[@tressteleg1]

@@civities You have probably noticed that the speeds are pretty dismal everywhere. It used to be 80 through the Glebe tunnel on the L1 but that has gradually been cut back and I think is only 60 at the moment. As for the L2 and L3, there is only a short patch as fast as 60. Some idiot to put a 50 K limit along Anzac Parade so have thus limited the L3 trams to that maximum speed as well.

[@civities]

You mean 50000

[@peterausfranken]

A city where the trams have more red lights than in Melbourne. Now we see how great Melbourne is😂

[@tressteleg1]

Not really. Melbourne is terrible, Adelaide is simply more terrible when it comes to traffic light priority for trams.

[@paulwilliams5208]

(6:00) how can it be "32 secs out" when first we're riding 207B then 206b

[@tressteleg1]

Because of the angle of the sun shining in drivers’ eyes at different times of the day, they had to put the sunshade down which was no use to me, thus the change of trams. But there was an overlap with both raw clips so I used the paused time of I think the first tram, then continued with the second. Certainly the 32 secs is authentic with one of those trams.

[@johnperry9357]

prefer the H''s

[@tressteleg1]

Yes they had character, but it seems that as soon as the new generation of trams reached Adelaide, management wanted nothing to do with H cars. For the first few years after the first extension to think it was Citywest opened, there was massive overcrowding on the trams Although they still had H class at the depot, these were never used to help relieve this problem. Instead people were just jammed in like sardines until the ex-Madrid Citadis trams arrived. 2H cars were fully overhauled for use weekends etc but they saw almost no use and were soon taken off the property.

[@MartintheTinman]

I drove H type Trams from '89 to '93. It was fantastic. The best part was that we had a Restaurant Tram 378 during my time there

[@tressteleg1]

They were interesting trams to drive. While the ‘original’ drivers were still on the job, those driving when the Adelaide tramway was largely complete, it was not hard to get a ‘sly drive’ at night. I certainly did a few times from 1965 😊. Mastering the brakes took a bit of practice.

[@peregrinemccauley5010]

It's freaky how people just appear out of thin air and go about their daily business . Is this evidence of wormholes or stargates ? Spooky .

[@tressteleg1]

Then you would like to watch boring minutes when the tram is not moving? I guess not but the ghosts suddenly disappearing and appearing can be fun.