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Adelaide trams

Published June 21st, 2006 in Ramblings, Travel

During my present trip to Adelaide, I’ve been catching the Glenelg tram to and from work. Other than the quaint gimmick of catching a tram (Sydney has no trams any more…except the “blue slug”) the most interesting thing is that on the old trams passengers can hear all radio communications by the operators.

Now there are some things you just don’t want to hear when travelling on public transport, such as a driver announcing I’d like to be relieved since I’ve received a blow to the head (local youths causing some fuss apparently). I think customer satisfaction is directly linked to the perception of safety and the competence of the service provider, which kinda goes down the drain when you can hear what they’re saying ‘behind the scenes’.

For example when one female tram driver spent at least half an hour trying to reach a button (presumably mounted too high) that would allow her to fix a problem and get underway. Hmmm

Anyway, the other thing I noticed is how the tram ventures rather unobtrusively through quiet suburban areas. Unlike train lines in Sydney, which are usually the focal point of a suburb and consequently the most built-up with shops etc, the Glenelg tram runs through quiet streets, often with little more than a simple wire fence between the tracks and [rather nice] houses. And there was very little ’scumbag factor’ surrounding the tram (other than the troublesome youths you heard about on the radio). Again this is unlike Sydney, where on and around trains you’ll find quite a nasty environment…the last place you’d want to spend any time, especially after dark.

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4 Responses to “Adelaide trams”  

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  1. 1 Boring Adelaide Jan 9th, 2008 at 11:17 pm

    Hey, the trams in Adelaide have now been upgraded and are far better than the old red ones.

    Are you still catching them?

  2. 2 Pat Jan 10th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

    No, I haven’t been back to Adelaide very often since then. Glad to hear about the upgrades, but it is a shame that the ol’ charm also goes with the old trams.

  3. 3 Mike Jan 16th, 2008 at 9:02 pm

    The ol’ charm hasn’t completely gone. They kept 5 of the old trams (which have been refurbished I believe) and still run them on weekends and public holidays. They have also extended the tram line north along King William St and west along North Terrace as far as the Morphett St bridge.

    Patronage on the line has increased beyond expectations since the extension opened, and they now have some capacity problems. The new trams are quieter and smoother than the old ones, but do have some problems. The air conditioning is inadequate, the seats are as hard as rock, and the trams are not big enough. They are going to spend some extra money to upgrade the aircon, and are considering lengthening the new trams by adding an extra section to them. I think we are stuck with the hard seats though.

  4. 4 Bill Feb 2nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm

    Came across your page by accident and some memories came flooding back.

    One of my grandfathers built a house on South Road at Glandore a little short of a hundred years ago. The railway was four houses away and he used to catch the train into Adelaide daily. Family folk lore has it that the driver and conductor knew all the regular customers and would wait until they scurried from home to the station. Imagine that today.

    In the late fifties I lived in Pleasant Avenue Glandore and the trams ran behind our back fence and I travelled to work in both Glenelg and Adelaide for a few years. The trams were silver then as I recall. There was a terrible accident at the Marion Road (I think) crossing when the tram collected a car. In those days trams had right-of-way and the Express (non-stop) ones really sped along. That accident caused things to change, no doubt for the better.

    Digressing slightly, in the mid fifties we lived a little way from there and I used to ride my bike to Clarence Park railway station and catch the train into Adelaide. The train was steam driven and you could tell how far it was from the station by the steam rising and the choo choo as it left the previous station. The carriages were like to old wild west ones with the iron “balconies” at each end. Having come from “sophisticated” Melbourne this caused me much mirth. I wonder whether any of them survived. Adelaide also had Trolley Buses, which to my mind are far superior to the modern ones.

    I live in the Hunter Valley these days but I enjoyed a ride on an Glenelg tram a couple of years ago when I visited.

    Thanks for the opportunity to relive some enjoyable memories.

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