System Railways in Adelaide | Opened 1887 | |
Termini Adelaide
South Australia/Victoria state border Continues from Adelaide-Port Augusta line, Mile End Continues as Western standard gauge line, Serviceton Services Belair Line
The Overland Operators Adelaide Metro, Aurizon, Genesee & Wyoming Australia, Great Southern Rail, Pacific National, SCT Logistics | ||
The Adelaide-Wolseley railway line is a 313 kilometre line running from Adelaide to Wolseley on the Australian Rail Track Corporation network. It is the South Australian part of the Melbourne–Adelaide railway.
Contents
History
The line opened in stages, on 14 March 1883 from Adelaide to Aldgate, on 28 November 1883 to Nairne, on 1 May 1886 to Bordertown and on 19 January 1887 to Serviceton.
Until April 1987, TransAdelaide services operated on the first 37 kilometres of the line from Adelaide to Bridgewater, when the service was curtailed to Belair, the terminus of today's Adelaide Metro Belair line.
The line consisted of double track as far as Belair, where it became single track for the remainder of the journey east. In 1995, the track was converted to standard gauge as part of the gauge conversion of the line to Melbourne. This included one of the lines west of Belair, effectively converting this section to two single lines.
In 2009, the Belair line was relaid with Dual gauge sleepers that will allow it to be converted to standard gauge, resulting in the line again becoming double track.
Originally operated by South Australian Railways, in March 1978 it was transferred to Australian National and in July 1998 to the Australian Rail Track Corporation.
Route
Major towns on the route include Murray Bridge, Tailem Bend, Keith and Bordertown.
The line is standard gauge and single track throughout its entire 313 length, with 18 crossing loops.
Services
Today the route is mainly served by interstate freight services operated by Aurizon, Pacific National and SCT Logistics, as well as irregular intrastate grain freight services from the Loxton and Pinnaroo lines operated by Genesee & Wyoming Australia. These branch line trains ceased operating in July 2015, to be replaced by road transport, however it is possible that trains will continue to be used on this line from Tailem Bend to Port Adelaide.
Great Southern Rail's The Overland is the only scheduled passenger service to traverse the full route, calling at Murray Bridge and Bordertown stations. Adelaide Metro services operate from Adelaide to Belair.