Adelaide Rundle Mall and Railway Station Tram stops with Flexity trams

Yesterday since it was a beautiful day I decided to take a look at the Flexity Trams in the Adelaide CBD, the Rundle Mall tram stop and the tram stop next to the Adelaide Railway Station.

Below is the Rundle Mall Tram stop, which is next to the intersection of King William Street and Rundle Mall:

From Rundle Mall heading North (Left of the above photo) we reach the intersection of North Terrace and King William Street, where the trams take a turn toward Adelaide Railway Station tram stop and on to the Entertainment Centre tram stop terminus:

The Adelaide Railway Station tram stop, as the name suggests is opposite the Adelaide Railway Station and is usually very busy on weekdays with transferring passengers from the Adelaide Metro railway lines connecting onto the Tram to get off at Rundle Mall or Pirie Street. From this shot you get a sense of the angle up from this stop to King William Street.

The tram stop is much quieter once the trams have gone, making it easier to show the structure, identical to the Rundle Mall tram stop. All these stops have roof covers which are covered in Solar panels which power the lights at the stop at night. Clever. Not sure if the drinks machine is powered by it though!

View to the Adelaide Railway Station tram stop from the pedestrian crossing nearby, looking towards the west.

Another tram arrives and departs the tram stop:

Here I caught both direction trams in the same shot near the Adelaide Railway Station tram stop:

I catch the trams each day to work from the Entertainment Centre, so I am well travelled on this tram line! The flexity trams are not comfortable seats at all - rock hard in fact! 

There are also some Citadis trams in operation in Adelaide, but none were running while I was out taking photos yesterday. I will try to take some photos of them as they are much nicer trams than the flexity trams in my opinion - certainly more comfortable!

I will do another separate post about the Adelaide Railway Station (I visited it also yesterday) as it is a beautiful building with many interesting historical items inside!

H-Series Trams on Heritage Tram runs in Adelaide

Adelaide Metro (who is the organisation responsible for running the Adelaide trains, trams and buses in the Adelaide metropolitan area) organised a Heritage Tram run for a couple of Sundays during August 2013.

Basically Adelaide Metro retired the H-Class Trams in Adelaide a couple of years ago, which had been in continuous service since 1929!

There is only one tram line in Adelaide, which runs from the Entertainment Centre just north of North Adelaide, through the city centre and then runs south west direction to the beachside suburb of Glenelg.

In the past there were many other tram lines in Adelaide, but that is a story for another time!

Adelaide Metro spent a considerable amount of money renovating the tram back to it's original livery and look back in 1929 for these heritage runs. I have to say the tram looked fantastic, and the train driver was dressed in period clothing for the runs too!

I decided to take the tram from the Entertainment Centre, and while I was waiting, one of the normal Adelaide Trams, a Flexity Tram was leaving the Entertainment Centre tram stop on it's way to the city and Glenelg beyond.

Then a few minutes later the renovated H-series tram number 351 arrived to much photographing from the many rail fans present!

 Next we see the tram navigating the crossover just before arriving at the station.

 The train driver was in full period uniform too, and the tram just looked great! Well done to the people doing the renovations!

Next of course came the mad scramble to pay our gold coin donation to get a heritage ticket (from that 1929 era) and information booklet. My booklet and ticket is shown below:

And some information about the tram is included in the booklet. Adelaide Metro wanted to get opinion on whether the Heritage tram should become a regular fixture in Adelaide for tourists on the weekend. Of course I said yes!

Once onboard, we began the trek down to Glenelg. The seats are very comfortable, much better than the Flexity tram, and the lack of air conditioning was not an issue since the number of people onboard ensured it was quite warm all the way down.

Below we are crossing from the southern section of the city centre area into the southern suburbs:

Of course, you could adjust the windows up or down by adjusting the belt straps to lower/raise the window as shown below - very manual but works well:

Once we arrived in Glenelg, a crowd of people swarmed to get on the next run:

Now full and ready to depart back to the Entertainment Centre:

Of course the tram is not the only attraction in Glenelg, there is a rather nice beach, jetty and entertainment district to enjoy, which buzzes on friday and saturday nights. The Glenelg tram stop is just beyond the beginning of the Jetty:

I then walked back up to the Brighton Rd tram stop (doing some window shopping) before getting a normal Flexity tram back:

As a bonus, I saw a Flexity tram doing a Test Run, presumably new driver training. The Glengowrie Tram Depot (where the tram are kept when not in use) is not far from this stop location:

It was a great day out and I really enjoyed riding the Adelaide Heritage Tram!

New Train and Tram related posts!

Since my first trip to Tokyo in Japan back in 2005, I have been getting more and more into trains and trams, especially riding them. I enjoy the train journey more than anything else, and the raw excitement of seeing new and interesting trains, and riding a train to somewhere I have never been before, to experience new places and people.

Restored early 1900's era Adelaide Trams lined ready to run at St Kilda Tram Museum line, in Adelaide in 2010

The excitement I felt the first time was massive when I first stood at the main Meguro Station platform on the Yamanote line in Tokyo, and listening to the cute songs they play on each platform in Tokyo when a train is at the platform and about to depart! It hooked me in - to this day I use that stations jingle as my mobile phone ring tone!

Joetsu Shinkansen (Bullet Train) ready to depart at Shinagawa Station, Tokyo, Japan in January 2011

I have never forgotten that feeling and long to experience it whenever I travel on trains. This is why the Yamanote line remains my favourite train, even though it is a standard very busy commuter train line in Tokyo!

Sunrise Seto Night Train at Tokyo Station in January 2013

But there are so many other interesting trains to see and experience all over the world - I aim to experience as many train journeys as possible!

Pichi Richi Railway Steam loco at Woolshed Flat, near Port Augusta, South Australia in September 2011

I should mention to start with that I am not up to speed with all the different train models and types - I enjoy riding them and haven't so far focused on this detail - but who knows how this hobby will change over time!

Entry to the Tokyo Teleport Station on the Rinkai Line in Tokyo, Japan in July 2011

Needless to say, I am now mostly transitioned from a former hardcore computer geek to a Densha Otaku (as they say in Japan), or a rail fan as they say here in Australia!

This is a heritage H-Series Adelaide Tram, newly renovated running in Adelaide in August 2013

I intend to blog more about trains, train stations, train museums and other rail related items of interest I encounter in my travels, both here in Australia and in Japan. I also have a lot of archive material from travels in the last few years which I will also add to this blog over time.

This is the Botchan Resha train, running in Matsuyama city, in Shikoku, Japan, in January 2013

I have included some sample photos of the many trains I have photographed over the past few years. I hope you will join me on this train journey and I hope you continue to enjoy this blog.