The Adelaide–Wolseley railway line is a 313 kilometre line running from

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

to Wolseley on the

Australian Rail Track Corporation The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) is an Australian Government-owned statutory corporation. It operates one of the largest rail networks in the nation spanning 8,500km across five states, 39 worksites and more than 50 First Nations. ...

network.Dry Creek – Victorian border map
SA Track & SignalD3 Wolseley to Mile End
Australian Rail Track Corporation It is the South Australian section of the Melbourne–Adelaide railway.

History

The line opened in stages: on 14 March 1883 from

Aldgate Aldgate () was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate. The area of Aldgate, the most common use of ...

, on 28 November 1883 to Nairne, on 1 May 1886 to Bordertown and on 19 January 1887 to

Serviceton __NOTOC__ Serviceton is a small town in rural western Victoria, Australia. It is near the Victorian–South Australian border, north-west of Melbourne. Named after James Service, who was Premier of Victoria in 1880 and from 1883 to 1886, it ...

. The line consisted of

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lin ...

as far as Belair, where it became

single track Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

for the remainder of the journey east. Along its 313 km length, there are 18

crossing loop A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

s. In 1995, the track was converted to standard gauge as part of the

gauge conversion Gauge conversion is the changing of one railway track gauge (the distance between the running rails) to another. Sleepers If tracks are converted to a narrower gauge, the existing sleepers (ties) may be used. However, replacement is required if ...

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 In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...

sleepers ''Sleepers'' is a 1996 American legal crime drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 book of the same name. The film stars Kevin Bacon, Jason Patric, Brad Pitt, Robert De Niro, Dustin H ...

that will allow it to be converted to standard gauge in the future. Originally operated by

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Austr ...

, in March 1978, it was transferred to Australian National and in July 1998 to the

. Until April 1987, the State Transport Authority services then operated on the first 37 kilometres of the line from Adelaide to Bridgewater, when they were curtailed to Belair, the terminus of today's

Adelaide Metro Adelaide Metro is the public transport system of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. It is an intermodal system offering an integrated network of bus, tram, and train service throughout the metropolitan area. The network has an ann ...

Belair line.Belair timetable
Adelaide Metro 12 October 2014

TransAdelaide TransAdelaide was a publicly owned corporation established on 4 July 1994 which provided suburban train, tram and bus services in Adelaide, South Australia, under contract to the Government of South Australia. It took over these responsibilitie ...

succeeded the STA in operating the line in 1994.

Route

Major towns on the route include Murray Bridge,

Tailem Bend Tailem Bend (locally, "Tailem") is a rural town in South Australia, south-east of the state capital of Adelaide. It is located on the lower reaches of the River Murray, near where the river flows into Lake Alexandrina. It is linear in layout s ...

Keith Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...

and Bordertown.

Services

Today the route is mainly served by interstate freight services operated by

Pacific National Pacific National is one of Australia's largest rail freight businesses. History In February 2002, National Rail Corporation, National Rail's freight operations and rollingstock (owned by the Government of Australia, Federal, Government of New ...

and

SCT Logistics SCT Logistics is an Australian interstate transport company operating rail and road haulage, with facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Parkes, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. History SCT Logistics was founded in 1974 as Specialised Container Tran ...

. Intrastate grain freight services from the Loxton and Pinnaroo lines operated by

Genesee & Wyoming Australia One Rail Australia is an Australian rail freight operator company. Founded by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. in 1997 as Australian Southern Railroad, and later renamed Genesee & Wyoming Australia, it was renamed One Rail Australia in February 2020 aft ...

ceased operating in July 2015. Grain services from Tailem Bend and Wolseley run regularly via One Rail Australia trains.

Journey Beyond Journey Beyond is the business name (together with more than a dozen other related names) of Experience Australia Group Pty Ltd, a private equity-owned company known mainly for operating Australian interstate experiential tourism trains (''The ...

's ''

The Overland ''The Overland'' is an Australian passenger train service between the state capitals of Melbourne and Adelaide, a distance of 828 km (515 mi). It first ran in 1887 as the ''Adelaide Express'', known by South Australians as the ''Melb ...

'' is the only scheduled passenger service to traverse the full route, calling at Murray Bridge and Bordertown stations.The Overland Timetables
Great Southern Rail

services operate from Adelaide to Belair.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adelaide-Wolseley railway line Railway lines in South Australia Railway lines opened in 1887 Standard gauge railways in Australia