Port Adelaide station is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

located on the Outer Harbor line. Situated in the north-western

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 ...

suburb of Alberton, it is 11.7 kilometres from Adelaide station.

History

The line from Adelaide to Port Adelaide was the second railway in South Australia (after the Goolwa-Port Elliot railway began in 1854) and opened in 1856. The original line from

ran directly to Port Dock station, the site now occupied by the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant ...

. Various lines then continued through the Port Adelaide's streets to the wharves and, from 1878, along St Vincent Street to the seaside town of Semaphore. Congestion at

Port Dock railway station Port Dock railway station – named Port Adelaide until 1916 – was located in the commercial centre of Port Adelaide, South Australia at the corner of St Vincent Street and Lipson Street. It was the original terminus of the railway betwe ...

and the delays involved in operating trains along busy streets in the centre of the Port resulted in construction of a viaduct and a new bridge across the

Port River The Port River (officially known as the Port Adelaide River) is part of a tidal estuary located north of the Adelaide city centre in the Australian state of South Australia. It has been used as a shipping channel since the beginning of European ...

in 1916. This diverted through trains to Semaphore and Outer Harbor via a new station named Commercial Road, the current station. Port Adelaide Commercial Road was quite a substantial building, with long platforms, an overall roof and a

signal cabin On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetabl ...

. This quickly took over from Port Dock as the town's principal railway station. As rail traffic decreased through the 1960s and 70s, facilities at Commercial Road station were gradually reduced. In the early 1970s the roof was removed, platforms shortened and the street level station buildings reconstructed. The ticket office closed in January 1979 and the station has been unstaffed since then. With the closure of Port Dock station in 1981, Commercial Road station was subsequently renamed Port Adelaide. In November 2009, the station and viaduct closed for refurbishment, reopening on 9 May 2010. Currently, Port Adelaide station's two elevated platforms are on a viaduct that carries the railway across Commercial Road. The station is unstaffed and has no buildings or other facilities except basic passenger shelters on each platform. The tracks through Port Adelaide station were dual gauge from 1982, both broad gauge and . This allowed freight traffic from Dry Creek via the Rosewater loop to access industrial facilities on the

Lefevre Peninsula The Lefevre Peninsula is a peninsula located in the Australian state of South Australia located about northwest of the Adelaide city centre. It is a narrow sand spit of about running north from its connection to the mainland. The name given ...

and the container terminal at Pelican Point. In August 2008, freight traffic was diverted to operate via the

Mary MacKillop Bridge The Mary MacKillop Bridge is a bascule bridge in Adelaide, Australia that carries the Dry Creek-Port Adelaide railway line over the Port River. In July 2005, Abigroup was awarded a contract to build a railway bridge and the adjoining Tom 'Diver' ...

downstream of the Port Adelaide harbour. The disused standard gauge rails have been removed, however the dual gauge

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 ...

remain in place to allow for the entire Outer Harbor line to be

gauge converted 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 ...

in the future.

Services by platform

Transport links

References

External links

*
Track map
SA Signal & Track
Flickr gallery
{{Adelaide Metro railway stations, Outer Harbor=y, state=collapsed Railway stations in Adelaide Railway stations in Australia opened in 1916

History

Services by platform

Transport links

References

Further reading

External links