Adelaide's Free City Trams: Public Transport as a Civic Gift

Adelaide's tram network, the heritage tram route connecting the Adelaide CBD to the Glenelg beachside suburb in the south and the free tram zone that provides the fare-free travel within the inner city CBD area that the public transport policy has created as the civic amenity, is one of the most distinctive public transport systems of any Australian capital city and the expression of the Adelaide philosophy of making the city accessible and welcoming to the resident and the visitor in a way that the Melbourne equivalents of the free tram zone and the heritage tram infrastructure inspired. The free tram zone's boundaries, encompassing the CBD retail and cultural precincts and the entertainment district, create the fare-free mobility that the inner city resident and the tourist use for the short trips within the city that the affordable car parking at the periphery and the free tram in the centre creates an accessible multi-modal journey pattern for.

The Glenelg tram, operating on the dedicated track through the Adelaide inner suburbs to the Glenelg beachside terminus, provides the heritage transport experience alongside the functional public transport connection that the beach suburb requires for the CBD workers and the visitors to Glenelg who want the nostalgic tram journey rather than the bus alternative. The heritage trams' operation on a frequent schedule through the southern suburbs creates the consistent service that sustains the public transport mode share for the Glenelg corridor that the car alternative along the South Road corridor would otherwise dominate.

The tram network's extension through the CBD along North Terrace, past the cultural institutions and the universities of the education precinct, provides the public transport connection between the CBD retail core and the cultural and educational institutions of the North Terrace corridor that the tram's frequency and the ease of boarding that the tram format creates sustains as a competitive alternative to the short taxi or rideshare ride within the CBD. The North Terrace extension has increased the transit ridership along the cultural precinct corridor and created the sustainable transport mode share that the active transport principles of the Adelaide CBD development policy support.

The future tram extensions that the South Australian Government has planned, including the northern extension to Adelaide Biomedical Precinct and the Port Road extension that connects the CBD to the western suburbs and the Football Park precinct, will expand the network coverage and the population access to the tram mode that the existing network serves only partially. The extensions' investment justification rests on the transit-oriented development potential that the tram catchment creates around the new stops and the commuting market that the new routes serve from the population that currently lacks the tram alternative to the car.

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