Gawler railway line

In 2008, the State Government announced a plan to rebuild the Gawler line in preparation for the line to be electrified with the Federal Government also to provide funding.[5] This work saw the track removed, and the track bed, sleepers and track renewed. Dual gauge sleepers were laid to allow for the line to be converted to standard gauge at a future date. The line was closed between North Adelaide and Mawson Interchange for four months from June 2010 for this work to be performed, and between Mawson Interchange and Gawler Central station for seven months from September 2011.[6][7][8] Following the withdrawal of Federal Government funding, the electrification was postponed in October 2013.[9]

On 6 February 2011, a new Adelaide Metro railcar depot opened to the east of Dry Creek station to replace the facility behind the new Royal Adelaide Hospital site and Adelaide station.[10] The depot is the major maintenance and re-fuelling facility for the diesel train fleet, with capacity to store 70 railcars with over 11 kilometres of track. The depot has been designed to allow future conversion to support electric rolling stock.

To facilitate work on the Torrens Rail Junction in 2017, the Gawler line between Adelaide and Mawson Lakes was closed from 1-15 October and 18 November to 5 December.[11]

Following a decade of on-again, off-again talks,[12] electrification of the Gawler line was announced in 2018. The announcement only promised Stage 1 electrification as far as Salisbury with works anticipated to commence in 2018,[13] but a $220 million grant from the Federal Government also allowed for Stage 2 electrification for the remainder of the line to proceed.[14] Works commenced in November 2019 with completion anticipated in 2021.[15] Contrary to the Seaford line electrification which saw the line closed completely for 11 months, from October 2020 onward, main construction on the Gawler line is being spread out across a rolling schedule of partial and full line closures across 12 months; early works before October 2020 were spread across smaller closures typically at nights and on weekends.

All suburban rail passenger services are operated by Adelaide Metro. On 28 April 2008, new timetables were introduced on the Gawler line in an effort to boost efficiency. Shorter secondary services that terminated at Dry Creek and Salisbury were withdrawn, new limited express services were introduced, and a new Hi-Frequency station policy adopted.[16] Nearly all services either start or terminate their journey at Gawler or Gawler Central stations, apart from a morning peak express service that commences its journey at Salisbury.[16]

Under this policy, the Hi-Frequency stations (Islington, Mawson Interchange, Parafield, Salisbury, Elizabeth, Smithfield, Tambelin and Gawler) have services every 15 minutes, while all other stations have a 30-minute service. This is in addition to several peak hour express services that stop only at selected Hi-Frequency stations.[16]

Weekend services operate with 30 minute frequency, and every second train runs express between Adelaide and Dry Creek using 3000 class railcars. Evening/Night services are hourly and stop at all stations with the exception of North Adelaide.[16] Until April 2008, most services along the line were operated by 3000 class railcars. However, with the introduction of the new timetable, 2000 class railcars became more frequent, especially during peak hour. The 2000 class railcars were retired in August 2015.[17]

Freight is still a major factor along this transport corridor, with the Australian Rail Track Corporation's standard gauge Adelaide to Port Augusta line running parallel to the broad gauge track between Adelaide and Salisbury. Since 1984, this line has been standard gauge and had no interface with the suburban lines. Bowmans Rail, One Rail Australia, Pacific National, SCT Logistics, and Journey Beyond operate services via the line, with the latter operating The Ghan and Indian Pacific passenger trains along this section. Until 2007, grain trains operated from Roseworthy to Port Adelaide. The last freight service on the Gawler line was the Penrice Stone Train which operated to Penrice until it ceased operating in June 2014.[18]