Belair railway line, Adelaide

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Railways in Adelaide
	Belair
	Gawler Central
	Grange
	Noarlunga
	Outer Harbor
	Tonsley

The Belair railway line is a suburban rail commuter route within the City of Adelaide, South Australia, that runs from the Adelaide Railway Station to Belair in the Adelaide Hills.

1 History
2 Operations
3 Line guide
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Two 400-class 'Redhen' railcars working a Belair to Adelaide local train in 1990

Pair of 3100 railcars exiting the Sleeps Hill Tunnel

Pacific National freight from Melbourne to Perth passing the terminus of the line, Belair.

The Bridgewater railway line from Adelaide to Belair / Bridgewater opened in 1883. In 1987, passenger services to Bridgewater ceased, mainly due to low patronage, the terminus becoming Belair.

In 1995, one track of the double track main line from Adelaide to Belair was converted from Broad Gauge (1600mm) to Standard Gauge (1435mm) as part of the Adelaide to Melbourne standardisation project. The broad gauge passenger services were thus restricted to a single track with crossing loops located at Mitcham Station, Blackwood Station, Eden Hills and Sleeps Hill. At the same time, the stations at Millswood, Hawthorn and Clapham were closed despite criticism from local residents.

[edit] Operations

The motive power used for suburban passenger trains is exclusively 3000 and 3100 class railcars, except on weekends where some services are run with a 2000 class railcar modified to incorporate increased bike capacity. In 2005, trains ran the route every 30 minutes on weekdays (hourly after 7pm) and every 60 minutes on weekends and public holidays. From 2006, because of the single line, this was downgraded to every 36/24 minutes on weekdays.

On weekends, the route is popular with downhill mountain bike riders who catch the train up the hill and return via one of the many downhill mountain biking trails. However, since downhill mountain biking has been prohibited on some trails in the Belair area, such as Anderson's Reserve, Lynton Dump Reserve and Sleeps Hill reserve, the Adelaide mountain biking community's patronage has been reduced.

The standard gauge track is used by The Overland passenger train to Melbourne, which runs three times a week, and a number of freight trains.