$443m to put Adelaide train lines underground

DELAYS at four major Adelaide level crossings will end when train lines go underground in a $443 million facelift for the city's rail network.

DELAYS at four major Adelaide level crossings will end when train lines go underground in a $443 million facelift for the city's rail network.

Tomorrow's Federal Budget will include a commitment to spend almost half a billion dollars of state and federal funding money to upgrade railway stations and build rail underpasses at key Adelaide locations.

The plans include underpasses and improvements at three main locations, one just north of the CBD at Bowden and the other two just south of the city at Keswick and Goodwood.

The changes are intended to increase traffic flow and road safety, improve rail freight competitiveness and separate heavy trains from commuter services, allowing both to be more reliable.

All major upgrades are in the federal seat of Adelaide, held by Gillard Government frontbencher Kate Ellis.

The level crossing at Victoria St, Goodwood, will also be upgraded and both Keswick and Bowden train stations will be given "substantial improvements".

Construction is scheduled to begin as early as next year following more design work.

The upgrades will allow commuter services and freight trains, of which there are some 4000 per year and growing, to run on separate grades - one under the other.

It will also enable faster and longer freight services to operate between Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, from the present 1500m limit up to a more cost-effective 1800m in length.

The Government believes the reduced transport times from not having to stop for passenger services and the extra capacity of longer trains will aid rail competitiveness and help take some freight off roads.

Recommended by Infrastructure Australia, the under-groundings will end the current problem of goods trains being required to stop and start to let commuter trains through where their lines cross each other.

One of the city's more dangerous and time-consuming level crossings, at Leader St on the southern perimeter of the Showgrounds, will be removed in the works, and pedestrian access to the Showgrounds and parklands will also be improved.

Three others at Bowden's East St, Gibson St, and Park Tce are also to be removed.

The commitment is likely to be one of the rare wins in an otherwise tough Federal Budget to be unveiled by Treasurer Wayne Swan tomorrow.

The Government believes the project is justified on economic grounds: "Eliminating the two bottlenecks at Goodwood and just north of the CBD will complement the nearly $350 million Federal Labor has so far committed, including as part of our Economic Stimulus Plan, upgrading this rail corridor," said Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese.

"All up, we've rebuilt nearly a third of the nation's interstate network in just four years."

The project's total value is $443 million with $232.1 million coming from Canberra and the balance coming from state coffers.

The expenditure is good news for Adelaide which has suffered for many decades with poor rail infrastructure and a chronic lack of investment.

Mr Swan described the Budget as "the fifth chapter" in strengthening the economy for "all Australians".

In his economic note issued yesterday, he defended his push towards a small surplus as "Australia's best defence against an uncertain global outlook".

"During the week, we saw the extent of the challenges facing Europe with the unemployment rate edging up to a record 10.9 per cent, with about 17.4 million men and women in the Euro area looking for work."

But the Opposition's economic spokesman Joe Hockey dismissed the mixed messages coming from Mr Swan and predicted the expected $1.5 billion surplus would prove illusory.

"Well, all he will be doing is promising a surplus," he said.

"This year he promised, originally, a deficit of $12 billion, then it became a deficit of $22 billion and then a deficit of $37 billion."