Flinders station at the university and medical centre replaces Tonsley as terminus of renamed Adelaide train service
The Flinders Link rail line elevated over the South Road Darlington interchange.
Image courtesy South Australian department of planning, transport and infrastructure
The Flinders station replaced Tonsley in 2020 as the terminus of a renamed Adelaide suburban train service that extended the existing Tonsley rail line 650 metres to the Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University..
The Flinders Link project included:
• a 650-metre extension of the current Tonsley rail line, including an elevated single track over Sturt Road, Laffers Triangle and Main South Road, linking Flinders Medical Centre and Flinders University to the passenger rail network,
• new Flinders and Tonsely railway stations,
• an integrated shared pedestrian/cycle path next the rail line from the new ramp at the corner of Sturt Road and Birch Crescent to the new Flinders station.
The project was jointly funded with the Australian government committing $70.5 million and the South Australian government $70.5 million.
The Tonsley railway line was constructed as a branch of the Seaford line from Woodlands Park between 1965 and 1966 to serve the new Chrysler/later Mitsubishi car making plant (1964-2008) at Clovelly Park. The line took in Mitchell Park, Clovelly Park, and Tonsley stations.
From February 2012, the line between Woodlands Park and Tonsley was closed while it was duplicated between Tonsley Junction and Mitchell Park, the track getting dual gauge sleepers to allow for the line to be converted to standard gauge. The closure (initially for one year) was extended until September 2013 while the line for Noarlunga Centre was being electrified.
In late 2013, a plan was announced to convert the line to a double-track railway, to be funded through joint state and federal initiatives but the incoming federal government announced a change of focus to roads, and cut funding. The line’s future was unclear, with $18 million spent on the project. It eventually reopened in 2014, more than two years after being closed.
