Trams not for turning right, despite 2018 state election promise, in North Terrace line eastern extension
A tram (top) making a right-hand turn at King William Street-North Terrace intersection (with a large crowd coming from Adelaide Oval in the background) before the previous tram lines were ripped up from 1958. Work (below) on creating the new tram lines mesh at the same intersection in 2017.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia and South Australian department of planning, transport and infrastructure
A tram trundling in October 2018 along the full length of Adelaide's North Terrace for the first time in 60 years was preceded by a kerfuffle over the need for a right-hand turn for the tram from King William Street.
The right-hand turn became a 2018 state election issue when the Liberal opposition promised that it would spend $37 million to make it happen in government. The Adelaide city council also had voted unanimously to have the lord mayor question that then state Labor government on the design of the cityLink tram extension without the right-hand turn.
The Labor government maintained that the right turn would have increased traffic delays that would be too technically difficult and expensive in a complex junction of lines (including an extension line down King William Road to the festival centre) at the intersection of North Terrace and King William Street.
Coming into government after the intersection work was completed, the Liberals later conceded that the right-hand turn was too expensive at more than $100 million and would not be built.
Completing the one-kilometre tram extension along the eastern end of North Terrace (plus the extension to the festival centre), promised by the previous Labor government and originally due for completion in March 2018 at a cost of $90 million, was plagued by delays, including a signalling issue needing overseas experts to be flown in, and cost blowouts to $124 million.
The King William Street northward extension line to the festival centre was built in anticipation of a possible extension of the line to O’Connell Street, North Adelaide.