Things can be built here in SA using more than 1 shift per day, or by working longer hours as was witnessed on the tram extension to the Morphett Street Bridge.
Perhaps the contractor (Coleman Rail) was anxious to get the mainly Victorian based crews back home and save on accommodation costs.
Perhaps the crews themselves felt that the quicker they finished the job the sooner they could go back home.
It seems projects like these are seen as
engineering tasks and indeed they are.
But there is another side to a task like this and that is to continue to efficiently move commuters on that line and this seems to be held in much less importance.
Sure buses will handle some of the passengers but the design of the replacement bus service needs to ensure people get between the start of their journey and their desired destination as quickly as possible, and this may not mean providing buses that call at every station.
Where are the buses coming from in the first place? Does Adelaide have sufficient buses to carry the peak hour traffic they already carry plus several train loads as well?
Poor service will lead to loss of customers.
I don't believe it's NIMBYs that are stopping night work - rather a matter of insufficient funds being made available for the contractor to economically pay shift allowances or overtime.
The letter-to-the-editor writers from down south will no doubt bemoan the money being spent on the railway work, but not the inconvenience of the closure since they neither use the train nor the buses.
Will the duplicating of our famous half a road result in it being closed for the duration?
I think not.
The difference is that the money for road projects is much more prolific than for any public transport project.
