Friday morning, 29th November and A/Metro seem to be doing a full dry run of the new Noarlunga timetable.
Railcars are arriving & departing Adelaide Station at their timetabled 15 minute intervals, and are all listed on the Passenger Info screens, together with their "all stations" stops. (I was hoping to jump on an imminent departure for my trip from ARS to Goodwood, but was told it was test train only, so I had a 20-odd minute wait for the next Belair.)
A few observations:
1) All "Platform Closed" signs and temporary fencing in Adelaide Station have been removed & all 9 platforms seem available for use.
2) With the dry run underway on Noarlunga line, they seem to have fired up the Jumbos again for the Grange/OH and Gawler trains. I saw three different 2000 sets arriving & departing on the Port & Gawler lines within 20 minutes between 10.35 and 10.55. In the past, most Jumbos would be having their midday siesta by this time. All the Noarlunga & Belair trains were 3000/3100 class, of course.
3) Today's test runs involve trains stopping at all the stations, which I guess has not been the case over past few weeks. No-one gets on or off, but obviously this is needed to properly simulate the timetable.
4) Out on the line, the old practice of holding the signal before a level crossing at red seems to have been at least partly eliminated. For example, the signal at the down end of Emerson station (protecting Cross Road LC) now shows green to an approaching stopping train. In the past, this was held at red until the train had stopped at Emerson & barriers had lowered, meaning the train previously needed to trundle along at 40 kph from passing the yellow signal just after departing Clarence Park. But in the Up direction, the signal at Clarence Park (East Avenue LC) is still being held at red until the train has stopped at Clarence Park station, meaning Adelaide-bound trains still need to run at 40 kph most of the way from Emerson to C/Park. It'll be interesting to see how this operates along the rest of the section from Goodwood to Seacliff, where most of the level crossings are located. Hopefully not too many locations remain where the EMUs will need to run at 40 kph just because of overly cautious signalling rules!
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