{"id":378527,"date":"2026-03-01T21:53:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=378527"},"modified":"2026-03-01T21:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T11:54:00","slug":"labors-northern-suburbs-rail-line-promise-labelled-overhyped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=378527","title":{"rendered":"Labor\u2019s northern suburbs rail line promise labelled \u2018overhyped\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The latest pre-election announcement from the state Labor party would see it reserve land to link the existing rail network further north,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indailysa.com.au\/news\/archive\/2024\/09\/23\/inner-city-roads-and-northern-suburbs-to-shoulder-adelaides-housing-growth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">where much of Adelaide\u2019s new housing stock is set to be built<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It plan, if elected, would involve a 33 km-long mass transit corridor running from Dry Creek, winding through Waterloo Corner and Riverlea, and finishing at Two Wells.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Labor party expects more than 113,000 new dwellings to be built in the northern suburbs to house 250,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Securing the corridor would preserve the area for rail infrastructure, but further planning work and investigation would now occur to refine options, Labor said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe will not make the mistakes of past governments by not delivering infrastructure at the same rate of housing growth,\u201d Labor\u2019s housing spokesperson Nick Champion said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plan was slammed by Greens MLC Robert Simms, who labelled the announcement as an \u201coverhyped planning exercise that falls well short of the genuine rail investment that SA needs\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile the preservation of land for future infrastructure can be sensible long-term planning, today\u2019s announcement delivers no funding, no timeline, and no commitment to actually build rail,\u201d Simms said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cInstead, it simply begins a bureaucratic process to reserve a corridor, something that could take years before any construction decision is even considered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Simms was concerned the northern suburbs could be facing a repeat of \u201cthe planning disaster of Mount Barker, where residents have been left to languish without a passenger rail link connecting them to the city and suburbs\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf the government is serious about busting congestion and supporting liveability, it must invest in actual rail infrastructure with funded timelines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Critics have blasted Labor\u2019s latest announcement on northern suburbs public transport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":378529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,47],"tags":[265,7527],"class_list":["post-378527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-rail-news","tag-adelaide","tag-south-australia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=378527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378531,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378527\/revisions\/378531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/378529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=378527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=378527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=378527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}