Adelaide Oval Test crowds to struggle with cancelled trains, slow buses

Even before the onset of a daytime network shutdown on Saturday and Sunday – which will affect Test cricket fans – weeknight buses are already struggling to get city commuters home, as long delays have been reported to The Advertiser by some readers.

Already this week a Belair substitute bus service reportedly took 50 minutes to travel the same distance which usually takes 30 minutes by train, a Gawler service 90 minutes instead of the usual 50 minutes by train and a Noarlunga service an hour compared to 40 minutes.

Throughout this week and from December 10-14, train commuters after 7.30pm are being diverted to buses.

And worse is expected during daytime shutdowns on Saturday and Sunday when around 25,000 people were to have travelled by train to the cricket Test between Australia and India at Adelaide Oval.

A Transport Department spokeswoman said many bus services this week were taking only up to 22 minutes longer than the usual train service, but trips which stopped at every train station on the route were taking longer as they had to divert from main arterial roads.

“The all-stops late-night services take additional time,’’ the spokeswoman said.

Taxi Council SA spokesman Steve Savas said to help commuters cope, the industry was mobilising a fleet of cabs that was normally not needed until late December.

“The taxi industry will now have standby taxis on the road between 6pm on Friday and 6am on Sunday of each weekend in December and on New Year’s Eve,’’ he said.

The current train shutdown after 7.30pm is to make way for the construction of the SAHMRI 2 building on North Tce, and it will also affect cricket crowds on the first two days of the Test – tomorrow and Friday – if they are travelling after 7.30pm.

But the biggest impact is expected to be on Saturday and Sunday – because of the all-day shutdown.

Last year 13 per cent of fans at the Adelaide Test arrived and left by train.