“Super” bus stops with raised platforms, screens showing real-time bus arrival information, CCTV and weather protection, are being promised as a priority in the State Government’s $36 billion transport plan.

The short term priority list, defined in the plan as the next five years, includes “Super Stops” for Glen Osmond Road, other key bus routes, the city, and train-bus interchanges.

This morning, the Government acted to add some reality to the expectations raised in its transport plan,  announcing the extension of the Gawler rail line electrification to Salisbury station.

Premier Jay Weatherill announced a short time ago that the Government had “re-configured” the project to save enough money to deliver electric passenger rail services from Adelaide to Salisbury. Works on the project were expected to get underway by the end of the year, to be completed by 2015.

Completing electrification of the passenger rail lines is one of the Government’s “short-term” priorities, along with the super stops.

These stops, which have become common overseas, are designed to cut boarding times to reduce traffic queues on busy roads, but will have additional benefits for passengers such as the disabled and elderly.

InDaily understands the concept includes the capacity for passengers to pre-validate tickets and view real time information about the arrival of buses.

The stops will have raised platforms to match the bus’s door heights – making accessibility for the disabled much easier.

While the exact locations of the “Super Stops” are still being investigated by the Department for Planning, Transport and Infrastructure, the transport plan released by the Government yesterday promises the new stops for Glen Osmond Rd, the city “and other key bus routes”.

The “Super Stops” are part of a plan to create Glen Osmond Road as a priority bus route. Heavy vehicles and cars will be encouraged to use Portrush and Cross roads. In the city, the stops are likely to be located on the Grenfell St/Currie St corridor.

“Super stops” are becoming popular in the US, where this Washington DC version made world headlines earlier this year due to its under-floor heating and mammoth $1 million price tag. “Super stops” have also been mooted for Brisbane.

The “short term” list in the State Government’s transport plan also reveals other priorities for funding, including the proposed conversion of the Outer Harbor train line to deliver tram services, the CBD tram loop, undergrounding O-Bahn access to the city, and a raft of cycling projects.

The Government is also promising a short-term focus on improving the inner and outer city ring routes, “improving access to different parts of the inner city and reducing the need for cars and trucks to travel through the CBD”.

Maps accompanying the plan show the vision for freight movements will take trucks off Glen Osmond Road, with heavy vehicles instead travelling down Cross Road to link with the upgraded South Road, or Portrush Road to link to the northern end of the North-South freight route.