The latest pre-election announcement from the state Labor party would see it reserve land to link the existing rail network further north, where much of Adelaide’s new housing stock is set to be built.

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.

Securing the corridor would preserve the area for rail infrastructure, but further planning work and investigation would now occur to refine options, Labor said.

“We will not make the mistakes of past governments by not delivering infrastructure at the same rate of housing growth,” Labor’s housing spokesperson Nick Champion said.

The plan was slammed by Greens MLC Robert Simms, who labelled the announcement as an “overhyped planning exercise that falls well short of the genuine rail investment that SA needs”.

“While the preservation of land for future infrastructure can be sensible long-term planning, today’s announcement delivers no funding, no timeline, and no commitment to actually build rail,” Simms said.

“Instead, it simply begins a bureaucratic process to reserve a corridor, something that could take years before any construction decision is even considered.”

Simms was concerned the northern suburbs could be facing a repeat of “the planning disaster of Mount Barker, where residents have been left to languish without a passenger rail link connecting them to the city and suburbs”.

“If the government is serious about busting congestion and supporting liveability, it must invest in actual rail infrastructure with funded timelines,” he said.

  
“Without that, today’s announcement is more about headlines than outcomes.”

The SA Liberal Shadow Treasurer Ben Hood said the question for Labor was “when”.

“When can residents in the north expect answers on what land and where,” he said.

“When will taxpayers know the cost. When can they expect rail to their suburbs.

“This is another self-congratulatory media release with an empty promise, from a government who have been in power for 20 of the last 24 years and presided over failure to plan at every turn.”

Labor’s northern suburbs rail line promise labelled ‘overhyped’