The first railway in colonial South Australia was a line from the port of Goolwa on the River Murray to an ocean harbour at Port Elliot, which first operated in December 1853, before its completion in May 1854. Today the state has broad gauge suburban railways in Adelaide, a number of country freight lines, and key standard gauge links to other states. Gauge In 1847, the South Australian Parliament passed an act confirming the adoption of the standard gauge of for Australia. South Australia was the first state to do so. In 1848 the Colonial Secretary in London, Lord Grey, recommended the Australian colonies all adopt standard gauge. However, this advice did not prevail. The first of the main line railways in Adelaide was built in 1856 between the city and the port, in the broad gauge, to maintain compatibility with Victoria after a change from by New South Wales which changed back before it built its railways. The main line to Melbourne was opened after a bridge was built at Murray Bridge in 1886. It was the first railway line between colony capitals not to have a break-of-gauge, but it was to be 109 years before it was converted to standard gauge in 1995 – the last inter-capital line to be converted. Narrow gauge Influenced by Queensland Railway's successful adoption of the narrow gauge for cost reasons (opened 1865), and influenced by the advocacy of people such as Abraham Fitzgibbon South Australia changed the gauge of the Port Wakefield line in the middle of construction. The Port Wakefield line, opened 1870, was originally horse drawn. Because the narrow gauge lines of started out as isolated lines from independent ports at Port Wakefield, Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, Port Broughton, Beachport, Kingston SE and Wallaroo, and a private tramway from Whyalla, the problems of the nascent break of gauge was not immediately apparent. When the broad and narrow systems finally met at Hamley Bridge, Terowie, Wolseley and Mount Gambier endless complaints started. There may have been even more breaks of gauge, as the original bridge at Murray Bridge was designed for narrow gauge. The horse-drawn narrow gauge Port Broughton railway line on the Yorke Peninsula was never connected to the main system. The lines on the Eyre Peninsula Railway and throughout the mid-north were built to narrow gauge. Once the narrow gauge from Port Pirie to Broken Hill was