Inner West Light Rail observations

[Noel]

I did my first light rail replacement shift since last year yesterday and it appeared as though they were test running to some sort of timetable for most of the day all the way to Dulwich Hill with the L2/L3 trams.

[Noel]

ABC radio is reporting that IWLR services resume next weekend (12/2/22).

[crimsontide]

Inner west light rail to make a return, using the vehicles from the SE light rail.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-06/ ... /100808360

[tonyp]

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ ... 1644093852

Article includes great aerial footage of Citadis running on IWLR, plus detailed photos of platform gaps, repair work to CAFs etc, filmed by somebody who knows what they're doing. Unfortunately there's no way I can paste this visual stuff here, so you'll have to be a subscriber sorry.

[jpp42]

Comments from opposition transport spokesperson, Joy Haylen, via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jo.haylen/post ... 9326713211

Passengers will welcome the resumption of Light Rail services on the Inner West Light Rail line after 100 days of no light rail services at all.

But make no mistake, the government have cobbled together a bandaid solution to a transport disaster entirely of their own making.

While it’s better than no service at all, the government has still only delivered a reduced service with trams coming every 15 minutes instead of every 8 minutes.

All 12 of the original CAF trams which were so badly cracked that the service was shut down for 100 days are still being repaired, and will be out of action until at least October.

It’s not clear that the government has learned anything from this disappointing episode in Sydney’s transport history.
It’s time for the government to admit that the decision to not integrate the CBD and Eastern Suburbs Light Rail line with the Inner West light rail line was a mistake.

Its time for the Minister to admit that his government’s transport procurement policies have completely failed.

And it’s time for NSW to start building our trams, trains, ferries and buses in Australia again, so passengers get a quality product they can trust, and so taxpayers get value for money.

[Jurassic_Joke]

Jesus, how negative, she’s actually far worse than McKay, just the other day she was saying how the Dulwich Hill section wouldn’t be getting light rail services back until late 2022. It’s now early 2022 and IWLR is about to resume, I wonder what she thinks about that

I get you’re opposition spokeswoman, but maybe chill out a bit and actually just enjoy the service that’s resuming after almost four months of being out of action? I know what I’ll be enjoying this weekend, and it won’t be listening to her whinge again about how this shouldn’t have happened in the first place if we just built them here

[Merc1107]

It's a predictable sort of retort from the Government's Opposition. Building local isn't the solution here, rather, it's more a case of not going for the most ill-suited (cheap?) vehicles to the type of operation you want to run.

To expand more on not building local, consider Ford and Holden, particularly.
They spent decades vacuuming up taxpayer's money, producing fuel-guzzling, often poorly-assembled cars that people just didn't want anymore. Some family bought a pair of XE Falcons in the 1980s. Both returned to the dealership numerous times for rust remediation under warranty, in Perth where it doesn't even rain that much! Suffice it to say, Ford didn't get much more business from the family after that. It's been mostly Toyota. Now, I don't think build quality would necessarily be an issue (depending on what the Government asks for), but without commitments from across Australia for light-rail orders, you can't expect anyone to setup shop locally, assembling trams from local & imported ingredients. Then, of course is the question of where to build the things. Any city with trams, or plans to introduce them, will want to make them themselves to woo the electorate.

[jpp42]

While I agree with you that building local is certainly no guarantee of quality, I do find myself in agreement with this:

the decision to not integrate the CBD and Eastern Suburbs Light Rail line with the Inner West light rail line was a mistake.

Given that the barriers to such integration are actually relatively minor, had they planned on equipment compatibility from the start, we wouldn't have had this big a gap in service (although given the limited numbers of Citadis available to run on L1, it's still no silver bullet).

[tonyp]

It's a predictable sort of retort from the Government's Opposition. Building local isn't the solution here, rather, it's more a case of not going for the most ill-suited (cheap?) vehicles to the type of operation you want to run.

To expand more on not building local, consider Ford and Holden, particularly.
They spent decades vacuuming up taxpayer's money, producing fuel-guzzling, often poorly-assembled cars that people just didn't want anymore. Some family bought a pair of XE Falcons in the 1980s. Both returned to the dealership numerous times for rust remediation under warranty, in Perth where it doesn't even rain that much! Suffice it to say, Ford didn't get much more business from the family after that. It's been mostly Toyota. Now, I don't think build quality would necessarily be an issue (depending on what the Government asks for), but without commitments from across Australia for light-rail orders, you can't expect anyone to setup shop locally, assembling trams from local & imported ingredients. Then, of course is the question of where to build the things. Any city with trams, or plans to introduce them, will want to make them themselves to woo the electorate.

Holden and Ford actually finally became very very good indeed in the last decade or so, but by then the reputational damage was done - together with a lot of myths persisting, like gas guzzling - no they weren't. You only have to look at what Police forces are replacing them with for high performance and safety - BMWs. That's the level that Holden and Ford had reached with their local products, but any of that washes over the average punter who doesn't care much about product attributes when buying and goes by (often outdated) reputation and polished marketing.

With trams, state transport agencies need to specify the right sort of tram for the job. This is the crux of the issue, not where they're made. The market for trams in Australia is so small and sporadic that there's absolutely no genuine commercial basis for manufacturing them here. The Victorian situation is an artificial one propped up by taxpayers. It depends on the Victorian government placing a large enough order to make it viable and then producing them in a slow dribble in order to maintain a basic level of employment as well as workflow for suppliers. If you want the trams faster and/or cheaper, then you have to source them overseas.

I do agree with Labor's position on local manufacture in principle, but they have to realistically accept that some very specialised items have to be imported. Trains, buses and ferries can in general be manufactured here, though typically with certain components (notably drivetrains) being imported.

[tonyp]

The new timetable from 12/2 has a trip time of 39 minutes. What was the old trip time?

https://transportnsw.info/documents/tim ... 220212.pdf

[Fleet Lists]

There is still a previous timetable at https://transportnsw.info/documents/tim ... 220211.pdf

[tonyp]

There is still a previous timetable at https://transportnsw.info/documents/tim ... 220211.pdf

Thank you. It's only a couple of minutes slower then.

[Linto63]

Appears to be a full shadow service in operation, trams every 10-15 minutes. Just as well TfNSW had the foresight to stick with the original order for 60 x 5 car sets rather than amend to 30 x 9.

[boronia]

https://fb.watch/b354sBi887/

[gilberations]

Using ramps, sensible idea. Does it mean the rerun of conductors?

[Swift]

They look more beautiful than I could imagine running in a decoupled state, like a caterpillar emerging as a butterfly!
That's despite the ads. Thanks CAFs!

[boronia]

Using ramps, sensible idea. Does it mean the rerun of conductors?

On the CAFs, the driver has to place the ramp. Guess they will do it on the Citadis too.

Notice in the video, he didn't know what "ground" stencilled on the side of the ramp means.

[Swift]

They need to install loudspeakers at the stops with mind the gap on repeat like LT tube stations.
https://youtu.be/zS4OtTcBcEM?t=03m01s

[tonyp]

This is my main memory of living in London:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMFG3ir2oOE

Buckingham Palace, the Tower Bridge, everything else, pales into insignificance against the withering force of this.

[boronia]

They look more beautiful than I could imagine running in a decoupled state, like a caterpillar emerging as a butterfly!
That's despite the ads. Thanks CAFs!

I do hope they have spare covers for the coupling housing.

[Fleet Lists]

https://transportnsw.info/news/2021/l1- ... 0#homepage sets out the changes as from this coming weekend.

[Swift]

This is my main memory of living in London:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMFG3ir2oOE

Buckingham Palace, the Tower Bridge, everything else, pales into insignificance against the withering force of this.

I really made you feel immersed in that metropolis.
I just hope it did the job it intended in preventing falls between the train and platform. I never really paid that hazard any mind until I was in London!!

[tonyp]

I think this was the defining moment in history when transit agencies realised that railway and tram systems shouldn't have curved platforms if they are to meet modern accessibility standards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t9G1Q7SVHc

This is Stirling on the first stage of the Joondalup line which was built in the 1990s and was considered to be compliant at that time. So everything changed after that and the 2002 DDA regs confirmed the standard that platform gaps had to meet, standards that are basically impossible for a curved platform to meet. Some special solutions are being applied to the Bankstown line platforms, but we should never see a new curved train, bus or tram platform built again.

[Glen]

Or in the case of World Square, even on a hill?

[Stu]

From 12/2/2022, the temporary replacement route 2L1 will be reduced down to a peak hour only service with considerably more services in the PM peak.