I’m pleased you like the video. It also answered for me some questions I had in mind about the entire procedure. As for the trams’ appearance, I think the ends of the Melbourne E class are much more attractive, with both types coming from originally the Bombardier company.
In most places it would be very expensive or just impossible to extend tram stops. At times during the Commonwealth Games a six minute service was run. Driver Darcy told me that occasionally all 18 trams were on the road at once. He also feels the 10 minute weekend service often is inadequate, backed up by two friends who use it at that time.
Thanks heaps. I filmed one of the earlier trams arrival and it is such an interesting event. I didn't realise they are the longest trams in Australia. When the Burleigh extension is completed, I think it will be also the longest tram route in Australia.
Yes for both. These are 43 m long, longest in Melbourne or Adelaide is a little over 30 m. I forget whether Vermont South or Bundoora is the longest including its run through to Docklands but that is just around 23 km I think so we will beat them on 27 km.
You can see why Paramatta's new 7-section CAF cars are actually shipped in 3 sections and assembled at the depot - easier to move by road from the port to the depot. It's now normal to ship the 30m 5-section trams in two parts too - Sydney's Citadis arrived at Randwick in two parts. Unusual that these are still shipped whole.
Unfortunately with land at a premium on the Gold Coast, the depot was shoehorned off an existing industrial estate and even if the trams were delivered in 2 sections, it’s debatable whether the half length trailers could get around the corners to reach the depot. The use of centre poles to hold up the overhead would probably make it impossible to drive up the tramline, the result being they would still have to be unloaded in the street near the Queen Street tram stop which is the nearest convenient spot to the depot. If I had’ve thought of it, I could have easily asked questions of Alstom employees on site at times when they were not otherwise occupied, but too late now.
@@tressteleg1 For Gold Coast, it was probably a case of - we know what works - repeat process. The Parramatta CAFs are now being delivered and the depot is nowhere near ready. A few weeks ago I got photos of two of the new cars sitting on the tracks at Camelia, still in 3 parts. When the depot is finally ready those cars will have to be towed in by the shunting tractor over multiple trips. It's also possible the latest Urbos 100s and Citadis x05 series have been designed to easily be separated and a dolly fitted to allow for simpler shipping, but the Flexity design isn't so forgiving. Also, I assume GLink wanted cars that are identical to the existing ones, so wouldn't be interested in a slightly different design that allowed shipping in sections. Sydney's new CAFs were delivered whole, but were shipped in two parts - they were reassembled at Port Kembla before loading for road transport. Same as they did for Canberra. Why these systems don't design their depots to facilitate large deliveries, I don't know 🙂
Agreed re what works etc. The original fleet was transported on some flatbed and craned out of the ship’s hold, something which terrifies me - locos have been dropped - and the flatbed was sagging. Yes I saw your and Tim’s photos on TDU. I agree re (ex)Bombardier trams not being designed for easy splitting. If nearly all their trams were less than 7 sections and easily transported by rail around Europe, there would be no need to design them to be easily divided. Having just one stock of spare parts with a small fleet would be a good reason to stay with one design, not to mention maintenance staff having to be further trained. Personally I can’t see the point in putting CAFs in the ship in 2 pieces, but then transporting them a long way by road in one piece! My main GC puzzle is that surely they were tested in Vienna before loading, so why could they not simply put up the panto and drive it to the depot? Maybe the battery would have to be connected, but surely that would b all.
Same place, except I was on the other side of the road that time. It did seem to go more smoothly and the unloading ramp did not have to be moved slightly to line up with the trailer this time.
I think it more a matter of how late Stage 3 is running. It was ages, maybe as much as a year for the government to select a contractor and to actually sign the contract. With 9 spare trams instead of the usual 4, if any need heavy work done, one could easily be spared for a long time.
I thought my captions would have made it fairly clear that this is the third of five new trams been delivered. This is because the line is being extended 7 km to Burleigh. Site preparation for this is in the early stages.
Right, but I won’t be staying up all night to capture 22 and 23 arriving! Maybe I can video 19 when it enters service and see if it looks any different from the others inside.
19, 20 and 21 are already here as you may realise. I suppose the company knows which ship they are on and when it is due in Brisbane. Nevertheless after signs had been put on the tram stops advising service ceasing early on delivery day, when that date was just a few days away, for some reason delivery had to be put back to the next week. So up to a point, not even the owners know precisely when a tram will arrive but it’s reasonable to expect the next two will arrive within the next three months.
Thanks. I will. Unfortunately the double deck buses which used to do the airport run have been replaced by little battery buses so getting progress videos of the track building won’t be easy.
