The Sydney consists have capacity for 70 more passengers. Also the greater operational flexibility of subdividable sets will, I strongly suspect, will be discovered to be an advantage in the future as they will discover situations where they only need to run 30 metre sets, not to mention some possibility that IWLR may be adapted so that it can run Citadis in passenger service, for which 30 metre sets will be required.
By some miracle, they may even work out how to run CSELR with the journey time it should take (about 25 minutes end to end), rather than the slow 35+ minute crawl planned at present. In this case they will have many spare Citadis lying around with nothing to do. Being in 30 metre sets makes them easier to apply to flexible options. In short, it was a good decision to have coupled sets in Sydney.

Tony P
---InTramsDownUnder@..., <mcloughlin.dj@...> wrote :

Is there a compelling reason why Sydney plans to use five-section Citadis trams in coupled sets when Alstom makes 55-metre, nine-section, 379-passenger Citadises, such as those now being delivered to Dublin?

Given my amusement at the lengthy "ghost running" on the new Gold Coast extension, I am laughing hysterically over the ghost-running of the new Dublin line having started five months ago for its planned opening next month :-O

david mcl

http://www.metro-report.com/news/news-by-region/europe/single-view/view/nine-section-tram-arrives-in-dublin.html http://www.metro-report.com/news/news-by-region/europe/single-view/view/nine-section-tram-arrives-in-dublin.html

From Metro Report:

IRELAND: The first of seven nine-section Citadis trams has arrived in Dublin from Alstom’s La Rochelle factory. The vehicle was shipped to the port of Rosslare, from where it was transported by road to Luas’ Sandyford Depot on November 16.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland placed a €36·5m order for the trams in November 2015. The 54·6 m long vehicles with capacity for 379 passengers are due to be delivered in time for the opening of the Luas Cross City extension of the Green Line, which is planned for December 9.

The €368m project will extend the route by 5·9 km from St Stephen’s Green to Cabra, adding 13 stops. Test running started in June with two Citadis trams from the existing fleet.