On 4/11/2013 3:07 PM,prescottt@... wrote:
>

> * He said the tram was designed for Melbourne but the technology and engineering had export potential.*

>

> The technology and engineering has already been exported - from Germany to Victoria!

>

> Nice tram but what masochistic pain to get it. $6 million each! At $3.5 mill each, Prague has taken delivery of its *91st* 15T in much the same gestation period.

>

>

Hi Tony,

The $6M includes a substantial maintenance period.
The tram does use German engineering, but there was substantial input from both Australia and Germany to the design - body and particularly bolsters.

These cars are very much designed for Melbourne - in fact they are no longer called the Flexity Swift, but rather the Flexity Melbourne.

Here's one of them at East Brunswick this afternoon.
http://tdu.to/6001_NicholsonSt_4Nov2013.JPG

I've also attached a pic to show that TramTracker is right up to date ...
http://tdu.to/TramTracker_New_Eclass_4Nov2013.JPG

Mal Rowe - who agreed with an alighting passenger that the new trams are just great!