I think the last sentence in Tony's post says it all.

" old tram countries that won't hesitate to explore new technology but
will adopt it only when it's practicable and proven, both operationally
and financially."

In this country we sadly see a complete failure to take into account
reliability, operating costs, maintenance costs(think of all those
batteries, capacitors etc with short lifespan and high replacement
costs) compared with the 30+ years lifetime the trams SHOULD operate for
, unnecessary electronics and weight penalties on each tram for
unnecessary 'bells and whistles' which delight the sales people but
hamstring the vehicles performance over its operating life   When is the
last time one has seen an evaluation of the vehicle weight per passenger
seat figure published as part of t he economic metrics which should be
applied to vehicle selection?

And talking of operations the numerous and costly operational
impediments (such as the excessive stop dwell times in Newcastle) which
poor design and operational ignorance are building into systems when
they are in the initial design.

stages of multi Billion $ projects.

Greg

On 10/02/2019 11:22 am, Prescott wrote:
> Trams stop at every stop regardless of passengers or not. The

> difference that this flash charge system makes is that whereas the

> dwell for a stop with no passengers may be as little as 5 to 10

> seconds, the tram is forced to wait for another 30-40 seconds above

> this while it recharges. On a line with say, for example, ten stops,

> this system will add about 5 minutes to the overall journey time. One

> of the side-effects of longer journey times, in addition to alienating

> the passengers, is that more trams may be required to operate a

> service to the same timetable. On a long line like Parramatta or the

> Canberra extension, this will have a really negative effect.

>

> Yes, the CAF system does require a top-up at each stop. Only in a

> country with a lackadaisical attitude towards operating public

> transport could such a system be invented. You can be sure this system

> wouldn't have been invented in Czech Republic, Germany or Poland for

> example (nor Melbourne I imagine). It would have been laughed off the

> drawing board. It epitomises the deep differences between new tram

> systems created independently of prior experience in Western European

> countries and the tram systems of countries that have been operating

> them for generations with corresponding accumulated experience. It's

> not a coincidence that in-motion charging is an invention from the old

> tram countries that won't hesitate to explore new technology but will

> adopt it only when it's practicable and proven, both operationally and

> financially.

>

>