Yes, Yarra does in fact do that painting of poles.

During a disruption to a service on my last visit south I got talking to a crewman in one of the overhead gangs.

Amongst other things, he told me that his workmates were not very happy with Yarra at the time. I asked why, and he replied that teams were being forced to do a lot of overnight shifts. I asked what sort of work would they be doing at those hours and he told me that often they would be sent out to paint poles. He added that often the poles would already be covered in evening dew! (Presumably) oil paint and water are not a good mix.

Bearing in mind workers’ dissatisfaction as above, although nothing was remotely hinted at by the workman, I wonder if there is some sort of retaliation in that when there is an overhead breakage, repairs are done as slowly as possible. Certainly at another mishap repair I watched for a while, although the repair job looked very simple, it dragged on for hours. That would incur massive penalty fines fo Yarra. And what penpusher could dispute the ‘difficulty’ of the repair 😊

Regards,

> On 16 Oct 2020, at 10:58 am, Mal Rowe mal.rowe@...> wrote:

>

> On 15/10/2020 21:03, Andrew C wrote:

>> Very much as you suggest Hal about redundant poles. However, the remaining poles still in situ and holding up wires seem to be well maintained. I expect they are the responsibility of the government owned Victrack rather than our private tram operator, but don't spread the news that it is not a private company's fault.

>

>

> Under the franchise agreement all pole maintenance is the responsibility of the franchisee (KDR trading as Yarra Trams).

>

> Most poles are owned by VicTrack, but even those not owned are the responsibility of Yarra.

>

> The agreement includes:

>

> " 2.9 Tram poles

> The Franchisee acknowledges that there are a number of tram poles which are not owned by VicTrack and which therefore do not form part of the Infrastructure. The Franchisee acknowledges that PTV has not made any representation or given any warranty as to title and has no liability for any defect in title or right of occupancy or usage that may exist, either now or in the future, in respect of any tram pole."

>

> Yarra are required to report on performance.

>

> Mal Rowe in a city that has learnt about franchising over the years

>

>

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