On 25/11/2020 09:38, Yuri Sos wrote:
> The Victorian State Government yesterday handed down a massive big-spending budget to stimulate economic revival.

>

> Amongst many other initiatives the budget includes $1.5 billion to purchase 100 E class trams (budget papers say "Next Generation Trams") to enable the withdrawal of ageing A class and Z class trams.


I'll resist the temptation to respond to some of the other responses on Eurotrams to this post and will copy this message to Tram Down Under.

It is yet to be seen how long this project will take - it certainly won't be within the current financial year.

To give some background:

* The only remaining Z class trams are the Z3s with 115 of them built
between 1979 and 1984 by ComEng in the factory now part of
Bombardier (Alstom?).
Most are still in service.  Some are getting a 'Life Extension'
rebuild aimed at giving them an extra 15 years of service.  I attach
a pic of 202 as an example of a recently rebuilt tram.
* There are 70 A class trams - built between 1983 and 1987. Again,
most are still in service and the 'Life Extension' program has just
commenced on these trams.  The attached pic of 278 shows what an A
class looks like - the last non-articulated tram for Melbourne.

So that's a total of a bit under 185 trams in the Z and A classes.  Even with the larger capacity of the E class, and with a lower capacity possible 'F class' there is no way that an order of 100 trams will replace all the Z and A classes.

As Yuri indicated, the budget includes a new depot - needed to house the new longer trams.  It will also have to cover extra substations to feed the new generation of power hungry trams with full air conditioning - and the land they will be built on.

Mal Rowe  - watching this space.