On 24/2/21 8:10 pm, Andrew C wrote:
> I

> Sydney and to a lesser extant Canberra may well be overengineered, but

> the tracks do look very solid and will last, as do European tracks

> that take a long time to replace as I've heard here.

>

The fixed truck trams are hard on the rails. The curves will need
frequent replacement.

In Sydney around Central Charmers street, gauge face wear is already
evident on the curves - I've especially noticed this at Devonshire Street.

Melbourne has an advantage in that most construction is reconstruction
so they don't have this whole services relocation business to deal with,
but that new bit of track they built for the tunnel diversion works was
built in near record time along a street that never previously had
trams, so it's not all based on having a route clear of services.

But as a Sydney project manager said 'Melbourne have trams, we are
building modern light rail'. :-)