It amazes me that any manufacturer was able to stay in the market so long
with products that were so consistently inferior. Los Angeles and San
Francisco were also burnt by their Ansaldo experience. I recall that even
their high speed trains supplied to Belgium were withdrawn in ignominy due
to corrosion issues.
Here in New Zealand, a small batch of "Ansaldo" trolleybuses originally
destined for Auckland landed up in Wellington after Auckland decided not to
proceed with a new trolleybus system. They only lasted in service here for
about a year before being sold and converted to diesels. Ansaldo only
actually supplied the electrical equipment, how much contributed to that
short life I don't know.
Brent Efford
On Saturday, August 21, 2021 at 2:31:25 AM UTC+12 TP wrote:

> Reading the new issue of TAUT, I see that that the Chinese city of Zhuhai

> has run into a spot of bother with its new tramway which it is now

> considering closing. The Chinese, during their modern light rail revival of

> recent years, have taken out licences to manufacture a number of European

> tram models, no doubt with view to evaluating which are best, then to

> ultimately pinch and copy the designs and manufacture them themselves.

>

> One of these licences, to my surprise, was from the notorious Italian,

> Ansaldo Breda, at that time in its death throes. Included in the deal was a

> ground power system similar to Alstom's APS. Breda, as many will know, had

> quite a reputation in the industry for its quality and reliability issues

> and was basically an ongoing bad joke. However, the company obviously had

> considerable commercial acumen and kept on winning orders, while the

> unlucky customers, such as Boston and Manchester, than had to keep them

> going at much expense. Many ended up giving up and disposing of them well

> before the normal tram lifecycle was up.

>

> I've been quietly watching progress in Zhuhai for a few years and noted

> that they were having a lot of protracted difficulty getting it all going

> reliably. According to TAUT, a combination of (ahem) "technical issues",

> rising costs and low patronage has forced a rethink about whether to repair

> (including the option of replacing the ground power system with overhead

> wires) or simply abandon the system. Only 2/3 of the trams are in running

> condition. Another similar line with the same Breda technology in Beijing

> has suffered similar issues, including the ballooning maintenance costs.

> Not to worry though, the Italians made their money and ran.

>

> One day we'll look back at this caricature of a tram manufacturer and

> laugh - and be grateful that no Australian system ever fell for them, even

> though I recall Breda being promoted as one of the "great" manufacturers by

> some of the local light rail advocates. All that glitters is not gold.

>

> Tony P

>