Re: (TAN) | GVB Amsterdam | CAF Urbos 100 | New tram - YouTube
  Tony Galloway

That’s well and good for the time being, but sooner or later the older bogie cars used on the humpy routes will need replacing. I suppose they’re following the current trend of hoping something better will be available in the future, when the incumbents’ responsibility for decision making has passed.

And it seems that CAF has put the hard sell on the Dutch, with Utrecht also acquiring Urbos 100s, and like Amsterdam they’re running them in 2-car sets :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX8QieQITnE

The Utrecht cars don't have end doors and also lack the tapered cabs of the Amsterdam cars. Like Sydney this Utrecht line has fare card readers on the platforms.

These trams might be fine on flat and straight routes, and if anywhere will have lines like that it’s the Netherlands. Let’s hope it doesn’t all end in tears.

Tony

> On 29 Nov 2021, at 2:08 pm, Mark Skinner emessk@...> wrote:

>

> I think you've hit the nail on the head there Tony. These trams are cheap and likely suitable for flat and straight routes. If an operator has such routes, why not use the most economical vehicle?

>

> The problem seems to be that the operators buying these vehicles and using them are not informed buyers. They are not informed buyers because that skill set has been driven out by the economists and accountants who fixate on costs and the occasional aberrant engineer (shout out to Mr C Newman, Queensland) who seem to think that trams, trains, ferries...and submarines are items you order off the shelf like dinky toys. Further, many of the consultants in Australia are not much better. A couple of cheap consultancies let to VUKV would have saved Australian operators hundreds of millions of dollars and years of stress.

>

> Nothing like reinventing the wheel.

>

> /end rant. Haha.

>

> On Mon, 29 Nov 2021, 1:01 pm TP, historyworks@... mailto:historyworks@smartchat.net.au> wrote:

> The CAF trams in Amsterdam are used on routes that don't pass over that type of bridge. Budapest has done the same as Amsterdam (Combino, then later CAF) and had initial problems with their Combinos which they tried to return to Siemens but they couldn't get out of the contract, so fixed them up and have used them ever since. You;'d think that Budapest would, even more, know better, but, like the Combino, the CAFs are confined to routes that are most suitable for them.

>

> Tony P

>

> On Monday, 29 November 2021 at 12:40:38 UTC+11a...@... mailto:a...@aapt.net.au wrote:

> After their astute choice of the Siemens Combino as their Tram Of The Future, GVB Amsterdam followed up by picking the CAF Urbos 100 to be the next one.

>

> Surprising they didn’t know of problems with the type, you’d think an operator like this would’ve been around long enough to know to do some due diligence into what they’re buying, particularly after their Combino experience.

>

> I wonder how those hump backed, gauntlet tracked canal bridges that did in the Combinos are treating them? :

>

>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFjeOHfmbxs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFjeOHfmbxs

>

> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOGOuhKeSQ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOGOuhKeSQ8

>

> (I’ll have to ask Wifey to have a go at translating the Dutch subtitles in the second vid, she speaks Afrikaans, but you can sorta work out what they’re saying)

>

> Tony

>

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