The Melbourne franchise agreement - up until the last iteration - had a clause requiring the franchisee to allow 10,000km per year of heritage tram operation ... subject to safety issues.

Guess what Yarra claimed as the reason to not run heritage trams.

The current contract still has a clause requiring the tramway between the city and Camberwell, past Hawthorn Depot to be trolley pole compatible.  I guess that no-one negotiating the contract noticed that part.

On the last occasion that a trolley pole equipped tram ran - at the Malvern Depoot centenary in 2010 - the 'compatible overhead turned out to be well out of alignment - requiring a trolley pole monitor to guide the pole through junctions.

Mal Rowe in a city where heritage trams sit quietly waiting.

On 27/07/2022 11:24, Jeremy Wainwright wrote:
> Thanks, Matthew, for confirmation that the 'T-collector' that I had mentally 'invented' actually exists. Can you name some of the relevant enlightened systems?

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> I like your suggestion for a ' Sunday clause' in the operating contracts but imagine that getting one now would involve pushing a lot of the malodorous commodity up a steep incline.

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