My ride on a Citadis

Swash
Sunday, November 17, 2002 12:40 PM

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to ride on a Citadis tram from the City (Melbourne) to Richmond. Maybe a fifteen minute trip. I had previously only travelled on one for one stop in the city. Here is my opinion......

Ride: seemed ok, side to side a bit, but it was good track and it was not too bad

They certainly have fast acceleration.

It was a mild day and the temperature inside was fine.

All good so far.

But..... the placement of the ticket validators is lousy. I had trouble finding them and when I did, there were almost two side by side at an entrance and none on the other side of the entrance.

Ok, not directly to do with the tram, but an after fit out problem.

After idly gazing around the tram for a while, I noticed that I could not see a 'next stop' light near the driver, where we in Melbourne are used to seeing it. I was then getting near to my stop and I looked around for the cord to pull or a button to push to indicate to the driver that I wanted to get off at the next stop.

I eventually spied two buttons in each seated passenger area but as all seats were taken and there were some people standing, it would be very difficult to get to them. As it was a reasonably busy stop I was getting off at, I figured the tram would stop anyway. I made my way to the door and someone moved a bit and I noticed there was a next stop button at the door, and also a button with a wheelchair symbol on it. When I pressed the button, I heard a buzzer go, presumably in the driver's cab and a tiny red light above the button lit. Now I had worked it out. Make your way to the door and then press the button.

But I had to use quite a bit of mental energy to work all this out. And I am an experienced trammie. For a casual user, it is far from user friendly. Why they cannot have a next stop indicator near the driver and cords and buttons on staunchions within the tram I do not know. The Citadis tram may be much better for disabled people and look very good, but for me I think the B class tram is much better, and that is around a fifteen year old design.

Wonder what the Combino will be like.

Andrew.

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