RE: French & German versus Aussie

Brent Efford
Sunday, December 22, 2002 9:56 AM

I am particularly interested in the announced intention of Alstom in Ballarat to become a centre for manufacturing light rail vehicles. I wonder if this means a local design, or just local assembly of the Citadis or other European design. I have a local (Wellington) interest in this, because Alstom run the local railway workshops here, and would be prime contenders for light rail for this region. The idea of trans-Tasman co-operation yielding a LRV that meets Australasian needs and reflecting our, rather than European, views of a reasonable price shouldn't be too far fetched.

Cheers,

Brent Efford

-----Original Message-----
From: Swash [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, 22 December 2002 10:18 p.m.
To: [email protected]
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] French & German versus Aussie

I understand that the low floor Sydney trams were built in Melbourne. I only went on one once, but it seemed pretty good to me. Why did the private companies buy their trams from overseas? Was it that because they build many more trams, they have economies of scale and hence the trams are cheaper? Maybe it was just political.

We built the very fine B class trams and although unsuitable for disabled, I can't imagine it would be beyond Australia to build very fine low floor trams at a competitive price. After all, we sold some to HK and at least the air con would be up to scratch.

When snow falls in Melbourne, I guess the Citadis and Combinos will show their real talent.

Andrew.

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