Re: Melbourne Trams

[David McLoughlin <davemclAXETHIS@iprolink.co.nz>]

Ian Jelf wrote:
> 
> In article <38FE53CC.58EB@iprolink.co.nz>, David McLoughlin <davemclAXET
> HIS@iprolink.co.nz> writes
> >Swanston Trams has ordered from Siemens 59 Combino low-floor ariculated
> >trams for delivery from 2002. The trams will come from the Uerdingen
> >factory in Germany. The Combino is a standard (off the shelf)
> >European-style tram where the driver has a full-width cab at the front
> >(much like the Ws)
> Well, not *that* much like the Ws, David!   :-)


What I mean is, Ian, that the Ws have a driver's cab that takes up the
full width of the front. So do the Combinos and most recent European
trams.

However the Ws also have drivers' exit doors to the roadway from the
front cab, as well as a door from the cab into the passenger saloon.

All post-1975 Melbourne trams have a front door for passenger loading,
so that passengers enter opposite the driver as in many front entrance
buses.

Reverting to a full-width driver's cab with passenger entry from doors
further down the tram is like going back to the future in Melbourne.

Of course, with the introduction of a POP-style on-board ticket
validitor, the abolition of conductors and drivers having no contact now
with passengers (they sit locked up in a yellow cage in the post-75
trams, I presume for safety reasons), passengers can board all trams at
any door now, not just the front one as was the case of the Zs which had
a conductor's desk behind the driver.

David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand