Re: New Melbourne trams have fewer seats than the old ones but they're longer!

["Ted Gay" <tedgay@bigpond.com>]

"David McLoughlin" <davemclNOSPAM@iprolink.co.nz> wrote in message
399F2F64.19DE@iprolink.co.nz">news:399F2F64.19DE@iprolink.co.nz...
> Andrew Price wrote:
> >
> > On 19 Aug 2000 23:44:03 GMT, matthew@mail.usyd.edu.au (Matthew Geier)
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Probably simply a matter of EU politics and stuff the Australians.
> >
> > So why did the Australians sell their trams off to a foreign operator?
>
> Not sold, just franchised for 15 (?) years, by the previous Kennett
> Liberal state government. The trains have similarly been franchised.
>
>
> > >After the
> > >last few rounds of rail equipment manufacture mergers, Europe is over
stocked
> > >with manufactureing capacity, but no company wants to close a plant
incase the
> > >local pollies retailiate and order their next batch from their
competition
> > >who DIDN'T close a factory in that country. They would rather spend
more on
> > >the Melbourne order and keep a European factory open in order to keep
the
> > >local Euopean pollies on side for a much larger order than Melbourne
could
> > >ever want.
> >
> > I find that somewhat hard to believe.  Melbourne has one of the
> > biggest tram networks in the world, far larger than most European
> > systems with the exception of St Petersburg and Vienna.
>
> Regardless, Matthew's account of the EU politics of tram/train builders
> is correct. They have been merging all over the world and there is huge
> over-capacity in Europe especially now the Soviet Bloc is in history's
> dustbin.
>
> AdTranz which was/is one of the European companies got hold of
> Commonwealth Engineering at Dandenong (where all Melbourne trams from
> 1975 on were built, as well as the Sydney ones, many of the Tuen Mun
> ones in Hong Kong and even some of Philadelphia's latest subway cars),
> then AdTranz itself has been gobbled up/merged with someone else. It's
> hard to keep track of. But all the European countries with rolling stock
> factories are demanding new trams/trains keep being built there despite
> massive overcapacity.
>
> So production of Melbourne's trams shifts from Melbourne to Germany.
> Which as I have been saying, means the new trams are designed for
> compact European cities and have far fewer seats than Melbourne's trams
> despite being much longer than Melbourne's trams.
>
How wide will the new Melbourne trams be?  David I think you are over
looking that most European trams are built to a narrow loading gauge, even
when the track gauge is 1435mm. They have 1+2 seating not the 2+2 used on
Aussie trams, and then some of their metre gauge trams only have 1+1
seating.

Ted
>
> David McLoughlin
> Auckland New Zealand