Re: Sydney Light Rail

[dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

Peter Bollard (onk@magna.com.au) wrote:
> I am a devoted user of the Sydney light rail using it dailly from
> Catherine Street to Chinatown.It's a wonderful service with great views
> and interesting people(especially some of those who get on at Star City
> after a big night out!)Are there any definite plans to run it to
> Haberfield or Ashfield bearing in mind that this would  seem to require
> it to use  the line taking heavy freight to Glebe Island.Would it be
> feasible ,safe and technically possible for it to share the line with
> the freight trains?

Yes, it is done in Europe. The bext example is Karlsruhe where light rail
vehicles operate at 750V DC on their own lines and on 25kV AC on heavy lines.
It should be easy to allow the Variotrams to operate under 1500V DC.

Having said that, the Rozelle Bay and White Bay docks are to close in a
couple of years. When I was working in Balmain last year, the local
residents were fairly supportive of the idea of light rail running up the
north side of White Bay.

Cheers
David