Article: Latest model trams found to be cracking up

[ozbob]

From the Melbourne Age click here!

Latest model trams found to be cracking up


http://images.theage.com.au/2009/04/15/476095/N_TRAM-420x0.jpg
A cracking Combino tram.

Latest model trams found to be cracking up

    * Clay Lucas
    * April 16, 2009

MELBOURNE'S newest trams are cracking up, and repairs will force the removal of some seats.

The 59 Combino trams ? distinctive three-section and five-section trams that have run across the network since 2002 ? have microscopic cracks in their frames.

The cracks pose no risk to safety, but fixing them before the cracks get worse will require the removal of between four and eight seats.

No extra standing room will be created by removing seats because the extra space is needed for boxes housing the trams' suspension.

Public Transport Users Association president Daniel Bowen said the repairs raised questions about whether the trams should have been bought.

"With these trams having so few seats and now having to be taken out of service for repairs, it's beginning to look like taxpayers were sold a dud," he said.

The trams were made in Germany by Siemens, which also made 36 trains introduced to Melbourne in 2002 that have had serious braking problems.

Both the trams and trains were ordered as part of the privatisation of Melbourne's system in 1999.

For the next two years, four Combino trams will be taken off the rails every 10 weeks. Siemens will fix the trams at no cost to the Government.

Siemens, which would not comment on the repairs, has paid compensation to the Government.

An increase in maintenance scheduling by Yarra Trams means that no tram services will be cancelled while the trams are being repaired. Two of the 59 trams have already been fixed and a third is under repair.

Problems with the trams were uncovered in 2002 when European operators removed them from service after fatigue in body panels was discovered.

The fatigue had led to hairline fractures in the joints of the trams' aluminium bodies, which made them vulnerable to collapse in accidents.

An April 2007 briefing note given to Public Transport Minister Lynne Kosky said cracks had been found in five trams. But the cracking problem here was not as serious as in Europe, the briefing note said.

"Melbourne's topography, being largely flat, has protected its trams from the cracking," it said. "Tram track networks in (other) cities have more severe horizontal and vertical curves than in Melbourne."

Siemens, which has given the repair works the internal name the "Combino Sanitisation Program", has spent about 300 million euros ($A548 million) fixing the trams around the world.

After the repairs, the Combinos will have 32 seats on three-section trams and 56 seats on five-section trams. The city's older B-class trams, made in Melbourne, have 76 seats.

Transport Department spokeswoman Anne Sheedy said the work would be carried out at no cost to taxpayers.

Five yellow trams leased from France last year, which run only on the 96 route between East Brunswick and St Kilda, had more than offset the capacity of the Combinos undergoing maintenance, she said.