Article: Doyle backs all-night trams

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Doyle backs all-night trams

Doyle backs all-night trams
September 22, 2009

LORD Mayor Robert Doyle has begun lobbying Melbourne's new tram operators for 24-hour services to take city revellers home and reduce the risk of street violence in the central business district.

Cr Doyle yesterday met the winning consortium led by French firm Keolis, and pushed for all-night services.

He directly lobbied the consortium, known as KDR, after Premier John Brumby dismissed 24-hour trams as ''unlikely'' when The Age revealed Keolis had offered the service to the Government as an option in its bid. Cr Doyle has now proposed a trial of 24-hour trams on some routes.

''It seems to me to be pretty basic - we bring all of these people in with mass transit and we don't provide mass transit to take them out. Well, how do they get home?'' Cr Doyle said yesterday.

A spokesman for KDR confirmed that Cr Doyle had raised the prospect of all-night trams with chief executive Michel Masson and said the company was willing to examine its feasibility once it takes control in December.

KATE LAHEY