Melbourne’s newest tram – the story so far
Wednesday 2 May 2012
The first locally built tram since 1994 is a step closer to running on the Yarra Trams network.
Since Bombardier was announced as the winning contractor for Melbourne's new
generation of low-floor trams, the E Class has gone from drawing
boards to computer aided design, scale models and a two-thirds
length mock-up. Now the design of the tram has been finalised and
Bombardier Transportation's Dandenong factory has begun producing
the first test vehicle.
A total of 50 new trams have been ordered, adding capacity to the
lines that they operate on and freeing up other high-capacity,
low-floor trams to operate elsewhere around the network.
The same Bombardier factory which will build the E Class tram is
also used to produce V/Line Vlocity trains.
The E Class tram has been designed in consultation with Yarra
Trams staff and special interest groups representing passengers.
The mock up of the tram was displayed at last year's Royal
Melbourne Show to allow the public to provide feedback.
The tram will be approximately 33 metres long and 2.65 metres wide
with room for 210 passengers. It will be fully air-conditioned and
provide passengers automated audible and visible
announcements.
B Class tram 2132, currently operating out of East Preston Depot,
was the last of six trams built in Melbourne during 1994. Since
then the tram fleet has added 100 low-floor trams, including the
Combino from Germany and the Citadis from France.
Canadian-based transportation company Bombardier builds trams
operating in 43 cities across the world, including Adelaide,
Berlin, Istanbul, Manchester, Minneapolis and Toronto. It has
63,000 employees in more than 60 countries.
Under the franchise model of Victorian Public Transport the state
owns all trams and infrastructure and contracts KDR to operate
Yarra Trams. KDR Victoria has been sole operator of the Melbourne
tram network since November 2009.
For more information on the Tram Procurement Program and associated network improvements visit Public Transport Victoria.
ABOVE: Inside the E Class tram mock-up at Bombardier.