Operations centre

Yarra Trams operations centre

You can think of the Yarra Trams operations centre as the brain of Melbourne’s tram network. Sophisticated technology and global best practice enables our team to choreograph hundreds of trams delivering 5,000 services and enabling half a million trips every day.

Day-to-day operational planning, incident management, communications and passenger needs are all handled here to help people get to their destination safely.

Real-time updates

Our Automatic Vehicle Monitoring system (AVM) pinpoints the location of every tram on the network and updates every six seconds.

Timing points along each tram route provide data to the AVM to determine punctuality, and information about service disruptions is fed to our tramTRACKER™ system.

The AVM data also enables performance monitoring and reporting, as well as service planning.

Communications

Our team is in two-way communication with trams at all times and can direct response crews to incidents on the network quickly to minimise disruptions and ensure passenger safety. (If you witness anti-social behaviour on a tram you should tell the driver if possible. In an emergency contact 000.)

When you hear live and recorded announcements on a tram, or read our posts about disruptions on our website, Twitter or Facebook, they’ve come from our passenger information team based in the operations centre.

Special events management

Melbourne is Australia’s events capital and trams play a key role in getting thousands of people to and from major sporting and cultural events throughout the year.

Our operations centre oversees extra trips for events ranging from the very small to the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, Australian Open tennis and AFL Grand Final.