http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/35571

Hours into its much-heralded and delayed launch, the $2.96-billion Sydney Light Rail network came to a halt on Saturday afternoon due to technical issues.

• A tram on the newly opened Sydney Light Rail broke down at Circular Quay this afternoon
• Services were disrupted between Circular Quay and Central
• Transport for NSW said at least 53,000 people were expected to travel on the service on Saturday

The service officially opened between the CBD and Randwick just affter 10:00am on Saturday, but by 1:50pm a tram at Circular Quay had frozen due to a mechanical fault. 

The tram was moved an hour later but services between Circular Quay and Central were suspended until 3:30pm.

Despite months of testing across the network, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned at the launch there was the expectation of "teething problems".

Passengers had been forced off the trams after the Circular Quay breakdown and George Street remained blocked, according to social media posts. 

(Multiple) [Several] passengers reported the issue on Twitter, calling it a "light rail fail" and a "joke".

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-14/sydney-light-rail-breaks-down-at-...

The state government has pledged to cut journey times for trams on Sydney's $2.9 billion light rail line over the coming months, following concerns they are much slower than buses.

After carrying about 115,000 passengers in its first 28 hours of operation, the new line between Randwick and Circular Quay faces another major test on Monday during the morning travel peak.

While delays and several incidents marred the opening on Saturday, light rail operator Transdev said trams operated smoothly on Sunday apart from one tram halting services briefly due to a mechanical brake failure while passing through Surry Hills in the inner city.

The government came under fire from Labor over the trams' average travel time of about 50 minutes between Randwick and Circular Quay, which is slower than forecasts several months ago of 38 to 40 minutes. Buses can take about 35 minutes to complete the same route.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/travel-times-on-sydney-s-new-light-r...

Read from top.

Cracked trams that were removed from Sydney’s inner west light rail are no longer under warranty, casting doubt over whether the NSW government or private operators will pay for the repairs.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/cracked-inner-west-trams-no-longer-under-warranty-20211130-p59dfx.html

Fantastic… Why do these thingies crack? Boy, they hardly reach 30 km/h on a line designed to carry heavy freight from Darling Harbour (named after Governor Darling, not because it’s lovely) to somewhere.

When migrating to Aussieland, Gus' luggage that had been sent to Bonegilla (the silver city — a dump for migrants in the middle of nowhere to pick watermelons in the Riverina) had to be redirected to Darling Harbour. In those days, it was a lively hub of steam trains rolling on hundreds of shunting lines carrying parcels and cargo. Apparently, according to locals living up the hill in Ultimo, people had to bribe the officials to get your goods or "know someone". I played dumb. As well, a portion of the goods were pilfered and resold to the Chinese in Chinatown. It was reminiscent of the razor gangs, one migrant learns about later on. 

So what’s the beef with the little trains? Being a fake engineer, Gus can say as many things as he likes on this subject. First,we already have mentioned on this site the vibrations of concrete railway sleepers… A new section, barely 10 years old, of the Sydney/Melbourne railway had to be rethought out because the trains were distorting the line by “vibrating it into the ground”. See, the old wooden sleepers would absorb the vibrations. The new concrete sleepers transferred the vibrations to the stones in the ballast supporting the lines and the ballast stones would crunch, collapse and compress… At least the trains did not crack, but they had to drive at 20 km/h on a NEW line where they were supposed to go at 150 km/h. So how come the little trains from Darling Harbour to Dulwich Hill suffered cracks? My guess is that a few kilometres of new tracks had to be laid in order to reach Central Station and divert through Paddy’s Market. Did they place these tracks on concrete blocks that “could not move” so the vibrations ended up cracking the buggies?

Apparently, according to the experts, the new Sydney Trams run on tracks that have heavy duty rubber dampeners… So hopefully these new trams won’t crack…

And this is where I will leave you to contact your local Shell and Airbus headquarters, or any big industrial outfits of your choice…

Should you care about the planet, let them know about SeaGlider… 

https://yourdemocracy.net/drupal/node/41125

Shell contact: https://www.shell.com.au/about-us/contact-us.html#iframe=L2Zvcm1zL3NoZWxsX2F1X2NvbnRhY3RfdXNfZm9ybQ

Airbus Contact: questions-web@airbus.com

Gus Leonisky

Inventor of stuff that works and could work — and dilettante cartoonist... 

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