Yet another example of NSW being a stifling back water. Many one eyed people here won't hear of anything but this being a world leader state despite the constant examples to the contrary.matthewg wrote:The only thing wrong with the Variotrams was they needed a 'mid-life' overhaul. (Basically, a deep clean, repaint, replace any parts that are giving trouble). The government decided to replace instead of an overhaul then got bloody-minded about bringing them back to satisfy the increase in demand. They were virtually scrapped in secret. (I was there the day the scrapping started, ripping parts off the doomed cars as spares for 2107, and it was made clear I was not to publish the photos I took of the process.)Swift wrote:Were the Vario trams incompatible with the newer rolling stock or were they just keen to parade these flash new trams and underestimated demand (as usual)?
Given the bloody-minded secrecy, I have a personal suspicion that contract with CAF for the 6 extra cars contained a 'no return of the Bombardier cars' clause.
The tech staff at Pyrmont actually started on the overhauls before the program was killed by management. The cars were then 'run into the ground' with only the bare minimum of maintenance performed while waiting for the new Urbos to arrive.
The relationship between CAF (doing the maintenance) and Bombardier (who had the proprietary parts) was a little strained which didn't help. Pyrmont was always short on certain spare parts for Varios in the CAF era. SImilar tension now exists between Alstom and CAF.
Mike Baird, Neville Wran and even Robert Askin offered some solace, but despite Gladys sterling efforts, we are back chucking a normal. Dominic Perrotet it's another beacon among the darkness that is this state.