“I’m pretty confident we are going to achieve this, 95 per cent absolutely sure that we’re going to get there by February. We’ve just got to get those final things checked,” he said.
The 12 cracked trams will be repaired at a Pyrmont depot, which will be able to work on two vehicles at a time.
The timings and speed of the CBD trams running on the inner west line will be similar to that of the original trams, Mr Collins said.
“People want a tram, they don’t care whether it’s a tram from the eastern suburbs. We have reviewed this, we have looked at this intensely,” he said.
The government had originally cast doubt over whether the CBD trams could operate on the network, given their different design and wheel profile.
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He said repairs to the cracked trams would involve cutting up the floors out of the vehicles, with new components added to prevent future cracking.
While the Herald revealed last week that Spanish manufacturer CAF had written to the government in November suggesting the cracks had been caused by the trams running through bends in the tracks at relative high speed, Mr Collins said no cause had been decided upon yet.
He again reiterated that he did not believe the NSW government would pay for the repairs.
Opposition transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen said while it was good news some services were returning, thousands of inner west residents would still have to wait months.
“Passengers shouldn’t be paying full fare for a shuttle service that’s less frequent and slower. If the government wants to provide half a light rail service, then the least they can do is also halve the fare,” Ms Haylen said.
“The government’s attempts to back away from its promise that the people of NSW wouldn’t have to pay a cent to fix this light rail fail should cause serious concern for taxpayers.”
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Sydney’s inner west light rail to resume in February
Source: Philippines Alive
