OTSI final report on CAF failures released

From:	'TP' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdownunder@googlegroups.com>

Here is the final report from NSW OTSI on the failures of the Sydney CAFs. It's pretty shocking.

https://www.otsi.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-08/Fractures%20of%20Urbos%203%20LRV%20underframes%20-%20Sydney%20Inner%20West%20Light%20Rail%20Line%20-%2027%20October%202021_0.pdf

I like the way they only spoke to Midlands and not Besancon.and Belgrade, the latter of which has huge experience with trams, compared to the recent modern systems. Are they afraid they mightn't speak English?

 

TfNSW doesn't escape either. There's one key sentence in the report:

"TfNSW established a small team of rolling stock specialists with heavy rail design experience to oversight a review of CAF's design and FEA assessment."

There is no reference to TfNSW ever having sought the advice of any tram experts, from Melbourne or elsewhere. 

Even the OTSI analysis demonstrates no awareness that there are alternative tram designs suitable for the distinctive characteristics of the Sydney light rail system. The CAF is uncritically accepted as a "standard world tram" and somehow it (and the Alstom) have to be shoehorned into compatibility with the Sydney operation. No wonder the services are so slow and micromanaged.

I can never forgive CAF (aided and abetted by TfNSW incompetence) for the damage they caused to what was a promising tram operation whose patronage was taking off like a rocket after the previous government absorbed it into the mainstream public transport system. They brought it crashing to the ground and it's still barely recovering a decade later.

Tony P

--