Re: OTSI final report on CAF failures released

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

I've been reading the report in depth. The more you read, the worse it gets. The level of incompetence is breathtaking, not only TfNSW and its advisers and the maintenance, but the manufacturers (both CAF and Alstom), who (naturally) placed their commercial interests ahead of any obligation to inform the uninformed client more broadly about such issues that have been known in the modern industry for over a quarter of a century (the elephant in the room). Indeed, an episode of this nature has already occurred in Australia with the Siemens Combino trams in Melbourne. If only TfNSW and its technical advisors RailCorp and Interfleet (a British consultancy, ex British Rail, that specialised in high speed trains!) had picked up the phone and brought the Melbourne specialists in for advice at the outset, this very likely may not have happened. Regardless of all the above, CAF's manufacturing quality is a fundamental issue.

Another person on this forum and myself have been participating in and latterly observing Sydney light rail development since the 1990s and suffice to say that we predicted such an outcome during the 2010s, but it's satisfying to see it finally analysed in print. However, in a way, OTSI is also caught up in it because they've fallen for the same assumption of a "standard world tram" (being the CAF/Alstom product of course) when there is no such thing, but rather a range of engineering solutions tailored to specific operating environments. The OTSI analysis completely fails to assess the issue against the broad technology, rather focussing narrowly on the specific product.

Nothing will happen of course. It'll just bumble along until the claimed 30 year lifespan comes up (if they last that long) and they'll make the same mistake all over again for the next orders. It's also obvious that, because the tram design (both CAF and Alstom) is the wrong choice, services will never be speeded up to the journey times they should be achieving. I don't know what's more depressing in Sydney, this or bus orders.

Tony P