A Melbourne tram has been clocked speeding by police – the first time a driver has been caught by a radar gun.
A traffic policeman with the laser radar gun clocked the tram at 57kph in a 40kph zone on Malvern Road, Prahran, shortly after 7.30am, a police spokeswoman said.
The officer intercepted the tram and issued the driver with an on-the-spot fine, she said.
“It’s the first time that a member has detected a speeding tram. He said it was quite unusual,” she said.
The officer, from Stonnington traffic management unit, said the tram driver was “co-operative”, the spokeswoman said.
“There was no animosity,” she said.
The driver was fined $215 and will lose three demerit points from his normal driver’s licence.
Yarra Trams spokesman Colin Tyrus said the driver also would be counselled by the company and would be subject to an internal disciplinary process, but would not disclose the process for privacy reasons.
“There’s no exception for tram drivers to the speed limit,” Mr Tyrus said.
“This is something that Yarra Trams regularly refers to in refresher training and initial training, that drivers are required to observe the road laws of the state of Victoria, and that includes speed limits.”
Lenny Bates started working at the Kew depot in 1955, forsaking a promising career as a registered plumber. In the ensuing 5½ decades he was a conductor, a driver, a trainer of hundreds of other drivers, and finally a driver again.
He spent his later years on routes 109 from Box Hill to Port Melbourne and 48 from North Balwyn to Docklands, gaining recognition and affection for his colourful and detailed announcements about local landmarks along the route.
As trams evolved, Mr Bates embraced whatever training was required to master the new models. ”Lenny came to the depot when we had 1920s technology, and progressed through that into today’s high-tech trams … He came from pencil and paper up to the touch screen,” Mr Andrews says.
But he never learnt to drive a car, even after a rule was brought in that tram drivers must have a valid driver’s licence. An exception was made for him.
W8, Z3, A1, A2, B1, B2 classes
65 km/h powers off
75 km/h forced braking
Speed at max current draw: approximately 30 km/h
Acceleration: 1.5 m/s² ± 0.05
Citadis C1 class
77-80 km/h powers off
No forced braking
Speed at max current draw: 29 km/h @ 600V, 21.8 km/h @ 450V
Acceleration: 1-30 km/h ± 1.57 m/s², 1-60 km/h ± 1.57 m/s²
Citadis C2 class
70 km/h powers off
No forced braking
Acceleration: 1.03 m/s² ± 5%
Combino D1 class
70 km/h powers off
No forced braking
Speed at max current draw: 39-55 km/h
Acceleration: ≤1.3m/s² to 39 km/h, ≤0.95m/s² avg. to 70 km/h
Combino D2 class
70 km/h powers off
No forced braking
Speed at max current draw: 30-55 km/h
Acceleration: ≤1.3m/s² to 30 km/h, ≤0.86m/s² avg. to 60 km/h
Flexity E class
Max speed: 80 km/h
60 km/h traction cut
65 km/h brakes apply
Acceleration: 1.3m/s² to 30 km/h (fully loaded)
As well as the standards to which new track is built to.
I paid a visit to Mentone recently, taking a look at the new station opened in July 2021 following the removal of the Balcombe Road level crossing. However there are a few ‘signs’ that the Level Crossing Removal Authority’s design is flawed.
On leaving the station, I found a loooong flight of steps linking the station with Como Parade West.
I had a pram with me, so I had to take the loooong zig zag ramp instead.
The ramps down to the platform weren’t much better.
Running from platform level below ground, past street level – but with no access – ending on the elevated concourse
On Como Parade West the heritage listed station building had been restored.
But the bus stops outside were untouched.
1980s brick and only a handful of bus shelters for waiting passengers.
Behind the shops on Como Parade West I found a nice grassy area, but it didn’t lead anywhere – just a concrete wall facing the giant zigzag ramps.
While on the other side was a sea of car parking.
The driveway to which featured a ‘Pedestrians obey traffic signals’ sign.
I gave up on waiting for the pedestrian lights to change, so continued along the endless car park instead.
Luckily the ‘Parkiteer’ cage for bicycle parking was right outside the station entrance.
But it appears demand was underestimated – temporary ‘Wheelie’ bike racks had also been provided next door.
And cycling routes were an afterthought – a sign on the main concourse reading “CYCLISTS DISMOUNT – walk your bike on the ramps and through the Mentone Station precinct”.
But the final piece of a flawed design – access to the station from the east.
The original design neglected a formal path between the station entry and Station Street, so an informal one was soon worn, until somebody noticed it – and blocked it off with a fence!
So how much did this half-baked level crossing removal cost? A total of $536 million – including the removal of three level crossings at Balcombe Road in Mentone, Charman Road and Park Road in Cheltenham, and two new stations at Cheltenham and Mentone.
The only upside seems to be the colour – blue.
Unlike previous level crossing removal projects that were a sea of grey, Mentone station has received it’s own unique colour – neighbouring Cheltenham station appearing in gold.
Footnote – why so many steps?
The reason for the elevated concourse reached by long ramps and stairs is the ‘hybrid’ trench design. The railway line dives below ground to pass beneath Balcombe Road, then rises slightly into the new station at Mentone.
It then rises again to ground level after the station.
This design reduces the amount of excavation required to construct a rail-under-road grade separation, but results in a station concourse raised above ground level, and requires the station platforms to be located away from the road, extending the distance to connecting bus routes.
There is a new rail operator in Australia called the Bowen Rail Company, and they’re keeping quiet about two facts – the cargo they haul, and who their parent company is. But why?
The Bowen Rail Company is Queensland’s next-generation rail business, created to transport Queensland’s high-quality resources for export to the world.
Their area of operation.
Bowen Rail Company will operate on the Carmichael Rail Network; a 200km narrow gauge railway that connects Queensland’s Galilee Basin to existing rail infrastructure and the North Queensland Export Terminal.
And their “foundation customer”.
The Carmichael Rail Network is part of the Bravus Mining and Resources’ Carmichael Project and the Carmichael Mine will be the railway’s foundation customer.
The Adani group has launched its own rail business to haul coal to its Queensland port, while avoiding any public mention of the parent company or the controversial Carmichael mine.
It follows years of pressure from anti-coal activists that has prompted a string of potential Adani contractors to walk away from the mining giant, increasing the cost of doing business.
Bowen Rail Company (BRC) last month announced it was launching a haulage business to service Abbot Point export terminal.
Head of project delivery, David Wassell, said the company had bought its own “state-of-the-art locomotives and rollingstock” and would recruit about 50 workers.
Neither the media release nor the company website mention Adani or the Carmichael mine.
But company searches show BRC is owned by an Adani group company in India, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited, via two holding companies in Singapore.
The searches show the directors of BRC are all senior Adani staff in Australia.
So Bowen Rail Company is just a shell company of Adani Mining, proponent of the massively controversial Carmichael coal mine in Queensland, created because no other Australian rail operator would touch the project with a ten foot pole.
So how did Adani get so desperate?
Protests against coal mining are nothing new – including the blocking of railways used to export coal.
Embattled Indian miner Adani says it will build and run Australia’s biggest coal venture in central Queensland’s Galilee Basin on its own after parting ways with mining services giant Downer.
On Monday, Adani released a statement revealing both parties had cancelled a conditional $2.6 billion contract as part of Adani’s cost-cutting drive spurred on by the Queensland Government’s veto of its $1 billion Commonwealth loan bid.
The split comes after Downer was the target of a nationwide activist campaign pressuring them to quit the Carmichael project in central Queensland.
Australia’s big four banks have all ruled out funding or withdrawn from Adani’s Queensland coal project, after Westpac said it would not back opening up new coalmining regions.
NAB ruled out funding the Carmichael project in September 2015, a month after Commonwealth Bank parted ways with Adani as project finance adviser.
The CEO of ANZ, Shayne Elliott, in effect ruled out financing the mine last December when he predicted a downward shift in the bank’s exposure to coalmining would continue for the foreseeable future.
The controversial mine in the Galilee Basin has been scaled back significantly from earlier plans, following years of legal and environmental disputes.
Adani Mining chief executive officer Lucas Dow said the mine would initially begin on a small scale and “ramp up” to a capacity of 27.5 million tonnes a year — less than half the size of the approved project.
This cut also included the rail portion of the project.
Adani has ditched plans to build a new rail line from Abbot Point to get coal out of Queensland’s Galilee Basin, opting for a cut-price solution using existing lines.
The Indian miner had planned to build a new 388km line from its controversial Carmichael mine to Abbot Point for export, but now says it will “instead leverage existing rail infrastructure”.
The new proposal will make use of the existing Aurizon rail infrastructure that runs to Abbot Point. A new narrow-gauge rail line of about 200 km would be constructed to connect the existing network to the Carmichael mine site, reducing the length of the track Adani would have to build by 188km, and significantly reducing the cost.
Adani’s original proposal was for a 388km standard gauge track that was expected to cost $2.3bn.
Adani stating.
“By connecting to the existing network we can fast-track project delivery, reduce capital expenditure and deliver coal more quickly to countries in Asia,” Adani Mining’s chief executive, Lucas Dow, said in a statement on Thursday. “We’re 100% committed to getting the Carmichael project off the ground.”
The company said its Plan B solution would follow the same route, meaning existing approvals and land use agreements could be used.
Aurizon was the frontrunner to haul coal for Adani, so was soon targeted by activists.
Aurizon’s annual general meeting, held in Brisbane today, was dominated by concerns over Aurizon’s potential involvement in the destructive Adani Carmichael coal project.
Both shareholders inside the meeting and #StopAdani activists outside called on the rail freight company to refuse to provide coal haulage services to Adani, or invest any shareholder capital in rail upgrades necessary for the Adani project.
The ABC has learned Genesee & Wyoming Australia (GWA) declined to participate in the Carmichael coal project, after Adani approached it to supply coal haulage services from its planned mine.
“GWA has previously been approached to service the Adani Carmichael project and we have decided not to participate,” the company confirmed in a statement to the ABC.
Pacific National, the major rail freight company in NSW and the fastest growing in Queensland, told the ABC: “We haul coal, that’s what we do.”
“We wouldn’t rule out dealing with Adani or any other mining company that had the necessary approvals,” the company said.
But the situation for Aurizon was was not so clear cut, thanks to their role as manager of the Queensland rail network.
Aurizon is legally obliged by the Queensland Competition Authority to consider and assess the request by Adani to access the network. Both companies are bound to keep discussions about access confidential.
A sticking point being who would fund upgrades to the existing network.
The capacity of the existing Goonyella to Abbot Point line would need to be increased to carry coal from Carmichael, based on current freight volumes. The line has capacity to freight 50m tonnes per annum and currently carries about 28mtpa for companies that have contracts to export through the Abbot Point terminal.
Adani plans an initial expansion of Abbot Point to 60mtpa and plans to ultimately mine and export 27mtpa from Carmichael. The Goonyella line does not have the capacity to service an expanded port, or the Carmichael mine at peak production.
Adani also says its planned spur line will have additional capacity to provide access to other potential future mines in the Galilee Basin. Any additional coal freight from the Galilee would necessitate a more significant upgrade of the Goonyella railway.
Aurizon said it could not comment on any potential access request by Adani or subsequent discussions with the company due to confidentiality restrictions put in place by the QCA. But the rail operator did provide a statement that explained the process if any expansion to its infrastructure was required.
“The process includes assessment of potential future demand from other users of the particular coal system; and the scope of expansion required, how it connects to the network and how it will be funded,” a spokesman said.
But that’s not the end of it
On the construction front, they had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find someone to build the new line – signing a deal in October 2019 with a tiny company called Martinus Rail.
Adani’s announcement on October 18 that it had awarded a $100 million contract to Martinus to build a 200-kilometre rail line from the Carmichael mine to existing rail tracks operated by Aurizon came just two weeks after Malaysian engineering group Gamuda Berhad acquired a 50 per cent stake in the NSW group.
Gamuda’s overseas investors and staff are likely to be less susceptible than Australian investors and workers to pressure from activists opposing the Carmichael mine, which is moving ahead with construction after receiving final environmental approvals.
Several companies with big Australian operations, including engineering groups Aurecon and Cardno, have ruled themselves out of working on the Carmichael project after being targeted by activists.
Ownership of which was uncertain.
It is unclear who has ultimate control of Martinus. Neither Gamuda or Martinus responded to requests from The Australian Financial Review for comment.
Martinus does not file financial statements with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which until June 2019 required accounts to be submitted from companies with consolidated revenues of $25 million or more. The revenue threshold was raised to $50 million in July.
Malaysian engineering firm Gamuda has ditched plans to buy half of Australian rail firm Martinus Rail, which has the contract to build 200km of rail connecting Indian firm Adani’s proposed 10mn t/yr Carmichael thermal coal project in the Galilee basin in northwest Queensland to the existing network.
Raising questions as to whether they could even complete the work.
The deal leaves Martinus, which in April secured a second contract with Adani to build A$220mn worth of infrastructure associated with the Adani railway, with limited financial backing to complete these major projects. Martinus has not carried out any new projects previously the size of the Adani rail connector, with the main project featured on its website being a 12.6km dual-track heavy gauge passenger line in the Moreton Bay region of Queensland.
India’s Adani Enterprises has changed the name of its Australian unit to Bravus Mining and Resources.
The rebrand comes as the miner readies to ship out its first coal next year in the face of years of vocal opposition from climate change activists, whose catch cry “Stop Adani” became a marketing slogan emblazoned on t-shirts and earrings.
“We will continue to stand up and deliver for the good of our community, no matter how courageous it requires us to be, and Bravus, our new name, reflects this intent,” Chief Executive David Boshoff said in a statement.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (Adani Ports) has announced in its latest Annual Report (page 129) that after setting up the haulage operation for the controversial Carmichael coal project under the Bowen Rail Company (BRC), it is transferring the ownership of BRC to another Adani subsidiary, Adani Enterprises. The significant ownership transfer is being made after Adani Ports’ Sustainability & CSR Committee determined that Adani Ports “will divest its investments in [BRC] to fulfil Carbon Neutral Commitments”.
The media release still pretending the companies are not related.
This achievement is a shared celebration between two of Adani Australia’s companies; Bowen Rail Company which provides rail haulage operations, and Bravus Mining and Resources.
But no mention of how much of the 200 kilometre long Carmichael Rail Network was still to be complete.
Footnote: other Australian rail operators hauling coal
Pacific National has been hauling coal in the Hunter Valley for decades, having inherited contracts from the State Rail Authority of NSW.
Bowen Rail Company Pty Ltd was registered as a company on 16 December 2019 – ACN 638 074 889. Their ABN is 77 638 074 889 and it has been active from 7 January 2020.
Shortly after its exit from the Bunbury Street tunnel the locomotive encountered a track defect at a location beneath the Nicholson Street road overbridge in Footscray that caused the derailment of one wheelset.
The train continued for about 1200 metres with the locomotive in this partially-derailed state until it encountered a turnout, resulting in the complete derailment of the locomotive and the first passenger car, and the derailment of the leading bogie of the second passenger car.
There were no injuries to passengers or V/Line personnel; however the track sustained significant damage.
Trams
Back in May 2011 work started on platform stops along Swanston Street – months later, the stop outside Melbourne Central was still incomplete.
They’ve missed a few Movembers in the years that have followed, and switched to a simpler stick on decal.
And some other bits
A $300 million expansion of Highpoint Shopping Centre was underway, with tower cranes at work on the 30,000 sqm extension, taking the centre to a total of 156,000 sqm.
Across Victoria there are a number of specialised rail vehicles used to inspect the tracks for faults – so let’s take a look at them.
Track evaluation vehicle IEV100
IEV100 is a track evaluation vehicle that traverses the Victorian railway network to test track quality. Self propelled with a diesel engine, and with the option to use standard or broad gauge bogies, this Plasser & Theurer EM100 track recorder was acquired by V/Line in the 1980s, passing to VicTrack following privatisation the 1990s.
It was then overhauled by Metro Trains Melbourne in 2012, with the original mechanical measurement wheels being replaced by a modern non-contact laser measurement system.
IEV100 was once capable of measuring the overhead contract wires, but the pantograph was removed around 2015.
Overhead inspection carriage IEV102
IEV102 is an overhead inspection carriage used across the Melbourne suburban network, converted from a retired V/Line passenger carriage in 2010, following a spate of overhead wire failures.
From a glass cupola atop the carriage, staff and video cameras onboard the carriage monitor how the pantograph tracks along the overhead wire.
Initially the carriage was hauled around the network by a pair of Metro Trains Melbourne’s T class locomotives, but from 2018 Southern Shorthaul Railroad took over the job.
In October 2021 further changes happened, when a laser instrumented pantograph was installed atop the carriage, automating the collection of data.
‘AK’ track recording cars
The AK cars are a set of three specially equipped ex-NSWGR carriages fitted out for track inspection purposes. They are operated by the Australian Rail Track Corporation over their standard gauge lines behind hired motive power a few times each year.
Video cameras are mounted to the front of the train.
Wide inspection windows at the end of each carriage.
Laser track measurement equipment beneath one of the carriages.
And an accommodation carriage for the crew on their long journey across Australia.
Evaluation vehicle EV120 ‘Evie’
EV120 is a Geismar model RB2214TM locomotive hauled track and overhead inspection vehicle for the Victorian broad gauge rail network, acquired in 2021 to replace overhead inspection carriage IEV102 and track inspection vehicle IEV100.
It has laser track measurement equipment attached to each bogie.
A pantograph on the roof.
And forward facing camera fitted to locomotives that haul it.
Southern Shorthaul Railroad currently provides diesel locomotives and crews to haul it around the network.
Ultrasonic rail flaw detection
Speno Rail Maintenance Australia operates a fleet of hi-rail Ultrasonic rail flaw detection trucks, which appear in Victoria from time to time.
The hi-rail truck tows an ultrasonic sensor array, scanning the steel rails for microscopic flaws.
With a second crew following behind to mark any issues with paint.
LIDAR and ground penetrating radar
In 2019 and 2020 V/Line completed an ad-hoc survey of their network using a variety of hired test equipment strapped to a surplus diesel locomotive.
The first survey used LIDAR measure equipment, a NovAtel GPS receiver, and 360 degree camera equipment to create a digital map of the network.
And was followed up by a ground penetrating radar system supplied by Zetica Rail to measure trackbed condition, including ballast depth, fouling and roughness.
