X'Trapolis 2.0 | MY IMPRESSION AND YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED
25 of these new trains will be built in Victoria, and enter service from 2025/6. They're gonna be great - I'm so grateful I got to speak to the project team and ask every annoying question under the sun
Thread🧵(1/13)
Firstly - I was invited along by DTP, they wanted to engage with rail enthusiasts, and I am on a list (allegedly)
The team expressed a willingness this train mockup may go on display in future, but not for extended public comment, they're wrapping that up now
These trains will replace all Comengs on the Upfield and Craigeburn lines, and some will work the Frankston line as well
Up to 100 X'trap 2.0s can be ordered, and DTP's preference appears to be ordering more of these to replace the Comeng instead of more HCMT trains
SEATS:
They're pretty damn thin, and narrow, and leg room is not great. That leaves a wide aisle, but I can tell people will be complaining about this for a long time to come
Yes the seats are indeed ripped off the VLocity, and honestly they're pretty good supports
We've got a lot of room for wheelchairs inside with flip up seating in cars 1 and 2. They have a semi-automatic wheelchair ramp fitted that looks good
Only room for about 4 bikes per train, it appears DTP still do not really want people taking bikes on rail services
FRONT:
Perhaps the most divisive part in gunzel circles. It looks better in real life to be honest, and it will change slightly to prevent train surfing, but it's gonna look like this
I don't think it's too uglo anymore, it'll look better on the network for sure
SCREENS:
3 centre screens and 5 or so side displays per car. Same software as the HCMT, they look great and modernise the feel a lot
NERD STUFF:
I can confirm these will have airbag suspension, similar to the HCMT, not springs (a relief to many I'm sure)
Also they will sound the same as the Perth C-series, couldn't get confirmation on the what the horns will be, nor internal speakers at this stage
The door buttons do depress, but they are not clicky like "buttons". Improved from the HCMT for sure
The doors that are external are "like in Hong Kong" whatever that means
Couple of drivers follow me - so here's the cab. Looks high tech but I'm not gonna pretend to know anything about that!
Honestly my biggest gripe here is this destination display is terrible - no other way to describe it. Needs to be a higher res LED in white at minimum, but it seems it will actually be fixed in this size. That's a real shame
Finally here's a carriage layout overview. The train can handle about 1,200 people inside, all 6 car units
At the end of the day - the X'trap 2.0 is going to be a great train, everything you'd want is here. They look great inside (maybe outside too) and you'll love being a passenger
What Alstom and DTP have done is high class, I'm looking forward to day one
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So because that "Bulimba Barracks" development that Max Chandler-Mather hates so much is back in the news, I actually bothered to check it out and like: It is so so inoffensive
Mostly detached homes and townhouses with low-rise apartments. Good community space and street grid
I had kind of assumed this was like offensive towers or something to get such a strong negative reaction, it's not, it's a few hundred homes that won't generate much traffic and will contribute to the community
It's not at risk of floods either, as the hydrology report shows
This is appropriate development for the area, the only good criticism here is no social housing (Not a particularly good site for SH as its not very close to jobs!) and mediocre public transport (Brisbane is bad at buses lol), but those shouldn't sink the proposal at all.
I have thought about this quite a lot in the context of Melbourne. A new tram current costs $18,000,000 a piece
At 2025-8 prices this would be at least $5.6 Billion spent on new trams to fully replace the high floors, and that doesn't even include the cost for low floor stops
In the context of Melbourne, this is a cost other cities simply don't face. $5.6 billion could buy over 5000 new electric buses and associated infrastructure, instead this city gets 313 new trams
It's a cost differential hard to comprehend and dare I say hard to justify
We must get there eventually, but at the current rate of progress it won't be 2045 before the last B class is replaced, which is unsustainable
Alongside the new western facility, the Victorian Government must embark on an additional tender to replace the A class trams by 2032
It was an unfortunately fairly miserable Saturday morning in Adelaide. However, that wasn't going to stop me getting pictures of the Gawler Line electrics under test 🚄📸
What I found was a lot of fast electric trains and updated stations (1/13)
I travelled between Kilburn and North Adelaide, with a car for it was too wet for the bicycle. Islington station in particular has received some good sized shelters replacing the previous 'bus stops'
Couple of shots of #4005 arriving and departing Islington
Only one railway line exists north out of Adelaide today, it goes to Crystal Brook.
But there used to be many more, built in the sprawling system of the SAR, let's go have a look and see how they've been preserved and what it teaches us.
A thread 🧵(1/25)
To start with Kapunda and Freeling are both stations on the Morgan railway line, and both remained open long enough to pass onto what is now known as One Rail Australia, however to my knowledge has never been used since AN
Kapunda is home to a nice restored station building housing a café, and three shunting tracks as everything north of here was lifted by AN in the mid-1990s
I have found the report that recommended the closure of Australian National's Passenger operations, prepared by a predecessor to BITRE
I had never heard of it, never heard it discussed, but the insights it offers are both intriguing and insane. A thread 🧵(1/21)
First of all I found this by accident, searching through @SLSA's collections it showed up and a Google search revealed it on BITRE's website
It was prepared by the "Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics" (BTCE) and well looks like every other 1991 report
To set the scene: it is 1990-91, Australian National is facing cost pressures on it's loss making passenger operation. It had received a $31.6 million subsidy 'Commonwealth supplement' to pay for passenger operations, the Federal Treasury is unhappy. The route map is below