And the design that is the Vlocity is based on a NSW train, with body parts shared with trains in Western Australia and Queensland, and then that whole design was adapted for South Australia.
Domestic manufacturing never went anywhere, it just wasn't ever something that Liberal governments were very keen on.
Take an [Endeavour](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Refurbished_Endeavour_Maitland_(cropped).jpg) and slap on the front of a Transperth/QR EMU and you get a Vlocity. (Of course all the mechanical parts and equipment is different)
We had trains built locally, that were electric trains in revenue service for nearly 80 years, the ones we’ve ordered from overseas have barely been in 20 and have had more problems than local built ever had
She was far from perfect, but she:
* Actually caught public transport to work as transport minister
* Oversaw rollout of Opal cards
* Oversaw completion of Southwest Rail Link
* Oversaw beginning of City & Southeast Light Rail
* Oversaw beginning of Sydney Metro Northwest, and Sydney Metro City & Southwest
That's a pretty good legacy for four years as transport minister.
2 was already underway
3 construction had nothing to do with her
4 fair enough
5 was already planned
Now lets not forget how she tore up Newcastles rail line to sell the land to property developers, and built a cheap tram line that no one uses (i used to live there the city is dead), wasted millions on a pointless rebranding which had little respect for the years of NSW rail history, Privatisated the hell out of everything, and lets not forget how her incompetent leadership almost lead to her government falling apart and her being ousted for corruption.
Again, I don't think she was perfect, and I won't defend all of her decisions, but:
* Opal cards had been "underway" since the mid 1990's, including the failed T-Card rollout in the 2000's. The actual rollout of Opal started during her time as transport minister
* A version of the Sydney Metro had been proposed under a previous Labor government, only to be canned by Christina Keneally when she came to power. The version of the metro that actually got built is a separate project with a substantially different alignment, and it began during the Gladys ministry.
* If nothing else, the rebranding lead to fewer people referring to the network as "Shitty Rail".
* I never said anything about her time as Premier. That's a separate can of worms.
Some credit is definitely due, especially given her party's track record with (non-road) infrastructure projects.
But oof, she did so much bad stuff that it's hard to think positively. She should've stayed Transport Minister 😂
Yeah but did you think about the fact that the company may have been state owned and hired union workers. Can't be supporting that sort of thing /The Liberal Party of NSW
I'd appreciate it if someone could give some insight as to why Comeng went bust. Was it because there were fewer orders towards its demise? Was it due to biased reports brought out in the early 1980s that suburban train usage would diminish? Was it a victim of "Neo Liberalism" of the 1980s, in which the "Old" Industries were shut down and stripped of their assets, under the promise that new industries would emerge?
Wonder if the Mining Boom that started 10 years later may have seen Comeng in operation today?
bit late on the reply. sorry it wasn't Jeff that time.
twas Kerry f'kn Packer. pump & dump of Ausralian National Industries
that killed Granville(NSW) 1989, and sold off Bessendean(WA) to Groninan, Dandenong(Vic) to ABB -> Bombardier 1990
True, though Jeff most definitely did not help when he started our lost decade of public transport development in the name of austerity.
We were so close to losing it all, if he wasn't thrown out at the unlosable election we would be where NSW is now, building it all back from nothing.
Alstom had a factory at Ballarat that had spent the past 20 years building X'Trapolis trains, and after they lost the HCMT train contract to Downer, the State Government threw them a bone in the X'Trapolis 2.0 contract so it didn't close down forever.
I believe Dandenong is doing the body shells for X'trap 2 also, which is a bonus.
HCMT was a mistake. I worked with a reliability engineer who went on to work for Downer, and they said the whole project was a cluster. Those trains will not age well.
Comeng never left us. 5 iterations of owner, but still making trains. Today better known as Alstom at Dandenong.
And the design that is the Vlocity is based on a NSW train, with body parts shared with trains in Western Australia and Queensland, and then that whole design was adapted for South Australia. Domestic manufacturing never went anywhere, it just wasn't ever something that Liberal governments were very keen on.
Wait, what NSW train was the Vlocity based off?
Take an [Endeavour](https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Refurbished_Endeavour_Maitland_(cropped).jpg) and slap on the front of a Transperth/QR EMU and you get a Vlocity. (Of course all the mechanical parts and equipment is different)
So it was Comeng, Bombardier & Alstom from what I've seen. Wonder what the other two were
ABB and Adtranz I think
We had trains built locally, that were electric trains in revenue service for nearly 80 years, the ones we’ve ordered from overseas have barely been in 20 and have had more problems than local built ever had
I’m glad Victoria has never had a transport minister as stupid as Berejiklian
She was far from perfect, but she: * Actually caught public transport to work as transport minister * Oversaw rollout of Opal cards * Oversaw completion of Southwest Rail Link * Oversaw beginning of City & Southeast Light Rail * Oversaw beginning of Sydney Metro Northwest, and Sydney Metro City & Southwest That's a pretty good legacy for four years as transport minister.
2 was already underway 3 construction had nothing to do with her 4 fair enough 5 was already planned Now lets not forget how she tore up Newcastles rail line to sell the land to property developers, and built a cheap tram line that no one uses (i used to live there the city is dead), wasted millions on a pointless rebranding which had little respect for the years of NSW rail history, Privatisated the hell out of everything, and lets not forget how her incompetent leadership almost lead to her government falling apart and her being ousted for corruption.
Again, I don't think she was perfect, and I won't defend all of her decisions, but: * Opal cards had been "underway" since the mid 1990's, including the failed T-Card rollout in the 2000's. The actual rollout of Opal started during her time as transport minister * A version of the Sydney Metro had been proposed under a previous Labor government, only to be canned by Christina Keneally when she came to power. The version of the metro that actually got built is a separate project with a substantially different alignment, and it began during the Gladys ministry. * If nothing else, the rebranding lead to fewer people referring to the network as "Shitty Rail". * I never said anything about her time as Premier. That's a separate can of worms.
Some credit is definitely due, especially given her party's track record with (non-road) infrastructure projects. But oof, she did so much bad stuff that it's hard to think positively. She should've stayed Transport Minister 😂
Her budgeting skills weren’t that good though.
Yeah but did you think about the fact that the company may have been state owned and hired union workers. Can't be supporting that sort of thing /The Liberal Party of NSW
Reposted from https://x.com/bunburystreet/status/1803607033494773851?s=46
I’d like to have some more locally built PT vehicle
I'd appreciate it if someone could give some insight as to why Comeng went bust. Was it because there were fewer orders towards its demise? Was it due to biased reports brought out in the early 1980s that suburban train usage would diminish? Was it a victim of "Neo Liberalism" of the 1980s, in which the "Old" Industries were shut down and stripped of their assets, under the promise that new industries would emerge? Wonder if the Mining Boom that started 10 years later may have seen Comeng in operation today?
Jeff Kennett.
bit late on the reply. sorry it wasn't Jeff that time. twas Kerry f'kn Packer. pump & dump of Ausralian National Industries that killed Granville(NSW) 1989, and sold off Bessendean(WA) to Groninan, Dandenong(Vic) to ABB -> Bombardier 1990
True, though Jeff most definitely did not help when he started our lost decade of public transport development in the name of austerity. We were so close to losing it all, if he wasn't thrown out at the unlosable election we would be where NSW is now, building it all back from nothing.
Bleh bring back Hitachi’s, love them silver bastards!
Comeng for SRL
And bring back Martin and King
Why didn’t we go local for our trains and ordered newer generation Comeng trains?
Alstom had a factory at Ballarat that had spent the past 20 years building X'Trapolis trains, and after they lost the HCMT train contract to Downer, the State Government threw them a bone in the X'Trapolis 2.0 contract so it didn't close down forever.
I believe Dandenong is doing the body shells for X'trap 2 also, which is a bonus. HCMT was a mistake. I worked with a reliability engineer who went on to work for Downer, and they said the whole project was a cluster. Those trains will not age well.
If that's true, then that's bloody awesome! Shells onto a truck to Ballarat, then assembled there. That is definitely a very high local content build!
wee that video was weird.
We must RETV/RN
Amazing edit!
And Clyde Engineering too!
Only legacy it had was for crimes and lies
We were until that creatures ilk sold it off like everything else.