The first coincidence

The story starts in 1977, when the Victorian Railways called tenders for 100 new air-conditioned trains for the Melbourne suburban network. Comeng Dandenong won the $108.5 million contract in 1979 with a stainless steel train with GEC traction equipment.

The first train of what are known as the ‘Comeng trains‘ was handed over in September 1981.

Weston Langford photo

A follow-on order for 90 additional trains followed in 1982, the last of which entered service in June 1989, with around half of the fleet still in service today.

Meanwhile over in South Australia, in 1983 tenders were called for 20 suburban diesel railcars for Adelaide. Both Comeng Granville and Comeng Dandenong submitted bids for various combinations of single and double-deck trains with diesel-electric and diesel-hydraulic transmissions.

In 1985 it was announced that the Comeng Dandenong design was the winner, marrying a Victorian Railways derived stainless steel bodyshell with a Stromberg diesel-electric traction package. The body shells were assembled at Dandenong and then transported by rail to Dry Creek in Adelaide for final fitout.

The first of the ‘3000/3100 class‘ railcars entered service in November 1987.

Image via Wikipedia

An additional 50 railcars being completed by Clyde Engineering between 1992 and 1996, with the fleet still being in service today.

And lighting strikes twice

In 2001 the Victorian Government called tenders for 29 2-car diesel railcars for V/Line. The $206.8 million contract was awarded to Bombardier Transportation, who had taken over the Comeng Dandenong plant through a series of corporate takeovers. The train was designed at their Brisbane offices, and was intended to follow on from their previous XPlorer train designed for NSW, but used a new bodyshell mated with a cab designed by the team behind the Transperth B-series electric multiple unit.

Dubbed ‘VLocity‘, the first train entered service in 2005.

And in the decades since, over 100 trains to the same design have joined the V/Line fleet thanks to dozens of follow-on orders.

And in 2011, the South Australia approved the electrification of the Adelaide suburban network, and needed some new electric trains to run on it. Bombardier con the contract, based on their bid combining the VLocity railcar bodyshell with the underfloor design of the Transperth B-series electric multiple unit.

Classified as the ‘4000 class‘, the first train entered service in February 2014.

Like the previous Adelaide order the Dandenong plant was involved in the contract, but this time they were responsible for completion of the entire train, which was then transported carriage-by-carriage by road for the thanks 700 kilometre section of standard gauge between the broad gauge rail networks of Adelaide and Melbourne.

An interior related footnote

As delivered the Comeng trains in Melbourne had 2-by-3 seating with tartan cushions on white fibreglass bases.

John Dunn photo

A design also applied to the Adelaide version.

In the 2000s the Melbourne trains were refurbished, with the seats replaced with a more spartan design with less padding.

An idea also copied by Adelaide.

But Victoria’s VLocity trains designed for country services received 2-by-2 high back seats with comfortable padding.

A seating layout that the Adelaide 4000 class trains also received, but with a more suburban style seat.

Sources

The book series “Comeng: A History of Commonwealth Engineering” by John Dunn covers the history of all four classes of train mention in this piece, across Volume 4 (1977-1985) and Volume 5 (1985-1990 plus ABB, Adtranz and Bombardier to 2012).

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Eurotram

The first example of a foreign tram on trial in Melbourne was the Bombardier manufactured Eurotram in 2003.

Photo by Jcornelius, via Wikimedia Commons

Normally used on the Porto Metro system in Portugal, Porto tram number 018 spent a few months in Melbourne during 2003, where it spent seven days running shuttles to the Australian Open tennis, and three days transferring Grand Prix patrons to and from Albert Park.

Combino Plus

In 2007 Siemens decided to send one of their Combino Plus trams to Melbourne.

Photo by Jcornelius, via Wikimedia Commons

More at home on the Metro Transportes Sul do Tejo network in the Almada and Seixal municipalities of Portugal, tram number C008 spent March to June 2007 running route 16 services, as well as running shuttles to the Grand Prix at Albert Park.

Flexity Classic

Bombardier appears to be a company keen to demonstrate their trams in Melbourne, because in 2007 they let us take a Flexity Classic for a spin.

However for this demonstration, the tram didn’t have far to travel – newly built tram #111 was delivered by ship to Appleton Dock then spent a few days running around the streets of Melbourne minus passengers, before being sent by road to Adelaide, where it entered service on the Glenelg Tram.

Why?

So why would a private company spend millions of dollars loading trams onto ships, and send them to Melbourne so that we can give them a test drive? The simple answer – because they wanted us to buy them!

To understand this, we need to go back to the early-2000s. Melbourne’s tram network had just been chopped in half and franchised to a pair of private operators, who were obligated under their contract with the government to purchase new low floor trams. Yarra Trams opted for Alstom Citadis trams from France, while M>Tram went for the Siemens Combino trams from Germany, leaving major tram manufacturer Bombardier on the outside.

In the years that followed, patronage on the Melbourne tram network grew, but the government didn’t have a real plan to expand the fleet – but the global rolling stock manufacturers were ready for the day when a tender for new trams arrived at their door, so tried to keep their relationship with Melbourne warm.

Eventually that day came in July 2009, when the Victorian Government called for expressions of interest for the manufacture and supply of 50 new trams. In October 2009 manufacturers Alstom and Bombardier were shortlisted to bid for the contract, based on their experience overseas and their local manufacturing capabilities, with Siemens being left on the outer.

Bombardier won the bid in September 2010 with their variant of the Flexity Swift tram, with the first E class tram finally making it onto Melbourne streets in 2013.

A few more photos

Vicsig has photos of the Eurotram in Melbourne, as well as the visiting Combino Plus.

As for the Adelaide Flexity tram running around Melbourne – photos:

• a few glances on La Trobe Street by Peter Bruce,
• cruising the streets and at the terminus by Kym Smith.

While the Bombardier Eurotram also visited Sydney in 2002 – photos by Matthew Geier.

And a reverse example

Before it was delivered to Melbourne, Siemens sent a D2 class Combino tram to the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung, where it was used during January 2004 on a temporary track to demonstrate the concept of light rail. Unfortunately for Siemens, the demonstration didn’t sway the city of Kaohsiung, who decide to purchase trams from Spanish firm CAF.

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