"All Aboard!" - Hopes to save the classic, W-Class Tram

[Shangas]

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/city-not-ready-to-lose-its-wclass-act-20100227-pa8v.html

Melbourne's green and cream W-Class trams, rattling, rumbling, creaking, bell-dingling icons that have been transporting people through the southern Australian city since the Roaring Twenties, may be set to make a comeback, as transport unions and historical groups fight to make a case to return the aging streetcars to regular, scheduled public service.

To remove the trams from the streets is to lose a part of Melbourne's early 20th-century history, preservationalists claim, and many other Melbournians would much prefer the trams to remain in operation, even if they're noisy, hot and have no air-conditioning!

For the past few years, these old trams have been removed from the streets by transport officials, citing the trams as a public danger, due to poor brakes, fire-risks and other hazards. They exist now, only on selected routes and as tourist attractions in the center of Melbourne. But people are fighting to change that and bring back an icon of the city's past.

A Melbourne W-Class tram

 

[Talbot]

I'm in. Sign me up!

 

[Shangas]

I grew up with these trams in the 1990s. I think it would be lovely if they were returned to the streets.

 

[Talbot]

If I'm not in a hurry I'll wait till a W class tram shows up.

I saw this coming when I heard the news that the government had given the contract over to a new private operator

Imagine talk of removing cable cars from San Francisco. So short sighted its scary.

 

[Shangas]

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/so...-be-rolled-into-retirement-20100301-pdi3.html

People will complain about anything.

The tram is "six minutes late".

I've lived in Melbourne my whole life. I've never known ANY tram to come on time, whether it's just rolled off the production line, or whether it's 70 years old.

 

[Tailor Tom]

Keep them

Def fight to save them.
Every town that have abolished their trains and trams have had to fight to get them back. And ultimately pay many times the cost of updating the systems to build a new system.

In Minneapolis, MN we abolished our streetcar system in the 1950's for buses. We had a world class system that went over the entire city and surrounding areas. The bus service is awful to say the least. We finally installed a single rail line 5 yrs ago and ridership is way over the planned capacity levels. And yet the politicians are squabbling over whether we need to expand this system.

Save your systems if you can. You and everyone else will regret it sooner or later.

 

[Forgotten Man]

In Minneapolis, MN we abolished our streetcar system in the 1950's for buses. We had a world class system that went over the entire city and surrounding areas. The bus service is awful to say the least.

Man, does that sound familiar, sounds just like LA... here in Southern CA we had the mighty Pacific Electric red cars... we boasted a world class transit system... it wasn't till after WWII that the wonderful mayor of LA at the time wanted to replace these with busses. The PE was a privately owned company and the City of LA paid for the tracks to be maintained... due to the Yellow and Green LA cars using much of the same right of way.

With the mayor's distaste for the light rail and PE, with cooperation from tire, oil and auto companies, it was dismantled and the last red car served its last customer in 1960 or so.

Now LA is trying to bring some of that back with the Metro... lol GOOD LUCK LA, YOU'RE GOING TO NEED IT YOU FOOLS!

 

[Shangas]

Hey guys,

Just to clarify...

Streetcar or tramcar systems have been in several cities around the world starting in the late 1800s, with most of them becoming obsolete in the 1950s and 60s.

Melbourne WAS going to go along this line as well, but fortunately, the Melbournian public stepped in and said: "My precious!" and we kept our trams to this day.

The current debate is NOT whether or not we keep our TRAM SYSTEM, it's whether or not we keep our W-class trams. W-class trams have been operating in Melbourne since 1923 and for eighty years they've been an integral part of our public transport system.

Unfortunately in recent years, people want to..."modernise"...Melbourne, so they've been yanking the vintage trams off the tracks and dumping new, butt-ugly "bullet" trams on instead. The current fight is to bring back the vintage trams from the 20s, 30s and 40s back to regular, scheduled service so that the public can use them and enjoy them for decades to come. At the moment, they're little more than a tourist attraction, and people want this to change so that everyone can enjoy them. If there was a petition to save W class trams, my name would be on every single page. I think they're beautiful, classic machines that should remain on the streets where people can see them and ride them. Instead of in museums where all you can do is take photos.

To give you an idea...

This is what Melbournian historical and transport organisations are trying to keep on the streets:

If they lose. This is what's replacing them:

Now tell me...which of those would you prefer to have a ride on?

 

[LordBest]

The lack of air conditioning in the old trams doesn't bother me too much, as the air conditioning in the new trams never works, in my experience at least. I only use the tram system two days a week, perhaps I just get the bad trams?
As to noisy, good lord, have you heard the new ones? What a ghastly sound, the old ones might be no quieter but they at least make a dignified sound.
My home town of Ballarat scrapped its tram system bar one line (which goes from nowhere to nowhere) in the 1960s, now recognised as the greatest mistake the city council has ever made. Which, between you and me, really is saying something.

 

[Shangas]

Hey LordBest,

The W class trams are damn noisy and clunky...but you find me a tram that isn't. I agree, at least the old trams made dignified noises; not like the modern trams that hiss and squeal and beep like robots. On the old W-classes, the doors opened with a welcoming sigh and they closed with a good, solid 'clunk!'.

The trams rattled and scraped, but they did the job well and they actually had REAL tram-bells, something that I don't think modern trams have. When a tram-driver on an old W-class pulls the cable and the bell goes 'Ding!' you heard it for three blocks (no kidding). The modern trams have no character at all. You don't hear them coming and they look ugly to boot. W-class trams might not have air-con, but to compensate, they have windows that ACTUALLY OPEN, unlike the modern trams.

The future has proved, time and time again, that trams were and still are a good form of public transport and that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if it is broke, fix it and leave it as it is. I hope we get to keep the Ws on the streets. I'd be real upset if they took them all away and just left the City Circle tourist trams instead.

That's a Melbourne City Circle tram, for those who've never seen one. They're a free, tourist attraction these days. That's all these 1930s trams are good for anymore, apparently. They go around and around the city circle and that's it. They should be allowed to do more than just run around the block.

 

[J.J. Gittes]

I really wish LA didn't destroy the Red Line. It would've been so nice to use. I live in a 1920's-50's Suburb in Los Angeles that is right near the remnants of the Red Line. I'll Have to get some photos of it at some point.

It would've sure beat the Metro and Big Bus Bus System.

 

[Shangas]

I live in a 20s and 30s suburb in Melbourne. I'd love to have 30s trams rumbling by my house...

*Cheers for the tram-lovers and other folks who are fighting to keep the Ws running*

 

[Tailor Tom]

Question...

I wonder if anyone has thought of retro-fitting your trams for A/C and other modern features.

Even re-building them, as one would with a classic car. Obviously any vehicle that has been attended to functions better than one that has not. If they would tighten & strengthen and repair all the areas of the trams that need attention, I am sure it would improve the experience in multitudes of ways.

 

[Tailor Tom]

Man, does that sound familiar, sounds just like LA... here in Southern CA we had the mighty Pacific Electric red cars... we boasted a world class transit system... it wasn't till after WWII that the wonderful mayor of LA at the time wanted to replace these with busses. The PE was a privately owned company and the City of LA paid for the tracks to be maintained... due to the Yellow and Green LA cars using much of the same right of way.

With the mayor's distaste for the light rail and PE, with cooperation from tire, oil and auto companies, it was dismantled and the last red car served its last customer in 1960 or so.

Now LA is trying to bring some of that back with the Metro... lol GOOD LUCK LA, YOU'RE GOING TO NEED IT YOU FOOLS!

In Minneapolis it was political graft that lead to the dismantling of the systems. Politicians were large investors in the bus manufacturers and also silent partners in the private company that ran the transportation system. So, they voted the trains out and adopted the buses, all made tons of cash, legally and illegally. Several years later, their antics were brought to the public and they were jailed. But the rail system was dead and we all suffer still to this day due to their greed.

The new single rail built here now runs from downtown to the airport and then to the Mall of America (ick). This single line has exceeded all ridership expectations. They now are proposing another line from Minneapolis, through the University (students would benefit greatly) and then to St. Paul (sister cities). Yet it is being panned and bashed by numerous parties who are against it. All while the freeway that runs along the proposed route is bumper to bumper every day.

A true mess.

 

[Talbot]

I live in a 20s and 30s suburb in Melbourne. I'd love to have 30s trams rumbling by my house...

*Cheers for the tram-lovers and other folks who are fighting to keep the Ws running*

Bring back the 'Red Rattler' trains too!

 

[Shangas]

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/activist-ready-to-rattle-to-keep-wclass-rolling-20100306-pptp.html

The fight continues, ladies and gentlemen...

 

[Talbot]

Sign the petition!

http://www.gopetition.com.au/online/30389.html

 

[Shangas]

**Does his patriotic duty**

My message:

Melbourne is one of Australia's most iconic & beautiful cities, and its 1930s W class trams one of the most iconic things ABOUT this city. To scrap them is to scrap our history and to destroy a part of Melbourne that has been around for nearly 100 years. People want to get rid of them because they're old. By that logic, should we also destroy Fl/Street Station, which is at least another 20 years older? Save the W Class Trams for our Great-Grandchildren.

 

[Shangas]

The latest in the W-Class tram saga:

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/battle-on-as-oldest-running-tram-is-retired-20100331-rewd.html

Melbourne's oldest, still-operating W-class tram, which hit the tracks in 1936, is being retired.

 

[Shangas]

The latest in the ongoing struggle to save Melbourne's classic 1930s, 1940s W-class trams...

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/j...s-for-whom-the-bell-tolls-20101009-16d35.html