The NSW Government purchased overseas built CAF Urbos 3 trams, despite learning of their defects beforehand.
The defects culminated two years later in October 2021 when the Inner West Light Rail had to be shutdown due to extensive cracking.
In 2019, the NSW Government was given two reports which revealed serious defects, faults and failures in the existing overseas built fleet, confidential documents reveal.
Alstom, the company engaged by the NSW Government to maintain the Inner West Light Rail, provided a report which concluded that many components in the trams were rapidly reaching the end of their life.
This was followed by a report from LTK, the company engaged to provide independent technical advice on the trams in July of 2019, which supported Alstom’s view. LTK concluded that components were expiring earlier than expected because of poor design and manufacturing errors from the overseas manufacturer.
However, the NSW Liberal Government ignored these reports and announced that they would purchase an extra 4 of the trams in November of 2020.
Issues with the overseas built trams only came to light in October 2021 after every tram in the fleet had to be taken out of service due to extensive cracking. The fleet is yet to return to service a year later.
NSW Shadow Minister for Transport Jo Haylen said:
“It’s clear that the government knew back in 2019 that their Inner West Light Rail trams were beset by defects, faults and failures caused by poor design and errors from the overseas manufacturer.
“If the government took action in 2019, we may have been able to avoid the shutdown of the entire Inner West Light Rail service, which caused massive inconvenience for passengers at a significant cost to the public.
“The Liberals looked the people of the Inner West in the eye and promised them more light rail services. Instead they ignored the warnings they received and ended up having to shut the network down for months. They let passengers down, and they let the Inner West community down.
“This is why we need to build our trams, trains, ferries and buses here. It’s the best way to make sure that passengers end up getting a quality product instead of a product riddled with defects.”
JO HAYLEN MP
NSW SHADOW MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT