Age: First look at the roomy new tram coming to Melbourne’s network

[Malcolm Miles]

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/first-look-at-the-roomy-new-tram-coming-to-melbourne-s-network-20251016-p5n2z7.html

 

First look at the roomy new tram coming to Melbourne’s network Patrick Hatch October 17, 2025 — 5.00am

 

The first new tram to operate in Melbourne for over a decade will roll through the city’s inner-west later this year as part of a testing program now underway.

 

The G-class tram is a new model that will gradually replace outdated high-floor Z- and A-class trams on routes 57 (from West Maribyrnong), 59 (Airport West) and 82 (Footscray to Moonee Ponds).

 

Victoria has committed $1.85 billion to building 100 G-classes over the next four years. The first is expected to enter service from mid-2026 and promises improved accessibility and comfort.

 

Two have now been built at the Alstom factory in Dandenong and last month one was delivered to a new purpose-built depot in Maidstone, which Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams will officially open on Friday.

 

Ben Phyland, head of rolling stock and ticketing at the Department of Transport and Planning, said a program of testing was now underway for the depot facilities, which include an automated “tram scanner” that checks arriving trams for damage or maintenance issues – a first in Victoria.

 

By the end of this year, the G-class will venture out of the depot and start testing on parts of routes 57, 59 and 82.

 

“That will consist of loading up the vehicle to effectively simulate a crush load tram and making sure that it can brake in the shortest distance possible, and that it can accelerate in the right way,” he said.

 

“What happens if the power drops out, what happens if it fails? We’re testing all the different functionality of the tram, both electrically and mechanically.”

 

The G-class is based on an Alstom model already in service in several other cities but has been modified to withstand Melbourne’s network – which is the largest in the world and unforgiving compared to networks where tracks do not embed in asphalt roads.

 

The new tram will eventually be tested along all 250 kilometres of the Melbourne tram network to ensure it is up to the job.

 

Phyland said the first new trams should enter service around the middle of next year, with route 59’s Z-class trams – built between 1975 and

1984 – replaced first, followed by A-class models.

 

Passengers should enjoy less crowding in rush hour. At 25 metres long, the G-class is around 10 metres longer than the Z and A classes and has room for more than twice the passengers – 150 in total, with 48 seated.

 

Low floors mean the tram is accessible for commuters with disabilities, the elderly and those with prams.

 

“We’ve had a lot of stakeholder input to the design to try and make it as accessible as possible,” Phyland said, with the floor lowered an additional 20 millimetres to make boarding easier.

 

The last tram model introduced to Victoria was the E-class in 2013. The G-class is shorter to suit the tighter routes where it will be deployed and to fit existing tram stops.

 

Alstom technician Elliot Rushworth is the first person to obtain a licence for the G-class and will be behind the controls during testing and commissioning at Maidstone.

 

He said that even compared to the E-class, the new model felt roomier.

There’s more space in the aisle between the seats and the shorter grab rail opens up the central standing area.

 

“The disability access area, I think the punters are going to love that.

There’s just a lot more room to move,” Rushworth said.

 

Around 43 per cent of Yarra Tram services are now operated with accessible low-floor trams, while only 29 per cent of stops are accessible.

 

[TP]

It seems that the aisle width was a recognised problem in the E class, as I suggested many moons ago. Now rectified by the use of fixed intermediate trucks!

https://7news.com.au/video/news/melbournes-new-generation-g-class-trams-debut-bc-6382879293112

I would like to see this "same" Alstom model that's said to be already operating in several other cities, to see the bogie arrangement. I suspect they're nothing like the G class.

It's very frustrating how things move so slowly in Australia. The similar new Prague tram, despite its much later project start, first landed in Prague 5 months ago and another 12 have since followed it, with delivery of the first 20 to be completed by December. It has already been through its homologation and approval, including 20,000 km without passengers and 20,000 km with passengers. The Melbourne tram is to start testing by December, then a long wait until the middle of next year to see it in service.

The rate of production is said to be about 25 trams a year, which is about one a fortnight. I don't know whether this will start while or after they're testing and approving the first two. The Prague tram is presently coming off the production line at about one a week, that's in addition to production of all of Škoda's other Europe-wide tram orders. After that, the rate of delivery of the order for 200 will be about 28 a year, doubtless determined by the flow of city finances - finance also being a factor in the Melbourne production rate no doubt. 

Tony P

[Geoffrey Hansen]

They look like some French trams IMHO.

Regards Geoffrey 

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[David McLoughlin]

The Age said:

>  The first new tram to operate in Melbourne for over a decade will roll through the city’s inner-west later this year as part of a testing program now underway.

The most recent new tram was delivered in 2021, so hardly "over a decade",  though far too long a gap from then till now,. and there should have been many more Es.

[TP]

I think there were issues with the E class, including aisle width, weight and power consumption. That's why they changed to a new design.

Tony P

[bblun...@yahoo.com]

“The first new tram” I assume to mean “first new tram design”. ?

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

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[Mark Skinner]

The tv coverage I saw said new tram "type". So, this was probably a journalistic slip up.

Mark Skinner 

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[Mal Rowe]

The main issue with the Es was that they were too big for most services.

They are a great tram doing a great job on the routes they are deployed on, but too big for many other routes for various reasons including tram stop length required and volume of traffic.

Their deployment on the low traffic LaTrobe St shuttle is evidence that they didn't have anywhere else to use them.

Perhaps with extra Es being deployed on Port Melbourne services some C1s will end up on LaTrobe St?

The Es are an excellent design and the G class will hopefully repeat the achievement.

The G class battery addresses the power issue (which is about start up surge, not overall consumption).

Agree with TP that the fixed truck in the short centre section on the G, allowing a wider aisle, is a good design.

However, the front doorway leading to a narrow aisle may cause congestion there.

Mal Rowe who uses these trams as well as reviewing them

[TP]

This is Melbourne thinking that I can't  comprehend. There's no such thing as a too-large tram. Trams nowadays start at 30 metres, at which size they have greater capacity than an articulated bus.

Trams are there to provide capacity that a bus can't and thus to foster development along the route that will result in the full-size trams ultimately being fully utilised. One could argue at present that the Parramatta trams are too large, but the purpose of having them that size is to accommodate growing patronage resulting from rezoning of land along the route and progressive higher-density development as a result. If you're going to think so negatively that a corridor will remain stagnant and never grow, you might as well run a bus along it. If this is the way Melbourne planners think, then it's a disgraceful waste of an expensive asset - a tramway. With a population of 5 million and growing, you'd think the planners would be looking ahead at any potentially high-capacity transport corridors along which to house those extra people and the various supporting activities.

Look at the disaster in Besançon (population 120,000), which thought it was fine to order 23 metre CAF trams, which they quickly discovered didn't have the capacity for the demand. They went back to CAF to have extra modules added to the trams, to which CAF responded that they couldn't do it, so the city has had to order a new lot of 30 metre trams from another manufacturer. One would hope that Alstom can add extra modules to the G class in the future, but they should really have been built as 30 metres in the first place. A small tram for small thinking.

Tony P

[Mal Rowe]

On 20/10/2025 00:18, 'TP' via TramsDownUnder wrote:
> This is Melbourne thinking that I can't  comprehend.

Perhaps because you don't know the geography or passenger patterns in
Melbourne?

Mal Rowe - local person

[TP]

I know Melbourne very well, but admit to being unacquainted with development in the last couple of decades. I do know that, if any city that has reached 5 million and is still in the middle of a big population growth curve with no end in sight, any area that is still considered "quiet" won't be quiet for very long. This has already happened in Sydney. I can tell from the much lower real estate prices there that Melbourne obviously still has a lot of perimeter areas to accommodate new development, but this is not a good or efficient trend and it's preferable to accommodate growth as much as possible in inner suburbs to take advantage of the facilities and services there - unless Melbourne develops satellite centres of employment and activity as Sydney has. The point is that railways and tramways are like gold in any city and if that infastructure is on the ground, then the best thing is to capitalise on it as much as possible, rather than leaving it under-utilised.

Tony P

[Mal Rowe]

On 20/10/2025 16:21, 'TP' via TramsDownUnder wrote:
> I know Melbourne very well, but admit to being unacquainted with
> development in the last couple of decades.

The big issue is that in the busiest tram streets in the CBD (Swanston
St and Elizabeth St) the block size means that only one '30 metre plus'
tram at a time can be in a stop.

That would mean very slow journeys through what is already the slowest
section of north-south routes.

Flinders St, Collins St and Bourke St can handle more trams because the
block lengths are longer.

William St copes because it usually only has one route (58) in it.

Elizabeth St has congestion at the stub terminus - not easily changed
because there are large brick arched drains just below asphalt level on
both side of the tramway at Flinders St. That is compounded by the D2s -
as long trams.

Mal Rowe amateur geographer

[Andrew Highriser]

Mal is quite correct. Super long trams in the two really busy north south corridors isn't practical. G class will be good fits for both streets. My concern about very long trams to carry loads is that service intervals will be reduced. 

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[TP]

30 metre trams aren't super long trams, they're standard trams. Anything shorter is a short tram - or a bus. Reduction of service frequency as a trade-off for longer trams would be absolutely the worst in negative public transport thinking. The idea of longer trams is to provide greater capacity at the same (or better) frequencies. Frequencies should absolutely never be reduced. Many frequencies in Melbourne are bad enough as they are.

Looking at the distance between the "big" and "little" streets on the north-south CBD axis, it is typically 90-100 metres - no obstacle to having platforms that hold 2x 30 metre trams. Traffic light priority would help the flow of trams enormously. I see that almost all of the north-south routes run through and out the other side of the CBD, so there should be no problem with close-running trams on those routes. The biggest obstacle seems to be the Elizabeth St stub terminus, a monumental mistake in planning the network in the first place. This should run through to somewhere else if possible, or go around a block in a loop. 

I can see that would be a complex problem, so the only solution I can suggest for now is extending the terminus platform to hold 2x 30 metre trams each side and holding the frequency to the limit of the terminus to dispatch trams. Any trams above that would have to take other routes through the CBD. I'm still not convinced of the need for shorter trams.

Prague has something in common with Melbourne in that it can't run trams longer than 30 metres because of various space constraints, but has platforms that can hold two trams across the entire system. To provide capacity to compensate for the size limitations of the trams, it runs trams as close as 30 second headways, this being possible only through the use of turning loops, so that the trams don't have to reverse. The alternative on stubbed systems is having extra-long trams and splitting routes into branches, as on Sydney L2/3 or in Budapest.

Tony P

[David McLoughlin]

Tony P wrote:

>  The biggest obstacle seems to be the Elizabeth St stub terminus, a monumental mistake in planning the network in the first place. This should run through to somewhere else if possible, or go around a block in a loop. 

At this very moment, as Mal has shown via his photos, the solution to this is being built at the intersection of Elizabeth Street with Victoria Street. This major reconstruction will allow trams on all three Elizabeth Street routes (57, 59 and 19) to be diverted via Victoria Street into Swanston Street and through-routed with Swanston Street routes to the south. I presume this will be done with one or two of these routes, otherwise why build these useful links? The 57 and 59 would be good to divert, keeping the 19 as the sole Elizabeth Street route (it already uses the Bigbinos), similar to how it was in cable days when it was the city end of the Sydney Road cable line (now the 19).

[Mark Skinner]

One of the issues here is that most people need to actually see something for it to finally click. 

For example, I was speaking to a Czech site supervisor working on the tram track extension in Wenceslas Square in Prague, and mentioned how fast Melbourne replaced track. I could see he thought I was bragging about how fast it really was. He wasn't stupid, knew his stuff, but just couldn't bring himself to believe me...despite it happening in real life.

It's human nature. We often need to see something happening right in front of us for the "aha" moment. 

It's why I am a big fan of having politicians travel to these places to see what others are doing, rather than rely on reports or the internet. 

That way, a Minister is far more likely to say to the public servants that if something can be done in one part of the world, it can be done here.  So, "Do it, or we'll get someone who can.", is far easier to say if you've actually seen it done.

Mark Skinner 

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[TP]

I'm glad to hear this is what they're doing David. They know what the problems are and how to solve them. I ran a check on the length of the Prague stops that hold 2x 30 metre trams and they're 65 metres for the platform. Then, to my surprise, I find that indeed there are exactly the same such stops along Elizabeth Street (except QV Markets, which can be readily rectified by moving it) and, even with the compliant ramps at each end of the platform, they are comfortably within the distances between the "big" and "little" streets along the north-south axis. So that leaves me baffled as to why they can't have a fleet of 30 metre trams with two trams being able to use each stop. I can understand the limitations of the Elizabeth Street terminus and the effect of lack of traffic light priority on the flow of trams (indeed I'm surprised to see the number of tram streets that still allow road traffic along them, compared to what's happened in Sydney CBD where they're prioritised the trams). I feel that the Victorian government isn't supporting the operation of the tram system sufficiently.

Tony P

[TP]

Different circumstances in Europe Mark. They have the long summer break, when demand drops off for a prolonged period, to do work and it gets spread out across the break. Not the same pressure to do weekend work unless there's some crisis. Also, when they have bustitution, they have big buses that can carry 150 passengers and run them close together on temporary priority road lanes, unlike here where we have little 60 passenger buses departing randomly and getting caught up in weekend traffic.

Tony P 

[Mark Skinner]

I understand all that, and certainly expect a bias toward slower builds. However,  when there are almost no Melbourne style fast builds, it implies that there are almost no critical sections of track.

For example, there was a short section of track near the famous Anděl tram spotting point. Maybe 40m of straight track on the line to Řepy/Kotlařka. It took over a week to do something that Melbourne would have done overnight. Of course, they routed it via na Knížecí, but, because of the other busy routes impacted, there were tram jams that week. 

Sure, there's plenty of ability to work through the summer low season, but critical junctions and extremely busy sections still exist, even then.

Photo showing tram jam due to diversion works in Prague.

Mark Skinner

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[Andrew Highriser]

What a great photo, with the driver of the first tram looking resigned to his fate of a long delay, and a passenger trying to look ahead to see why the tram wasn't proceeding. 

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[TP]

I'm going to accuse Mark of tabloid journalism here! There are only three or four tram sets there (the Tatra is a coupled set) and they are waiting at the traffic lights at the corner of Radlická and Plzenská. No. 7, about to turn right, is on its regular route from Radlická and one of the trams behind is possibly a 21 which also runs on this route. The intruders using the deviation would be from 9, 10, 15 or 16 and they would be turning left at the lights to head towards Řepy. So 9, 10, 15 and 16 have come from sharing a short section of the Barrandov line with its four routes, 4, 5, 12 and 20, then nipped across the deviation past the Na Knížecí bus station, then joined the  Radlická line to the traffic lights. On the green light, they then would have taken off like scalded cats towards Řepy, while the no. 7 presumably turned towards the Anděl Grand Union. Nothing dramatic or incompetent here, just the Prague system system doing what it does best - slower track work than Melbourne's!

Tony P

(who likes solving puzzles)

[Mark Skinner]

Yeah, but the point remains that with Melbourne style repairs, that wouldn't have been necessary at all. That's a hugely busy line, that delay is added to  similar ones at the Nádražní/za Ženskymi domovy and za Ženskymi domovy/Radlička intersections, plus the extra route length. The total extra time isn't a minute or so, it's a lot more than that. 

Sure, Prague has developed strategies to "get round" track repairs, and that's fine when those diversions etc are convenient for passengers, or the cost of doing it quickly are prohibitive. However, there are cases like this where it's notably less convenient for passengers and possible to do overnight so that passengers needn't even notice.

Matk Skinner 

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[TP]

I agree that it's far better that the work is done quicker. There's currently a major job extending over a few months underway at Flora and the map here shows how they deal with that. The numbers of the "X" bus replacement routes are the same as the numbers of the tram routes they are replacing.

https://www.dpp.cz/en/restrictions-and-emergencies/detail/29055

Here is the normal daily scene filmed at  Anděl a couple of years back. I assume the track closure referred to in Mark's post and photo is the westbound track in front of the  Nový Smíchov shopping mall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4HKu533y5k

Tony P

[tress...@icloud.com]

Hi Mark,

Melbourne’s per-way was done in the back of South Melb depot, and as an employee I could wander around and take photos anywhere. Those below give some idea of construction. Large sections were bolted together during construction, unbolted to transport, then welded on site. 

Richard

On 23 Oct 2025, at 12:23, Mark Skinner <eme...@gmail.com> wrote:

I understand all that, and certainly expect a bias toward slower builds. However,  when there are almost no Melbourne style fast builds, it implies that there are almost no critical sections of track.

For example, there was a short section of track near the famous Anděl tram spotting point. Maybe 40m of straight track on the line to Řepy/Kotlařka. It took over a week to do something that Melbourne would have done overnight. Of course, they routed it via na Knížecí, but, because of the other busy routes impacted, there were tram jams that week. 

Sure, there's plenty of ability to work through the summer low season, but critical junctions and extremely busy sections still exist, even then.

Photo showing tram jam due to diversion works in Prague.

Mark Skinner

<1000007617.jpg>

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[TP]

I'd say it's been a while since railway and tramway turnouts and crossings have been manufactured in Australia. DPP Prague has its own special-work manufacturer, Prague Engineering, which also exports around the world, including to Melbourne and Auckland. Another Czech special work manufacturer,  DT-Výhybkárna a Strojírna, also supplies tramway special work to Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast and Canberra and railway special work to ARTC and other Australian railway operations. The work is assembled on the factory floor and then, presumably, partly dismantled for export and reassembled at the site.

Pražská strojírna is located at Vinoř on the outskirts of Prague and DT is located at Prostějov, about 50 km from Brno. 

Thus is former Australian industry being scattered to the four corners of the globe. Meanwhile CKD or part-assembly is being promoted by dishonest politicians as Australian manufacturing. In part unavoidable, because the third-party OEM suppliers have gone belly-up in Australia and even local manufacturers have to source these inputs overseas.

Tony P

[Mal Rowe]

On 26/10/2025 17:56, 'TP' via TramsDownUnder wrote:

I'd say it's been a while since railway and tramway turnouts and crossings have been manufactured in Australia. DPP Prague has its own special-work manufacturer, Prague Engineering, which also exports around the world, including to Melbourne and Auckland. Another Czech special work manufacturer,  DT-Výhybkárna a Strojírna, also supplies tramway special work to Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast and Canberra and railway special work to ARTC and other Australian railway operations. The work is assembled on the factory floor and then, presumably, partly dismantled for export and reassembled at the site.

Pražská strojírna is located at Vinoř on the outskirts of Prague and DT is located at Prostějov, about 50 km from Brno. 

Thus is former Australian industry being scattered to the four corners of the globe. Meanwhile CKD or part-assembly is being promoted by dishonest politicians as Australian manufacturing. In part unavoidable, because the third-party OEM suppliers have gone belly-up in Australia and even local manufacturers have to source these inputs overseas.

Davies and Baird of Melbourne were probably the last manufacturer of 'special work' in Australia.

They started making wheels for the Melbourne cable trams.

They supplied Melbourne, Toronto and Christchurch in recent times.  The attached pic shows a pair of crossings ready to ship to Christchurh in 2024 - one of their last orders.

Once Yarra started using heel less points they lost viable quantities to continue with that product line.

MOTAT in Auckland just installed dual gauge points manufactured by PRAŽSKÁ STROJÍRNA in Prague. 

Mal Rowe - who visited the D&B plant as a guest of Dave Hinman

[TP]

There are other suppliers of railway special work around the world too, most of them supplying to Australia also. I don't know how much tramway special work they supply though. They include Voestalalpine, Vossloh and I see that a new Australian supplier has emerged in the last decade, Salix. I don't think any Australian steelworks produce grooved tram rail though and I would think such materials would have to be imported.

Tony P

[Matthew Geier]

There appears to be only one rail rolling line left in Australia at Wyalla and it's operators appear to think it too hard to change out the rollers for different profiles. Presumably they are making enough money turning out heavy mainline grade rails that that it's not worth their down time to change out the rollers for tramway or other 'unusual' profiles.

Whyalla seems to stagger from one financial crisis to the next, it obviously doesn't make the sort of money investors want to see.

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[Mick Duncan]

Gday  Richard

Interesting pics

Cheers,    Mick

[TP]

Getting a bit off-topic, but here's some work for Auckland being assembled in Prague. It appears to be dual gauge(?)

https://pstroj.cz/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/29.-New-Zealand-Auckland_zmensena.jpg

Tony P

[David McLoughlin]

Tony P wrote:

 

• Getting a bit off-topic, but here's some work for Auckland being assembled in Prague. It appears to be dual gauge(?)

 

It will be for MoTaT. Its tracks are dual gauge, to accommodate Wellington trams as well as the standard-gauge former Auckland trams,

 

Auckland doesn’t have actual trams. Auckland Transport was about to start work on a line from the city to Dominion Road in 2017 but that  plan was trashed by the gadget-bahn people getting to the incoming transport minister, Phil Twyford, who managed to do nothing about it except spend millions planning the gadget-bahn, which was abandoned when the cost became even more than gargantuan. Phil’s sole achievement was closing Wellington’s big modern trolleybus system on the very day he took office.  The eighth anniversary of that is later this week, Halloween.

 

dmcl

 

[Mal Rowe]

On 28/10/2025 00:07, 'TP' via TramsDownUnder wrote:
> Getting a bit off-topic, but here's some work for Auckland being
> assembled in Prague. It appears to be dual gauge(?)
>
> https://pstroj.cz/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/29.-New-Zealand-Auckland_zmensena.jpg
>

That's the work I referred to in my post yesterday.

The dual gauge is for the MOTAT museum in Auckland which has both
Auckland trams on standard gauge and Wellington trams on 4 foot gauge.

The project won an achievement award at the recent COTMA conference.

The MOTAT report at the conference is at:
https://www.cotma.org.au/documents/brisbane%202025/COTMA%20Papers/MOTAT%20TRAMWAY%20-%20FRONZ-COTMA%202025.pdf

It includes a description of the project.

Mal Rowe - admiring their work