G class plans

[Richard Youl]

It’s amazing what you can discover when you get out and talk to people (in Melbourne).

Recently I was chatting to a gent who is involved in a committee sorting out the G class.

Perhaps the most starting news is that while initially the order will be for three section vehicles, part of the way through the order the production will stretch to 5 section units.

I was told a lot of information and it is hard to recall all the details which I should have recorded at the time, but he said that with the Gs there will be more low floor trams at Kew Depot and one consequence will be that the Route 48 trams will return to Flinders Street and the Route 75 trams will go across to Collins Street, the intention being to have some low floor trams in Flinders Street. So presumably Camberwell will not be getting any G class at this stage.

Essentially the Gs will be replacing Z3s leaving just the As and Bs as high floor trams at this stage.

If I got him right, Maidstone depot has been built and financed by Alstom which will control most of the complex. He said that construction will be complete in just a few weeks. I think he said that just 17 G class will be based there and some others will be at Essendon which will continue to be an operating depot.


Richard

[TP]

There are drawings of the five-section G floating around. I saw them somewhere a while back (here?).

Tony P

[timmy1041]

So does this mean that Maidstone will become an operational depot with the current fleet untilthe G's start to appear,and also wth the change of the 75 & 48 will they be swapping city terminuses as well?

On Thursday, 30 January 2025 at 13:36:27 UTC+11 Richard Youl wrote:

[Richard Youl]

The immediate use for Maidstone depot was not discussed. While opening it at this stage would be simply taking some trams out of Essendon which may cut down a little on dead mileage but would nevertheless need some office staff, a cost unlikely to be balanced by less staff in Essendon depot. So I don’t think much would be achieved by opening it for the existing fleet. But I am only guessing.

Yes, the 48 will use the former terminus of the 75, and vice versa.

Richard

On 30 Jan 2025, at 3:20 pm, timmy1041 <timm...@gmail.com> wrote:

So does this mean that Maidstone will become an operational depot with the current fleet untilthe G's start to appear,and also wth the change of the 75 & 48 will they be swapping city terminuses as well?

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[Steven Altham]

I find it hard to believe G class would go to Kew they have 36 C1 class low floor trams already the 5 section G class would be handy on route 59 also handy on route 58 which can be busy I have heard

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[timmy1041]

There is stage 3 upgrade works happening on route 82 on Grand Prix weekend  13 -16 march so maybe this could have something to do with the end of construction and possible opening of the depot for training of staff or similar,as i don't think that they would want it sitting around empty waiting for at least 17 G Class to enter service which could be at least 12 + months,and it seems such a big space for just 17 trams.I did read somewhere that Essendon routes will be taking at least the first 45 G Class..Also just another thought re the 48 & 75 with B's going into Collins st giving loads of extra capacity as they are virtually 2 A Class trams will the 12 be moved to Latrobe st full time and thus ending the route 30?  The 75 in my mind should go to Latrobe st as originally planned.

[Richard Youl]

With regard to the Gs, I clearly remember the gent saying re Kew that ‘The A class won’t be around much longer.’ 

Richard

On 30 Jan 2025, at 9:13 pm, Steven Altham <steven...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Mal Rowe]

On 30/01/2025 13:45, 'TP' via TramsDownUnder wrote:
> There are drawings of the five-section G floating around. I saw them
> somewhere a while back (here?).
>

Yes - and here again ...

[Robert Smith]

Regarding Kew, and G class, I read on another group that the C1 class trams are reaching their end of life due to the unavailability of spares, and replacing all of these with G Class. As for 45 trams at Essendon depot being replaced by G class, I would replace the whole 55 that are now based at Essendon, distributed between Essendon and Maidstone.