Fwd: Why do Sydney’s trams keep catching fire?
Greg Sutherland
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| Subject: | Why do Sydney’s trams keep catching fire? |
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| Date: | Wed, 15 Jul 2026 11:32:22 +1000 |
| From: | Greg Sutherland <gregsut...@ozemail.com.au> |
| To: | Matt Johnston <ma...@mainspring.co.uk> |
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/why-do-sydney-s-trams-keep-catching-fire-20260713-p60eyt.html
Two Sydney trams that caught fire on the weekend were fitted with replacement roof-mounted batteries as part of a program meant to fix a string of similar fires this year.
Light rail services between the CBD and the eastern suburbs were suspended for almost the whole day on Saturday and ran on a reduced timetable on Sunday after two separate fires broke out on the tram roofs.
The first fire occurred at 7.53am on Saturday, when onlookers observed smoke emerging from the top of a tram after the roof-mounted batteries caught alight. At 10.22am, a second tram caught alight near Moore Park and passengers were evacuated.
There have been six fires in just four months – all stemming from the roof-mounted batteries.
A spokesperson for private operator Transdev, which is responsible for the service, said a “battery replacement program” was brought forward after three tram fires in February and March. But last weekend’s fires were caused by a new batch of batteries – the very ones fast-tracked to fix the earlier fires, they said.
“Light rail vehicles are not sent onto the network with any known safety defects,” the spokesperson said.
Acting co-ordinator-general Matt Longland said Transport for NSW was “disappointed by the ongoing battery-related issues affecting the light rail fleet and the impact on passenger services”.
Asked whether the department would reconsider its contract with Transdev, Longland said Transport for NSW would “continue to hold our operators and suppliers accountable for meeting their contractual obligations and performance requirements”.
Peter Grech, divisional president of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union, said Transdev had not been transparent about the cause, which he suspected to be a problem with the tram itself and not the batteries.
From our partners
“What’s going on? What are you doing to fix it? How are you fixing it? Everyone’s isolated from that.”
Commuters in Sydney will face longer wait times for the light rail on Sunday as fires and mechanical faults wreak havoc.
In one instance near Central Station on March 5, a witness posted on social media that he saw the fire on the tram’s roof when it was at a Surry Hills stop and banged on the “driver’s cubicle to tell him to stop, but he ignored us and continued on to Central”.
Grech said while nobody had been hurt so far, the latest incident raised serious questions about the future safety of passengers and commuters.
“Commuters are definitely concerned,” he said. “It’s going down George Street, there’s a fire and with all this electrical wiring – anything could happen.”
The fires have triggered the state’s independent transport safety body – the Office of Transport Safety Investigations – to broaden the scope of its probe from the initial three fires in February and March.
The investigation will aim to uncover the primary and contributory factors of the fires, whether they could have been anticipated, and how effectively the risks were managed. The independent body will also investigate ways to improve safety but did not specify when findings will be released.
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Cindy Yin is an urban
affairs reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald
Geoff Olsen
Well it all comes back to the APS system in my opinion. Those batteries are working very hard to make up for the dead sections. There is an obvious solution but dare I air said opinion on this forum?
Geoff O.
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Mal Rowe
There is an obvious solution but dare I air said opinion on this forum?
Well, you would not want the beautiful streets of Sydney to be lined with hideous overhead poles ....
Mal Rowe whose tongue is firmly in his cheek.
Geoff Olsen
Quite right Mr. Rowe. Anyway we could not have overhead for heritage reasons. I mean it is not like George street had it for roughly 59 years….
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Brian Blunt
On 15 Jul 2026, at 12:13, 'Geoff Olsen' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Geoff Olsen
That is what I would have thought Brian but apparently that does not fit some peoples’ definition of heritage. How does one define it when one considers that a lot of the heritage buildings from that era no longer exist?
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Matthew Geier
And the outbound track in that photograph, where the curve is to George Street has been a repeat offender for blowing it's APS power-box. The battery has to kick in while the tram is climbing the grade AND running into a curve, so it gets hit with maximum current draw.
And the points there means the APS segments are not the standard length. I suspect the power-box is trying to turn off while significant current is being drawn and the solid-state switches just give up.
When the system entered testing mode and the trams were running to the Quay with out battery support, there was evidence of arcing off the ends of the APS rails at the crossover.
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tress...@icloud.com
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Geoff Olsen
If the solid state switches “Just give up” then they are not rated for the job, a design fault.
From: 'Matthew Geier' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 15 July 2026 4:07 PM
To: tramsdo...@googlegroups.com
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TP
Matthew Geier
And it's been a persistent issue over the entire lifetime of APS. Bordeaux started with solid state switches, but they kept failing, under threat from city administration, Alstom replaced them all with old-school heavy duty contactors. Still not perfect as they kept getting water in them, but they failed less often than the solid state boxes.
Advancements in the production of high power solid state electronics meant Sydney got a fully modern solid state switch. It seems not quite robust enough. They need better 'snubbers'.
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Matthew Geier
Alstom learned something from the loss of Nice tram due to a battery fire - the Sydney traction batteries are in a fire proof box. Apparently it can resist a full on fire for 30 minutes.
But given a history of 'thermal events' in their battery systems, they don't seem to have managed to build a battery management system that intervenes before the 'burst in flames' phase.
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Greg Sutherland
Here is the latest from the SMH.
The boss of Sydney’s light rail network has apologised for a “totally unacceptable” string of tram fires that wreaked havoc across the CBD and eastern suburbs, saying the blazes were unexpected despite the failed rollout of a replacement battery program.
There have been six light rail fires in just four months – all stemming from roof-mounted batteries. Four fires happened while the trams were in service, shutting down almost the entire network for hours at a time.
Brian Brennan, chief executive of private operator Transdev Australasia, which is responsible for the CBD and south-east light rail lines, said eight trams with a specific batch of faulty batteries had been taken out of service. He told passengers it was “absolutely safe” to ride the remaining 52 trams on the fleet, and he apologised for the disruption and concern the fires had caused.
“The battery issue is completely serious,” he said. “It’s totally unacceptable. But the response from our crew and partners worked, and there were absolutely no injuries to anyone.
“Regrettably, it should have never happened … We encourage passengers to listen to announcements, check information displays, but absolutely, we apologise for the disruption.”
The Herald can reveal both the trams in the first spate of fires in February and March, and those in the later incidents in June and July, were fitted with lead acid batteries. A battery replacement program rolled out after the first incidents was brought forward, but nobody from Transdev anticipated the same kind of battery would spark more fires.
Asked why the lead acid batteries hadn’t been pulled out of trams in the first instance, Brennan said: “We were implementing that program of work with the new batteries, and we didn’t anticipate that we would have the level of difficulty with the new batteries.”
From our partners
Brennan said lead acid batteries self-extinguished after three to five minutes, and that they would not spread to other parts of the tram. He did not know the supplier, but he said they were industrial batteries also used in the aviation industry.
Taxpayers will not foot the bill for the bungled operations, and Transdev will cover costs.
The Australian branch of the French multinational firm Transdev has operated the L1, L2 and L3 lines for more than 10 years, transporting more than 40 million people annually.
Acting co-ordinator-general Matt Longland said Transport for NSW was “disappointed these incidents occurred and [we] have sought assurances from the operator about ongoing fleet reliability”.
“Transport for NSW expects the highest safety standards from its operators and will continue to hold Transdev accountable for delivering safe and reliable services while investigations continue.”
Rail, Tram and Bus Union divisional president Peter Grech said tram drivers he had spoken to were mostly fine, although one person was “a little shaken”.
“Transport for NSW should be accountable for the whole fiasco. Transdev is a French company; they’re given these contracts that they’re not overseeing properly. It’s just a box-ticking exercise for Transport for NSW, and they wipe their hands of it after,” he said.
David McLoughlin
TP
Mal Rowe
> It's a lesson that perhaps the supply of trams should be separated
> from the overall tender package and these should be procured
> separately, assessed by competent persons (i.e. not by a local light
> rail newbie with a background in the heavy rail industry).
privatisation and orders for what became the C and D class trams.
The tender that lead to the E's was managed separately by people who
knew what they were doing - and included wide consultation with drivers,
experts and the public.
The result is a very successful tram - although the detailed design did
require tweaking for the second half of the order.
I'm hoping that the G class - tendered through a similar process will
prove the same.
Mal Rowe on a tram route free of C and D class trams
TP
TP
Geoff Olsen
With respect better snubbers won’t help if the device switching the power isn’t up to the job.
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Mark Skinner
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TP
Mark Skinner
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Mal Rowe
I'm not sure whether, culturally, that would be worse or better than asking Melbourne for help. After repeatedly refusing to learn anything from Melbourne, would TfNSW see 'overseas experts' like VUKV as a face saving way of getting to the bottom of it all? If TfNSW tells Transdev to go to an 'overseas expert', it gives them the appearance of 'doing something', without the downside of admitting anything good about Melbourne.
Clearly Melbourne has no experience on battery systems on trams, but what Melbourne does have is an open attitude to learning and building local expertise.
While NSW is now working to re-build rolling stock construction expertise, Melbourne never lost it.
As with AI, it's not a matter of simply asking advice; the key factor is knowing whether or not the advice is reliable.
I find the advice from Alstom on their website about APS saying:
APS™ (Aesthetic Power Supply) is a highly reliable power system
as not quite how we might describe the Sydney instance.
https://www.alstom.com/solutions/infrastructure/aps-catenary-free-tramway-proven-operations-service
Some of the pictures of installations on that web page appear to show the access boxes outside the right of way - now there's a good idea!
Mal Rowe - also questioning the statement that APS: reduces the footprint of light rail lines