SYDNEY, Dec 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) – It has been an embarrassing start to Sydney’s long-awaited light rail service, with a series of blunders and breakdowns over the weekend, resulting in a lower-than-expected turnout on Monday (today).
Plagued by a number of scandals, since the construction process began in Oct, 2015, the 2.9-billion-Australian-dollar (2-billion-U.S.-dollar) project, was originally set to open in March this year, but due to massive cost blowouts and a legal battle between the state government of New South Wales (NSW) and the Spanish contractor, Acciona, the launch date was repeatedly delayed.
However, with the promise that the 67-metre-long tram carriages, which have a capacity to move up to 13,500 commuters per hour, would transform the Harbour City’s George Street, Moore Park and Randwick, Sydneysiders eagerly awaited the weekend’s grand opening.
Unfortunately things did not go exactly to plan.
A “mechanical fault” caused one of the trams to breakdown near Circular Quay, while a “power failure” resulted in two other services blocking the tracks for around one hour.
But perhaps the most severe criticism from commuters was that, the service takes far too long – over 50 minutes for a seven km journey.
With workers appearing to avoid the new rail light line on their morning commute to the office Monday (this) morning, NSW Transport Minister, Andrew Constance, said, the state government are now focusing on reducing the travel time.
“We said this would take about six months to bed this in,” he said.
“I would hope, they will start to speed up as people get used to them but it’s not going to happen on day dot.”
“People need to get used to pressing the buttons on the doors – it’s not like a bus.”– NNN-AGENCIES