I think Bristol can beat Portsmouth - the key link in the old tram network (a bridge that connected the depot on the south side of the river with the main part of the network on the north side) was severed by a German bomb in the war.
For ~53 years politicians talked about the reintroduction of trams/a new tram system, with various studies and models being produced. After about 5 years of bickering between Bristol and South Gloucestershire councils over whether the northern terminus should be at Bristol Parkway station or Cribbs Causeway shopping centre, the entire project was cancelled in favour of two years lower tax increases.
The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart. --Antoine de St. Exupery
Well, the new line involves Perth's first bored tunnels, and theres been rumours that the trains are infact too big for the tunnels...
That happened with the almost identical trains in Brisbane, which entered service last week. The air conditioning units on the roof were just a few mm too large to clear the safety envelope in the tunnels around Central. A few weekends of engineering work shaving back the tunnel wall sorted out that problem.
So why has the new line in Perth been delayed? Also, if I'm right in saying that the new line will be segregated from other rail traffic, then it could technically be Australia's first metro line?
Well, driving down the freeway, it would seem that finishing the overhead wiring seems to be holding up the project.
But apparently whilst that in itself is only running about a month late or so, the problem is that they need to shut down the Joondalup and Fremantle lines for a week whilst they connect the Mandurah line. They can only do this during the school holidays, and unless everything is done before the holidays in about 4 weeks, they'll have to wait until the next school holidays.
Only trouble with that is that the next school holidays (in September) would coincide with the Perth Royal Show, meaning that it would be impossible to shut down the Fremantle line during that time... which means the shut down will have to be delayed until November, and a Christmas opening.
As for it being the first metro line in Australia, yep! Apart from a connection to the Fremantle line in Perth, the line runs from Clarkson in the North to the underground platforms in Wellington St in Perth, where it continues through bored tunnels to the Esplanade, where it goes through a cut-and-cover tunnel to connect to the Kwinana Freeway, running down the median to Mandurah!
In total, it'll be (i think) about 110km of railway with no level crossings or alternate routes!
It's important to remember that whilst Perth has a population of only 1.5mil or so, geographically, it's considerably larger than Greater London!
North Kent Resignalling Scheme, had a massive signalling room built ready at Gillingham... and was never used, because the actual resignalling would have cost way too much... So it is now used as a rather expensive documents Storage Facility for Network Rail...
