Services wereshut down on the inner west line in October last year after sizeable cracks were discovered in the 12-strong Urbos tram fleet.
An independent report for Transport for NSW in July 2019 concluded that components on the inner west trams appeared to be “expiring prematurely due to poor design and/or manufacturing errors” by Spanish manufacturer CAF.
Those conclusions by technical experts hired by the agency supported a report two months earlier by French company Alstom,which warned that components were “exhibiting premature life expiry”.
Concern about the premature defects is one of the reasons the transport agency sought government approval two years ago to buy four extra trams for the inner west light rail line from CAF at a cost of about $25 million. The first of the new trams is due to arrive early next year.
Labor transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen said it was clear that the government knew back in 2019 that the inner west trams were beset by defects,faults and failures caused by poor design and errors from the overseas manufacturer.
“Yet instead of taking action and assessing the fleet,the government ignored warnings and went ahead with their planned purchase of more overseas-built trams,” she said.