Railway Digest Magazine February 2016 Back Issue

Modernising Melbourne’s Iconic Tramcars
In 2011 a program began for the upgrading of some of Melbourne’s famous W Series trams, as a result of commitments made by the Victorian Government to keep a number of these traditional cars in operation. The intention was to replace items that required intensive maintenance, or for which spare parts were difficult to obtain, with modern equivalents. Peter Clark tells us how this was successfully achieved.

Melbourne tackles level crossing removals
With level crossing removal becoming a significant political issue in the 2000s as both road and rail traffic increased across Melbourne it was not surprising that the defeat of the Napthine Coalition government in November 2014 by Daniel Andrews and Labor did nothing to diminish the level crossing issue. In fact the new government increased the political focus on level crossing elimination. John Hoyle reports on the achievements and future plans of the aptly-named Level Crossing Removal Authority.

Port Kembla Steelworks
Dominik Giemza takes a look at the rail operations of the Bluescope steelworks in Port Kembla, that have long been under threat of closure due to the unfavourable exchange rate for the Australian dollar and imports of low-priced Chinese steel.