Intruders-Alert

Another government boondoggle, but, for once, not the USA.

http://www.wnd.com/2018/03/2-3-billion- ... r-tunnels/

"No one disputes this Australian state’s need to upgrade its rail-transit fleet after 40 years of service.


The New South Wales regional train system in and around Sydney operates with a variety of trains, the oldest rolling stock – called V-sets – and newer XPT longer-distance carriers. After four decades, purchasing 512 new carriages at a cost of $2.3 billion had become a necessity. And with the purchase, commuters can look forward to mobile-phone charging stations, accessible toilets and more space for bike racks and luggage.

All good … except for one rather major problem.

The new trains are too wide for existing tunnels, reports News.com.au.

Whereas Transport for NSW’s current trains are 114.17 inches wide, the replacement trains on order are 122.05 inches in width. Because trains sway and tilt, particularly when rounding curves, TfNSW set a minimum clearance, or “kinematic envelope,” of 7.88 inches around the current rolling stock. That, coincidentally, is only one-hundreth of an inch wider than the increased width of the new trains. New trains tilting inside tunnels are expected to experience scraping on portions of the roof and base as they make contact with the rock walls.

“It takes a special type of incompetence to buy trains that don’t fit through the tunnels,” said state opposition leader Luke Foley."

What is it with bureaucratic idiots ordering the wrong trains? We got a similar issue in my home state:

http://www.news.com.au/technology/innov ... d6f81d06d2

Queensland Rail facing legal action because its new $4.4bn trains are basically illegal

DAYS after it was discovered NSW’s new trains were too big for the tunnels, turns out Queensland’s new trains are kind of illegal.

JUST a week after it was discovered that NSW’s $2 billion new train fleet will be too wide for the tunnels, the Queensland Government is facing the possibility of having to pull $4bn worth of new trains off the tracks because they are so badly designed, they’re basically illegal.
When they were ordered, the then Government crowed about the “New Generation Rollingstock” (NGR) trains being half the price of similar designs.
But the cheap price has brought with it multiple problems including failing air conditioning, issues with the braking and, most damningly, a botched procurement process that saw the Government settle on a design that doesn’t meet minimum legal standards, according to The Courier Mail.

The bodge job is so dodge, the trains sport disabled accessible toilets that wheelchairs can’t properly fit into.
The Indian-built fleet of 75 trains from Canadian manufacturing giant Bombardier, of which nine have been delivered, could be banned from working on the network.
Queensland Rail (QR) is desperate to avoid that outcome because the trains are due to ferry hundreds of thousands of people to next month’s Commonwealth Games.
“It really is a crisis. A massive bungle due to procrastination, obfuscation and gross incompetence,” a public transport advocate has told news.com.au. “All hell could break loose.”
The new trains are due to replace older carriages that, in some cases, are 40 years old and breaking down.

Architect Wendy Lovelace told Fairfax Media she was looking for the Federal Court to slap an injunction on QR to prevent them from operating the trains because they failed to meet legal regulations for disabled access.
Incredibly, these standards have been in place since 2002, more than a decade before the trains were even ordered.
Her case has been bolstered by a decision by the Australian Human Rights Commission last week which denied the fleet a temporary exemption from disability discrimination laws.
“The NGR rolling stock has a long and sad history”, Robert Dow of public transport users group Rail Back on Track told news.com.au.
“There’s a lot going wrong with this project and it’s incredible to think the state could order a train that’s not compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) when trains have had to be compliant since 2002.”
The Government says they have a plan to fix the trains, but disability advocates say that plan can’t be trusted.

Sounds like a kick back of some sort.......money passed under the table so to speak......palms getting greased....

The list goes on and on

politicians and diapers..