Foreign made trains, trams, and ferries have been in the spotlight lately. Trains have been unable to enter service until modification are made to some lines, trams have been taken out of service due to cracking, and ferries have been unable to operate at night. These failures have been blamed on them being foreign made. The reality is more complicated, and while there is a case for domestic manufacturing, the arguments for this are different to the ones just outlined.
Some historical context
Trains and trams in NSW used to be made in Australia. The Millennium Trains, which entered service during 2002 to 2005, as well as the OSCARS, and entered service during 2006 to 2012, were both manufactured in Newcastle. Meanwhile, the Variotrams, which entered service in 1997, were manufactured in Melbourne.
Overseas sourcing of trains and trams began with the Waratah Trains, which were pre-built in China and assembled in Newcastle. Originally ordered in 2006, entering service in two tranches: the A-Sets from 2011 to 2014 and then the B-Sets from 2020 to 2021, by then Labor Transport Minister Michael Costa. The Private-Public Partnership that built these trains was plagued with financial troubles, particularly due to the impact of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, and required a government bailout to be completed.
This was followed by Spanish built Urbos 3 trams that operate on L1, which entered service in 2014, but were all taken offline in November 2021 for a period of up to 18 months when cracks were found. Spanish and French built Citadis trams that operate on L2/L3, which entered service in 2019, were incompatible with L1 due to platform heights, while Urbos 3 trams cannot operate on George St due to the wire free section. Indian built driverless metro trains, which entered service in 2019, were criticised on opening day for overshooting platforms. Indonesian built ferries, the first of which entered service in 2021, are unable to pass under two bridges while passengers occupy seats on their roof, were found to contain asbestos, and cannot currently operate at night due to reflection issues. Korean built Mariyung trains, which are yet to enter service, required tunnels in the Blue Mountains to be enlarged as they were not large enough for these new trains.
The Labor Opposition has been quick to point out these shortcomings. Their solution: build trains and trams in Australia. This solution was initially rejected by the LNP Government in September 2020, with then Premier Gladys Berejiklian arguing that NSW is “not good at building trains” and then Transport Minister Andrew Constance claiming that buying Australian made would cost 25% more.
But the pressure clearly made an impact, with Constance making a high profile visit that same month to a local manufacturer that produces components such as CCTV cameras and help points for the passenger rail network. More recently, Premier Dominic Perrottet highlighted the importance of manufacturing and announced the creation of a Commissioner for Modern Manufacturing in his Bradfield oration, in which he stated:
“Every economic powerhouse has a strong manufacturing base. NSW cannot just be a service economy. We have to keep making things.”
Is Australian made the solution?
Simply put, domestic manufacturing is not a silver bullet to the issues raised earlier. Most of those issues are not caused by location of manufacture but rather due to design issues. The Mariyung trains were not “too big for the tunnels” because they were imported, they were designed that way so as to reduce the gap between train and platform. The ferries were not too tall for the bridges, they were designed that way as there is little demand for ferries towards Parramatta and so the roof seating can be easily closed.
It’s also worth remembering that the Millennium Trains, the last set of trains manufactured domestically for Sydney Trains, were plagued with issues. Not only were they delayed, arriving long after the turn of the Millennium for which they were named, but they could not operate on every line due to their high usage of electricity overwhelming the power generated at the time.
Melbourne manufactures its own trains and trams, but often using the specifications provided by the overseas based firm that designed it. In a parallel universe where these trams were manufactured in Australia it is quite possible that these same cracks would have emerged.
So should we forget about Australian made?
Domestic manufacturing of trains and trams has its merits. Principally it creates more ongoing domestic jobs if, and only if, there is an ongoing pipeline for new rolling stock. If there isn’t, then any factory would shut down as soon as a project wraps up.
Maintaining constant production is easier with scale. Buses are manufactured in NSW because there is a large fleet of buses that is constantly being replaced. Trams are manufactured in Victoria where they have a large tram network, also providing for that scale.
For Australia, the most viable option available is coordination between the states. This could provide a consistent pipeline of manufacturing and ideally would be led by the Federal Government through the National Cabinet process.
It may well happen.
But what needs to end is the idea that this would stop all the design specification issues that have so often hit the headlines. Domestic manufacturing does not address this.
Transport Sydney 