Remember the mess the trains were last summer?
Well, the Comeng trains, which are prone to air-conditioner failures above 34.5 degrees, haven’t been fixed, and there’s still plenty of track waiting for upgrades to prevent buckling.
But that doesn’t mean you should worry about a repeat performance this coming summer. Mr Brumby says it won’t happen.
(Channel 7 news story on the parliamentary inquiry, Tuesday 21/7/2009.)
Well, I’m convinced. So there you go folks. There’s no problem.
8 replies on “There’s no problem”
I don’t care how hot it is, I would rather trains that ran on time than having to wait ages for an air conditioned one.
I remember a 40min wait at Flinders in Feb’s heatwave so that we could all get going on a Siemens (which was ridiculously crowded), I would have much rather a Hitachi showed up on time.
It’s such a shame we have no opposition with an actual plan for the future.
We are doomed to have shit Pt in Melbourne for decades to come I’m afraid – a very sad indictment indeed.
I’ll bet it was a weedy question, such as
“Will Connex have trouble next year with the heat etc?”
“No”
(Well, duh. Connex won’t be around next year, but it’s the kind of sound byte based reporting that glosses over important things like that)
Yes, I heard the question repeated, but Connex or not, the same crappy problems will persist until the government grows a spine and starts dealing with problems!
Yeah Rob, you can hear the earlier question at the end of this Channel 10 report: “Isn’t there a likelihood though that there will be more disruptions this summer because of the heat?” It sounds like it was a followup to something earlier, but even missing the context it’s pretty clear what it’s asking.
That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.
There goes one conspiracy theory down the drain. Either way, he answers with a certain confidence that just doesn’t sit well with what’s happening in the real world. I’m hoping this new contract is water-tight, but I’m guessing us (taxpayers) will find out the (usual) hard way!
He’d have answered the same if he’d been asked if Phar Lap was a sure thing in the next Melb Cup!
Is there an airco expert out there?
From my understanding, one of the limits for a particular unit is the gas charge remaining – if at the temperature of the condensor (the bit that the hot outside air blows over) the refrigerant pressure is too low it won’t turn into a liquid and the unit stops being useful. Is it just a matter of ensuring that the trains go out fully gassed up in the morning? Fit a pressure gauge permanently to each unit so a quick visual check before shutting down in the evening to see which ones need the refrig mechanic to gas up asap.
Upscaling the plant opens a lot of worms, whereas wavelength selective window coatings might be more effective and certainly cheaper and greener.