Why do five Melbourne trams have a bee logo?
Because back in 2008 during a patronage surge, the government leased 5 surplus trams from Mulhouse in France.
They were shipped over and put into service in their original black and yellow livery, for which they were nicknamed “Bumblebees”.
Subsequently the trams were purchased and given the C2 designation. They now have the standard PTV livery, but they still have a small bee logo near each cab.
The C2 trams are also some of the oldest with CCTV fitted.
The issue of tram CCTV is back in the news – a petition has been started after an assault late last year on a B class tram which had no CCTV.
Hundreds of older trams don’t have it, and even once the new G class fleet replaces the oldest ones, it’ll still be a problem, particularly for the B class fleet, which are likely to remain in service well into next decade.
This post was adapted/extended from a post thread on social media
One reply on “Bumblebees and CCTV”
Three Bumblebees right now IIRC, unless the one which recently T-boned a car has already been fixed; the fifth is a spare for when one breaks down so there’s generally only a maximum of four in service at any time.
I wish Yarra Trams would shift them across to the 109 to do away with some of the utterly hopeless A class trams on the same route. Route 12 running nothing but A classes is bad enough, at the very least swap the termini of the 12 and 30 so that the 30 can provide capacity to Victoria Gardens instead of generating zero revenue; the 12 gets its revenue at both ends unlike the 30 which has just three paid stops which no-one touches on at anyway.