The potentially life-saving safety upgrades to Sydney’s light rail, which a former Transdev employee has alleged were cancelled in order to save money, would have only cost about $2.2m, according to the whistleblower.
The New South Wales government has been urged to investigate whether its transport department declined to share the cost of installing sensors that would detect a person entering the coupling area between two joined trams after a fatal incident in 2023.
Transdev, the private company that operates Sydney’s light rail on behalf of the government, successfully trialled the sensors after the 2023 death, according to the former employee who requested anonymity.
But the company stopped the project before another death in 2025, the whistleblower said, after Transport for New South Wales declined Transdev’s request to share the cost of installing the technology.
Transdev has confirmed it is now trialling sensors in the coupling area of light rail vehicles on the Sydney network.
As Guardian Australia reported on Thursday, the cost to produce an initial system to trial on one tram was estimated to be $500,000, according to the whistleblower.
On Sydney’s L2 and L3 routes, two 33-metre-long trams are coupled together to form one 66-metre-long vehicle. The routes use Citadis X05 light rail vehicles.
The remainder of the sensors to install on the rest of the trams would have been significantly cheaper than the prototype, at as little as $30,000 each, meaning the total...
An Arkansas man who police say is a "serial social-media provocateur" has been arrested for falsely making claims about firearms and contraband inside a jail. JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ark. — An Arkansas m...