The Melba 2011 is a conceptual design for a “next generation” Melbourne tram. Designed by outfit CobaltNiche in three weeks, it’s meant to give the W-Class tram a modern facelift and prepare us for a future where we can only hope riding them is reasonably affordable.
“Trams are to Melbourne like the Opera House is to Sydney and it’d be unimaginable that the design of icons such as these would be left to chance,” says CobaltNiche’s design group leader Jack Magree. The concept is influenced by public transport in the likes of Vienna and Amsterdam. As with the newer-model trams flying about Melbourne, the Mebla 2011 would feature low floors and electronic route displays. The most glaring difference is the massive headlight on the front, so if you don’t notice the ding-ding of the tram’s warning bell, you’ll be blinded by this lamp instead.
I’m a fan of the colour green, but the shade here seems a little bold for my tastes. It’s sleek and would definitely look great cruising down Swanston, but I don’t think it’s the future of trams. To be honest, I’d be happy if they used the prototyping cash to simply maintain the current fleet and reduce fare prices (for those of us that pay).
Fortunately, it’s just a concept for now — there are no plans to build these things and whack them about town. What do do you guys think?
Melba Tram [CobaltNiche, via Ecofriend]
wsDK_II
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 12:50 PMloving the australia based articles, especially anything melbourne related :)
i like this tram alot, but as you said, they should be spending money on reducing fares, travel times and increasing services + the number of on time trams.
cylonsarecuddly
Sunday, December 25, 2011 at 7:15 AMThere won’t be a fare reduction any time soon. The fares increase nearly nine percent next week.
Franz
Monday, December 26, 2011 at 10:57 PMDoing something important in Australia?…
Copy Paste from overseas… close enough…
Wouldn’t want to come up with something ORIGINAL.
Justin
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 12:55 PMThey can forget the headlight but otherwise it looks awesome! Why not have different coloured trams? Some purple, some green, black etc… These new trams also need to have better airconditioning/heating and the seats should be spill and stain resistant and the windows should be scratch resistant.
wee
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 1:33 PMThey can forget it if they ride like the new ones.
It rattles and sends vibration down my spine.
The old ones work much much better.
Box Guru
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 2:10 PMIt’s missing the advertising plastered all over it.
Franz
Monday, December 26, 2011 at 11:05 PM+500
Dan Miller
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 2:36 PMThey look nice. Just a shame they will get wrapped up in crap advertising.
aarick
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 3:07 PMGet rid of trams! They are a nuisance on the road..just keep them for the CBD..anywhere just causes traffic congestion and is too slow. But if the do keep trams..why aren’t tram installed with massive pedestrian safety bumper like cars?
EMH
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 9:42 PMSydney got rid of trams many years ago; it was the biggest mistake ever made in public transport in this country! Better by far to take private cars off the CBD streets.
Bumpers on trams for pederstrians? Don’t be silly, trams are big and heavy and there is too much momentum. In any case I am not aware that there have many (any?) cases of trams running into pedestrians.
Ed
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 11:38 PMYeah Sydney had a tram network that would make Melbourne cry. All over the eastern, northern and inner west, electric and cable, with services over the Harbour Bridge, tunnels in the CBD it was the envy of the world. It’s an absolute disgrace they got rid of them for “the car and progress”, there is now debate whether to spend the money re-installing them in the CBD.
I don’t want to envisage the day I visit Melbourne and there are no trams.
Mick
Sunday, December 25, 2011 at 7:20 PMYeah, because obviously Victorian state governments do not spend nearly on cars
Matthew
Monday, December 26, 2011 at 1:50 PMIt’s funny how ignorant and self centred car drivers are. 1 single tram removes up to 200 cars off the road x 400 trams running on any single day, thats 80,000 cars off the road. The very roads you drivers love to drive on, down the main streets through suburbs that have all those great shops, exist because of the tramways.
The shops, the avenues, the boulevards, acland st, brunswick st, bridge rd, smith st, high st, chapel st etc etc, All these streets BEGAN as tram routes and developed around that. The tramway boards paid for the creation of these roads back in the 1800′s.
The length of 1 large tram is 5 cars, 1 tram carries up to 200 people ( larger trams ) and on average each car carries 1 person. 1 person whose too lazy to catch public transport, or who complains about travel time, yet chose to live on the outskirts of the city, that is your own poor choice.
Trams are the lifeblood of this city. They are the form of transport that connects people from railway stations to suburban streets and homes, they are clean, efficiant, and provide an efficiant form of transport to millions.
Kroo
Monday, December 26, 2011 at 6:25 PMIt’s funny how ignorant and self centred greenies are. I run a business where I don’t have a choice but to drive my vehicle to carry my tools and equipment from job to job. 400km each week. Now two lane carriageways are cut to one to add bicycle lanes, and now tram super stops. We know greenies hate cars, but strangling the roads is pigheaded and dumb in a growing city like Melbourne. I love trams, couldn’t have lived without them when I was at Uni in the city, but we can’t be blind to the reality that cars and trucks are here to stay and need workable pathways to lower pollution due to traffic congestion.
MD
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 3:26 PMPeople complain of congestion, well the answer is to get on the tram….
Or as in European cities, walk…..
When in Europe, I usually only drive to the city, once in whichever city I am going to, I find it easier to get around walking or by metro….
(Of course the suburbs aren’t so easy to walk around, that’s when the tram, or car comes handy…)
Matthew
Monday, December 26, 2011 at 6:36 PMKroo it’s funny you should say that, because if anything, I am not a greenie or enviromental person. The roads are paid for by the taxpayer, that includes pedestrians and cyclists. Who really cares if you have to travel 400km a week, perhaps you should find another profession or seek alternative means of transport. Driving a dangerous vehicle and being a burdon on the enviroment in the process deserves some inconvieniances.
Narrowing the roads for superstops for cycling and pedestrians is a great idea to improve safety. Cars can use alternative streets for transport. Isnt this whole issue about safety? More cyclists mean less cars requiring a safer road for all. The safety of a commuter on 1 tram of almost 200 people far outweighs that of 1 person in 1 car.
Australia needs to throw away this American style reliance on cars to go to work, go to the shops etc. In many European cities this simply isnt the case, in most inner city areas, people cycle or use transport, in Melbourne people like to drive their car from Port Melbourne to Carlton, or Carlton to Richmond, which is absolutely pointless.
And to Kroo, if that’s really your name, instead of sitting in traffic in known high traffic areas between jobs, wouldnt the smarter option be to consider alternative routes for better efficiancy.
Sean Robert Meaney
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 4:54 PMInstead of further overcrowding coastal cities lets commit to a billion population city in the middle of Australia where every family gets an acre and 40 acres out of every square mile are given to commercial, industrial and governmental activity. For an example – a light airfield would take about 40 acres while a heliport would take about four acres.
More importantly this city would fit in the southern half of the Northern Territory of Australia and crush our enemies as we remove their poorest peoples from their economies causing their middle class to become the new underclass.
Simon
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 5:31 PMThe current trams are good enough with plenty of modern design, air conditioning and comfort. Another model would just add cost in maintaining spares for this fleet too. Not really a ‘facelift’ of W class, facelift to me implies a refurbish, and this does not look like anythng is used from W class… Only the paint is similar (W class are the slow old rickety wooden historical trams, not like the current fleet)
Sally
Saturday, December 24, 2011 at 6:48 PM“People complain of congestion, well the answer is to get on the tram”
Not sure if there was sarcasm in this comment or not, as a Sydneysider, I love Melbourne’s trams, and only wish Sydney never got rid of them. Melburnians have a great public transport system compared to the crap we put up with in Sydney.
daryl
Sunday, December 25, 2011 at 12:19 AMI remember a cartoonist drawing a classic 1960s picture of Melbourne in the 24th century with the weather dome and the elevated roads which swoop around it with a W2 class tram rumbling along a futuristic elevated road
ryxxi
Sunday, December 25, 2011 at 2:27 PMRemove trams so the already overwhelming train and bus passengers number increasrs? No thanks