The Canberra Light Rail Network, also known as Canberra Metro, is a 12 kilometre long dual track standard gauge line linking the northern town centre of Gungahlin to Civic Centre, and featuring 13 tram stops.
After a great deal of political debate over the merit of such a light rail network, construction of the line commenced on 12th July 2016, initial testing started on 18th June 2018 and the service commenced commercial operation on 20th April 2019. It is run by a consortium appropriately known as Canberra Metro (CMET) who will operate and maintain this service for 20 years, after which ownership will pass to the ACT Government.
The 14 trams used for this service are CAF Urbos 3 type, with 5 carriage segments and an overall length of 32.96 metres. They are powered off 750 Volt DC overhead wiring. These vehicles are maintained at their depot based at Mitchell.
We first take a run around the complete system from Gungahlin Place to Alinga St and return, viewing the journey from a cab view, and also from the passenger compartment when items of interest are passed. We conclude with a comparison of the ‘completed’ (July 2019) and ‘in construction’ (February 2018) state of the network.
Approximate run time: 96 minutes.