Independent Transport Videos - Australia & New Zealand

Ref: IT1017D

Price:£17.95

Melbourne has a smart fleet of over 500 trams – the largest in the Southern Hemisphere. There are two companies that operate the trams, these are ‘Swanston Trams’ and ‘Yarra Trams’. In 1983 Melbourne integrated all its major forms of transport into the Melbourne Transit Authority – The Met. All trams were painted in a green and cream livery. In the light of privatisation, November 2000 saw Swanston Trams being bought by the National Express Group of the U.K. – and is now introducing a new identity of blue, white and green – with the strap line ‘Moving Melbourne’. At the same time Yarra Trams have also rebranded with an off white, blue and green livery and pronounced fleet name.

The fleets are made up of what are known locally as W’s, Z’s, A’s and B classes. Unfortunately at the time of filming (May 2001), the famous ‘W’ Class trams were all off the road due to brake problems, but we did manage to film some of them ‘laid up’ at Malvern Depot. However there is plenty of footage featuring other trams in service in central Melbourne and its suburbs, line-side and rides.

Sydney has recently introduced trams again to its streets. The system opened in August 1997 and is run by Connex. There is a 6.7km line from the old tramway concourse at the Central Station to Lilyfield, next to the railway yards at Rozelle. We travel on the trams, and see the operations in the streets.

So we hope you enjoy your visits to the Southern Hemisphere’s largest tramway network and it’s newest light rail system.

Availability: AVAILABLE
Filmed by/when: 2001
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R

Running Time: 95-mins (1hr 35min)

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Ref: IT1092D

Price:£16.99

Between 1973 and 1981 Christchurch Transport Board, in New Zealand’s South Island, received 147 Bristol RE chassis, all but one in kit form, and all but two receiving bodies – the remaining two were used for spares.

25 received ECW bodies, shipped out from the UK as kits, 29 ECW “lookalike” bodies from local Bodybuilder Hawke, and 91 Hess bodies assembled to the “Alusuisse” system.

Bus deregulation in New Zealand in 1990 reduced the amount of work undertaken by the Transport Board’s successor company, and the REs were gradually taken out of the fleet, being bought by other operators throughout New Zealand.

In the Spring of 2007 probably 50 or so remained in active public service, mostly on North Island and mostly as school buses, even though the newest were more than 25 years old.

Filmed in April 2007, this celebration of the New Zealand RE covers the most prolific RE users at the time: Taverner’s of Pukekohe, Murphy’s of Thames and, significantly, the Bayline Group of Tauranga, at the time the latter probably being the largest operator of the Bristol RE in the world.

Availability: AVAILABLE
First published on DVD: 2007
Screen aspect ratio: 4:3 SD
Classification: Exempt
Number of discs: 1 DVD-R

Running Time: 70-mins (1hr 10min) , Colour
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