Project Profile: Sydney CBD & South East Light Rail

The Sydney CBD and South East Light Rail project delivers a high-capacity, reliable, and sustainable transit solution connecting Sydney’s central business district with its southeastern suburbs. This profile details the core infrastructure and advanced rolling stock, the Alstom Citadis X05, which forms the backbone of the line’s modern operational capabilities.

Technical Specifications

The operational core of the Sydney Light Rail network is its fleet of 60 Alstom Citadis X05 Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs), deployed as 30 coupled pairs. Each vehicle is a 67-metre-long unit, making them among the longest trams in the world, designed to maximize passenger capacity up to 450 people. The LRVs feature a 100% low-floor design for enhanced accessibility and are powered by a 750VDC supply. A critical technical feature is the implementation of Alstom’s Aesthetic Power Solution (APS) ground-based continuous power supply, enabling 2km of catenary-free (wire-free) operation through the CBD to preserve the city’s urban aesthetic.

Each vehicle utilizes air-cooled permanent magnet traction motors for high energy efficiency and superior performance, achieving a maximum acceleration of 1.3m/s². The system incorporates regenerative braking to recover and reuse kinetic energy, significantly reducing overall power consumption. The modular design of the Citadis X05, built upon a standardized bogie and traction system, ensures high reliability and streamlined maintenance. The vehicles are constructed to meet the stringent EN15227 crashworthiness standard, with a specified compression load of 400kN for enhanced safety.

Key Takeaways

• High-Capacity Urban Transit: The project successfully introduced a high-capacity light rail spine through one of Australia’s busiest urban corridors, leveraging 67-metre-long LRVs to move up to 13,500 passengers per hour.
• Advanced Rolling Stock and Sustainability: The selection of the Alstom Citadis X05 platform brought significant technological advancements, including permanent magnet motors and regenerative braking, resulting in an estimated 25% reduction in energy consumption and a 99% vehicle recyclability rate.
• Innovative Catenary-Free Technology: The implementation of a ground-based power supply (APS) in the CBD was a landmark achievement, demonstrating how modern light rail can be integrated into historically and architecturally sensitive environments without visual intrusion from overhead wires.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the Sydney Light Rail open to the public?
The L2 Randwick Line of the Sydney CBD and South East Light Rail began passenger services on December 14, 2019. The L3 Kingsford Line subsequently opened on April 3, 2020.

Who built the Sydney Light Rail and what trams does it use?
The project was delivered by the ALTRAC Light Rail consortium for Transport for New South Wales (TfNSW). The trams, or Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs), are the Alstom Citadis X05 model, which are custom-built for the network’s high-capacity requirements.