The first tram in the Newcastle light rail fleet has arrived, prompting the launch of a safety campaign promoting the need to stay aware in the city.
Services for the new light rail are to commence early next year with the first tram out on the tracks for testing next month.
Revitalising Newcastle Program Director Michael Cassel is urging Novocastrians to educate themselves and stay alert as the trams are quiet, move quickly and take longer to stop than smaller vehicles.
"Stay alert and always understand what's going on around you. Always obey the traffic lights and road signals and when crossing the tracks with a bike or a tram, make sure you're crossing at ninety-degrees," Mr Cassel said.
"Remember when driving and cycling up and down Hunter and Scott Streets," he continued, "that the tram lanes are for the trams not for cars."
This milestone is being met with safety concerns for pedestrians and six new crossings have been added along the light rail route.
The 45tonne and 45 kilometre an hour vehicles are undergoing extensive assessment before the community can hop on board.
"There's a variety of testing that we'll undertake, just testing that the breaks work all the way through to putting the light rail vehicles under stress," Mr Cassel said.
"So there's a lot of processes we'll go through, a lot of that will happen behind the scenes, but as we work towards the end of the year you'll start to see the trams moving up and down Hunter Street without passengers as we make sure everything's working how it was designed to."
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| Image: Transport NSW. |
