Six car EDI+Alstom Comeng Walk-through - January 2021

A complete walk through of a mixed EDI/Alstom Comeng set, as it departs Flinders Street on a down Watergardens service. The first Comeng trains entered service in 1981, built locally at Comeng's factory in Dandenong. Eventually 190 three-car sets were built, most of which are still in service as of January 2021. At the end of the 90's Melbourne's suburban network was stupidly split between two private operators, Connex and M-train. They used Alstom and EDI respectively to refurbish the Comeng fleet, resulting in quite a different appearance, and initially making the two types incompatible with each other. When M-train fell to bits and was taken over by Connex in 2004, the two types remained segregated on different sides of the network for a further three years. In 2007 they were modified to run together, and the fleet began operating network-wide again. Starting in 2017, the Comeng fleet began another refurbishment known as the 'Life Extension' program. This involved all sorts of upgrades including LED marker lights, new front livery, numerous modifications to the passenger saloon including new seat fabric, and the addition of diaphragms over the gangways between cars. It seems that some sets didn't receive the full list of modifications however. In addition all the above, the first 130 Comeng sets are fitted with tread brakes, with the remaining 60 sets having disc brakes. All these factors combine to create quite a lot of variety across the fleet. In this video I board the rear of the set, and the consist from that end is 541M-1121T-542M-537M-1119T-538M. These are the 121st and 119th Comeng set respectively. Both are tread brake sets, but entered service in 1987, but have numerous differences in their refurbishments: 541M-1121T-542M is an EDI set, which has now received the full Life Extension refurbishment. Note the diaphragms between the cars. It is worth noting that in 2009 this particular set was fitted with a trial interior layout with extra handrails and fewer seats, many features of which were later incorporated in the whole LE refurb program. I'm not sure if any elements of the trial layout are still visible. 537M-1119T-538M is an Alstom set, which has only received a partial LE refurbishment. It has all the external modifications, but virtually none of the internal ones. Note it has far fewer handrails, and the seat fabric is the old type with the hidden 'Connex' lettering. It also still has the fully open gangways between cars. I'm assuming being one of the older sets this is earmarked for an early retirement, hence missing out on a lot of the upgrades. Video filmed on Friday 15th of January 2021. As a side note, at the time this video was filmed it was a legal requirement to wear a fitted face mask on public transport in Victoria. So the handful of people you see not wearing one either have a medical exemption, or are being naughty.