Gold Coast trams off rails for weekend after freak lightning strike

A DECISION will be made this morning on when Gold Coast trams will resume, after a “world first” lightning event knocked out light rail services.

A LIGHTNING strike during last Tuesday’s deadly storm has been blamed for the Gold Coast’s weekend-long tram outage which left revellers and tourists stranded.

The lightning damaged fibre-optic communications cables in multiple places, leaving technicians scrambling to fix the problem.

Repairs were made on Tuesday but early on Saturday morning a major fault in a number of cables stopped the tram system.

GoldlinQ chief executive Phil Mumford said the disruption caused by the lightning strike would spark a review.

“Our priority is to restore services for our customers, and we will thoroughly investigate the cause to ensure we have a more robust network,” Mr Mumford said.

He said GoldlinQ had extensive contingency plans which relied on bringing in buses if trams went down during a major event like the GC600 or the Commonwealth Games.

Experts were left scratching their heads over the unprecedented outage, with the lightning strike thought to be a world first.

The G: Link is one of only a few light rail systems in the world in a thunderstorm-prone region.

The freak storm event left light rail tracks deserted over the weekend. Pic: Scott Fletcher

Mr Mumford said the company would decide early this morning when trams would begin operating again after testing overnight.

The uncertainty remained despite technicians from across the globe spending the weekend trying to fix the major failure.

If services do not resume this morning commuters will be shuffled on to one of 25 replacement buses.

The continued outage left commuters frustrated with the lack of communication.

Most said they were not aware the trams, which move about 21,000 people a day, were not running until they got to stations where notices were posted, audio messages were playing and customer service officers spoke with passengers.

Tourists on the Gold Coast had also been affected by the lack of services, with many approaching the Cavill ­Avenue station, only to be greeted by GoldlinQ staff members directing them to nearby bus stations.