Newcastle Light Rail

Newcastle Light Rail is a recently built light rail line between Newcastle Interchange and Newcastle Beach. The line consists of 6 stations along a 2km route, and is notable for its heavy use of battery propulsion.

The construction of Newcastle Light Rail followed the closure of the heavy rail line between Wickham and Newcastle station in 2014. Major works began in September 2017 and spanned 1 year and 5 months, officially opening on February 2019.

It is the second light rail line to open in New South Wales, after the Sydney light rail line opening more than 20 years prior.

Route
The line starts within the former rail corridor at Newcastle Interchange, but is mostly an on-street route via Hunter and Scott Streets after that.

Newcastle Light Rail has 6 light rail stops spanning through the city:
 * Newcastle Interchange (Interchange for heavy rail and buses)
 * Honeysuckle
 * Civic
 * Crown Street
 * Queens Wharf (Interchange for ferry)
 * Newcastle Beach

Tracks
The points are built to tramway standard and the rail of the entire line is embedded in concrete. The line is entirely double track, except for the two termini. There is also a crossover between Crown St and Queens Wharf to allow trams to terminate during special events.

Trams
Six trams run on the Newcastle Light Rail. They are CAF Urbos 3 trams, specifically the Urbos 100 (100% low floor), 5 car, standard (1435mm) gauge variant. They are numbered between 2151 and 2156. The trams are wheelchair accessible and also contain racks for surfboards. The trams are maintained at a maintenance yard located just north of Newcastle Interchange, on the site of the former Wickham raiway station.

Power
The trams run on battery power between stops. They automatically raise their pantograph and connect to a charging station at each stop. There is catenary in the maintenance yard and trams run on overhead power while in the yard.

Signals
Like the other light rail lines, there are two different types of signals in use.

The first type are only located at Newcastle Interchange to protect the points there. They display a diagonal bar pointing in the direction the points are set.

The second type are traffic signals to protect crossings between light rail and cars. They are similar to car traffic signals, except that they display a T instead of an arrow and that green is replaced with white. Where light rail can proceed at the same time as cars, the light rail signal is combined with the general traffic one by adding a white T below the green light.

Signs
There are several speed limit signs near the tracks showing the speed limit for trams. They are yellow with a tram symbol at the top and a number (limit in km/h) in a circle at the bottom. The number may have an X next to it, like on heavy rail, to indicate that the limit applies only when taking a turnout.

There are also two similar signs at Queens Wharf showing when the tram is clear of the crossover.

Patronage
Since its opening in February 2019, there have been more than one million Opal trips recorded. Its most popular month was March 2019 with 118,000 trips recorded in that month alone.