title: Simeon (Gospel of Luke)

text: While both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches agree on the date of Candlemas as the 40th day after Christmas, in accordance with the Mosaic Law, the difference in the marking of Christmas on 25 December resulted from a theological dispute on the replacement by the Gregorian Calendar of the older Julian Calendar. 25 December currently occurs 13 days later on the Julian Calendar than on the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian revision of the calendar occurred in 1582, well after the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Christian churches in 1054. Consequently, many Orthodox Christians celebrate the feast of Saint Simeon on 16 February. As mentioned above, the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates Saint Simeon on the day after the Feast of the Presentation, i. e. 3 February. However, for those churches that use the Julian Calendar, 3 February is on 16 February of the modern Gregorian Calendar.


title: Simeon (Gospel of Luke)

text: The Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the Nativity of Christ on 6 January, and so its celebration of the Presentation, which its denominates The Coming of the Son of God into the Temple, is on 14 February.


title: Public execution

text: A public execution is a form of capital punishment which "members of the general public may voluntarily attend." This definition excludes the presence of only a small number of witnesses called upon to assure executive accountability. The purpose of such displays has historically been to deter individuals from defying laws or authorities. Attendance at such events was historically encouraged and sometimes even mandatory.


title: Public execution

text: While today most countries regard public executions with distaste, they have been practiced at some point in history nearly everywhere. At many points in the past, public executions were preferred to executions behind closed doors because of their capacity for deterrence. However, the actual efficacy of this form of terror is disputed. They also allowed the convicted the opportunity to make a final speech, gave the state the chance to display its power in front of those who fell under its jurisdiction, and granted the public what was considered to be a great spectacle. Public executions also permitted the state to project its superiority over political opponents.


title: Public execution

text: There are reports of public executions in early Islam, especially for sodomy and for refusal to convert to Islam from Christianity.


title: Public execution

text: Documented public executions date back to at least the late medieval period, and peaked in the later sixteenth century. This peak was due in part to the witch trials of the early modern period. In the late Middle Ages, executions used increasingly brutal methods designed to inflict pain on the victim while still alive and to generate a spectacle in order to deter others from committing crimes.The cruelty of the mode of execution (including the amount victims were tortured before the actual execution) was also more or less extreme depending on the crime itself. Punishments often invoked the "purifying" powers of earth (burial), water (drowning), and fire (burning alive). Victims were also decapitated, quartered, hanged, and beaten. Bodies or body parts were often displayed in public places and authorities took pains to ensure that remains would stay visible for as long as possible.


title: Public execution

text: However, the death penalty was not used in all parts of Europe. Vladimir the Great abolished the death penalty in Kievan Rus' following his conversion to Christianity in 988.


title: Public execution

text: During the seventeenth century, premortem torture was used increasingly less, and instead bodies were desecrated after death and for display purposes. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, the number of capital punishments in Western Europe had fallen by about 85% from the previous century as the legal system shifted toward one that considered human rights as well as a more rational approach to criminal justice that centered around identifying the best methods for deterrence. However, there were several resurgences throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, especially during times of social unrest. Executions were condemned by eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinkers like Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria. Enlightenment thinkers were not universally opposed to public executions, however—many anatomists found executions useful because they supplied healthy body parts to study and experiment on. People also found postmortem torture (which was typically part of a public execution) disrespectful to the dead and believed that it could prevent the victim from getting into heaven.


title: Public execution

text: In Europe, the 19th and early 20th centuries saw a shift away from the spectacle of public capital punishment and toward private executions and the deprivation of liberty (e.g. incarceration, probation, community service, etc). This coincided with a general tendency to shield all death from public view.


title: Public execution

text: In Great Britain, 1801 saw the last public execution at Tyburn Hill, after which all executions in York took place within the walls of York Castle (but still publicly) so that "the entrance to the town should not be annoyed by dragging criminals through the streets." In London, those sentenced to death at the Old Bailey would remain at Newgate Prison and wait for their sentences to be carried out in the street. As at Tyburn, the crowds who would come to watch continued to be large and unruly. The last public execution in Great Britain occurred in 1868, after which capital punishment was carried out in the privacy of prisons.


title: Public execution

text: In France, authorities continued public executions up until 1939. Executions were made private after a secret film of serial killer Eugen Weidmann's death by guillotine emerged and scandalized the process. Disturbing reports emerged of spectators soaking up Weidmann's blood in rags for souvenirs, and in response President Albert Lebrun banned public executions in France for "promoting baser instincts of human nature."


title: Public execution

text: Public executions as a cultural practice, having been common in Western Europe, were brought to colonies in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.


title: Public execution

text: The last public execution in the United States occurred in 1936. As in Europe, the practice of execution was moved to the privacy of chambers. Viewing remains available for those related to the person being executed, victims' families, and sometimes reporters.


title: Public execution

text: Frances Larson wrote in her 2014 book "Severed: A History of Heads Lost and Heads Found:""For as long as there were public executions, there were crowds to see them. In London in the early 19th century, there might have been 5,000 to watch a standard hanging, but crowds of up to 100,000 came to see a famous felon killed. The numbers hardly changed over the years. An estimated 20,000 watched Rainey Bethea hang in 1936, in what turned out to be the last public execution in the U.S."


title: Public execution

text: According to Amnesty International, in 2012 "public executions were known to have been carried out in Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Somalia." Amnesty International does not include Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen in their list of public execution countries, but there have been reports of public executions carried out there by state and non-state actors, such as ISIL.


title: Public execution

text: Kuwait has sometimes executed people in public. The prisoners are taken to the gallows and once a senior police officer gives the signed, the prisoners are hanged.


title: Gross value added

text: In economics, gross value added (GVA) is the measure of the value of goods and services produced in an area, industry or sector of an economy. "Gross value added is the value of output minus the value of intermediate consumption; it is a measure of the contribution to GDP made by an individual producer, industry or sector; gross value added is the source from which the primary incomes of the System of National Accounts (SNA) are generated and is therefore carried forward into the primary distribution of income account."


title: Gross value added

text: GVA is a very important measure, because it is used to determine gross domestic product (GDP). GDP is an indicator of the health of a national economy and economic growth. It represents the monetary value of all products and services produced in the country within a defined period of time. "In comparing GVA and GDP, we can say that GVA is a better measure for the economic welfare of the population, because it includes all primary incomes. From the point of view of the society as a whole GDP, despite its disadvantages, is probably a better measure for economic growth and welfare, because it includes also NET INDIRECT TAX (indirect taxes minus subsidies) which are the financial basis for the collective consumption of the society."


title: Gross value added

text: As the total aggregates of taxes on products and subsidies on products are only available at whole economy level, Gross value added is used for measuring gross regional domestic product and other measures of the output of entities smaller than a whole economy.


title: Gross value added

text: GVA can be used for measuring of the contribution to GDP made by an individual producer, industry or sector. For instance, to analyze the productivity of the market sector, one can use GVA per worker or GVA per hour. The measure preferred by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the Productivity Database is GVA per hour.


title: Gross value added

text: At the company level, GVA refers to the net income of a produced particular good. "Once the consumption of fixed capital and the effects of depreciation are subtracted, the company knows how much net value a particular operation adds to its bottom line. In other words, the GVA number reveals the contribution made by that particular product to the company's profit."


title: Gross value added

text: Over-simplistically, GVA is the grand total of all revenues, from final sales and (net) subsidies, which are incomes into businesses. Those incomes are then used to cover expenses (wages & salaries, dividends), savings (profits, depreciation), and (indirect) taxes.


title: Gross value added

text: GVA is sector specific, and GDP is calculated by summation of GVA of all sectors of economy with taxes added and subsidies are deducted.


title: Rajat Sharma

text: Rajat Sharma (born 18 February 1957) is an Indian journalist and businessperson who is the chairman and Editor-in-chief of India TV, an Indian news outlet. Sharma is known for his show "Aap Ki Adalat" in which he is seen interviewing politicians and celebrities in a courtroom-like setting.


title: Rajat Sharma

text: Sharma was born 18 February 1957 in Sabzi Mandi, Delhi. He grew up with his 6 brothers and 1 sister. He did his schooling from Ramjas School. He did his higher studies from the Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) and joined Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad. He was elected as General Secretary in Delhi University Students Union in 1977.


title: Rajat Sharma

text: After having completed his Master's degree (M Com), he was hired as a researcher by Janardan Thakur, a journalist who had just quit Ananda Bazar Patrika to start a new syndicate column. Subsequently, he joined the Onlooker Magazine as a trainee and then went on to become its editor in 1985. By this time, Rajat Sharma had shifted base to Mumbai. After having spent three years at Onlooker, he joined Sunday Observer as an editor and later on The Daily again as the editor.


title: Rajat Sharma

text: It was in 1992 that he bumped into Zee TV’s Subhash Chandra during a flight to Delhi and it was in the midst of a casual conversation that the concept of "Aap Ki Adalat" took shape. In 1993, the first episode of "Aap Ki Adalat" was shot for Zee TV with Lalu Yadav, the former-Chief Minister of Bihar. Rajat Sharma has interviewed more than 750 guests on his show and recently "Aap Ki Adalat" celebrated 21 years of broadcast thereby making it the longest running show in India’s television history. He also hosts the prime time show "Aaj Ki Baat" on India TV.


title: Rajat Sharma

text: He was President of Delhi Cricket Association. He, however resigned only one month into his job citing corruption and various "pulls and pressures"


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name of American musician James C. Heath (born 1959) as well as the name of his Dallas, Texas-based psychobilly trio. Heath is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. A "Prick" magazine reviewer called Heath the "godfather of modern rockabilly and psychobilly".


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: The group formed in 1986, playing its first gigs in Dallas' Deep Ellum neighborhood. The core members are Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath on guitars and lead vocals, and Jimbo Wallace on the upright bass. The band signed to Victory Records in 2012, and released its 12th studio album, "Whole New Life," on November 30, 2018.


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: The band plays rock and roll with influences from 1950s country, surf, punk, big band, swing, and rockabilly standards.


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: Heath was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, where he was raised with an appreciation of rock, electric blues and rockabilly. He was influenced by country music artists such as Junior Brown, Willie Nelson, and Merle Travis. He played in local bands until 1985 when he gained notice in Dallas as "Reverend Horton Heat", the moniker bestowed by the owner of the Deep Ellum neighborhood nightclub where he played.


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: Adding bassist Jimbo Wallace and drummer Taz Bentley in 1989, Reverend Horton Heat recorded for Sub Pop at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle and Crystal Clear in Dallas, which made up the majority of material on Reverend Horton Heat's debut album, "Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em" (1990). For the next album, the band recorded with Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers producing at Ardent Studios in Memphis: "The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of the Reverend Horton Heat" (1993).


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: Interscope Records joined with Sub Pop to co-release the band's third album "Liquor in the Front" (1994). Al Jourgensen of Ministry produced the album.


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: Scott Churilla replaced Bentley as drummer in the mid-1990s, and the band released "It's Martini Time" in 1996. The album brought the band its first "Billboard" chart success, reaching number 165 on the "Billboard 200". The band covered the boogie standard "Rock the Joint", and the song "It's Martini Time" was a minor hit. Later that year, Heath brought his street preacher style to the television series "", and he appeared on "The Drew Carey Show" in 1997.


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: The 2000 album "Spend a Night in the Box" was released through Time Bomb Recordings, with Paul Leary producing. The style was a return to straight-ahead rockabilly songs. The album rose through "CMJ" charts to peak at number 2 in May.


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: The song "Like a Rocket" served as the theme for the 2002 Daytona 500 autosports race. The band featured the song on their next album, "Lucky 7".


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: Victory Records signed Reverend Horton Heat in 2012, and Scott Churilla returned to the band as drummer, playing for the next five years. An album titled "Rev" was released on January 21, 2014. A YouTube video for a single on the album, "Let Me Teach You How to Eat," preceded the album on November 12, 2013. "Rev" rose to number 111 on the "Billboard 200", becoming the band's highest-charting album. The band toured as opening act for Motörhead, and recorded rock and roll songs with Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister, though the tapes are unreleased. Reverend Horton Heat also backed a number of other artists such as Unknown Hinson, Jello Biafra and Deke Dickerson.


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: In 2017, drummer Churilla was replaced by Arjuna "R.J." Contreras, formerly of the band Eleven Hundred Springs. Matt Jordan of West Virginia joined the band playing piano and organ as well as supporting vocals. They released the album "Whole New Life" in 2018.


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: In 2021, Heath and Wallace teamed with drummer Slim Jim Phantom (Stray Cats) to form a side project: The Jimbos.


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: "Psychobilly Freakout", and later "Wiggle Stick", were both featured in video segments on the show "Beavis and Butt-Head". The song "I Can't Surf" was part of the soundtrack of the video game "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3", published in 2001. "Psychobilly Freakout" was used on a commercial for Buell American Motorcycles and a slightly altered version was featured in the game "Guitar Hero II" and later on "Guitar Hero Smash Hits". Their song "Baddest of the Bad" is featured on the soundtrack to "Tony Hawk's Proving Ground". The 1997 video game "Redneck Rampage" also includes two of their songs, "Wiggle Stick" and "Nurture My Pig!". The song "Big Red Rocket of Love" is featured in the video games "The Sims 3", "MotorStorm" and "", and a slightly altered version of the song was featured in a 1999 television commercial for the Mazda Miata. The song "Pride of San Jacinto" is featured on the video game "Hot Wheels Turbo Racing". The song "Let Me Teach You How to Eat" was featured in a 2017 Subway commercial. The song "Mad, Mad Heart" is featured in the video game "Far Cry 5".


title: The Reverend Horton Heat

text: Heath has a signature guitar from the Gretsch Guitar company, the 6120RHH. One of his favorite vintage guitars is a 1954 Gibson ES-175, which he rarely plays on the road since its wiring buzzes in certain venues. His favorite amplifier was the Fender Super Reverb but is now the Gretsch Executive.


title: Order of Friendship

text: The Order of Friendship (, "") is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts have been aimed at the betterment of relations with the Russian Federation and its people. The design of order was created by Alexander Zhuk. Its statute was later amended by presidential decree 19 of 6 January 1999, presidential decree 1999 of 7 September 2010, presidential decree 1631 of 16 December 2011, and presidential decree 308 of 16 March 2012. It can trace its lineage to the Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples, also designed by Alexander Zhuk.


title: Order of Friendship

text: The Order of Friendship is awarded to Russian and foreign nationals for special merit in strengthening peace, friendship, cooperation and understanding between nations, for fruitful work on the convergence and mutual enrichment of cultures of nations and peoples; for the active conservation, development and promotion of the cultural and historical heritage of Russia; for great contribution to the implementation of joint ventures with the Russian Federation, major economic projects and attracting investments into the economy of the Russian Federation; for broad charitable activities.


title: Order of Friendship

text: The badge of the Order of Friendship is made of gilded silver and enamels. It is a pentagonal star created from diverging golden rays. On the obverse at the center of the star is a terrestrial globe, with the oceans covered in blue enamel. The globe is surrounded by a green enamelled wreath of olive branches. On the reverse is the inscription "Peace and Friendship" () and the etched serial number of the individual award. The distance between opposite tips of the star is 44 mm.


title: Order of Friendship

text: The badge of the order is connected by a ring through the suspension loop to a standard Russian pentagonal mount covered with an overlapping 24 mm wide green silk moiré ribbon with 6 mm wide light blue stripes along its edges. When worn in the presence of other Orders and medals of the Russian Federation, the Order of Friendship is located immediately after the Order of Honour.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Trams are a major form of public transport in Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria, Australia. As of May 2017, the Melbourne tramway network consists of of double track, 493 trams, 24 routes, and 1,763 tram stops. The system is the largest operational urban tram network in the world. Trams are the second most used form of public transport in overall boardings in Melbourne after the commuter railway network, with a total of 206 million passenger trips in 2017–18.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Trams have operated continuously in Melbourne since 1885 (the horse tram line in Fairfield opened in 1884, but was at best an irregular service). Since then they have become a distinctive part of Melbourne's character and feature in tourism and travel advertising. Melbourne's cable tram system opened in 1885, and expanded to one of the largest in the world, with of double track. The first electric tram line opened in 1889, but closed only a few years later in 1896. In 1906 electric tram systems were opened in St Kilda and Essendon, marking the start of continuous operation of Melbourne's electric trams.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Victoria's public transport system was reorganised in 1983 and saw the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board absorbed into the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which was in turn absorbed by the Public Transport Corporation in 1989. The network has been operated under contract since the commencement of franchising, following the privatisation of the Public Transport Corporation in 1999. The current private operator contracted to run Melbourne's tram system is Keolis Downer, trading as Yarra Trams.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Ticketing, public information and patronage promotion are undertaken by Victoria's public transport body, Public Transport Victoria. The multi-modal integrated ticketing system, myki, currently operates across the tram network.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: At some Melbourne intersections (most within the CBD), motor vehicles are required to perform a hook turn, a manoeuvre designed to give trams priority. To further improve tram speeds on congested Melbourne streets, trams also have priority in road usage, with specially fitted traffic lights and exclusive lanes being provided either at all times or in peak times, as well as other measures.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Melbourne's first tram was a horse tram from Fairfield railway station to a real estate development in Thornbury; it opened on 20 December 1884, and was closed by 1890. Seven horse tramlines operated in Melbourne, three were built by the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company (MTOC), while the other four were built by different private companies.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The MTOC's three lines fed their cable tram system: Victoria Bridge cable tram terminus to Kew (Boroondara Cemetery), opened in 1887 and closed in 1915 after its sale to Kew Council for conversion to a Prahran & Malvern Tramways Trust electric line; Hawthorn Bridge cable tram terminus to Auburn Road, via Burwood Road, Power Street and Riversdale Road, opened in 1890 and closed on 31 January 1916 after being sold to the Hawthorn Tramways Trust for conversion to electric traction; and the Zoo line, from the Royal Parade cable line to Melbourne Zoological Gardens, opened on 10 March 1890 and closed in November 1923. The Zoo line was Melbourne's last horse tram and the only line still in operation at the formation of the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB), however it was destroyed by fire during the 1923 police strike; the MMTB took the decision not to reopen it, thus ending Melbourne's horse tram era.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Melbourne's cable tram system has its origins in the MTOC, started by Francis Boardman Clapp in 1877, with a view to operate a Melbourne tram system. After some initial resistance, he successfully lobbied the government who passed the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company Act 1883 on 10 October 1883, granting the company the right to operate a cable tram system in Melbourne. Although several lines were originally intended to be horse trams, and the MTOC did operate three horse tram lines on the edges of the system, the core of the system was built as cable trams.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Act established the Melbourne Tramways Trust (MTT), which was made up of the 12 municipalities that the MTOC system would serve. The MTT was responsible for the construction of tracks and engine house, while the MTOC built the depots, offices and arranged for the delivery or construction of the rolling stock. The MTT granted a lease to operate the system until 1 July 1916 to the MTOC, with the MTOC paying 4.5% interest on the debts incurred by the MTT in building the system.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The first cable tram line opened on 11 November 1885, running from Bourke Street to Hawthorn Bridge, along Spencer Street, Flinders Street, Wellington Parade and Bridge Road, with the last line opening on 27 October 1891. At its height the cable system was one of the largest in the world, with of double track, 1200 gripcars and trailers and 17 routes covering (103.2 route km or 64.12 route miles).


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: On 18 February 1890, the Northcote tramway was opened by the Clifton Hill to Northcote & Preston Tramway Company. This was Melbourne's only non-MTOC cable tram, built by local land speculators and was operated as an independent line, feeding the Clifton Hill line.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: When the lease expired on 1 July 1916, all the assets of the MTT and MTOC cable network were taken over by the Melbourne Tramways Board (MTB). The MMTB was formed on 1 November 1919, taking over the MTB cable tram network, with the Northcote tramway and the tramway trusts transferred to the MMTB on 20 February 1920.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: From 1924 the cable tram lines were progressively converted to electric trams, or abandoned in favour of buses, with the last Melbourne cable tram operating on 26 October 1940.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The first electric tram in Melbourne was built in 1889 by the Box Hill and Doncaster Tramway Company Limited—an enterprise formed by a group of land developers—and ran from Box Hill railway station along what is now Station Street and Tram Road to Doncaster, using equipment left over from the Centennial International Exhibition of 1888 at the Royal Exhibition Building. The venture was marred with disputes and operational problems, and ultimately failed, with the service ceasing in 1896.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: After this venture failed, electric trams returned on 5 May 1906, with the opening of the Victorian Railways Electric Street Railway from St Kilda to Brighton, and was followed on 11 October 1906 with the opening of the North Melbourne Electric Tramway & Lighting Company (NMETL) system, which opened two lines from the cable tram terminus at Flemington Bridge to Essendon and Saltwater River (now Maribyrnong River).


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Victorian Railways line came about when Sir Thomas Bent became Premier. A leading land boomer, he stood to benefit from construction of the line, through the increased value of his large land holdings in the area, and pushed through the legislation to enable to building of the line by the VR in 1904.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The VR tram was called a "Street Railway" and was built using the Victorian Railways broad gauge instead of the cable tramway standard gauge of , and connected it with the St Kilda railway station, which would allow trams to be moved along the St Kilda railway line for servicing at Jolimont Yard. The line was opened in two stages, from St Kilda railway station to Middle Brighton on 5 May 1906 and to Brighton Beach terminus on 22 December 1906.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: A fire at the Elwood tram depot on 7 March 1907 destroyed the depot and all the trams. Services resumed on 17 March 1907 using four C-class trams and three D-class trams from Sydney, which were altered to run on VR trucks salvaged from the fire. These trams sufficed until Newport Workshops built 14 new trams. The St Kilda to Brighton Beach Electric Street Railway closed on 28 February 1959 and was replaced by buses.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: VR opened a second, standard gauge, electric tramway from Sandringham railway station to Black Rock on 10 March 1919, it was extended to Beaumaris on 2 September 1926. The service was withdrawn on 5 November 1956 and replaced with buses.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The North Melbourne Electric Tramway & Lighting Company (NMETL) was an electricity and tramway company that operated from 1906 to 1922. The tramway section was taken over by the MMTB on 1 August 1922 and the electricity section taken over by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria in 1922.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Victorian Government of Sir Thomas Bent approved an application by Mr Morgan to build a tramway system in the Essendon area on 29 March 1904, with a poll of ratepayers overwhelming supporting the proposition on 29 July 1904 (2874 votes to 146). Mr Morgan transferred the concession to the NMETL, which had been formed to build the system and provide electricity to the area. Under the concession the NMETL was to construct a tramway and provide electricity within the municipalities of Essendon and Flemington for 30 years, it also mandated a service at least every 20 minutes and had provisions for the undertaking to become property of the municipalities involved earlier than the prescribed 30 years.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The NMETL bought land on Mount Alexander Road for its offices, car barn and power house, with the foundation stone laid by the Mayors of Essendon and Flemington on 24 May 1905, and the first rail laid a month later by Premier Bent. The system opened on 11 October 1906 operating two routes from Flemington Bridge—one to Essendon via Mount Alexander Road, Pascoe Vale Road, Fletcher Street and onto Mount Alexander Road again (with a short branch line along Puckle Street), and the second to Saltwater River via Mount Alexander Road, Victoria Street, Racecourse Road, Epsom Road, Union Road and Maribyrnong Road. The system was approximately and was operated by 25 motor cars and 10 trailers.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Due to demand for better public transport in Melbourne's inner suburbs of Prahran and Malvern the Prahran & Malvern Tramways Trust Act 1907 was enacted. Councillor Alex Cameron of Malvern, who led the push for a municipal tramway service, was elected chairman of the trust by both Malvern and Prahran councils. Construction began on its first tram line in 1909 with the first passenger service commencing on 30 May 1910. Using overhead wires to feed electricity to the trams, the network continued to expand greatly and profitably. In 1913, the region covered by the PMTT was extended and, thus, representatives of the Hawthorn and Kew councils were also included on the board. In 1916 Camberwell council representatives were also included.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) was formed in July 1919 to take control of Melbourne's cable tram network, six of the seven electric tramway companies, and the last horse tram. By 1940, all cable and horse tram lines had been abandoned or converted to either electric tram or bus operation.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Alex Cameron was its full-time chairman. The tramway network had both cable and electric traction and had been constructed by different bodies without any uniform system. Under Cameron, the MMTB brought these systems under its control, extending the electric lines, and converting the existing cable-system to electric traction. To solve operational and maintenance problem the MMTB introduced in 1923 the iconic W-class tram and phased out the other models. The Preston Workshops were constructed about this time to manufacture and maintain the new tram fleet.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In March 1923 Alex Cameron went overseas to investigate traffic problems. He returned next year confirmed in his long-held opinions that electric trams were superior to buses and that overhead wires were preferable to the underground conduit (cable) system. Alex Cameron remained chairman there until 1935. He died a few years later in 1940, the same year the last of the cable tram services in Melbourne ended.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The MMTB generated further patronage by developing the enormous Wattle Park in the 1920s and 1930s, it had inherited Wattle Park from the Hawthorn Tramways Trust with the HTTs takeover by the MMTB.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: After World War II other Australian cities began to replace their trams with buses. However, in Melbourne, the Bourke Street buses were replaced by trams in 1955, and new lines opened to East Preston and Brunswick East.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Melbourne's tram usage peaked at 260 million trips in 1949, before dropping sharply to 200 million the following year in 1950. However usage defied the trend and bounced back in 1951, but began a gradual decline in usage which would continue until 1970. During the same period bus use also went into decline and buses have never proved as popular with passengers as trams at any time in Melbourne's history.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: By the 1970s Melbourne was the only Australian city with a major tram network. Melbourne resisted the trend to shut down the network for three major reasons: partly because the city's wide streets and geometric street pattern made trams more practicable than in many other cities; partly because of resistance from the unions; and partly because the Chairman of the MMTB, Sir Robert Risson, successfully argued that the cost of ripping up the concrete-embedded tram tracks would be prohibitive. Also, the infrastructure and vehicles were relatively new, having replaced Cable Tram equipment in only the 1920s–1940s. This destroyed the argument used by many other cities, which was that renewal of the tram system would cost more than replacing it with buses. There is a 1960s colour film called "Citizen Tram" on YouTube commissioned by Risson too.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: By the mid-1970s, as other cities became increasingly choked in traffic and air pollution, Melbourne was convinced that its decision to retain its trams was the correct one, even though patronage had been declining since the 1950s in the face of increasing use of cars and the shift to the outer suburbs, beyond the tram network's limits.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The first tram line extension in over twenty years took place in 1978, along Burwood Highway. The W-class trams were gradually replaced by the new Z-class trams in the 1970s, and by the A-class trams and the larger, articulated B-class trams in the 1980s.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In 1980, the controversial Lonie Report recommended the closure of seven tram lines. Public protests and union action resulted in the closures not being carried out.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The MMTB, along with the metropolitan railway assets of VicRail, were absorbed into the newly formed Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) on 1 July 1983, while the regional assets of VicRail were absorbed by the State Transit Authority (STA). The MTA was formed to co-ordinate and operate the Melbourne public transport system, during 1986–87 an integration of rail, tram and bus divisions took place, with the operations, maintenance and administration of these departments fully integrated by 11 April 1988.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The MTA introduced a new green and yellow livery and uniform design, with a new logo, showing the integration of Melbourne's public transport system, replacing the MMTB logo, and introduced a new time-based integrated ticketing system, for all modes of Melbourne's public transport.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: An Automatic Vehicle Monitoring system was introduced in 1985, improving communication with drivers and allowing tracking of trams throughout the network. This reduced tram bunching and improved reliability of tram services.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The St Kilda and Port Melbourne railway lines were converted to light rail lines in 1987, with the lines closed on 1 July 1987 and 11 October 1987 respectively. Trams first ran on the St Kilda line on 20 November 1987, with Port Melbourne following on 13 December 1987. The conversion consisted of the track being re-gauged from broad gauge to standard gauge , the overhead wires being converted to tramway voltage and light rail platforms built adjacent to the former stations platforms.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: As a result of the Transport (Amendment) Act 1989 the MTA and STA were merged into the Public Transport Corporation (PTC) on 1 July 1989, bringing all rail services in Victoria under one body.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: By the late 1980s, the state government was under financial pressures brought on by an economic downturn. In January 1990, the Labor government of Premier John Cain tried to introduce economies into the running of the public transport system, including the removal of tram conductors. This provoked a long and crippling strike by the tramways union in January 1990, resulting in a back-down by the government and the retention of conductors.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In the 1992 state election, the Liberals came to power under Premier Jeff Kennett, who planned to cut the costs of Melbourne's public transport network and remove conductors. OneLink were contracted in 1995 to introduce an automatic ticketing system. The tramway union, which opposed this move, went on strike during the 1997 Grand Prix. One month later the government announced plans for privatisation of the PTC. The tram conductors were replaced with ticketing machines between 1996 and 1998—shortly before the system was privatised.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: On 1 July 1997, in preparation for privatisation of the Public Transport Corporation, Melbourne's tram network was split into two businesses: Met Tram 1 (later renamed Swanston Trams) and Met Tram 2 (later renamed Yarra Trams). VicTrack, a new statutory authority within the Victorian Government, was created in 1997 to hold the ownership of land and assets relating to Victoria's tram and rail systems. In addition, a statutory office was established—the Director of Public Transport—to procure rail and tram services and to enter into and manage contracts with transport operators.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: After a tendering process the businesses were awarded as 12-year franchises, with Swanston Trams won by National Express, and the Yarra Trams business by TransdevTSL. Following a transitional period, the right to operate the two tram businesses was officially transferred from the government to the private sector under franchise agreements on 29 August 1999.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: National Express renamed Swanston Trams as M>Tram, similarly along with its M>Train suburban train business, on 1 October 2001. After several years of failing to make a profit, more than a year of negotiations over revised financing arrangements with the government, and grave concern over its future viability, National Express Group announced on 16 December 2002, its decision to walk away from all of their Victorian contracts and hand control back to the state government, with funding for its operations to stop on 23 December 2002. The government ran M>Tram until negotiations were completed with Yarra Trams for it to take-over responsibility of the whole tram network from 18 April 2004.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: On 25 June 2009, it was announced that Keolis Downer, a joint venture between Keolis and Downer EDI, would be the operator of the Melbourne tram network from 30 November 2009. The contract was for eight years, with an option for a further seven years.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: As a part of the privatisation process, franchise contracts between the state government and both private operators included obligations to extend and modernise the Melbourne tram network. This included acquiring new tram rolling stock, in addition the existing tram fleet was refurbished. Swanston Trams (M>Tram) introduced 59 new Siemens Combino (D-class) low-floor built trams by Siemens, at a cost of A$175 million, and invested approximately A$8 million in refurbishing their fleet, while Yarra Trams introduced 36 Alstom Citadis (C-class) low-floor trams, at a cost of A$100 million, and invested A$5.3 million refurbishing their fleet.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In 2003 the marketing and umbrella brand Metlink was introduced to co-ordinate the promotion of Melbourne's public transport and the communications from the separate privatised companies. Metlink's role was to provide timetables, passenger information about connecting services provided by several operators, fares and ticketing information and introduce uniform signage across the Melbourne public transport system.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Since privatisation extensions have been made to the tram system, with the $28 million extension of the 109 to Box Hill opening on 2 May 2003, a $7.5 million extension along Docklands Drive in Docklands opened on 4 January 2005, and a $42.6 million extension of the 75 to Vermont South opening on 23 July 2005.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: It was announced on 27 September 2010 that Bombardier Transportation had won a $303 million contract to supply and maintain 50 new E-class trams, the contract includes an option for a further 100. They will be built at Bombardier's Dandenong factory, with the propulsion systems and bogies coming from Bombardier's factories in Mannheim and Siegen, Germany, respectively. The trams will be 33 metres long and have a capacity of 210 passengers and are due to be in service in 2013. The first E-class tram arrived at Preston Workshops in late June 2013 for testing, with the first two E-class entering revenue service in November 2013.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In April 2012, Public Transport Victoria (PTV), a new statutory authority was formed after amendments to the Transport Integration Act 2010 and the passing of the Transport Legislation Amendment (Public Transport Development Authority) Act 2011. PTV assumed responsibility from the Director of Public Transport for the provision and administration of Victoria's transport services. It also provides information on fares, transport services and initiatives, and is responsible for overseeing and improving Victoria's public transport services.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The era since privatisation has also brought large patronage increases, an increase in platform stops, and a new ticketing system. In 1999–2000 year—when the tram system was privatised—patronage was 127.3 million per annum, this has increased almost each year since, and in the 2012–2013 year was 182.7 million passenger trips, a 4.2% year-on-year patronage increase; trams are the second most utilised public transport method, between trains and buses. Yarra Trams, the Department of Transport, and later Public Transport Victoria, committed to introduce level boarding stops to improve accessibility and safety, and comply with the Disability Discrimination Act; as of January 2014 360 accessible stops have been constructed, all since 1999.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Metcard ticketing system which operated from 1996 was switched off on 29 December 2012, leaving myki—which has been in operation on Melbourne trains since 29 December 2009, and valid on Melbourne trams and buses since 25 July 2010—as the sole ticketing system.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: At the start of 2015, the Free Tram Zone was introduced, which provided for free tram travel within the CBD, Docklands and the Queen Victoria Market, and ticketing was simplified to have just two payment zones. Primarily aimed at helping tourists move around the city centre, the Free Tram Zone was criticised by some as contributing to tram overcrowding. Between 2015 and 2019, 50 more E-Class trams were ordered by the Andrews state government, bringing the total order to 100 to be delivered by 2021.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In April 2018, the state government announced a new extension of the tram network from Caulfield. The 18 km (11.1 mi) extension would serve Chadstone, Monash University, Waverley Park and Rowville. The state government allocated $3 million to plan the route, which would be constructed in two stages, with the first running from Caulfield to Monash. In 2019 the government also allocated $4.5 million to plan for two new tram lines to the Fisherman's Bend urban renewal precinct, although it stopped short of committing to the project.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In 2020, six tram stops were rebuilt to be low-floor and accessible on Nicholson Street in Carlton as part of the Route 96 Project started in 2012 to make the entire line level-access and more separated from car traffic. Despite gradual stop upgrades, by 2021 73% of Melbourne's tram stops were still inaccessible for people in wheelchairs with initiatives like the Route 96 Project being criticised as too slow. As part of the project, Acland Street in St Kilda was closed to cars and a plaza built.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In the 2020-21 budget, the state government announced $1.48 billion for 100 next generation trams to replace older low-floor trams, to be delivered from 2025 following the completed order of 100 E-Class trams. In August 2021 the Government announced that a new maintenance and storage depot would be built at Maidstone to accommodate the new trams.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: 24 numbered routes operate with a regular schedule on Melbourne's tram network. Route numbers suffixed with the letter 'a' terminate before the usual destination, divert from the usual route, or both (due to major delays or disruptions), while services suffixed with the letter 'd' terminate or divert to their depots (at end of service).


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Melbourne tram fleet currently comprises 501 trams as of November 2014. Classification is based on the original system begun by the MMTB in 1921.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The rolling stock is part of leases to Yarra Trams, with the W-, Z-, A- and B-class trams owned by the Victorian Government, and the C1-class and D-classes are subject to lease purchase agreements, while the C2-class trams were leased from Mulhouse, France but are now state assets.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: W-class trams were introduced to Melbourne in 1923 as a new standard design. They have two equal-wheeled bogies, with all four axles powered by a separate motor; carbodies feature a distinctive "drop centre" section, allowing the passenger steps at the central doorways to be closer to the ground. A total of 756 W-class trams of 11 variants were built up until 1956, and they formed the mainstay of Melbourne's tramways system for 60 years.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: It was not until the 1980s that the W-class started to be replaced in large numbers, and by 1990 their status as an icon for the city was recognised, leading to a listing by the National Trust of Australia. Public outrage over their sale for tourist use overseas led to an embargo on further export out of the country in 1993, though recently some have been given or loaned to various Museums. Approximately 200 of the W-class trams retired since then remain stored, and the future use of these trams is unknown.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: W-class trams have been sent overseas: five went to Seattle between 1978 and 1993, where they operated on Seattle's George Benson Waterfront Streetcar Line from 1982, but suspended in 2005. Another nine are now part of the downtown Memphis tourist service, while several other US cities have one or two. The Edmonton Radial Railway Society in Edmonton, Alberta received No. 930 in 1997, and currently operates it on the High Level Bridge Streetcar heritage line.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: As of January 2015, there are approximately 230 W-class trams: about 165 are in storage, 27 are stored operational in "ready reserve", 12 run on the City Circle (the oldest W-class tram in service runs on the City Circle) and 26 are used in revenue service. In January 2010, it was announced by the new transport minister that the 26 W-class trams running the two inner city routes, would be phased out by 2012, prompting a new campaign from the National Trust of Australia. In 2010, it was proposed to better utilise the unused W-class trams by refurbishing and leasing them as "roving ambassadors" to other cities, generating revenue which could then be invested back into the public transport system. In 2011 the Victoria government committed $8 million over four years for the restoration of W-class trams, with options for new routes to be considered.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The development of new rolling stock to replace the W-class began in the early 1970s with a modern design, based on the Gothenburg, Sweden M28 design.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Z-class trams, built by Comeng, were introduced in 1975. One hundred Z1-class trams were built between 1975 and 1979, the first 80 or so entering service as Z-class before being modified. The design proved unpopular with passengers due to the limited number of doors and the seated conductor. Most of the Z1-class trams were withdrawn following the introduction of the C, D and E class trams; the last Z1-class withdrawn on 23 April 2016. Many were later sold at auctions, while others were donated to tram museums.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In 1978 and 1979, fifteen Z2-class trams were built, as a bridging order to maintain construction continuity between the Z1 and Z3-class trams. Some slight modifications were incorporated, the main visible ones being a larger anti-climber bumper and larger opening area for the driver's side-window, otherwise they resemble the Z1-class vehicles. The last Z2-class tram was withdrawn from service on 21 April 2016.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: One hundred and fifteen Z3-class trams entered service between 1979 and 1984. They were designed with an additional door on each side of the tram, the rear door improving passenger flow. Different motors and control equipment were fitted, resulting in smoother acceleration and braking compared to the Z1-class. As with the preceding Z1 and Z2-class trams, the conductor's console was removed when one-person operation was introduced in the 1990s. 111 remain in service.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The A-class trams were built between 1984 and 1987 by Comeng. They were built in two batches: 28 A1-class trams entered service between 1984 and 1985, and 42 A2-class trams between 1985 and 1986. They were similar – the major differences being the brakes, door operating mechanisms, and that the A1-class were built with trolley poles, while A2-class were the first trams for Melbourne that were equipped with pantographs only. All but one that were built remain in service at present.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Two B1-class trams were built as part of the order for 28 A1-class trams in 1984 and 1985. The B-class trams used the same traction equipment as the Z3 and A-class trams, and were designed for operating on the light rail lines. They were originally built with both trolley poles and pantographs, as well as movable steps to allow railway platform and street level boarding, however this concept was later abandoned when low-floor platforms replaced railway-height ones at the converted light rail stations. Both B1-class trams had been withdrawn by 17 December 1985.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: B2-class trams entered service between 1988 and 1994, differing from the B1-class prototypes by not having trolley poles, having dot-matrix destination displays, and non-opening windows. 130 trams were built by Comeng, and later ABB; all of which remain in service today. The B2-class was the first Melbourne tram fitted with air conditioning.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Following the privatisation of Melbourne's tram system in 1999, the private operators acquired new trams to replace the older Z-class trams. In 2001, Yarra Trams introduced the low-floor C1-class trams, a variant of the Citadis manufactured in France by Alstom. They are three-section articulated vehicles, with 36 in service.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Five C2-class trams, a five-section articulated variant of the Alstom Citadis, began running in Melbourne in 2008 after being leased from Mulhouse in France. They were dubbed 'Bumble Bees' due to the distinctive yellow colour scheme they carried when first introduced, and run exclusively on route 96. In November 2010 it was announced that the State Government was in negotiations to purchase the five C2-class trams, with the purchase finalised in 2013. They can hold 54 seated passengers and 150 standing passengers.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The C1-class trams are owned by Allco entity and are subject to a lease purchase agreement, while the C2-class trams were initially leased from Société Générale entity, they were subsequently purchased by the Victorian Government in the 2012–2013 financial year.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The German-made Siemens Combino trams were introduced by the now defunct M>Tram between 2002 and 2004. The Combino is a three-section (D1-class) or five-section (D2-class) low-floor articulated vehicle. As of 25 April 2020, 37 of the 38 D1-class and 20 of the 21 D2-class trams are available for service.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The E-class are three-section, four-bogie articulated trams, based on the Bombardier Flexity Swift design and built at Bombardier Transportation's Dandenong factory. The propulsion systems and bogies were imported from Bombardier's Mannheim and Siegen factories in Germany. Bombardier was selected on 27 September 2010 following a tendering process for 50 new low-floor trams, which was opened in 2009. The $303 million contract was for supply of 50 trams with maintenance to 2017, and included an option for a further 100 trams. The E-class trams are the first locally built Melbourne trams since the B-class in 1994.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: E-class trams are 33 metres long and 2.65 metres wide, have anti-slip flooring, are air-conditioned, have automatic audio-visual announcements and a passenger capacity of 210. A two-thirds mock up, produced for design input, was unveiled on 24 August 2011 and was displayed at the 2011 Royal Melbourne Show. Although originally anticipated to be delivered in 2012, design complexity slowed down construction, delaying delivery of the first tram.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The first two E1-class trams entered service on 4 November 2013, and the last of the fifty on 24 April 2017. In May 2015, the State Government announced it had partially taken up the option, ordering a further 20 to a slightly modified design; the first of these entered service on 13 June 2017. This updated design focused on improved safety, in response to a significant increase in passenger injuries, and implemented measures such as glare reduction to allow improved road visibility for drivers and extra handholds and grab rails for passengers. Further extensions to this order have since been made, and as of 24 February 2020 a total of 35 E2-class trams have entered service, with another five on order. Eventually, a total of 100 E-class trams will be in service.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In November 2020, plans were announced for 100 Next Generation Trams in the 2020 Victorian Budget, at a cost of around $1.5 billion. Alstom and a joint venture comprising UGL Rail and CAF were shortlisted to design and build these new trams, with the first of the new models entering service in 2025. The new low floor trams will replace the older classes of trams, which are not accessible due to their high floor designs. They are planned to be shorter than the E-Class at 25-metres long, with an option for a 35-metre long version. They are planned to carry 150 passengers with seating for 48, and will include new technology for Melbourne's fleet including on-board batteries and regenerative braking, resulting in lower power consumption.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In April 2022 the Victorian Government announced that Alstom would build 100 new trams and provide 15 years of maintenance. As part of the $1.85 billion project, a new stabling and maintenance facility will be constructed at Maidstone in Melbourne's west to house the new trams. The trams are to be based on the Bombardier Flexity 2 design, customised to Melbourne's network, and will include 65% locally made content. The tram order is the largest in Australian history and the fleet is designed to use less power than the E-Class so as not to require new power or traction infrastructure. The trams are to be known as the G-Class.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The following table lists patronage figures for the network during the corresponding financial year. Australia's financial years start on 1 July and end on 30 June. Major events that affected the number of journeys made or how patronage is measured are included as notes.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Melbourne's tram system operates on 600 volt DC electricity, provided to the over head lines by a network of 60 (as of March 2021) substations spread across the network. Electricity is supplied to these substations in either 6.6, 11, or 22 kilovolt 50 hertz AC and is then stepped down, and rectified to 600 volt DC. The overhead system is further separated into 100 sections, this is done both to maintain voltage and current across the network, and to isolate disruptions when issues relating to the electrical transmission system occur. The most common disturbances to the supply system are over height vehicles, falling tree limbs, damaged poles, and fires nearby to overhead wires.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Since 2013 Yarra Trams have been provisioning for the upgrade of substations across the network. This is due to the increased amount of current required by newer trams such as the E-class and other low-floor trams scheduled for wider deployment across the system. Additionally, they are concurrently planning for the further segmentation of the supply network; further isolating disruptions caused by disturbance to the supply system.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In January 2017, the state government announced tenders to power Melbourne's tram network with solar power, to be supplied at Mildura with a new 75 MW solar power plant by the end of 2018.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: There are currently three level crossings where trams and trains cross each other: Glenferrie Road, Kooyong; Glen Huntly Road, Glen Huntly; and Riversdale Road, Camberwell. The Glen Huntly Road crossing has been slated for removal and separation in an election commitment to expand the Level Crossing Removal project by Premier Daniel Andrews.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: To accommodate the differing voltages of the 600-volt tram and 1500-volt train systems each of these level crossings is fitted with an overhead square, which can isolate the section of overhead wiring above the crossing and apply the appropriate voltage. When the signal box adjacent to the crossing interlocks the gates for trains to pass through, 1500 volts is applied, while when the gates are up 600 volts is applied.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Historically many tram–train level crossings have operated in Melbourne, all but the aforementioned three have been grade-separated, or the tramway or railway has been abandoned. The first were built during the cable tram systems operation, with much reluctance on behalf of the Victorian Railways. Many more were built after the emergence of electric trams in 1906, often causing disputes between tramway operators and the Victorian Railways.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Melbourne's trams—especially the W-class—are an icon of Melbourne and an important part of its history and character. Trams have been featured across several media, and in tourism advertising since World War II.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The character of Nora in the novel "Monkey Grip" (1977) by Helen Garner occasionally uses trams to run errands and make daily trips around the city. Trams are heavily featured in the movie "Malcolm", one scene of the controversial film "Alvin Purple", and feature in the music video clips for the Beastie Boys' "The Rat Cage" and AC/DC's "It's a Long Way to the Top". Among songs written about Melbourne's trams are "Toorak Tram" by Bernard Bolan, and "Taking the tram to Carnegie" by the band Oscar.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Eastern Suburbs Professional Community Theatre Company, known as Theatre Works staged a performance on a route 42 (now route 109) tram entitled "Storming Mont Albert by Tram", between 26 February and 14 March 1982 as part of the Melbourne Moomba Festival. It was written by Paul Davies and directed by Mark Shirrefs and was revived in 1992 and 1998.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: For the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games a Z1-class tram was decorated as a Karachi bus by a team of Pakistani decorators. Dubbed the Karachi tram, it operated on the City Circle tourist route during the Commonwealth Games. The tram was withdrawn from service in 2007 and is now preserved in the Melbourne Tram Museum at Hawthorn tram depot, being delivered on 19 June 2015. The centrepiece of the Opening Ceremony was a flying W-class tram, specially built for the event, from original W-class plans and photos.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: In 2006 a W-class tram 965 was gifted from the City of Melbourne to Australian Mary Donaldson and her fiancé, Danish Crown Prince Frederik, on the occasion of their marriage. The tram now runs at the Danish tram museum of Sporvejsmuseet.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: On 26 October 2011, a Z3-class tram, specially liveried as a "Royal Tram" was used to convey Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, from Federation Square to Government House, along St Kilda Road during their visit to Melbourne. The "Royal Tram" was in regular service for a little over one year following the event.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: From 1978 to 1993 36 W-class trams were painted with artwork as part of the "Transporting Art" project. The idea was conceived in early 1978 by Melbourne Lord Mayor Irvin Rockman and artist Clifton Pugh, with the idea backed by then Premier Rupert Hamer. Over the lifetime of the project many notable local artists participated, including Mirka Mora, Michael Leunig, Howard Arkley and Reg Mombassa.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The idea was reprised as part of a collaboration between Arts Victoria, Yarra Trams and the Melbourne International Arts Festival in 2013. A competition launched in May 2013 to select eight designs, with one art tram to operate out of each Melbourne tram depot. The first of the new "Melbourne Art Trams", W-class 925, was launched on 30 September 2013 by then Premier Denis Napthine and Yarra Trams CEO Clément Michel, with the remaining seven trams to be introduced in the following two weeks. The last was introduced into service on 11 October 2013.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Melbourne Art Trams have continued to be refreshed and introduced annually since 2013, with over 48 artists featured. In 2018 the program was extended for a further 3 years through to 2021, and featured the first interactive art tram (using augmented reality) designed by Dr Troy Innocent for Melbourne International Games Week. The trams can be found on the network throughout the year by entering the corresponding tram number in the "myTRAM" feature of the tramTRACKER app.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The prime rail related statute in Victoria is the Transport Integration Act, the Act was enacted to provide an overarching legislation for Victoria's transport system. It requires state agencies charged with providing transport services to work together towards an integrated transport system, and requires state planning bodies to consult the Act when making decisions that will affect the transport system.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Act establishes Transport Safety Victoria (TSV) as Victoria's safety regulator for bus, maritime and rail transport. The Act also establishes the independent office of the Director, Transport Safety, though who the regulatory function is carried out with the support of TSV.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Another important piece of legislation is the Rail Management Act 1996, whose purpose is to establish a management regime for Victoria's rail infrastructure.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The safety of tram operations in Melbourne is regulated by the Rail Safety Act 2006 which applies to all rail operations in Victoria.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The Act establishes a framework containing safety duties for all rail industry participants and requires operators who manage infrastructure and rolling stock to obtain accreditation prior to commencing operations. Accredited operators are also required to have a safety management system to guide their operations. Sanctions applying to the safety scheme established under the Rail Safety Act are contained in the Part 7 of the Transport (Compliance and Miscellaneous) Act 1983.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: The safety regulator for the rail system in Victoria including trams is the Director, Transport Safety, whose office is established under the Transport Integration Act 2010.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Rail operators in Victoria can also be the subject of no blame investigations conducted by the Chief Investigator, Transport Safety. The Chief Investigator is charged by the Transport Integration Act with conducting investigations into rail safety matters including incidents and trends.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Ticketing requirements for trams in Melbourne are mainly contained in the Transport (Ticketing) Regulations 2006 and the Victorian Fares and Ticketing Manual.


title: Trams in Melbourne

text: Rules about safe and fair conduct on trams in Melbourne are generally contained in the Transport (Compliance and Miscellaneous) Act 1983, and the Transport (Conduct) Regulations 2005.


title: Cold shock response

text: Cold shock response is a series of neurogenic cardio-respiratory responses caused by sudden immersion in cold water.


title: Cold shock response

text: In cold water immersions, such as by falling through thin ice, cold shock response is perhaps the most common cause of death. Also, the abrupt contact with very cold water may cause involuntary inhalation, which, if underwater, can result in fatal drowning.


title: Cold shock response

text: Death which occurs in such scenarios is complex to investigate and there are several possible causes and phenomena that can take part. The cold water can cause heart attack due to severe vasoconstriction, where the heart has to work harder to pump the same volume of blood throughout the arteries. For people with pre-existing cardiovascular disease, the additional workload can result in myocardial infarction and/or acute heart failure, which ultimately may lead to a cardiac arrest. A vagal response to an extreme stimulus as this one, may, in very rare cases, render "per se" a cardiac arrest. Hypothermia and extreme stress can both precipitate fatal tachyarrhythmias. A more modern view suggests that an autonomic conflict — sympathetic (due to stress) and parasympathetic (due to the diving reflex) coactivation — may be responsible for some cold water immersion deaths. Gasp reflex and uncontrollable tachypneia can severely increase the risk of water inhalation and drowning.


title: Cold shock response

text: Some people are much better prepared to survive sudden exposure to very cold water due to body and mental characteristics and due to conditioning. In fact, cold water swimming (also known as ice swimming or winter swimming) is a sport and an activity that reportedly can lead to several health benefits when done regularly.


title: Cold shock response

text: The physiological response to a sudden immersion in cold water may be divided in three or four discrete stages, with different risks and physiological changes, all being part of an entity labelled as Cold Water Immersion Syndrome. Although this process is a continuum, the 4 phases was initially described in the 1980s as it follows:


title: Cold shock response

text: The first stage of cold water immersion syndrome, the cold shock response, includes a group of reflexes lasting under 5 min in laboratory volunteers and initiated by thermoreceptors sensing rapid skin cooling. Water has a thermal conductivity 25 times and a volume-specific heat capacity over 3000 times that of air; subsequently, surface cooling is precipitous. The primary components of the cold shock reflex include gasping, tachypnea, reduced breath-holding time, and peripheral vasoconstriction, the latter effect highlighting the presumed physiologic principle (i.e., warmth preservation via central blood shunting). The magnitude of the cold shock response parallels the cutaneous cooling rate, and its termination is likely due to reflex baroreceptor responses or thermoreceptor habituation.


title: Cold shock response

text: The mammalian diving reflex consists of a series of adaptive reflexes which occur after submersion in cold water. The physiologic purpose of the diving reflex is not well understood, but is believed to be oxygen conservation, a quality evident in diving mammals, in which the response is most pronounced. The diving reflex encompasses bradycardia (cardiac parasympathetic control), expiratory apnea (respiratory control center), peripheral vasoconstriction (vasomotor control center), adrenal catecholamine release, and vascular splenic contraction.


title: Cold shock response

text: Early models of cold water immersion syndrome focused primarily on sympathetic responses, but recent research suggests sympathetic and parasympathetic coactivation (autonomic conflict) may be responsible for some cold water immersion deaths. Although reciprocal activation between sympathetic (cold shock) and parasympathetic (diving response) systems is commonly adaptive (follow one another), simultaneous activation appears to be associated with ectopic beats or arrhythmias. Cold water induced rhythm disturbances are common, albeit frequently asymptomatic. In most humans, head-out cold-water immersion results in sympathetically driven sinus tachycardia with variable ectopic beats and supraventricular or junctional arrhythmias. These cold water immersion induced arrythmias appear to be accentuated by parasympathetic stimulation resulting from facial submersion or breath holding. Even vagally dominant diving bradycardia caused by isolated cold water facial immersion frequently is interrupted by supraventricular arrhythmias or premature beats. In theory, atrioventricular blockade or sinus arrest due to profound parasympathetic dominance might result in syncope or sudden cardiac death, but these rhythms tend to be rapidly reversed by lung stretch receptor activation associated with breathing. As such, a vagally produced arrest scenario is likelier during entrapment submersion than in flush drowning.


title: Cold shock response

text: It is possible to undergo physiological conditioning to reduce the cold shock response, and some people are naturally better suited to swimming in very cold water. Beneficial adaptations include the following:


title: Cold shock response

text: Cold water immersion tactics are often employed by athletes to speed up muscle recovery and reduce inflammation and soreness after intense exercise or after trauma.


title: Cold shock response

text: Cold shock has been described in several species and at least part of the physiology is similar, as described above in the Diving Reflex.


title: Cold shock response

text: A cold shock is when bacteria undergo a significant reduction in temperature, likely due to their environment dropping in temperature. To constitute as a cold shock the temperature reduction needs to be both significant, for example dropping from 37 °C to 20 °C, and it needs to happen over a short period of time, traditionally in under 24 hours. Both prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells are capable of undergoing a cold shock response. The effects of a cold shock in bacteria include:


title: Cold shock response

text: The bacteria uses the cytoplasmic membrane, RNA/DNA, and ribosomes as cold sensors in the cell, placing them in charge of monitoring the cell's temperature. Once these sensors send the signal that a cold shock is occurring, the bacteria will pause the majority of protein synthesis in order to redirect its focus to producing what are called cold shock proteins (Csp). The volume of the cold shock proteins produced will depend on the severity of the temperature decrease. The function of these cold shock proteins is to assist the cell in adapting to the sudden temperature change, allowing it to maintain as close to a normal level of function as possible.


title: Cold shock response

text: One way cold shock proteins are thought to function is by acting as nucleic acid chaperones. These cold shock proteins will block the formation of secondary structures in the mRNA during the cold shock, leaving the bacteria with only single strand RNA. Single strand is the most efficient form of RNA for the facilitation of transcription and translation. This will help to counteract the decreased efficiency of transcription and translation brought about by the cold shock. Cold shock proteins also affect the formation of hairpin structures in the RNA, blocking them from being formed. The function of these hairpin structures is to slow down or decrease the transcription of RNA. So by removing them, this will also help to increase the efficiency of transcription and translation.


title: Cold shock response

text: Once the initial shock of the temperature decrease has been dealt with, the production of cold shock proteins is slowly tapered off. Instead, other proteins are synthesized in their place as the cell continues to grow at this new lower temperature. However, the rate of growth seen by these bacterial cells at colder temperatures is often lower than the rates of growth they exhibit at warmer temperatures.


title: Cold shock response

text: Cold shocks cause the repression of several hundreds of genes in the bacterium "E. coli". Many of these genes are repressed quickly after the decrease in temperature, while others are only affected several hours after this event. The repression mechanism is described in. Shortly, during cold-shocks, cellular energy levels decrease. This hampers the efficiency by which DNA gyrases remove positive supercoils produced by transcription events, whose accumulation eventually blocks future transcription events.


title: Cold shock response

text: Many of the genes repressed during cold shock are involved in cell metabolism. By knowing the mechanism by which these genes respond, one can potentially tune it, in genetically modified bacteria, to modify at which temperature is the response to cold shock activated. This modification could reduce the energy costs of bioreactors.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu Rongji (; IPA: ; born 23 October 1928) is a retired Chinese politician who served as Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1998 to 2003 and CCP Politburo Standing Committee member from 1992 to 2002 along with the Chinese Communist Party's general secretary Jiang Zemin. In his capacity as First Vice-Premier and Premier, Zhu was regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy in the 1990s and early 2000s. He also served as Mayor of Shanghai from 1988 to 1991 and Communist Party secretary of Shanghai from 1989 to 1991. He served alongside CCP leader Jiang Zemin and had a testy relationship with Jiang. Zhu had a reputation as a tough but pragmatic administrator. During his office, China's economy saw double digit growth. Zhu was also much more popular than his predecessor Li Peng among the Chinese public. However, Zhu's opponents stipulate that his tough and pragmatic stance on policy was unrealistic and unnecessary, and many of his promises were left unfulfilled. Zhu retired in 2003 and has not been a public figure since.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu Rongji was born in Changsha, Hunan, to a family of intellectuals and wealthy landowners. According to family tradition, his family was descended from Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming dynasty. His father died before he was born, and his mother died when he was nine. Zhu was subsequently raised by his uncle, Zhu Xuefang, who continued to support Zhu's education.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu was educated locally, and after graduation from high school he attended the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing. At Tsinghua he became a student leader and took part in activities organized by the Communist Party. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949, the same year that the Communists captured Beijing, ended the Chinese Civil War, and declared the beginning of the People's Republic of China. In 1951 he became the chairman of the Tsinghua Student Union.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu then began his career as a civil servant in the Northeast China Ministry of Industries, where he was appointed the deputy head of its production planning office. From 1952 to 1958 he worked in the State Planning Commission, where he was group head, deputy director, and deputy section chief. In 1957, during the Hundred Flowers Campaign, he criticized Mao Zedong economic policies, saying that they promoted "irrational high growth". His comments led to him being subsequently identified as a "rightist" in 1958, for which he was persecuted, demoted, disgraced, and thrown out of the Communist Party. In the late 1950s his family was also persecuted for their pre-revolutionary status as wealthy landowners, and their family mansion was destroyed.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: After his persecution as a rightist, Zhu was sent to work at a remote cadre school. In 1962, following the famine and industrial collapse caused by the Great Leap Forward, Zhu was pardoned (but not politically rehabilitated), and assigned to work as an engineer at the National Economic Bureau of the State Planning Commission. During the Cultural Revolution Zhu was purged again. From 1970 to 1975, he was sent for "re-education" to a May Seventh Cadre School, a special farm for disgraced government workers and former Party members. During his five-year exile in the countryside Zhu was a manual laborer, raising pigs and cattle, carrying human waste, and planting rice.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Shortly after CCP Chairman Mao Zedong's death in 1976, Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping initiated economic and political reforms that led to Zhu's rehabilitation, and he returned to work in the government. From 1976 to 1979. he worked as an engineer in the Ministry of Petroleum Industry, and served as the director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Industrial Economic Bureau. In 1978, he was formally rehabilitated and allowed to rejoin the Communist Party. During the late 1970s, Zhu's positions were relatively low-profile, but after Deng consolidated his power in the 1980s and the government became more meritocratic, Zhu was promoted to work in increasingly demanding positions. He had few connections in the army, the Party, or the bureaucracy, and was able to rise through the ranks of the government mostly through his own skills. In 1979, he was reassigned to the State Economic Commission, where he served as vice-minister from 1983 to 1987.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: After being politically rehabilitated and reentering the civil service, Zhu resumed connections with his alma mater, Tsinghua University. In 1984, he was named the founding dean of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. He held his position as dean at Tsinghua for 17 years, throughout most of his subsequent public career. As he became increasingly able to meet and make connections with foreign academics and world leaders, he was able to promote a close academic relationship between Tsinghua and M.I.T. Later in his career, he gained a reputation as a mentor to subordinates, a habit that observers interpreted as a product of his position as an educator at Tsinghua.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: In 1987, Zhu was promoted to work as the mayor of Shanghai, which was then China's largest, most industrially developed, and wealthiest city. During Zhu's term as mayor of Shanghai he oversaw large, rapid improvements in telecommunications, urban construction, and transportation, especially in Pudong, a large and high-profile Special Economic Zone.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: It was during his time as Mayor of Shanghai that he developed a public reputation as a strong opponent of corruption, and a talented economic reformer. His efforts to simplify the process by which the government approved business deals earned him the nickname "One-Chop Zhu". In order to improve relations with the foreign business community and solicit outside advice, he formed an advisory committee composed of foreign businessmen. While working in Shanghai he began his long working relationship with subsequent CCP General Secretary Jiang Zemin (then party chief of Shanghai) which continued throughout Zhu's career.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: He also became known while administering Shanghai for his strict adherence to law and Party discipline, and for his refusal to grant extrajudicial favours to those close to him. Once in 1988, when some family members asked him over dinner if he could bend China's residency ("hukou") laws to allow them to move to Shanghai, he turned them down, responding: "What I can do, I have done already. What I cannot do, I will never do."


title: Zhu Rongji

text: In 1989, when large-scale protests broke out in numerous cities around China, there were also large, well-organized protests in Shanghai. Unlike the government's violent crackdown of protesters in Beijing, Zhu was able to peacefully resolve the local situation. At one point a group of protesters derailed and burnt a train, for which several participants were arrested and executed, but there was otherwise little loss of life, and Zhu was able to retain significant public sympathy throughout the event. Following the violent resolution of the Tiananmen protests there was a brief struggle for control of the Chinese government within the Communist Party. Zhu was promoted to work as the Communist Party secretary of Shanghai in 1989. Zhu assisted Deng in regaining his prestige and authority by assisting Deng in organizing his 1992 Southern Inspection Tour.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: In 1990, Zhu led a delegation of Chinese mayors to meet with local and national political and business leaders from the United States, attempting to maintain and improve political and business relationships which had been threatened following the suppression of the 1989 protests. Some of the officials Zhu met on the visit included Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Bob Dole, and Nancy Pelosi. During the visit Zhu gave unscripted speeches in Chinese and English, and was praised by American journalists, politicians, and business leaders for his frankness, openness, energy, and technical background.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Although he demonstrated a desire and ability to enact large, thorough legal and economic reforms, and political reforms aimed at making the Chinese government more efficient and transparent, Zhu made it clear that he did not support dramatic political change. When asked by Western journalists in 1990 whether he was China's Gorbachev, he responded "No, I am China's Zhu Rongji".


title: Zhu Rongji

text: In 1991, largely due to his success in managing the development of Shanghai, Zhu was promoted into the central government in Beijing, where he focused on planning and resolving economic projects and issues as the vice-premier of the State Council under Premier Li Peng and the director of the State Council Production Office. He also served concurrent terms as the governor of the central bank, overseeing monetary policy. His first issues after arriving in Beijing were to restructure the debts owed by state owned enterprises, and to simplify and streamline the process by which farmers sold their grain to the government. Zhu was able to enact relatively far-reaching reforms largely via the broad support of Deng Xiaoping, who noted that Zhu "has his own views, dares to make decisions, and knows economics." In comparing Zhu to his peers when considering his appointment, Deng said, "The current leadership do not know economics... Zhu Rongji is the only one who understands economics."


title: Zhu Rongji

text: When a global recession occurred in 1992, China was challenged with excessive investment in fixed assets, excessive monetary supply, and chaotic financial markets. Inflation rates reached over 20%. As the director of the central bank and the vice-premier and head of the State Council Economic and Trade Office, Zhu resolved these issues by limiting monetary supply, eliminating duplicate low-tech industrial projects, devaluing the Chinese currency, cutting interest rates, reforming the tax system, and investing state capital in the transportation, agricultural, and energy sectors. He attempted to reform the state banking sector by introducing greater oversight to discourage reckless lending, introducing "asset management companies" to manage the many large, non-performing loans that many of China's banks had accumulated, and privatizing large banks in order to expose them to free market competition. Following Zhu's management, the Chinese economy was able to maintain stable growth and avoid dramatic price fluctuations. Zhu's ability to stabilize the economy led to his being named to the CCP Politburo Standing Committee at the 14th Party Congress in 1992, after which he also retained his other posts.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: The most active opponent of Zhu's plans to reform the Chinese economy was Premier Li Peng. Li and Zhu clashed in the first two years following Zhu's appointment as vice-chairman; but, by the time that he suffered a heart attack in 1993, Li had lost influence within the government and was no longer able to block many of Zhu's reforms. That Zhu's reforms had quickly gained wide support within the central government was made clear at Li's confirmation process during the Party's 1992 convention: although Li's appointment was already agreed upon by China's top leadership, Zhu received a relatively large and unusual protest vote by many of the Party delegates. Throughout Zhu's term as both vice-premier and premier, Li was successful in blocking Zhu from introducing regulation or government oversight over China's power companies, and they remained private monopolies essentially run by Li's family throughout Zhu's term of office.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu once used the term "patriotic organizations" in a speech in the mid-1990s to describe the triads, citing their history as secret societies in resisting foreign invaders and playing a key role in Chinese history. This was interpreted by some observers as indicating a cultural connection between the triads and the Communist Party.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu and Deng's vision of China's future was not simply one of rapid growth. It included a programme of continuous reforms, which they believed would be necessary to achieve this growth. There were two major goals Zhu believed were necessary to achieve this vision, which Zhu began while serving as China's vice-premier. His first goal was to rationalize and centralize the fiscal and financial system. The second goal was to streamline and strengthen the state sector.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu's first task was to regain central control over the country's burgeoning yet dangerously decentralized tax revenues. Before reforming China's tax system he went in person to each province in China to sell a new "tax sharing" idea modeled on the U.S. federal tax system. Under this new policy, revenue from provinces would go first to Beijing, and then the other portions would be returned to the provinces. Following the introduction of this tax system, the central government's cut of total revenue increased by over 20% in a single year, balancing the central budget and putting Beijing's resources on track to reliably increase over time. In order to manage China's financial affairs he appointed himself governor of the People's Bank of China with jurisdiction over monetary policy and financial regulations, bringing the highly decentralized banking system more closely under Beijing's control.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu's next task was to deal with China's four colossal state-owned banks, which had accumulated billions of dollars in nonperforming loans due to profligate local lending to unprofitable state-owned enterprises (SOEs). He quarantined these bad loans in newly created "asset-management companies", and recapitalized the banks through government bonds in a restructuring strategy. After his promotion to premier in 1998, Zhu saved the biggest SOEs and allowed thousands of other small and medium-sized firms and factories to go under, assuming that new growth in the private sector could alleviate any surge of unemployment. This strategy resulted in millions of workers losing their "iron rice bowl" guarantees of cradle-to-grave employment, health care benefits, and pensions. Zhu challenged managers to base salaries on performance and market competitiveness and made profitability and productivity determining factors in managerial and executive promotions within surviving SOEs.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: All these economic reform efforts by Zhu did not dismantle the state sector, but streamlined it with the goal of accomplishing Deng's new form of marketized socialism. Although many in the West were skeptical when Deng announced that he would pursue "socialism with Chinese characteristics," Zhu's reforms helped increase China's wealth and power while leaving it under the firm grip of the Communist Party.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: In a joint news conference with US president Bill Clinton, Zhu Rongji elucidated the Chinese position on three questions relating to Cross-Strait relations: i) the influence of United States Armed Forces on cross-strait relations; ii) whether there is a timetable for Chinese unification; iii) is he willing to visit Taiwan? Zhu answered that, regarding China's policy toward Chinese unification, he would not comment further and pointed to previous statements by CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin. He claimed that China had upheld the one country, two systems principle and preserved a high degree of autonomy in Hong Kong and compared Taiwan to Hong Kong, noting that China allows Taiwan to retain its own army, and was prepared to let the leader of Taiwan become the deputy leader of China in the event of unification.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu's position on Taiwan changed over the course of his time as premier. During the 2000 ROC presidential election in Taiwan, Zhu warned Taiwanese voters not to vote for the DPP, which favors distancing Taiwan from China, stating, "those who are pro-Taiwan independence will not have a good ending." His attitude towards Taiwan changed after the election. Three years later, in his farewell speech to the National People's Congress in 2003, Zhu encouraged Chinese politicians to use softer language in discussing the issue of Mainland China-Taiwan relations, saying that Mainland China and Taiwan should improve economic, transportation, and cultural ties in order to improve their relationship. During the speech Zhu accidentally referred to China and Taiwan as "two countries" before quickly correcting himself and referring to them as "two sides". The incident was reported in Taiwanese media as a "gaffe".


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu was chosen to become China's fifth premier in March 1998, largely due to his success in managing large macroeconomic projects. During his term Zhu continued to focus on issues related to economic development. He generally favoured stable, sustainable development supported by robust macroeconomic control measures and a tight monetary policy. He continued to promote investment in China's industrial and agricultural sectors.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Early in his term he began a programme of privatization that lasted throughout his period in office, during which China's private sector experienced rapid growth. He responded to the 1997 Asian financial crisis by dramatically reducing the size of the state bureaucracy, maintaining strict capital controls, and through funding massive infrastructure projects. During the crisis he refused to devalue the Chinese yuan, and angrily defended his decision when some international leaders suggest that he do so. Following the crisis, Zhu advocated improving international financial markets in order to prevent harmful market speculation.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: He was successful in reducing the size of the official bureaucracy by half by the end of his term in 2003, though the bureaucracies in districts far from the capital continued to expand, leading to increased tension between some local governments and the farmers whose income supports them. His reform of state-owned enterprises led to approximately 35% of their workforce, forty million workers, being laid off over five years.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu introduced limited reforms in China's housing system, allowing residents to own their own apartments for the first time at subsidized rates.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: By the end of Zhu's term as premier, the Chinese economy was stable and growing confidently. While foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide halved in 2000, the flow of capital into mainland China rose by 10%. As global firms scrambled to avoid missing the China boom, FDI in China rose by 22.6% in 2002. While global trade stagnated, growing by one percent in 2002, mainland China's trade soared by 18% in the first nine months of 2002, with exports outstripping imports. he meets South Korea President Kim Dae-jung and Lee Hee-ho in 2001.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu earned a reputation as a strong, strict administrator, intolerant of corruption, nepotism, or incompetence. In Beijing he was sometimes known by the nicknames "Madman Zhu" and "Boss Zhu" for his hard, transparent work ethic and his tendency to disregard the bureaucratic status quo. In addition to investigating individual examples of potential official corruption, Zhu attempted to make the Chinese government more regulated and transparent by increasing the number and powers of independent regulatory commissions, downsizing government bureaucracy, opening government positions to outside experts and reforming the government's system of hiring and promotion based on merit, and improving administrative predictability by strengthening the rule of law.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Before Zhu came to office, employment in China's bureaucracy was largely obtained via tenure and political connections. Zhu attempted to modernize the bureaucracy's seniority system and improve the government's ability to attract and retain talented workers by opening senior- and mid-level positions to public selection, and by reforming the civil service's examination system. He made a strong effort to attract and promote economists and technocrats from academia and the private sector to work under him as advisors in the central government, and was successful in attracting a small core of several dozen such officials to work under and advise him. By opening mid-level appointments to outside experts, he was able to ensure that the Chinese bureaucrats who were promoted during his term as premier were generally supportive of his ideas.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: During his term as premier Zhu engaged in frequent large-scale efforts to fight official corruption. At one time he was reported to have read 16,000 letters a year, sent to him by aggrieved citizens, in order to get a better understanding of the circumstances of ordinary Chinese people. He made frequent official visits outside Beijing to inspect working conditions, especially in the south. Shortly after coming to office, in 1998, he required the People's Liberation Army to relinquish its involvement in business interests that had been making high-ranking officers and their children rich, and later barred civil servants from taking part in business enterprises. He attempted to introduce stricter, more formal oversight to keep provincial leaders from receiving kickbacks from businessmen and embezzling state funds.


title: Zhu Rongji

text: Zhu's investigations into official corruption led to his discovery of numerous large-scale misdeeds by provincial officials. After discovering that 25.8 billion RMB allocated for the purchase of grain over six years had gone missing, he launched an investigation which concluding that at least 10 billion RMB had been instead used to construct hotels and luxury apartments, and on speculative business investments. In one inspection tour in 2001, Zhu uncovered the largest corruption ring in modern Chinese history, discovering that many of the highest-ranking officials in Fujian had conspired to operate a massive smuggling ring. In the resulting purge, numerous top-level Party leaders and governors were arrested and executed. On one inspection tour, after noticing that dikes had broken because funds allocated to their proper construction had been stolen by corrupt officials, he flew into a rage over such "son-of-a-bitch construction projects", which were not uncommon in China at the time. Referring to his efforts to fight corruption, he once said, "I will prepare 100 coffins for the corrupt, and one for me, for I will die of fatigue". Much of his efforts to increase the role of the private market in the economy, to improve legal protection for businesses, and to introduce a true commercial banking system were implicitly undertaken in the interest of reducing the kind of official corruption and waste that he uncovered through his personal investigations of government officials.