Dream of Melbourne restaurant trams still alive for business owner

The owner of Melbourne’s famous restaurant tram service says he would like to resurrect it, but it would be without the 70-year-old W Class trams it formerly used.

Paul O’Brien, proprietor of the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant, said a confidential settlement had been reached to resolve legal action his company took against Yarra Trams.

The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant when it was open. Date not known.

Authorities withdrew the trams from service in late 2018 when they were deemed not to meet modern safety standards.

But Mr O’Brien says he had retained his contract to run the mobile restaurant, which has taken diners through Melbourne suburbs for more than 30 years. He said that in its later years, the service served about 70,000 customers per year, about 40 to 50 per cent of them from overseas.