Sydney’s inner west light rail line could be out of action for up to 18 months in order to fix significant cracking found on all 12 trams. NSW Transport Minister Rob Stokes said that amount of time is the “worst-case scenario” and he expects to have the problems rectified and the service back on track sooner than that. But until then “the safety advice has been for these vehicles to be withdrawn from service until they can be fixed.” A replacement service has been in place this week and is already transporting 5,000 passengers a day, Stokes said. About 1,000 similar trams are in use around the world, as well as in Newcastle and Canberra, and Stokes said the cracking that was found during routine maintenance by Transport for NSW is likely a design flaw that will have global implications. “A lot of countries will be looking at what happens …