"We reject suggestions from Yarra Trams that our iconic rolling restaurants are not safe," Mr O'Brien said. "Yarra Trams has inspected our trams weekly since 2010 and up until two weeks ago had given us the all clear to run. How we can go from safe one week to unsafe the next? It is perplexing to say the least."

The company wants Transport Minister Jacinta Allen to intervene and set a more reasonable deadline on the "bureaucratic deadlock", Mr O'Brien said, warning the current approach would see 60 employees immediately forced out of work.

After 35 years, and more than 3 million customers, the tram restaurants had not had any events that resulted in a serious injury to an employee or customer, he said.

Nicolas Gindt, CEO of Yarra Trams, said the operator would continue to support the tramcar restaurants, but that concerns for the safety of patrons and employees was its primary concern.

“While we appreciate that this decision is difficult for the restaurant tram patrons and employees, we cannot allow trams to run on the network that do not meet safety standards,” he said.