A depot on Tangarra Street in Croydon Park, near Kembla Street and Coronation Parade, served the lines. As the University of Queensland historian Peter Spearritt has argued, there were a number of reasons for that, including the relative strength of the tramway unions and the “much more demure” attitude of the RACV compared with the NRMA in Sydney, which aggressively attacked the tram system. If our elected officials had done their goddamn jobs & just extended Metrorail (elevated) along the same route like they originally promised to do, we would have gotten rapid transit AND still had non-gridlocked traffic in that area. Public transport is often times inconvenient, can be more expensive (hell, take a look at the cost of last minute train journeys in the UK vs just hopping in the car and driving the 100 miles - a last minute train ticket can cost multiple times that of the car journey) and can often be less comfortable (spending 8 hours with the entire side of your body pressed hard against a stranger, not many peoples idea of comfort...). Services operated from Circular Quay. When (hopefully not if!) Its a beaut shot. It seems obvious with hindsight that no city’s traffic problem could be “resolved” so easily, but the desire in the postwar years to open up streets to motor vehicles, and particularly the lure of the private car, was intense. In 1929, a P-class tram crashed into a barber's shop on the corner of Quay and Ultimo Roads near Central Station. This line commenced at Manly (The Esplanade), proceeded north along Belgrave Street, past the turnoff for The Spit, at Raglan Street, then along Pittwater Road. Loan Act of 1890 No 33a: "An Act to authorize the raising of a Loan for the Public Service of the Colony and for other purposes. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-12/sydneys-original-tram-network-what-happened-curious-sydney/9610328, https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/in-1961-sydney-motorists-were-happy-to-see-the-trams-go-20151027-gkjhui.html, https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/shooting-through-sydney-tram, https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/from-the-archives-sydney-takes-a-final-tram-ride-20190220-p50z48.html, http://tools.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/AI2/Entity.aspx?Path=\Item\4011, "1957 NORTH SYDNEY | Flickr – Photo Sharing! The government diverted people off highways and forced them onto trains because of a policy from pre-WWII where few had cars so trains were the natural escape route. Cities with millions of people need to have both elevated and subway systems to connect their major destinations via different routes. There were no accidents or roadwork involved. And yet you just proposed a form of zoning. Many street corners where trams turned were 'cut-back' to allow space for trams to turn, and subsequently many buildings on such corners still have rounded fronts. It was electrified in 1900, and moved into government ownership in 1914. These tracks were also used as the city route for some eastern and south-western routes during busy periods as opposed to Elizabeth Street. A feature was the tram only viaduct over Barcom Avenue and Boundary Street in Darlinghurst as the line headed into MacDonald Street. They are limited to driving on tracks, which have to be laid and maintained.5. At Malabar a single line branched off to serve Long Bay Gaol. – Authorized what was later known as the Clovelly Line. The car boom seemed unstoppable at the time but in 1955 there were only about 15 cars for every 100 people in Australia, a figure that has since quadrupled. Try changing a route on a light rail system. This massively slowed things down in an emergency, of coursd. The second period covers the time until the Wynyard line was opened across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932, and the third from then until the general closure of the system in 1958. – altered the route of the Northbridge line between Cammeray and the Long Gully Bridge, and authorized its extension to East Willoughby and branches to what was later the Northbridge terminus, to Middle Cove and an extension of the main line from East Willoughby to Castle Cove. [27th August, 1880.]". Try this experiment: get the software used to render 'city underwater' images... and run it with *today's* sea levels. Restless public transport enthusiasts say a map of the massive former transport system at its peak, which was uploaded on to social media today, shows how Sydney stuffed up it’s public transport and city planning when the tracks were pulled apart in 1950s and ’60s. I want a special shout out to Premier Cahill whose corruption has caused a haze of pollution that can be seen all the way to the Blue Mountains and damned us to the traffic hell we endure daily and are still paying for. In 1949 three representatives of the London Passenger Transport Board recommended to the NSW government that Sydney cancel an order for 250 new trams and replace the entire system with buses by 1960. Your response to a valid point was merely to loosen your belt and "drop trou." Saying that you should only have a separated train modality (metro or commuter rail) doesn't make sense since these modalities by design have more space in between stops, so people need a way to get from their home/work to the metro or train station. Well done. Takes many hours to evacuate coastal US cities even after roads are double used (both sides turned the same direction). In fact it's better for everyone if they can get around, because then they can work more easily, care for relatives more easily, and generally participate in society and be less of a burden on the state. The name ‘toastrack’ referred to the equally-spaced vertical divisions between the bench seats. The round cut rock wall opposite Mosman Bay ferry wharf was cut back to allow a balloon loop for the trams. Wilson's 1917 map shows the route leaving Kogarah Station (no loop), then Gray Street, across Kogarah Road, and thence by a ROW to Copyright © 2020 SlashdotMedia. The haste was such that it makes you feel they knew they had made a terrible mistake. Adelaide had a very good tram network that was also ripped up in the 1950s to make way for cars. I know it's such a big what if but I always find myself thinking it. The line turned into Darling Street to the terminus at Darling Street Wharf. Zoning is social engineering at its worst. The Rushcutters Bay Tram Depot, which served this line, was located on New South Head Road at Rushcutters Bay on the north side of the road. Buses work much better. Back in the late 1980s, Dade County spent a small fortune synchronizing the traffic lights along US-1 between downtown Miami and Homestead & optimizing their timing to turn South Dixie Highway into a road that was a half step below a freeway. “Not everybody had cars back then so it was just how you got around. Pitt-street Tramway Act of 1861 No 12a: "An Act for the construction of a Tramroad from the Redfern Railway Terminus to the Semi-Circular Quay. They didn't just shut down the tram systems, they actively destroyed them. Ever been on the bay in really bad weather? I don't even own a car :-). The closure was so rapid that tram lines were tarred over and the overhead wires removed the same night trams finished just to make sure there was no going back. The line opened in 1882 as a steam tramway to Botany, and electric services commenced in 1903. It was extended to High Street, Randwick in 1881 (in which year the Randwick Tramway Workshops also opened) and to Coogee in 1883, and electric services were introduced in 1902. They end up being worse than riding the bus, with any perceived cost savings over the bus coming from running it less frequently than the bus, thus having less capacity. This then lead to policy being adopted that when a line was closed, infrastructure such as overhead wires and tracks had to be removed within 24 hours after the last tram to prevent services being reinstated. Set up congestion pricing so that outsiders have to pay to drive in the dense suburbs and inward, and charge *everyone* who wants to drive in the downtowns, even if they live there -- this way the roads are kept uncongested for vital delivery trucks, taxis, etc. And there was no Dumbarton, San Rafael or San Mateo bridges either so what needed to go there ALSO used the bay bridge or a ferry. [29], Lines ran along Booth Street, Parramatta Road, Ross Street, St Johns Road, Mt Vernon Street and Catherine Street, as well as Taylor Street. As motor cars became more popular, there was less and less room on Sydney's narrow streets for both trams and cars so the trams were removed and replaced by buses which flow with the traffic rather than obstruct it. The history of the North Sydney tramway system can be divided into three periods – the first from the original opening in 1886 to 1909, when the McMahons Point line opened. Its maximum street trackage totalled 291 km (181 miles) in 1923. Why is a self driving bus any better than a regular driven bus in terms of replacing trams? This led to the government's calling on overseas transport experts to advise the city on its post-war transport issues, and this led to the recommendation that closure of the system was the best option for the state of NSW. parramatta road is 6-7 lanes wide along its length but other streets are only 4 lanes wide. Maybe make the outer suburbs not even government-funded at all, but private corporations that are responsible for paying for all their roads/water treatment/sewers/etc. In 1902 the workshops were renamed the Randwick Tramway Workshops.[61]. The purchase removed the contractual restrictions on expanding the light rail network and ... On tests up to three trams were coupled together allowing a maximum capacity of 600 passengers if required. The most famous of all Sydney’s electric trams were the O class or ‘toastrack’ trams. Once they had a great network of street cars and other mass transit options, but they ripped it all up in favor of making more room to drive and park cars. The Hague also has an excellent tram network, Rotterdam too. In 1949 part of the line from the city to Watsons Bay was closed, only to reopen within a year thanks to well-organised protests from prosperous eastern suburbs residents. Trams were phased out in favour of buses. The line was single track throughout, with a passing loop on Frenchmans Road. Authorized the first permanent electric line forming part of the main system. C-Class trams 31 and 44 were specially fitter with stretcher bearers to assist with the troop movements and were used on this extension. One Friday afternoon it took me 90 minutes to drive that 2km. A light rail train can carry up to 4 times more people than a bus in far more comfort, dont pollute at point of use and unlike battery buses dont have a limited range. The depot was demolished to make way for housing. “Not that I enjoy destroying things, mind you. The purchase removed the contractual restrictions on expanding the light rail network and allowed the government to dismantle the ... On tests up to three trams were coupled together allowing a maximum capacity of 600 passengers if required. Unlike today, this quite often preceded urban development. A completely different political and social environment would have had to have existed for Sydney to retain its trams. The. https://innersydneyvoice.org.a... [innersydneyvoice.org.au]. It really was an act of vandalism. But most of the system was actively destroyed rather than abandoned. Re:Building out tram lines now is foolish. Their route is on average about 10km, and the tram goes about 30km/h average, so let's say it takes half an hour to run the whole length including stops. Though services ran from Circular Quay and from Railway Square (from 1923). We've disabled Quick Reply for this thread as it was last updated more than six months ago. It then ran, first alongside, then later along King Street beside the Randwick Tramway Workshops, then ran in its own reservation to Belmore Road.