I have a love for metro systems: trains, trams, subway cars, all of it to me speaks of travel without the need of polluting cars, where a passenger can board, take a book from a pocket, and relax and read along the way.  I’ve been on metros in many major cities of the world, including London, Moscow, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and Paris, but I’ve yet to go to Australia.  One day, I hope to find myself in Sydney, who, like Los Angeles, once had a tram system, then lost it, and is only now seeing that system return.  In fact, Sydney once had the largest system of trams in all of Australia, only to have it completely vanish.  However, about twelve years ago, a new system came online, a light rail service that ran originally from Central Station to Ultimo and Darling Harbour.

If I were to find myself today in Sydney five star hotels, I think I might brush off the fine dining and elegant clubs and seek out instead the Sydney Tramway Museum, in order to learn what happened to these trams.

The first tram in Sydney (as well as Australia) was a drawn by horse in 1861, and traveled from the Railway Station to Circular Quay.  The idea was not simply to satisfy the needs of passengers but also business, moving freight from the railway wagons.  The line was closed, though, when people realized that the track necessary for the tram destroyed the wheels of carts upon crossing them.  This first experiment lasted only five years, closing in 1966.  Twelve years later, a steam tramway was introduced, with success.  The lines were electrified near the end of the century in 1898, converting most of the systems by 1910.  In the 1930s, the trams linked the station with the city and the Circular Quay.  At its height, Sydney’s system of trams was its largest in 1933, with trams traveling over 290 kilometers of track.  With the introduction of other types of transport, and due to the fact that the system was built in sections, it became easy for the tracks to close down, one part at a time, until, on a night in 1957, the Sydney tramway system was gone completely.

Whenever I’m in a city with a metro system, I find my way to their transport museums, and Sydney would certainly be no exception.  There, you’ll be able to see this past come alive — able to view a number of tram types, and even an example of a grass burning car, as well as a prison tram.

Trams of Sydney is a post from: Surfing The Channel

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