Trams in Sydney
The Sydney tramway network served the inner suburbs of Sydney, Australia, from 1879 until 1961. In its heyday, it was the largest in Australia, the second largest in the Commonwealth of Nations after London, and one of the largest in the world.
The network was heavily used, with about 1,600 cars in service at any one time at its peak during the 1930s. In comparison, there are about 500 trams in Melbourne today.
Patronage peaked in 1945 at 405 million passenger journeys. Its maximum street trackage totalled 291 km in 1923.
A new era of light rail in Sydney began in 1997.
History
Early tramways
Sydney's first tram was horse-drawn, running from the old Sydney railway station to Circular Quay along Pitt Street.Built in 1861, the design was compromised by the desire to haul railway freight wagons along the line to supply city businesses and return cargo from the docks at Circular Quay with passenger traffic as an afterthought.
This resulted in a track that protruded from the road surface and it caused damage to the wheels of wagons trying to cross it. Hard campaigning by competing Horse Omnibus owners – as well as a fatal accident involving the leading Australian musician Isaac Nathan in 1864 – led to closure in 1866.
In 1879 a steam tramway was established in conjunction with the upcoming Sydney International Exhibition that was to be held in the Domain/Botanical Gardens area of Sydney. Originally planned by the government to be removed after the exhibition, the success of the steam tramway led to the system being expanded rapidly through the city and inner suburbs during the 1880s and 1890s.
The Steam Trams in Sydney comprised a Baldwin steam tram motor hauling one or more trailers of either single deck or double deck construction. Unlike the earlier horse tramway, the steam tramway used grooved rail for on-street running.
Preserved Sydney Steam Trams are Motor 1A, owned by the Powerhouse Museum and is usually stored at the "Discovery Centre" at Castle Hill. It is currently on loan to the Sydney Tramway Museum at Loftus, Motor 100A at the Museum of Transport & Technology, Auckland New Zealand as it was sold to Wanganui Tramways in 1910 and Motor 103A which operates with a former trailer car 93B at Valley Heights Rail Museum after previously being at Parramatta Park.
Two cable tram routes were built in Sydney. The first route ran from the original Milsons Point ferry wharf in North Sydney to near Falcon Street North Sydney and was later extended to Crows Nest. Construction of a cable line north of harbour was due to the steep terrain involved from Milsons Point to North Sydney. The second route ran from King Street Wharf on the eastern side of Darling Harbour to Ocean Street Edgecliff. Cable Trailer 23 is preserved at the Sydney Tramway Museum at Loftus.
File:Horsedrawn tram which ran between Newtown Station and St Peters colour.jpg|thumb|215x215px|Colourised photo of the horsedrawn tram which ran between Newtown and St Peters stations in 1894
Horse trams operated between Newtown and St Peters railway stations in the 1890s and between Manly and North Manly from 1903 to 1907.
In these later instances, the operation of horse tram services was to save costs in times of low patronage on lines intended for steam tram services.
Electrification
The Sydney tram power supply system was built using New York City subway electrical equipment that was adapted for tram usage. A generating plant was installed at Ultimo and White Bay Power Stations.Electrification started in 1898, and most of the system was converted by 1910. An exception was the privately owned Parramatta line built by Charles Edward Jeanneret in 1881 to Redbank Wharf where the steam tram remained until 1943 which was operated by Sydney Ferries Ltd.
After experimentation with three trams, built by John Stephenson in New York and fitted rheostatic controllers, on the Waverley extension line and later at North Sydney, the early locally built single-truck were based on US designs, with C-class saloon cars, followed by D-class combination cars. A number of other Australian and New Zealand cities also used similar designs.
Cross-bench "toast rack" trams had proved to be very efficient "crowd swallowers" in Sydney steam tram operation, so the steam tram style was adopted for later locally built electric trams. This resulted in the E-class, J-class and the K-class, and the more famous O-class, O/P-class, P-class and L/P-class bogie trams that required the conductor to collect fares from the footboard running along the side of the tram, as they had no corridor through the middle connecting each compartment.
Though revered for the number of passengers they could move, footboard trams were deathtraps for the conductors working them. On average, each day one conductor fell or was knocked off the footboard by passing motor vehicles as they became more popular. In 1923, 1924, 1925, there were 282, 289, and 233 accidents respectively to conductors on NSW tramways. The majority suffered a fractured skull. From 1916 to 1932, there were 4,097 accidents to tram employees. From 1923 to 1931, there were 10,228 accidents to passengers having falls when alighting or boarding. 63 of the falls were fatal. Of the more than 100 falls reported of conductors, one quarter died from their injuries.
In 1933 the R-class tram was introduced. It was a drop-centre saloon tram, which was being adopted elsewhere in Australia. Footboard trams were widely used until the late 1950s, despite calls as early as 1934 by the tram union for them to be modified. Four P Class trams were refitted with the same windows, centre door and internal layout as the R1 class, to create the PR1 class, but otherwise there was no modification of footboard trams to a safer corridor tram design.
Apart from the G, H and M classes, one of every electric tram class, and in some cases two or more, have been preserved by the Sydney Tramway Museum at Loftus NSW.
Demise and closure
By the 1920s, the system had reached its maximum extent. In many ways, the Sydney tram system was a victim of its own success. The overcrowded and heaving trams running at a high frequency, in competition with growing private motor car and bus use, ended up being blamed for the congestion caused by the latter.Competition from the private car and unregulated private bus operators created the perception of traffic congestion which began the gradual closure of lines from the late 1930s.
Material shortages and lack of funding caused by the Second World War had caused the system to become rundown from poor maintenance. The perception of the government was that the financial cost of upgrading infrastructure and purchasing new trams would bankrupt the state.
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.
In 1948, Premier McGirr imported three London experts to advise on road transport systems. In 1949, they produced a major report which proposed a systematic phasing out of trams by 1960. They recommended the acquisition of double-decked buses to ease traffic congestion and yield substantial financial benefits. They suggested that buses would be more efficient at handling racecourse and showground traffic. The government accepted the principle in the report.
Probably as a result of the extent of popular affection for the trams, the conversion program proceeded more slowly than the report had proposed. The prestigious Ebasco group of American transit consultants had strongly endorsed the policy in a memorandum of May, 1957. An examination of election policy speeches does not reveal political motives in the tram/bus question. The Labor Party was genuinely concerned for the travelling public's interests.
The closure was supported by the NRMA, who stood to gain from increased membership, but generally went against public opinion as most of the patronage were those who could not afford to purchase private transportation.
In the early 1950s, closure became government policy, and the system was wound down in stages. Withdrawal of services was completed on 25 February 1961 when R1 class tram 1995 returned from La Perouse to Randwick Workshops just before 4:40pm on 25 February 1961, which was driven by Jerry Valek, a Czechoslovak man from Annandale.
It was alleged after the tramways were closed that there were many other influences on the government to close down the system. These allegedly came from the rubber and petrol industries, motor vehicle manufacturers and those opposed to increased public expenditure. The allegations had some elements based on the General Motors streetcar conspiracy that occurred in the USA due to the use of "overseas experts".
City service
Circular Quay to Central Station
This was an extremely busy service for passengers transferring from suburban trains at Central, particularly prior to the opening of the city underground railway lines in 1926. Trams operated from Central station across Eddy Avenue, along Castlereagh Street via Bligh, Bent and Loftus Streets to Alfred Street, Circular Quay and returned via Pitt Street in a large anti-clockwise loop. The tram lines down Pitt and Castlereagh streets closed on 27 September 1957.These tracks were also used as the city route for some eastern and south-western routes during busy periods as opposed to Elizabeth Street. The services could also be short worked via Bent and Spring Streets at times when Circular Quay was busy or unavailable.
The sandstone viaduct onto the colonnade at Central station were built across Eddy Avenue for this service, and are being used again today by trams of a sort in the form of the Inner West Light Rail system, however they are operating in the opposite direction.