Australasian Railway Association chief executive officer Danny Broad reflects on Sydney’s light rail development ahead of the ARA’s Light Rail conference on March 1 & 2.
I stopped by at the Central Station light rail stop in Sydney yesterday on the way to meetings reflecting that Sydney once had the largest tramway in Australia and the second largest tram network in the Commonwealth.
Trams served the inner suburbs of Sydney from 1879 to 1961 with patronage peaking in 1945 at 405 million passenger journeys (that’s half of today’s entire national passenger rail patronage!) but, with the advent of cars and buses, as in many cities around the world, trams became a ‘victim of their own success’ and were seen as the cause of road congestion. As a result, against public preference, Sydney tramways were gradually closed from the 1930’s onwards to make way for vehicles.
Today, almost 60 years later, Sydney is effectively reinvesting as it builds a modern light rail network. It’s certainly not the only city here in Australia, or around the world for that matter to be installing light rail lines where tram tracks once ran.
Many of the multiple light rail projects in planning, construction, operation or expansion around Australia and overseas will be detailed at our Light Rail Conference on 1 and 2 March and I encourage you to join us. The full agenda is available here.
We’re expecting around 150+ light rail colleagues to attend so if you work in or have an interest in the light rail space, I encourage you to book your ticket to the premier light rail event of the year. Click here to register. I hope to see you and your team there!