Sydney Monorail (1)

As Usual, It Was Political

Sydney City Council wanted a Light Railway (tram) but State Transport Minister Laurie Brereton ...

... had a "better" idea. In order to support tourist development on the banks of the Darling River, he announced that there would be a Monorail.

It opened in 1988 and was designed to be driverless - although the fully automatic mode was never used.

Trains ran on a single track in one way "circle" as shown below in red.

It sort-of served the city centre area and for those unfamiliar with the geography of "Sinny" here is a modern aerial view.

Top right is the "Coat Hanger" with Circular Quay ferry terminal below and the right of the approach tracks. Darling Harbour fills the left hand half of the above view. Note the road crossing the harbour towards its blunt inland end.

This is Pyrmont Bridge, once the main route from one side of the harbour to the other.

It had/has a swing section controlled from a sweet but diddy tower.

Interestingly (?) the bridge (opened in 1902) had an unusual power source.

Sydney's recycling policy (in 1902!) used up the motors from retired trams, something like this.

The monorail crossed Pyrmont Bridge and this crossing featured on many publicity photos.

There, beyond the track is the bridge control tower: and again below.

During the life of the monorail, the swing bridge swung, ironically the monorail track remained fixed; seen below with the swing section in the process of swinging.

By the time the above picture was taken, the road had become pedestrian only and the monorail was in terminal decline.

The idea, however, was not universally popular, with wide ranging opposition ...

... some of it rather gruesome.

There was a series of protests ...

... and big rallies - including one demanding that the system should be dismantled even after it was built!

The two "problems" appeared to be that it was intrusive on the city streets and detrimental to pedestrian and vehicular traffic and that it was a useless and expensive waste of money.

It was tied in to some speculative development proposals and was clearly aimed at tourists, offering little benefit to the hard-pressed Sydney commuters who would have to pay for it via their taxes.

Nevertheless the system duly opened in 1988 and looked really splendid.

The stations were quaint, "hung" on the side of buildings ...

... and perched above roadways. At one point the trains actually cut through an office/shopping block!

There were plenty of souvenirs ...

... plus excellent signage and publicity.

Despite the outward attractiveness of the system and the potential enjoyment of an intriguing ride, it was closed down in 2013.

Ironically, the protests at the closure were far more extensive and vociferous than those at the system's  opening.

So what went wrong?

 Next Monorail blog : Tuesday 27th August