When writing my story for this week's Writing Group on the topic 'Bennelong Point' I wanted to find out about the tram depot which was on the site before the Opera House was built and I stumbled across an extraordinary story.
Back in the 1950s, various people studied traffic engineering in the US, some under a scholarship sponsored by the Myer family. They brought back an evangelical commitment to urban freeways. As one engineer from Los Angeles put it, "All large American cities that were beating traffic tangles were getting rid of trams."
In 1949, three representatives of the London Passenger Transport Board recommended to the NSW Government that they should cancel an order for 250 trams and replace the entire system with buses by 1960. At the same time, the number of privately-owned motor vehicles was increasing rapidly.
The tram network was in need of serious investment to make up for the penny-pinching of the war years so it was decided by the government of the time to get rid of trams, and they set about the process with enthusiasm. Rails were tarred over, overhead wires pulled down and the trams themselves were burnt on a hill at Randwick. Nearly 1000 trams - some only a few years old - were stripped of anything that could be sold, tipped unceremoniously on their sides, doused with sump oil and set ablaze.
And now, the trams are returning to Sydney - but at what cost? The light rail line from Circular Quay to Randwick and Kingsford is costed at $2.7bn, not to mention the effect on shops and other businesses in its path. I hope we let these new trams run for a few years before someone comes up with a better idea.
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