Trams once shaped daily life in Sydney, long before buses and light rail took over. Photo / Supplied
From century-old trams to restored double-deckers, Sydney’s transport museums reveal a fascinating journey through the past, writes Rob Webb.
This huge city has a very complex public transport system, intriguingly one which has come full circle over the last century or so. Over time, trams gave way to diesel and trolley buses and now it’s a combination of buses and the ‘reformation’ of trams: light rail serving the south and east of the city.
I might be a bit young to recall trams operating in their heyday, but I can appreciate the huge contribution to daily life that these wooden-framed rattlers made – at their peak there were almost 1700 trams in the Sydney fleet.
You learn such a fact at the Sydney Tramway Museum in Sutherland Shire; an enjoyable half-hour train journey from Sydney’s Martin Place or Town Hall station.
Walk through the tram sheds and you’re taken back in time with a big range of Sydney trams and memorabilia on display plus examples from Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, San Francisco, Nagasaki, Berlin and Milan. You can see an acetylene burner unit that blasted away the weeds growing along the Sydney lines and I was intrigued to go inside Number 144, a full lock-up prison car that made the daily journey from the Law Courts to the Long Bay Gaol – no ticket required and generally just a one-way service!
Trams returned to Sydney as ‘light rail’ in 1997 and there is an impressive 2017 Variotram on display from the more recent era.
It’s fortunate that way back in 1950, more than a decade before trams were withdrawn from Sydney streets, four forward-thinkers approached transport authorities for a tram for preservation and that became the basis for today’s heritage attraction. It’s a totally volunteer-run working tramway with an exciting Sydney street scene development under way which will make the tourist rides even more authentic.
I was able to ride on a 120-year-old 70-seat cross-bench ‘toast-rack’ style tram – proudly stopping the traffic and making its way across Princes Highway – on the day I was there were both tourists and school-children on board.
Affordable and fascinating, entry to the museum includes unlimited tram rides and costs just $20 for adults, $10 for children, $15 for seniors, while a family ticket is $50.
I enjoyed my couple of hours at the museum – enough time to look over the exhibits and memorabilia of past transport eras before reading more about them on information boards. I’m sure enthusiasts could happily spend a day on-site.
Eager for more transport history? Next stop should be the Sydney Bus Museum at Leichhardt.
Open on the first and third Sunday of each month, the largest bus museum in the Southern Hemisphere could not be housed in more authentic surroundings and the 100+ year-old NSW Government tram (later bus) workshops are in great condition.
They also provide the perfect setting for a casual look around or a guided tour of an incredible selection of passenger vehicles – some so elderly, their wooden construction and basic braking systems mean they are just static displays these days.
The preserved buses are no strangers to the streets of Sydney: if not on assignments for movies or television commercials the vehicles leave their depot for several annual promotion occasions like the popular Transport Heritage Days or on Australia Day.
Buses are a great barometer of socio-economic eras; reflecting the shifting priorities, politics and daily realities of the city over time.
The Sydney Bus Museum has a rich heritage of memorabilia reflecting these very twists and turns via different body styles and the various chassis manufacturers, initially English and American and latterly very much European, and in some cases Australian. A black Dodge taxi out of the late 1930s and an orange FC Holden cab complete the transport heritage scene.
It’s a rare collection but you don’t have to be a transport enthusiast to enjoy what the army of volunteers maintain as a family attraction – their workdays’ camaraderie is legendary as they maintain a working museum with road-worthy vehicles and they still manage to focus on at least one major restoration per year.
Get to the museum by taking the Route 440 bus from Railway Square. Or take a vintage bus service operated by the Museum to and from Sydney Town Hall from 10am-4pm during Sunday Open Days. Tickets are available on arrival at the Bus Museum.
Your 20-minute vintage bus ride to and from the Museum is included in your entry price, paid on arrival.
With a departure every 20 minutes, it is possible to take the family (A$55 for 2 adults and 2 children) on a vintage Sydney double decker ride over the Anzac Bridge and through the Inner West area to the Museum. Adults A$22, children A$11, seniors A$16, all payable at the door.