Railways and Tramways of Australia

Monorail dream

 

The Sydney monorail began service on 21 July 1988.

 

Sydney’s Darling Harbour featured a large goods yard that was closed in 1984. The New South Wales Government then redeveloped the site as a major retail and tourist precinct.

 

Bids were sought for public transport between the central business district and Darling Harbour. A monorail system designed by Swiss company Von Roll was chosen. Its advocates claimed that it was a futuristic transport mode for Sydney and would be a popular service.

 

The monorail operated on a 3.6-kilomtere loop with services operating anticlockwise on the single track. A complete circuit of the loop typically took around 12 minutes. There were eight stations.

 

The monorail’s track was a steel box girder and was located on steel columns raised five to six metres above the ground. Part of the monorail’s track was built across the old Pyrmont Bridge, but services were usually able to continue when the bridge was open for ships to pass.

 

Each monorail train had seven articulated carriages seating a total of 56 passengers, with up to 114 standing. The length of each train was 32 metres. The trains ran on rubber wheels at a normal operating speed of 33 km/h.

 

The monorail was controversial since its inception, with many opponents. It never became the popular attraction that was envisaged. The New South Wales Government purchased it in 2012 with a view to closing it down and dismantling the track. Ironically, the monorail attracted large numbers of passengers before it operated for the last time on 30 June 2013.

 

One of the monorail cars is displayed at the Powerhouse Museum’s Discovery Centre at Castle Hill. It serves a reminder of when the monorail brought dreams of a different public transport future to Sydney.

 

Bibliography

R Allen, ‘City people mover promises to pay for itself’, Australian Railway, vol. 2, no. 1, February/March 1988, pp 7–10.

‘Sydney farewells maligned monorail’, Railway Digest, vol. 51, no. 8, August 2013, p 10.

‘Sydney’s monorail closes’, Trolley Wire, no. 334, August 2013, pp 14–17.

R Bremner & K Date, ‘The Sydney monorail’s control system’, Railway Digest, vol. 26, no. 7, July 1988, p 245–9.