Patronage of Australian tram routes

[TP]

Daniel Bowen of PTUA has drawn attention to a recent article in The Age that lists the annual patronage of all Australian tram routes on recent figures, presumably sourced from PTV and other State agencies,

 https://danielbowen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/tram-patronage-fy2425.png

Tony P

[TP]

Actually, I've just found a significant error in a couple of those figures. Whoever complied this fell for the TfNSW publicity mileage figure for CSELR of 12 km. This is actually the combined mileage of the system, with the common core line measured as one route. The individual routes are actually 8.5 km each. That would make the pax per route km about 1.82 million for L2 (not 1.29) and 1.97 million for L3 (not 1.4). This elevates those two routes into serious European territory in terms of intensity of use.

Tony P

[Daniel Bowen]

Thanks Tony; updated. Turns out you can't trust Wikipedia for something as basic as tram route lengths.

https://danielbowen.com/2026/05/25/australian-tram-patronage-by-route/

or the URL you quoted for just the chart.

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[TP]

The 12 km figure for CSELR as a whole came from the original construction publicity, referring to the total length of double track constructed, not to the length of each operating route - 8.5 km for L2 and 8.6 km for L3. We're probably the only two people who are onto that fact, given the ongoing citing of "12 km" in everything one reads! When you see those actual figures against the journey time, it really hits you how slow it is. 

Tony P 

[Geoff Olsen]

Um, I am not sure that you can trust Wikipedia for anything. I have seen some pretty amazing “Facts” recorded there.

Geoff O.

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[TP]

In fairness to whoever wrote the Wikipedia article, even drawing on primary sources isn't infallible. TfNSW was misleading, or at best ambiguous, as most people would probably assume that "12 km" was the length of each route. TfNSW isn't very good at giving out technical information in general, especially after it has been mashed by the spin doctors.

Tony P

[Mal Rowe]

On 26/05/2026 21:59, Daniel Bowen wrote:

Thanks Tony; updated. Turns out you can't trust Wikipedia for something as basic as tram route lengths.

https://danielbowen.com/2026/05/25/australian-tram-patronage-by-route/

or the URL you quoted for just the chart.

Thanks Daniel, an interesting piece of work.

You say (in the article):

I am not a big one for Melbourne/Sydney rivalry, but should Melbourne, with the world’s biggest tram network, an icon of our city, be a bit embarrassed that the busiest lines are in Sydney? Perhaps.

We are not really comparing similar provisions.  

Sydney's L2 and L3 serve an area bereft of any other rail transport and their success demonstrates that commuters want rail.

Melbourne's 96 and 109 have replaced heavy rail and thus carry heavy loads over the south east sectors.

The 96 has some 'competition' from the street based tramways covering the same area. These may be faster door-to-door for some residents in that sector.

For the sections of 96 and 109 in the north and east directions from the city they run in competition with heavy rail and other nearby street tramways where again the door-to-door service may be comparable or competitive.  They are both also slower because of competition for road space.

Mal Rowe in a city where motor cars are gradually being pushed off the tram tracks.

[Richard Youl]

My observations are that during university holidays, daily patronage will plummet. There is heavy all day traffic on especially the L3 during university semesters.

Richard

On 27 May 2026, at 2:27 pm, Mal Rowe <mal....@gmail.com> wrote:



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[TP]

Tramways in Sydney have a long history of being de facto suburban railways, because Sydney did not build a comprehensive suburban railway system in the 19th century like Melbourne did. Fun facts:

- Sydney's suburban railway patronage did not surpass Melbourne's until the late 1930s.

- Sydney's tram patronage started ahead and rocketed even further ahead of Melbourne's in the early 20th century and remained well ahead until the 1950s.

- Sydney's tram patronage in its peak decades was higher than that of the Melbourne and Brisbane systems combined.

- Sydney's suburban railway patronage has never surpassed its peak tram patronage, but may finally do so when further metro lines are opened.

- Sydney's former tram system moved the largest number of passengers of any public transport system in Australia to date, rail or otherwise, ever.

 

There's a pattern. To paraphrase Paul Hogan: That's not a tram (pointing to an A class), this is a tram (pointing to coupled Citadis). There wasn't the Sydney and Melbourne systems and the rest; there was the Sydney system giant, then the rest.

Now for the other side of the coin. Melbourne built proper suburban railways, didn't just add stations to country lines. Suburban rail commuting in Sydney didn't really come into its own until after the 1940s and, even then, many proposed lines remained unbuilt or partly built. Only with the recent advent of the metro has the rail system had capacity unlocked to enable it to take on a major role in urban growth, excepting now the momentum has slowed yet again. The new light rail lines have thus picked up some of the task that rail should be performing - just like a century ago.

Tony P