Learning from Melbourne?

[Mal Rowe]

From time to time some list members have said that Sydney could do worse than learn from the Melbourne experience with trams/light rail.

That can be seen as a return to the pattern of 90 years ago.

I have been leafing through some books of clippings from the MMTB in the 1930s and came across three that seem relevant.

• First, from 2 April 1932 is a letter to the editor of The Age criticising Sydney's ubiquitous crossbench trams.
• Second, from 5 January 1933 notes that Sydney will move to corridor trams and adopt a variation of the Melbourne colour scheme.
• Third, from 29 September 1933 notes that the MMTB's chief draughtsman had gone to Sydney to help with the design of the R class.

Mal Rowe - perpetuating a long running friendly rivalry

[TP]

Regarding crossbench cars, I wonder if Melbourne trams had average dwell times of 8 seconds and could move 1,000 people per minute? The Sydney tramways had to use the most appropriate type of vehicle for the massive crowds they moved. For all their disadvantages, they were the best type of vehicle for the times. The R/R1s were intended to supplement them rather than entirely replace them.

While the R/R1 class took their cue from the Melbourne/Adelaide design of car, Sydney's Chief Designer ensured that there were doors at each end of the car so that there wouldn't be dead-end "caves" inside the car inhibiting passenger flow. Brisbane subsequently copied Sydney.

Haven't quite pinned down exact dates, but I think that the new Sydney colour scheme of 1933 was influenced by the very similar Sydney Ferries colour scheme of 1932, introduced to refresh their image after the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Ironically, the Parramatta trams, owned by Sydney Ferries, had the same livery as the ferries and quite possibly carried the green and cream before the government trams. The government buses, which were red and cream, didn't adopt the green and cream until after WW2. 

Tony P

[Geoff Olsen]

As Tony P. has pointed out in the past there appears to have been a great deal of co-operation between the various systems early in the 20^th century. Unfortunately such is no longer the case, the blame for which I would submit, lies exclusively with NSW. Of course we still hear the “Trams versus modern light rail “ argument from those who appear unable to explain the difference.

Geoff O.

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