Trams in Sydney

The Sydney tramway network served the inner suburbs of Sydney, Australia, from 1879 until 1961. In its heyday, it was the largest in Australia, the second largest in the Commonwealth of Nations after London, and one of the largest in the world.

The network was heavily used, with about 1,600 cars in service at any one time at its peak during the 1930s. In comparison, there are about 500 trams in Melbourne today. Patronage peaked in 1945 at 405 million passenger journeys. Its maximum street trackage totalled 291 km (181 miles) in 1923.

A new era of light rail in Sydney began in 1997.

Sydney's first tram was horse-drawn, running from the old Sydney railway station to Circular Quay along Pitt Street.

Built in 1861, the design was compromised by the desire to haul railway freight wagons along the line to supply city businesses and return cargo from the docks at Circular Quay with passenger traffic as an afterthought.

This resulted in a track that protruded from the road surface and it caused damage to the wheels of wagons trying to cross it. Hard campaigning by competing Horse Omnibus owners – as well as a fatal accident involving the leading Australian musician Isaac Nathan in 1864 – led to closure in 1866.

In 1879 a steam tramway was established in conjunction with the upcoming Sydney International Exhibition that was to be held in the Domain/Botanical Gardens area of Sydney. Originally planned by the government to be removed after the exhibition, the success of the steam tramway led to the system being expanded rapidly through the city and inner suburbs during the 1880s and 1890s.

The Steam Trams in Sydney comprised a Baldwin steam tram motor hauling one or more trailers of either single deck or double deck construction. Unlike the earlier horse tramway, the steam tramway used grooved rail for on-street running.