Snapshot of history about to repeat itself - Sydney Morning Herald - Sydney Morning Herald

MODERN Sydney grew up around tram tracks.

At the peak of tram use the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Sydney caught a tram an average of once a day.

''We're talking massive passenger numbers,'' said Robert Lee, a professor of history at the University of Western Sydney.

Numbers which have never been equalled by trams' successors. In 1944, 410 million people a year rode a Sydney tram compared with about 310 million for CityRail trains and 220 million for Sydney buses today.

But, except for parallel lines of tar on some city roads and grooves in the sandstone at Bronte, there are few signs today they ever existed.

Which has a lot to do with how quickly the then state government uprooted the city's vast network - and which now it has further committed to re-laying.

Sydney trams began in 1861 with a horse-drawn car

Steam trams were brought in in 1879, with a special line to the Botanic Gardens. They were so successful the government immediately extended the system.

''The first destination was Randwick Racecourse,'' Professor Lee said. ''This really is history repeating itself.''

All trams became electric soon after the turn of the century and the network expanded rapidly.

Sydney's fleet of 1500 trams ran on over 300 kilometres of track, making it the largest in the Commonwealth outside of London. Many of the city's retail hubs, such as Bondi Junction, sprouted around tram stops.

Then, in the 1950s, the Cahill state government began to undo it all - and with zeal. The government started uprooting tracks in 1958; Sydney's last tram ran in 1961.

Hundreds of trams, worth thousands of pounds, were sold for just £50: they became shearers' sheds, orchid beds and cocker spaniel kennels. Many, including some only seven years old, were covered in sump oil and set on fire.

''It's very hard to find evidence of why this decision was taken,'' Professor Lee said.

Greg Sutherland, a former transport adviser to the state government, says Sydney's trams were a victim of their own success.

Trams were carrying record passenger numbers just as money for maintenance was at a low. Moving people off a strained rail network would have appealed to the state's accountants.

Professor Lee says the arguments for dismantling the network were always weakest for trams to the east, which the government has now announced plans to revive partially.

''Of all the trams in Sydney it was the eastern suburbs system that was the most successful,'' he said. ''If planning had been more rational, it would have been kept''.

But Australia followed an international pattern of embracing cars and modernity. Starting in 1930s America, tram tracks were dug up world over, spreading through Canada, France and Britain. ''In the '50s and '60s Cold War era there was a perception that trams were somehow old-fashioned and a communal means of transport that almost symbolised communist values, whereas car ownership was all about freedom,'' Professor Lee said.

Mr Sutherland welcomes their return. Trams, he says, not only carry more people, but are five times more reliable than buses and unload passengers faster.

From Los Angeles to Strasbourg and Sydney, it seems that perspective is now making tracks back round the world.