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Re: Sydney tram route



"whitehat" <whitehat@alphalink.com.au> wrote:

> I have just visited Sydney and travelled on the new tram. Much of the route
> is through impressive railway cuttings. I am curious to know when trains
> last ran on that part of the route and whether they were suburban passenger
> trains.

The route formed part of a network called the "Metropolitan Goods
Lines" which were created circa 1920 with the aim of getting freight
working off the metropolitan passenger network as far as possible.  It
never carried any regular passenger rail service.

What is now the Darling Harbour tourist precinct used to be a large
waterfront good yards and the current tram route was oneof the the two
major connections from that yard to the rest of the rail network.
Even after Darling Harbour was redeveloped the portion of the line
from Rozelle to the Pyrmont Peninsular continued to be used for access
to a couple of industries, such as a flour mill.  The last trip goods
workings to the Pyrmont Peninsular would have been about 4 to 5 years
ago.  Last serious use of the line as major part of the metropolitan
goods network would been 25+ years ago.

Cheers,

Bill