Re: Public Perception of Trams

["Bob Merchant" <bob.merchant@bigpond.com>]

There was a bit of derision in the Sydney papers at the time about having a
tram launch the Australian scene, but this is understandable as Sydney had
only run its last trams six years before.  It was, in fact, most appropriate
as our transport workers are among the first to start work at such any early
hour.

Bob M

Dave McL <davemcl@AXE*THISiprolink.co.nz> wrote in message
37c4499d@news.iprolink.co.nz">news:37c4499d@news.iprolink.co.nz...
| Roderick Smith wrote:
| >
| > Another tv show, in about 1987, showed an assemblage of round-the-world
| > scenes.  The opening scene was of South Melbourne Depot at 5.00, with
the
| > first trams running out.  This was screened with pride.  Either it was a
| > deliberate reversal of the item Ron remembers from 1967, or Ron has
| > misdated this one.
|
| You are surely thinking of the same show. It was June 26 1967, and
| featured W5 774 running out of South Melbourne. I was only a small child
| at the time, but I remember it clearly and I don't recall it attracting
| cries of shame. A tram was chosen because trams were and are the symbol
| of Melbourne. Maybe Ron remembers a letter to the editor from some
| road-rager complaining.
|
| Even when I was a kid, there were heaps of postcards of Melbourne that
| specially featured trams, just as many postcards do now. That hardly
| suggests that trams were an embarrassment to the city.
|
| There are still people in Melbourne now who would get rid of the trams.
| Nothing has changed.
|
| David McLoughlin
| Auckland New Zealand