Re: canberra tramway

[dbromage@fang.omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

Gail BENNETT (valleyfm@mpx.com.au) wrote:
> About a year or so ago the ACT Government announced that a tramway would be
> built from the War Memorial to the new National Museum (currently under
> construction), and that heritage trams would operate on it. Does anybody
> know if this is still going ahead? The ACT Government comes on with so much
> garbage, its hard to know when they are serious.

It wasn't an ACT government proposal. The Federation Tramway was proposed
by a group of NGOs responsible for some of the major attractions in
Canberra. including the War Memorial, ScreenSound (formerly the National
Film & Sound Archives) and the National Museum.

The $12 million line was to be paid for by Federation funding (failed) and
some corporate donations. The infrastructure would then be sold to ACT
Urban Services for $1 who would licence the operation of the tourist
service. Operational focus would be similar to the Christchurch tramway.

Trams were to be on a rotating loan from the Sydney Tramway Museum, and
the previous Victorian government had also promised to donate some
operational trams if/when the line was built. It was hoped to have at
least one tram from each Australian standard gauge tram network to ive it
a national flavour.

It certainly had a lot of potential. The major coach companies were keen
to include the tramway as part of their tours. Just about every tour
includes the War Memorial, and in future would include the National
Museum. The idea was to take the tourists from one to the other by tram.

Cheers
David