The Sydney Monorail - What Went Wrong?
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- Опубліковано 28 лип 2024
- The Sydney Monorail - once an icon of Sydney, is now all but left in Sydney's past. In todays, video we dive in to what went wrong with the Sydney monorail!
Massive shoutout to the respective owners of any photo/video clips that I used in this video, you can find the videos I used here:
• sydney monorail in nap...
• Sydney in the 1990s
• Sydney Monorail 1988 -...
My SPOTIFY account 👉 open.spotify.com/user/31xkjm3...
My UA-cam MUSIC account 👉 / @tsetstransport
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:28 What is the Sydney Monorail and where did it go?
1:11 First incident - less than a month after opening!
1:29 The head-on collision of two vehicles back in 2010!
1:44 Sponsor
2:35 Criticism of the monorail
3:55 Photos of little me on the monorail!
4:07 How are the monorail vehicles maintained?
4:45 Sydney Monorail features in a famous movie!
6:16 Why was the Sydney Monorail closed?
7:30 Monorail vehicle spotted in the Powerhouse Museum!
8:00 Wrapping up + summary
9:53 Outro
Copyright - TsetsTransport 2024
I do not claim ownership of any re-used photos or videos. Full credit goes to those original owners.
![Destroyed - The rise and fall of Australia's Wonderland theme park [AH015]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/FDzLPXGqq7g/mqdefault.jpg)
The dreaded "Monster Rail" as many media of the day described it. The support pylons would cause havoc with motorists with many crashing into them and others crashing into each other due to the distraction. This was all an overreaction designed to stop the building of the monorail. I have seen plans for a monorail along Victoria Rd to Parramatta and then to the city via Parramatta Rd. It was deemed too costly as the monorail train and station infrastructure would have to be elevated. I enjoyed this presentation and I look forward to your podcast series.
When I was 3. Just before the monorail closed I rode it. It was one of my fav memories. Btw your vids are amazing and I am exited for the podcast.
It only went one direction and wasn’t extensive enough. It should have also been built as more of a high capacity monorail like the Japanese ones instead of using the same system as the SeaWorld monorail. A theme park type of monorail just does not suit regular public transit. Which brings me to the point. It was more intended for tourists. It would have probably been successful if it had been designed for residents to more directly benefit from. But even if it was only meant for tourist, it wasn’t extensive enough. If they had of found a way to build it out to circular quay, near the opera house and harbour and all, then it probably would have had more ridership from tourists. It would have been a challenge though to get it directly to circular quay due to the Cahill expressway and geographical challenges but they could have tried to get it a little closer to circular quay (like around Bridge Street or something). Lastly, they should have built light rail to start off with and at least not long after opening the monorail, they did just that. But anyway it did fail. I heard they are planning to demolish the Darling Park monorail station. They could have turned that into a restaurant. Would have been pretty cool.
You are correct in all points, and the thinking back then was to service the Darling Harbour precinct without much thought of extending it to other more popular places in and around the city. Initially, it was not a government enterprise, and was therefore prevented from competing with the government modes of transport such as buses and trains, which explains why there was no easy way to transfer from the monorail to the buses and trains.
I remember the monorail, I used it a lot, especially to get from Town Hall station to Darling Harbour, back in the day. At 3:10 you said the monorail caused a lot of the tram lines in the city to be closed. What tram lines? There were no trams in the city in 1988, they were long gone, even before I was born (1972). It may have performed better if Central, at the very least, was also a stop.
The closure of tram lines up until the 60s were 'for the better' - not to mention the government was trying to transition transport into the 21st century, which they heavily failed at!
I agree if it went to Central or was part of a network that also ran up george street to the University of Sydney and RPA hospital it would have been a great mode of transport separated from the traffic below.
@@tsetstransport perhaps I misinterpreted what you said, but yes the tram lines were closed in the 60s, idiots, but how you said it made it sound like they were around till 1988 and the monorail caused them to close :)
@@tsetstransport tram lines were closed absolutely right. The las we need in our busy megapolis is crawling 20 kmh street trams, occupuing lot of space on narrow streets. Even modern LR which completely killed George st crawls almost twice slower than buses.
I'm excited for the podcast!!!
I was there at the closing at the monorail when I was 3! I also had magnet from the monorail farewell!
That's sick! I actually think I still have a ticket for the monorail sitting somewhere in my room actually haha.
@@tsetstransport ooh cool.
I was nearly 3 when the monorail closed. I was 1 month away from being in Australia when the monorail closed
@@tsetstransportHow old wee you when the monorail closed
Don't you love
trains, trams, aren't they all beautiful :)
come take a ride! (at folder 2, look my way)
Captain Bringdown here. I know many people have great affection for monorails in general, but this project was an expensive dud. It was slow, it was infrequent, it was noisy, it was over-priced for its service, its infrastructure was ugly and intrusive, it had poor connectivity with other public transport services and it served an inadequate part of the CBD to be useful to anyone but gullible tourists. It was set up to serve the then-new Darling Harbour development, which made it a white elephant serving a white elephant. (Don't believe me? How much of Darling Harbour still exists? The IMAX cinema? the Harbourside Shopping Centre? The Convention Centre?) I think of this project and I see Lyle Lanley and his straw boater: "I’ve sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville and North Haverbrook and by gum it put them on the map!"
I agree totally. I was overjoyed when the decision was taken to scrap it - and so was anyone I knew. Sydneysiders mostly hated it.
The monorail was a novelty for Sydney. It should have been built to link Circular Quay with Town Hall, Darling Harbour and Central, but was only made into a small loop that never really went anywhere. it was noisy (externally) and weirdly not a smooth ride. The cost was also a major factor. I seem to recall (may be wrong) that to go one stop was the same as doing a loop. I remember going to Expo 88' in Brisbane and experiencing their monorail, which was much, much better.
You are indeed correct about the fare. Many families would buy their tokens and ride multiple continuous loops, which caused the monorail to be constantly overcrowded and difficult to find a seat when you did eventually get on.
Love the footage of the puppy have not seeing it before.
I was riding the very last loop of the monorail before it closed it was very late around 10 pm from memory. I also rode it when it first opened and was free for a period of time ( our teacher had not turned up for our physics class and because the college was just a short walk away we decided as a class to go and study velocity speed and acceleration by riding the monorail.)
The monorail would have been great if it had been extended ( question mark about to Bondi Junction though) and it be like riding the sky train in Vancouver which originated as a tourist loop at Expo 86?? but the monorail is more expensive to run and over time it became too expensive to maintain. The disadntage if the monorail I would have to agree as well was limited capacity and the carriages were not interconnected therefore if there was an emergency situation passengers could not evacuate to the other carriages to safety. Also the monorail I noticed invaded people's privacy as you could see everything in all the highrise buildings along the route through the windows due to the height of the monorail.
Set up to fail. Approval conditions stopped a direct link to either Central or Town Hall Stations. Fares were not integrated with trains and buses. Another big problem was the elevation which made access for the disabled and elderly problematic. A high capacity dual track monorail linking the airport to Sydenham Station would’ve worked a treat I reckon. The main problem was that developers wanted rail access to serve their patiently built up Wolli Creek land bank. PS. Trams were discontinued on George St 30+ years before monorail construction.
I remember riding on this when I was around 6 or 7, good times.
Memorie
I used to take the Sydney Monorail when me and my parents lived in Darling Harbour with family friends for 6 months, take monorail to Galleries Victoria, take Wynyard train to Wollongong where my school was.
Great video mate very informative
my friend callum is obsessed with the sydney monorails so he'd be pleased to watch this video
Good job mate
It's a bit sad, monorail can be great. There's a few in Asia but there's this Japanese one (I think Tokyo), which have high capacities & operate more like a light metro in the sky. If Sydney's was like that, more expansive, & got more investment I believe it would still be here, but since it was poorly executed that isn't the case. It would be nice to see monorail again in Australia (like the Asian ones) in Sydney's CBD, & Southbank expanding to Docklands in Melbourne.
I actually liked it and used it. And from memory I took it a couple of times to visit an Oriental gardens at one of its stopping places.
The downside was it was not integrated with other transport systems. And travelled only one way.
I guess it was a good idea only half done. And I guess being a tourist meant I wasn’t in a hurry …
The seattle monorail is even worse as it has two stops over a mile but i guess tourism exists
Hi long time no see.
It should have been longer in the beginning. Monorail should go as far as circular quay and central station.
Agreed! I think they should have extended it to Bondi whilst going via the stations you already mentioned.
Was it a nice tourist attraction? Yes. But is the light rail a better option? Also yes.
Went to sydney just after it closed 😭😭😭
new vid yay
Well done. Great memories. It would have been a great tourist attraction. Cheers
One way, not that useful for most city workers, expensive maintenance coming up, and a monopoly supplier. And not integrated with other fare systems like todays LR..
Also at 2.45 on thats down Pitt St and shows the old podium of the Hilton with its weird ramps.
Whilst I miss the monorail, it was fundamentally useless and had no future other than as an overpriced tourist attraction.
What I’d love to see however is a cable-car from North Sydney to Barangaroo and onto Darling Harbour and a funicular from Luna park up to it.
Also fundamentally useless but an epic tourist attraction.
everything went wrong. Very slow, very unconvenient (one-way circle with 6 stops), requires long walk to nearest station, wait for train, slow loading... useles and very expensive due to exclusive technology. Also we are sea city, and salt water directly under path (Pyrmont bridge) destroys all this very fast. Bonus - unpredictable risks due to very bad access to overhead rail, in case of fire, malfunction, crash and so on its absolutely impossible to do anything.
The same happens with all other systems trying to be a transport, not expensive toy. Does not work.
sounds like detroit people mover
@@LouisChang-le7xo But 3 times smaller. With the same price, maintenance and so on
I’m early
THE MONORAIL NEEDED TO BE BI-DIRECTIONAL, AS A ONE WAY MONORAIL IS USELESS, WHO WANTS TO TRAVEL THE LONG WAY AROUND TO GET TO WHERE YOU WANTED TO GO.
Can you go on Vline! Or become a Vline Guard can u.
Hi
FIRST 12 seconds ago
Nope your second I’m first
wsg bossboy i met you in buses in nsw
ok
Shouldn't have closed. I miss them
It never went anywhere where usefully it was a fun ride not public transport