What happened to Sydney's Monorail?

[@bendowson3124]

While I loved using the monorail as a kid, I actually didn’t realise it was supposed to be a proper public transport system and viewed it more like an amusement park ride.

[@donttalkcrap]

It was NEVER designed a proper public transport system... it was, like you said... more like an amusement park ride. Being up so high, tourists got a fantastic look at the city that you just could not do sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the busses back then.

[@vincentgrinn2665]

isnt that how every monorail ends up?

[@suave-rider]

that's precisely what it was

[@williamdom3814]

I remember when visiting Sydney as a British tourist in 1996 riding on the monorail, at the time I thought it was just a tourist attraction, it certainly had that feel about it. As a tourist I loved the experience but obviously didn't have to live with it so it's aesthetics didn't really come into it although I thought it looked cool.

[@suave-rider]

@@williamdom3814 it really only appealed to kids

[@lachd2261]

I’ve sold monorails to Haymarket, Pyrmont, and Convention and by gum it sure put them on the map!

[@davidpickford.]

Ah you's wouldn't be interested, it's more of a Melbourne idea...

[@davidlaw689]

Laurie Brereton ... is that you ?

[@Mhjeffrey027running]

Mono....... D'OH

[@and__lam1152]

I call the big one Bitey!!

[@BeowolfNindoJournal]

I hear those things are awfuly loud!

[@completingsydney]

When the monorail closed, I read a comment underneath a news article I always remember: "Oh no, now what will I do if I'm in the CBD and have to get to the CBD via the CBD?"

[@haemolysis]

The monorail wasn’t great. It had very few redeeming features. But it was 100% worth keeping for the whimsy alone… scrapping it up was a terrible decision, and the fact that they left the stations to rot (to this day) and rejected calls to turn the track into a NY-style walking path…. Criminal! I never understood why people wanted to get rid of it. It was no transport solution, but it WAS iconic.

[@utkart]

I loved the Sydney monorail as well. It was stopped not because of people, but because of the politicians.

[@Jockuptown]

A walking style track wouldve never worked. Lacked adequate supports, wouldve required widening etc. Would require significant investment to get it all sorted. Ny works so well cos it was a dual track train line, so it was already equipped with the support, width and access to easily repurpose the space into a greenspace.

[@santouchesantouche2873]

They should have at least accepted the offer to donate it to Hobart...

[@DanielKing-dk5nr]

Only thing bad about it was it had no air con inside the carriages. During summer it was like stepping into an oven. They should have kept it instead of replacing it with the light rail, takes up too much space where the monorail has great views and can go anywhere.

[@NWJ22]

New York used above ground multi directional rail to create their walking parks, how the hell would you turn a 40cm wide beam into that.

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Exactly, it being a monorail wasn't the problem, but the design of the route. I know people don't like monorails because a monorail can be an expensive option when compared to light-rail, but when done right, a monorail can be an effective solution. They're a great solution to tackle tough geography for example! You can't plan a system without considering geography (whether it's rivers, mountains, soil, etc), transit isn't a one size fits all, and so in mountainous cities or mountainous neighborhoods of cities, using cable cars, funiculars, elevated metro, or a monorail may be the best option! And geography aside, building elevated transit in general like Vancouver's SkyTrain, Copenhagen Metro, Addis Ababa Light Rail, Miami Metrorail, Medellín Metro, or the Chicago L is great for grade-separation and thus great frequencies without having to build a whole underground system. Look at Chongqing, China! In Chongqing, Lines 2 and 3 of the Chongqing Rail Transit are monorail lines! Chongqing Rail Transit's system is unique because of the geography of Chongqing being a densely populated but mountainous city, with multiple river valleys. Thus, in such a mountainous place, it makes sense to use a monorail, leveraging the ability to negotiate steep grades and tight curves with rapid transit capacity. Line 3 (and the branch line branded as Konggang line) runs from north to south, linking the districts separated by Chongqing's two main rivers, the Yangtze and Jialing rivers. The line opened in September 2011 and was extended to Jiangbei Airport in December that year. The Konggang branch opened in 2016. Chongqing's Line 2 and 3 monorails are capable of transporting 32,000 passengers per hour per direction, but in 2019, the busiest section of Line 3 reached a peak passenger volume of 37,700 people per hour per direction! Chongqing's Line 2 is famous for Liziba station, as the monorail goes through a 19-story apartment building complex to stop at the station. The station opened in 2005, and the station and building were constructed together as one whole structure! So it's TOD to the max! The station uses specialized noise reduction equipment to isolate station noise from the surrounding residences. In Wuppertal, Germany, they ended up building a suspended monorail because Wuppertal is located in a river valley (that's what Wuppertal means; Wupper Valley), and because of steep slopes, the original towns that now makes up Wuppertal expanded lengthwise (resulting in the thin shape of Wuppertal today). It wasn't suitable to build a tram nor a subway, so as a way to both unify the valley and find a place for transit to solve congestion, they built a suspended monorail that followed the Wupper River. It is the oldest electric elevated railway with hanging cars in the world as it opened in 1901!

[@davidb3491]

TL;DR

[@disneymore7941]

⁠@@davidb3491”TL;DR” it’s a comment, not a book nor essay in high school. You’ll live. Nothing wrong with learning and reading

[@DanielKing-dk5nr]

Every other country has a monorail, I wish we kept it and extended it to other areas. All they needed was cheaper tickets and air con inside the carriages.

[@gcm747]

I honestly thought the monorail was specifically implemented as a tourist ride. No idea it was meant to be taken as a serious mode of public transport. It reminded me of the monorail I’d seen at Disney World as a kid.

[@TravelSignal]

I lived in Sydney in 2002 and briefly did use it - living in Glebe and did a scuba course based out of a dive shop on George Street. The monorail and tram had a shared fare system, separate from the busses and trains, so tram and monorail worked for those journeys. Shame it's gone now, even for a tourist attraction.

[@prismaticmarcus]

Thing is the monorail was all destinations and no origins i.e. the only real source of passengers would have been the hotels at Darling Harbour. As you say, a longer route into an inner suburban area would have gotten more use.

[@marquee_tags]

Nah, you can't try and turn this kind of thing into mainstream PT because it never will be. But your point about having "all destinations and no origins" I think is relevant because so many of the stations were tucked away! Tourists would see these monorail stations from street level and then not actually have an easy time getting to them.

[@jayfielding1333]

The problem was not connecting to Central.

[@brianb8516]

@@marquee_tags Most tourists would be smart enough to work it out, there was plenty of signage. Shame the locals couldn't work it out.

[@samshort365]

I always wanted one going out along Parramatta Rd, at least to the inner west where I lived.

[@santouchesantouche2873]

Maybe. But Sydney CBD just isn't big enough to warrant not walking...

[@Water_Rabbit]

Heath Ledger and Rose Byrne use the monorail as a getaway in the terrific movie Two Hands.

[@marknairn6032]

Great movie.

[@TheYoda50]

It was also used in the climax of the equally as brilliant movie, 'Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie'

[@santouchesantouche2873]

And they were caught. A nail in the coffin for the Monorail

[@dieseldavetrains8988]

Never been on it but seen it buzzing about overhead many times. Interesting and informative, thank you.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Detroit has a peoplemover around its downtown operating in just one direction similar to how the Sydney Monorail operated. The system serves places like the Renaissance Center, Greektown casino, Grand Circus Park, West Riverfront which formerly served Joe Louis Arena, Times Square which is next to the Rosa Parks Transit Center bus hub, Financial District, and the Huntington Place/formerly Cobo Center convention center where Detroit's auto show takes place. The system opened in 1987 and today it's a tourist attraction, but it wasn't meant to be a stand-alone system. The Detroit People Mover was meant to be part of a bigger system! It was meant to be a downtown distributor for a proposed city and metro-wide light rail transit system for Detroit in the early 1980s. Plans included an underground subway that would've been built from downtown to New Center, where it would transition into an elevated rail line running to McNichols (Six Mile). From there, it would've been a street-level light rail and extend beyond Detroit and into Royal Oak, and possibly later into Pontiac (this "Woodward-Michigan service" would've included lines to Detroit Metropolitan Airport and a Fort line towards Pennsylvania Rd in Southgate), with additional rail lines running on Grand River Ave, Mound Road, Harper Ave, and Gratiot Ave, and commuter lines from Detroit to Ann Arbor and Port Huron. However, it and the suburbs couldn't decide on anything for the 600 million promised by Gerald Ford, and so only the circulator got built and the money was withdrawn by Reagan. The QLine streetcar built in 2017 down Woodward Ave was a step closer to that old vision. Now the QLine is still useful, it serves Wayne State University, Fox Theatre, Amtrak, Little Caesars Arena, and is walking distance from the Lions and Tigers stadiums as well from Grand Circus Park. But being curbside and not being in the median for most of its length hurts it and slows its down, and when asked by transit advocates during the planning, the QLine people didn't care, they didn't want it to be true transit, they just wanted a casual touristy streetcar to attract development. Besides that plan I mentioned, Detroit has tried many other times to build a subway or an L, like in 1920 when the proposal was vetoed by the mayor (and the council failed to override the veto by JUST ONE VOTE), the vote for a subway (this one was envisioned to be an extensive 21-mile system) was put off the ballot last minute in 1927, 72 percent rejected it in 1929, 68 percent approved in 1933 but the federal government refused to fund it, a scaled-down system was proposed in July 1941 but after Pearl Harbor happened, it fell off the radar, a 1945 plan envisioned subway lines along Woodward and Grand River, but it too didn't happen...yeah. And before this, Detroit had an insane interurban network and streetcar network! By the 1910s, Detroit was the hub of one of the largest unified electrical transportation systems in the world. Detroit United Railways operated what may have been the largest regional electric rail system in the world. It had more than 800 miles of track, more than 200 of them in the city limits of Detroit, where one fare would get you across town, and 600 miles in the high-speed interurban lines. The streetcars were 24 hours a day and ran every few minutes!

[@tonyross5799]

There was a pylon right outside one of my favourite bookshops, I could park my bike in the small gap between the pylon and the curb, and from there I could visit other places in the CBD. Free parking for hours. Bring back the MR!

[@gasdive]

It was the best for bike parking. The only issue was when it was raining it dumped a tonne of water every time a train went past.

[@samshort365]

I loved the monorail, it was simply cool and really futuristic. I loved the fact that you could (probably unofficially) just sit in it and go around the loop as many times as you wanted. That was the best way to give visitors an initial guided tour and overview of the city.

[@ROCKSTAR3291]

I still miss it lol, reminds me of my early days in Sydney

[@TheYoda50]

I have so much nostalgia for the monorial, I used to ride it with my parents as a kid and I have such a fascination for them. I'll forever hold them higher than the light rail. One missed opportunity is turning the abandoned station at pyrmont bridge into a cafe like in North Haverbrook - 'There ain't no monorail, and there never was'

[@Bigdaleadventure]

I remember as a kid going to visit my grandma in the school holidays she would take us out into the city a lot and I remember this was always my favourite thing to travel on so many memories

[@leokimvideo]

Don't forget this Monorail featured in a Hollywood film that everyone seems to forget

[@internetgas2020]

did it ? Which one? I'd like to see it for nostalgia

[@leokimvideo]

@@internetgas2020 Power Rangers The Movie. It was a litmus test to see if Hollywood could make a big film in Sydney. The old More Park Easter show pavilions were used as film stages before it became Fox and now Disney studios. There is a scene of a miniature Sydney monorail and I blew up a car on the street just under the monorail near the QVB. Just about everyone who does a video about the Sydney Monorail ignore this bit of important history. I'm always having to fill in the gaps. I should do a video on all this, I certainly have recordings of it.

[@LucDevine]

I do love your work. I remember coming here when I was 12 and being shocked at the short duration of the loop and also discerning the lack of clarity around whether it was an attraction or public transport.

[@ViewpointProd]

I was in the city not too long ago, passed by a few of the old stations, looked above me by (can't quite remember the area, there's a grill'd nearby) and saw one of the old lines. there's also the public display/farewell left at one of the stations (now itself abandoned, funnily enough) when the monorail was shutdown in 2016(?). Don't remember much about the Sydney monorail, except riding it pretty late at night along with my mother sometime in the early 2000s. And my only other experiance with Monorails coming form my trips to malaysia, where they still run throught KL. I visit the city twice-ish a week for leisure, it's pretty nice to see the old lines that ocasionally run across the heritidge properties that surround the city. Been wanting to check out the area where Sega World use to be, tried matching buildings from old photos as i was on the bridge across darling harbor, but couldn't match anything.

[@petabaigent]

Darling Harbour looks so different to how I remember it as a teenager in the 90s that I can't get my bearings. It's all just gone

[@edwinwan02]

I think the Sydney Monorail could've been more successful had it been bi-directional and expanded it to other places in Sydney, like Circular Quay, Martin Place, The Domain, Kings Cross, Oxford St, even to Central Station providing a interchange with the train system. But unfortunately it never happened.

[@danieleyre8913]

In other words if it had twice as much track and units snd went to different places. What about the very small passenger capacity?

[@smalltime0]

@@danieleyre8913 Also if it was ground level, and used two rails. That way they could have more people.

[@santouchesantouche2873]

Sydney CBD is too small to justify not walking. It already had a city circle rail loop anyway. Oxford St to George St or Kings Cross-Oxford St loop to CBD would have worked.

[@peterbreis5407]

It was a politician's choice. Brereton chose it against all the advice to just put in trams. The cabins were tiny, so had bugger all capacity, it was ugly as sin especially for the people below, it was creepingly slow exacerbated by the need to climb up a lot of stairs and then have to wait for it on an elevated platform and it went absolutely nowhere useful . It was not cheaper than a tram on the same route but it was the "futuristic" choice of a bureaucrat who would never, ever use it. Unfortunately it was never fully removed. A typical useless substitute for what was really needed. It was a huge waste of money, a missed opportunity to bring back trams and put back Sydney's public transport decades. At the same time they were claiming the monorail as a brilliant piece of infrastructure the Labor government blocked the Dulwich Hill light rail and under harbour train link as "too expensive" This is what you get when planning ministers and senior planners all have government paid for chauffeur driven limousines.

[@whophd]

Yep 👍

[@suave-rider]

the stairs were a deal breaker

[@Sthuont]

Honestly it's what you get with a state Labo(u)r government. They are the most corrupt, most ineffectual do nothing POS. The fact that Bob Carr was actually pushing for the logical option of Light Rail... only then to go on and become Premiere and lead the most corrupt government in Australian history, pocketing millions of dollars for him and his buddies, announcing and cancelling infrastructure project after infrastructure project, leaving Sydney with a lost more than decade of atherosclerosis and rot, is fucking hilarious. Remember, Bob Carr is the guy who then went on to Federal politics, and once he won his seat decided to retire I dunno, 3 months or something later for a life long pension, office, and chauffeur driven car... that shows you exactly the kind of person he and his ilk are.

[@DanielKing-dk5nr]

and the carriages had no air con inside, so it felt like an oven during summer.

[@adamtulich5712]

If you too were sprayed with grease water under the track as it went by after rain you would hate it as much as I did. It was simply ridiculous.

[@brianb8516]

You couldn't keep out of the way of the tracks?

[@adamtulich5712]

Yes cause that’s what you’re thinking about at 730am in the CBD on your way to the office, stand back from the monorail line. It was a total joke and that’s why they pulled it down. It should have been built in Luna Park where it belonged from day 1.

[@geoffreymoore1510]

Thanks for the look back at the flop that was the Monorail. My wife and I rode it only ONCE! That was pretty well near the end of its life.

[@teddrewflack400]

I used the monorail every day to travel from Pitt street to darling harbour. It was good to get to the entertainment center too . The best part of the ride was travelling over the pyrmont bridge , which used to be driven over .

[@LawpickingLocksmith]

I had the honour of actually meet the owner of the factory that built it. Anton French was a very brilliant engineer but communication with the authorities were perhaps the largest issue. Their factory was very small and pretty much on the other side of the world. There are many others built by him still in use around the world. Meanwhile they build the latest state of the art single rack private funiculars and also up to the worlds largest systems like the one in La Paz.

[@MadJenno]

I went to the grand opening of the monorail during the bicentennial of 88 with my aunt was amazing at the time . The monorail holds a lot of good memories for me .

[@I_must_get_a_van]

I went on it as a tourist from Melbourne in 2004. It was a great attraction and I loved it. It would be interesting to know the yearly usage from when it opened to when it closed. Thanks for this informative video. Cheers

[@Tamajyn69]

I remember going on the monorail as a kid down to sega world, it was kinda fun but even back then a bit of a gimmick and I remember my parents lamenting how expensive it was for what it did

[@tigerwarsaw99]

Sega World 😁 good memories.

[@peterschmidt9942]

At the time, I was doing TAFE at Ultimo. Being an apprentice we weren't really cashed up either so we did a lot of walking. Unfortunately, the monorail was a bit of a novelty. Half the trouble with it was the stops were too close for the fares you'd pay. Not to mention the time it took to scale those stairs, then wait for the next train to come (which was usually around 15-30min). Usually, it was still quicker (and cheaper) to just walk to the next stop. You could often beat the monorail to your destination as well by simply walking. I'm pretty sure the NSW government were offered an incentive to choose the monorail over other forms of transport.

[@PJRayment]

Despite the comment about monorails being fast, one of the problems with it was that it was slow, at least in the early days when I (being a visitor from Melbourne), rode it. In Melbourne we were long told that trains only stop for 20 seconds, and to this day that's often the case (except at the busiest stations). But the monorail would stop, then you had to wait ages (I seem to recall a minute) before the doors opened, then they remained open for about a minute before they closed again (with no more than 20 or 30 people boarding and alighting), then it was about another minute before it started moving again. I seem to recall hearing that they sped that up later, but at the time I calculated that you could save one train or run a significantly more frequent service with the same trains just by having the train stop for only about 20 seconds at each station.

[@RGC198]

Interesting video. While visiting Sydney in early 2000, my family and I managed to travel on the monorail for the entire line. Back then, the only light rail operating was between Central and Wentworth Park. Just as short time later, the light rail line was extended to Lilyfield, though we were not there to see that.

[@misaandcoart]

I always wanted to go on it but never had a chance. It was a key memory of mine watching the film Napoleon (about an adventurous puppy) and it was featured in the movie. It was such an exciting view, so futuristic. Out of curiosity I looked up the website from the side of it and it's like a time capsule. It hasn't been updated since it was decommissioned but the site is still online. It's so weird to just see this digital time capsule free for perusing.

[@Trippy72Spore]

My dad was the "independent safety consultant" on the project (Dr Chis Peterson). He told me stories: - the monorail had a diesel powered cart that could run around the track when it wasn't powered. It turned out this cart had a part in the wrong position, so the first time it ran around the track, it knocked off all the reflectors that were there to let the monorail know where it was. This alone cost them a huge amount of money! - These reflectors also didn't work in the rain (or fog, or high humidity). - There were multiple "un-powered" maintenance slots. So every time you had to maintain a train set, you had to put it onto the powered "maintenance" rail and then move the rail into the maintenance slot, then manually winch the train-set into the maintenance slot. The operators soon decided this was a waste of time, so they powered up the trains on the "maintenance-rail" and then tried to "coast" them into the maintenance slot. As you can imagine, this started out working OK, but ended in disaster - they destroyed an entire train set worth millions of dollars by revving it up too fast and smashing it into the end of the slot. - Also it was run on Commodore Amigas - they even hired me as a teenager to create the pixel art to show their carriages. There was no way Amiga's were fast enough to run the simulation. - Finally my Dad concluded that there were so many components involved, the chance of critical failure (at the time) was around 1 per 3-6 months... This is why the Sydney monorail was never autonomous like it was intended (it always needed a driver), it was instead one of the greatest fails in engineering history...

[@DanielKing-dk5nr]

not only that, it was so unbareable to ride in the summer, because of no air con inside the carriages it felt like an oven inside.

[@sophiepooks2174]

Went for a ride on in it in 1988 I was 19 thought it was cool, although it was of limited use and dagy, liked it better than the light rail only because it was above the ground and can see more than just gridlocked road traffic, the harbor hydrofoils were also something we used to think were fun and novel, Sydney seems dull these days though like most other cities, great video brought back good memories, very well done.

[@brentsummers7377]

I've had 2 rides on the monorail. I enjoyed both rides a lot. However, it was always difficult to get on at Darling Harbour - always crowded. On one ride the monorail stopped between stations and got overly hot very quickly. Luckily, it started moving again fairly quickly.

[@breezyq6449]

got to use the monorail twice as a kid, both times my brother almost got left at the station because he didnt know the doors close automatically. being annoyed at him soured my ability to find them so awesome, i think i'd love to just sit in a monorail and watch the city for hours nowadays though haha

[@annettesmith472]

As an occasional tourist to Sydney we loved it. Especially with young kids. We could jump on and off and easily get around darling harbour without wearing little legs out. Was so sad to see it go.

[@shane80002007]

If they change it to casino to circular quay or casino to Bondi beach via Oxford Street they would of got more customers, look how many people catch light rail to central

[@donttalkcrap]

would have... not would of 🤦

[@Secretlyanothername]

The eastern councils would have never allowed something as imposing as this. And could it even safely traverse the grade down and up from Bondi?

[@flamingfrancis]

@@donttalkcrap easily confused with "would've"

[@FromtheWindowSeat]

Hey … just letting you know there’s a typo on your thumbnail. It currently says “Australia’s wierdest transport project” … but the correct spelling is weirdest. Sorry .. wouldn’t normally leave a comment like this but couldn’t find a way to email or DM you.

[@stefanhofmann2521]

Was wondering if someone was gonna mention it

[@videowilliams]

"And the monorail track running along the bridge could open and close too!" (5:09) Yes, and I made a corporate video for the company that provided the big electrical connector that could open and close on the track, shown in the foreground of your shot from the Pyrmont Bridge at 5:23. In fact I featured it quite heavily because the monorail and Darling Harbour/CBD backgrounds helped it look so cool. But an unintended side effect was that when the blokes who had to actually service said connection saw my vid, they let the company know it had been a bitch to use which led to modifications made to get it working as smoothly as my vid had claimed! That sexy, futuristic Disneyland quality the monorail had should not be understated in telling its history. I loved that thing, both for my own occasional trips to Darling Harbour from the central CBD, and also in showing various tourist friends around, because the view you got while gliding through the streets one storey up was quite remarkable.

[@Techno-Universal]

Also got to ride it as a kid in January of 2012 when I was in Sydney on an interstate holiday with my family! :)

[@jk177717]

The originally planned monorail route integrated better with heavy rail by going down George St, not Pitt. This is what really got people (myself included) out protesting against it, because it would have run directly across the facades of the Town Hall and St Andrews Cathedral, and was even proposed to cut *through* the QVB to make the turn into Market St.

[@ronvorbach1464]

Alan Bond intended to put the mono rail in to service the Star Casino and also Mascot airport . He was told he was to put the rail in regardless with no assurance it would service the casino that was still to be approved and built and was denied airport operations because it required 2 meters of federal land. I guess there was bigger corrupt people then he was. Sad, the monorail was just what we needed and not realised by so many. It could have serviced both inner Sydney centre and North Sydney via the bridge with minimal alterations to the bridge ,but once again big corruption would miss out. Oh well I am old now and it matters not much to me.

[@danieleyre8913]

Do you live on planet earth?

[@ronvorbach1464]

@@danieleyre8913 I reside here but I would not call it living.

[@woohooboy]

It was an eyesore that only encompass half the CBD area. The majority of the commuters were tourists. It didn't accommodate many locals since a large portion of the stops were places most Sydneysiders has little need/interest in going to The fact that it lasted 25 years is frankly surprising to put it mildly.......

[@donttalkcrap]

Yes, it was an eyesore Yes, the majority of passengers were NOT commuters (because "Commuters" are actually people travelling to work. I think you mean "Passengers") Yes, the majority were tourists. And that was because most want to sightsee in the middle of the CBD, Chinatown and Darling Harbour. Now whilst tourists can now use the light rail to sightsee from Circular Quay to Pitt Street Mall & QVB (neither of which existed when the Monorail was opened), and down to Chinatown. There is still NO EASY way to get from midcity to Darling Harbour for tourists (who remember, back then, did not have maps on their phones to help them easily navigate). I rode it daily and it was always full between 10am and 6pm.

[@marquee_tags]

​@@donttalkcrap Yep, it was silly to think the monorail would ever be used by daily commuters, but that doesn't make it useless. Visitor focused services aren't unique or a bad idea and it *was* popular even if it was largely out of mind for the 90% of people used to navigating Sydney's PT. The separate ticketing I think was its biggest issue but ticketing was a mess in general in that era. If not for the ICC construction I think doing the maintenance and adding it to Opal would have been fine.

[@internetgas2020]

@@donttalkcrap Umm you might want to check your facts, QVB has been around for ALOT of years, way before the monorail went up and the monorail used to go through Pit Street pedestrian only section (Pitt St Mall)

[@JasonAyalaSpare]

Many public works were timed to be completed by 1988 because it was our bicentenary year. These also included the new parliament house and the Sydney football stadium.

[@santouchesantouche2873]

All ugly af and gawn 😅

[@MrRecrute]

I wasn’t sad to see it go. It disrupted views of heritage buildings and the support columns inhibited the movement of traffic and pedestrian flow. It was a joke.

[@steve354777]

The Monorail always seemed to me to be little more than a fairground ride or tourist excursion. It didn’t really go anywhere and it didn’t conveniently link up to Sydney’s wider transport system. I did use it a couple of times to go to functions in the Darling Harbour precinct from work. It was a bit of a walk from my workplace in the CBD to the nearest monorail station. Still, it was a fun ride providing an interesting elevated view of the City and Darling Harbour area.

[@mortarn]

You didn't mention that Darling Harbour was redeveloped as part of the Bicentennial celebrations. The monorail never meant as a serious public transport solution, it was a tourist attraction in a tourism precinct. Same as the Brisbane monorail (which was built for the Expo). I loved the Sydney monorail. I rode it on the day it opened in 1988 and often whenever i went into the city, until i moved to Melbourne in 1999

[@dustystripe6949]

I loved the monorail as a kid! I was young enough that I didn’t understand why it was suddenly gone but before that we’d go on it every time we went into the city (which was often, we lived in the outer suburbs lol)

[@craigmonty]

As someone who worked in the CBD during the time of the monorail. I agree it's main failure was that it just wasn't effecient at actually getting you anywhere. You could nearly always walk to where you wanted to be in less time than it would take you to catch the monorail.

[@sonofdat]

If you watch the Bathurst 1000 race, you will see a set of mono rail carriages on a private property at the bottom of Conrod Straight, its good to see they didn't just goto scrap.

[@radiogeekau3356]

I have fond memories of the monorail from my childhood. I remember riding it when it first opened and thinking that it was the best thing since sliced bread. But as I got older, I could see it was just nothing more than a novelty. I do remember reading somewhere of a plan to extend it to Circular Quay.

[@mrshimmy1999]

I liked the monorail and used it because there is no other direct way to move east-west from the CBD to Darling Harbour. The other options are to walk a substantial distance or a very roundabout public transportation route which is problematic in bad weather or when you are in a rush.

[@Secretlyanothername]

This was fascinating, and I'm now disappointed that I never got to go on it! I always walked past the line when visiting Sydney and thought it looked dated and not very useful. If you are planning videos on other transport systems, I'd love one about hydrofoil ferries. Sydney had them in the 80s, and there is a resurgence in electric hydrofoil transport. If would be interesting to see how they could work again in Sydney, as well as Perth, Brisbane, and Port Phillip Bay. Their speed and comfort could change things up in interesting ways.

[@peterdibble]

Nice coverage of this, Kyle. With all the monorail projects that never get off the ground (hah), it's interesting to see a rare case of a city that actually built one but still removed it in the end.

[@lumabi25]

I lived in Sydney in the early 90s and I have fond memories of riding the monorail to Darling Harbour. It was really more of a tourist thing I think. Many Sydneysiders disliked the monorail, thought it was ugly and so on, but I had no problem with it. It was just another way of getting around. It was a small, slow train with a nice view.

[@Phase52012]

If memory serves the monorail was built to take people from various hotels around the city to the proposed CASINO at Darling Harbour. The Casino was eventually built at a different location well away from Darling Harbour. At which point it had no purpose. As "public transport" it only went to a few places. You had to get UP to a station to use it. When it broke down; and it did; the fire brigade had to block streets to get the equipment in to get people off it.

[@paulf7757]

The one place a mono rail might work is Bondi Junction to Bondi Beach. Road transport near Bondi in summer is a nightmare. It would only need to be faster than 20km per hour to be much faster than driving and it would be profitable with zero extra stops.

[@MrLordSandwich]

Half the reason Hobart was like "Since you're getting rid of it anyway... We'll take it." Is because Hobart is quite hilly with smaller roads. Not only that but you can see what worked and what didn't work in Sydney and rebuild it with that in mind. Hobart used to have Trams/lightrail but a few reasons we got rid of them was issues with Hills (Trams at the time struggled with hills) and cars becoming more popular. A monorail isn't a bad idea for Hobart... But it doesn't come without issues like with any project.

[@hankjones3527]

Also access to the stations. I know how trivial it sounds but the raised stations mean either waiting for a lift or walking up stairs. No big deal if you're taking a 30min commute like on the heavy rail. But if the monorail trip is only 5 min and you can almost walk it in the same time then you might as well walk. Compare that to the current light rail that pulls up right next to where you are walking and you can just make a snap decision to quickly jump on.

[@Ayura0]

Man... I loved the monorail... I remember I used to always ask my parents to take it instead of walking or taking other forms of transport around the city😂 Now, knowing the price of the tickets, it makes sense why my parents were against it 70% of the times... After recently going to Japan and taking the monorail in Odaiba, man... It reminded me how much I love monorails and the view it gives😭 Nostalgia hits like a... Train

[@jceess]

I feel like a system like this needs to be more like the Miami Metro Mover. It needs to connect 2-3 heavy rail/subway stations with a big swathe of dense development, and also be fareless to encourage use. It could drastically increase the walkshed of heavy rail without requiring expensive tunneling or land acquisition.

[@Bpl76300]

I was thinking about the monorail the other day. I remember seeing it once as a kid and thought it was a dream.

[@smalltime0]

I'm pretty sure the main reason the monorail got built, over the light rail solution, was because Melbourne has an extensive tram network.

[@peterfmodel]

There is a monorail in Vancouver and Tokyo which are enjoyable to travel as well. However it seems the monorail may not be an idea mass transit system, but great for tourists.

[@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13]

I can't hear, or even read, the word "monorail" without the almost uncontrollable urge to break into the classic Simpsons song... One of the most iconic of Phil Hartman's long list of truly iconic roles.

[@jezzeronthecoast]

There was one on the Gold Coast in Queensland too, like the one in Sydney it didn't really go anywhere most residents wanted to go. Most people I knew liked them but would have liked (both) to cover a much greater area, and cover an area they couldn't walk around / actually wanted to go and took workers in and out of the cbd quickly and cheaply it may have worked.

[@Barney_rubble983]

I was about 5 when it opened and i remember our school went down for a ride. We also went on the ferry over to manly.

[@christopherwebber3804]

The monorail took up a whole lane of Pitt St, it didn't fit on a footpath and was a waste of space. I protested against it before it was built. It was just an amusement park ride that was too expensive to be used by commuters. The real reason why it wasn't used much was the expense, not just that it wasn't linked to any other transport mode. For the same price you could travel to most other parts of Sydney by train.

[@josephj6521]

They could’ve built a monorail connecting all the beaches along the coast! Haha, imagine the views but I’m certain everyone living along the coast would hate it. Ha! That’ll be a laugh.

[@danielsanichiban]

When I think about why I only ever used the monorail a few times, yeah, it was easy enough to walk, predictable, no waiting, no cost. Also who ever wanted to go to Darling Harbour, it was a place you sometimes had to go thru, not go to.

[@skyscraperfan]

I recently rode the Moscow Monorail and was shocked how slow it was. I wonder if it could be upgraded.

[@ozfoxaroo]

5:20 - I learned something new. I wasn't aware that the monorail track above the Pyrmont swing bridge was independent of the bridge movement.

[@NoRelationToNed]

I was always under the impression the monorail (at least the rolling stock) was relocated from the Expo site in Brisbane, is that the case? Where have the carriages finished up now?

[@LetterboxFrog]

The technology stack (Von Roll) was designed for Theme Parks, being shared with Sea World on the Gold Coast and Expo 88. Fun but pokey and impractible as public transport. Whoever the sales rep for Von Roll was must have made a fortune. If you've ever taken the Haneda monorail you know they serve a commuting purpose at a capital price point that makes them far cheaper than subways with less inconvenience than light rail in terms of construction time. The Innovia powered Vancouver Skytrains with their LIM Motor and independent wheels fills a similar niche, without the rubber tyres

[@rubberonasphalt]

5:30 Harbourside shopping was demolished, but is being redeveloped by Mirvac, so it will be back to become a mix of retail, residential and commercial buildings. Projected to complete 2027-2028

[@terminusest9179]

I remembered as a kid listening to the sound of the monorail coming over our heads. I may have been in one ages ago but I couldn't say I experienced it properly at the time. Now I just take the light rail anywhere around the city.

[@mikeX05X]

Once again, great video! Would love to hear your vision for Sydney’s future metro extensions

[@100StepProgram]

When I was a kid and every time I went to Sydney I never cared about the bridge or the opera house or any other attraction. I did however always beg to ride the monorail

[@akikaneverlasting3926]

I honestly really loved the monorail and now sad it was gone because the way it moves and the design for the wheel is so interesting. It's not like the Light rail or any other trains. I think

[@flamingfrancis]

Oddly enough the Darling Harbour development of the former railway goods yards area was replicated in the complex built in Baltimore, Maryland. The lovely Camden Yards facility, now used by the Baltimore Orioles became a far more useful facility and it includes a hotel complex built in the old woolshed like buildings.

[@rvx5818]

Very interesting! I think most Aussies have forgotten that Sydney ever had a monorail! I agree though that it should have gone into a suburban area instead of just inner CBD which is often just tourists!

[@Chancherpancher]

The Sydney Monorail is my childhood and I'm sad it closed in 2013.

[@gtrain2024]

I think that Sydney Monorail could have been a great and profitable idea if it was correctly put into place. If there were two lines next to each other that the train would pass that would save lots of time. It should have been advertised as a rapid way to move around the city, like the new Sydney metro. It could have gone to places outside of the very CBD too, such as the airport or Circular Quay. And if they implemented it into the Opal line im sure it would have done well

[@Dobuan75]

There was a joke about it when it first started runiing: "Someone lay on the monorail tracks to end his life. If they didn't rescue him, a week later he could have been killed." The breakdown and delays were phenomenal at the start...

[@again5162]

I've road the monorail from Brisbane expo 88 as a kid then again at Seaworld where it was relocated to, also rode the Jupiter's casino monorail many times and it's far better and safer than a tram interacting with traffic. Light rail cost Gold Coast about $3 billion for 12 km. Monorail is cheaper. After 40 years Seaworld is still using it

[@seanlander9321]

The monorail wasn’t so much about transport as it was about property development, courtesy of the Hungarian mafia headed by ‘Sir’ Peter Ables. He was an egomaniacal moron who had failed to pay dividends to his shareholders for decades, yet came up with the finding for this excrescence. The absolute nail in the coffin of the Monofail was the 90’s recession when it was cheaper to park all day at Pyrmont and walk into town, than buying a one way ticket on the trundling menace. Everything Ables touched, he overspent, he corrupted, and he failed.

[@katiebonser9712]

I enjoyed the monorail when I was a kid, my brother and I road it with our grandparents.

[@gperrin9050]

When my Grandparents visited from Switzerland they were very interested in the Monorail and after purchasing the tokens to ride it, decided to keep the token coins rather than take the Monorail because they were far more interesting to them

[@foreignparticle1320]

Even as a tourist I found the monorail kinda clunky and inconvenient. Really glad I got the opportunity to ride it though - it was the only "touristy" thing I did during my first time in Sydney. By the time I went back there, it was gone.

[@philipbrailey]

I loved the Monorail so much. I used to bring my family into Sydney and see the beautiful knockout Darling Harbour. What a view, it made coming to Sydney a real treat. I was heartbroken when they took it away. No more visits to Sydney.

[@moonsorrow77]

I like it..I rode on it a few times..when shopping in the city..mean while I had a dream that I was riding on the monorail in the future from western Sydney all the way to the city..yes the monorail extended into western Sydney suburbs..all the way to Blacktown and Penrith area,north and south too…

[@aldredd]

Don't forget that a lot of the steel track beams were repurposed as temporary road bridge during the construction of the Metro Norwest station

[@walkingcouch9835]

I have good memories of this monorail and used it before it closed to go around the harbour to Star Casino. I wish the planners had copied Tokyo's Haneda Airport to Hamamatsucho Station monorail line. The Mascot airport isnt that far from Darling Harbour, and a line from Sydney airport to the harbour (travelling both ways) would have been more than a tourist attraction.

[@RoboP]

I feel you summed up all the Monorail's problems(one direction track, ticket pricing, it's limited scale loop) Monorail could've been so much better in Sydney if it was expanded, government owned, had more diverse range of stations and managed better. Sure the construction costs were cheap, but private ownership became an obvious problem for it as well.

[@indeedentertainment]

I really liked it, was a fun thing to do when we went to the city, was great fun and if they had kept it going and extended it I think it would have been very popular with tourists.

[@stephp6761]

If they’re good at going up and down hills, I wonder if a monorail could be a contender for what in my opinion is the craziest place in Sydney to not have good public transport connection - Bondi Junction to Bondi Beach? I know there are buses, but I’ve always found it crazy there is no train connection to such a popular tourist attraction

[@WantonMyth]

True. In summer esp weekends Bondi Rd is gridlock

[@redthezz]

It would have been practical (yet unpopular because of Nimbyism and expensive for the Government) to have a Monorail network for Hobart. As the population area is narrow it can go bi-directional from Kingston through to Glenorchy, and from West Hobart to Hobart Airport, and Rokeby to Bridgewater. Three non-loop lines, get on/get off and being above roads doesn't clog up the car network. Having said that I did enjoy riding the monorail in Sydney, it actually made me a fan of such transport.

[@jimmothy2192]

From a tourism perspective, the Monorail served it's purpose and served it well. Sydney-siders along with the Politicians completely overlooked the appeal of the Monorail to tourists, never recognising it as an Icon and unique form of travel within part of Sydney. A now seemingly forgotten Icon which was known around the world. What's notable about Sydney now.....? There's......... ummmm...

[@gerardpayne4402]

Premier Bob Carr pushed thru the Darling Harbour development. Premier Carr charged the future State Govt’s to add further distance & connections travelling around the city & major hubs . If common sense prevailed Sydney would today have a monorail looping the CBD - connecting Circular Quay , Kings Cross, St Vincent’s Hospital, Surry Hills , Central Station , Haymarket Convention Halls , Harbourside , Pyrmont Pt, Jackson’s Landing , Fish Markets, Wentworth Park , Broadway Shopping , Central Rail & Bus hub Interchange . All too simple . Not enough opportunity for vested interests to skim the public purse . Other expanded service options discussed were King St Newtown, RPA Hospital , Cleveland St thru to Centennial Park , SCG , Moore Park , Randwick Race Course , Oxford St , Bondi Rd , Ocean St , Edgecliff , Darlinghurst Rd , William St , Hyde Park . State Govt , Circular Quay , NSW Museum , Cathedral , Central Station. Sitting Above existing traffic lanes . User friendly elevated passenger platforms. A continuous stream of monorail units of 4 carriages - quietly moving & improving affordable public transport . With an estimated wait time on avg of 8 mins . Flexibility of peak hr increased Monorail Carriages or particular events . Easy to access for maintenance ; less up front costs; could be built in Kempsey Australia, readily simple to marry up with existing & future public transport hubs in & around Sydney’s CBD - city east , west & south. Alas no common sense - when lite rail was agreed & built , only then the negative impact was revealed cutting the CBD in half , competed with bike lanes and is sloooowww with red lights & waiting for green . If the snouts ever get out of the troughs we may rise again to a great city . Gerard