The community won before and it can win again

One hundred years ago Sydney’s railways were seriously congested. As well as the rapidly growing suburban and long distance passenger traffic, freight from the hinterland was concentrated on the four tracks of the main line into Sydney, destined for Darling Harbour, Pyrmont and the old Paddy’s Market.

All these freight trains tied up the passenger services, so to relieve the bottleneck, a network of Metropolitan Goods Lines and large railyards at Enfield and Rozelle / White Bay was built exclusively for freight, opening in 1919 between Dulwich Hill and Darling Harbour.

Passenger services in the areas traversed by these lines were provided by the then extensive Sydney tramway system and the Bankstown line. The freight lines were operated as intended for the next fifty years or so, but then the trams were taken away and road congestion badly impacted the suburbs poorly served by the buses that replaced the trams. Trucks further clogged the roads as foolish policies drove freight from the rails, leaving the freight lines underused.

During the 1970s, after successfully opposing the inner city freeways set to destroy their suburb, the Glebe Society began promoting the introduction of passenger trains on the railway as freight operations declined. This campaign was waged in the face of state government hostility but as Darling Harbour was redeveloped in the 1980s, and new housing replaced industry in Pyrmont and Ultimo the line from Lilyfield to Pyrmont through Glebe was too valuable to ignore.

In 1980 the Glebe Society sponsored a report by Dr John Gerofi that recommended that light rail passenger service using modern trams be operated on this line from the city to Leichhardt. Public agitation led to the Sydney Light Rail company starting construction in 1994, with the service opening in 1997 to Ultimo and then, in 2000, to Lilyfield.