North of the Murray

摘要

Since trams were withdrawn from the streets of Brisbane in 1969 anyone wishing to experience trams in revenue operation in Australia has had to travel to the country's South, where trams still carried passengers in Adelaide, Ballarat, Bendigo and Melbourne. It was not long before Ballarat and Bendigo joined the depressingly long list of closed tram networks but Adelaide and Melbourne somehow managed to buck the trend and Melbourne even achieved a few extensions to its system. In the last two or so decades street congestion has become an unwelcome part of modern life and slowly public opinion has come round to realising that the long decried street tram in fact has a role both as a modern means of transport and a way of busting congestion. In both of the cities which had trams this change of attitude has led to new extensions but elsewhere proposal after proposal to reintroduce trams, light rail or rapid transit has ended up on the cutting room floor....