Advance Australia Party wants to bring back Sydney monorail

A minor party’s election pitch to reintroduce an extended and higher speed version of Sydney’s monorail has been called ‘just as loopy’ as selling MDMA at Woolworths.

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An election pitch to bring back Sydney’s infamous monorail - only this time longer and faster - has been labelled “just as loopy” as selling MDMA at Woolworths.

But Ian Chandler, Advance Australia Party’s candidate for the NSW Legislative Council at this Saturday’s election, said the city should “never have lost” the sky-rail adding it would have “less chance of chopping pedestrians in half” than Sydney’s light rail.

Mr Chandler’s concept would reinstate all eight tracks included on the old 3.6km line, but his vision for a “higher speed” service would also serve Barangaroo and Circular Quay.

Advance Australia Party's vision for a new monorail in Sydney. Picture: Supplied

Although he admitted he had not costed the project, he claimed it would be “cheaper than light rail”.

“It was very popular when it was introduced but then its popularity waned when the novelty wore off,” he said, adding he would advocate for its reintroduction if elected this weekend.

“Instead of developing it, and advancing it, it was scrapped.”

NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance laughed off the plan.

“Proposing to bring back the monorail is just as loopy as The Greens’ proposal to sell MDMA in Woolworths,” he said.

Sydney’s old monorail

A spokeswoman for City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore was also dismissive of Mr Chandler’s idea.

“The Lord Mayor has been vocal in her opposition to the monorail since the 1980s — as a city councillor, she joined many others in opposing its construction, believing that light rail was the better option for linking Darling Harbour to the city centre.”

However, the proposal found a supporter in the Motorist’s Party deputy leader Ms Miriam Lai, who called the monorail “the most brilliant mode of city transport ever invented”.

“Had we developed a new monorail, instead of the light rail, it would have been well and truly finished by now and we’d all be riding a future mode of transport rather than bringing back the old trams,” she said.

The monorail put Sydney on the map - for a time.

Advance Australia Party describes itself as progressive, saying it focuses on issues including climate change, traffic issues and housing affordability.

The monorail ran from 1988 until it was torn down in 2013, with then Premier Barry O’Farrell saying its removal was “good news for Sydney”.

The project had attracted criticism over a string of worrying incidents, including when two monorail trains collided near the Darling Park station in 2010 — resulting in four people being hospitalised.

The last remnants the track are sitting in the Powerhouse Museum.