Passengers are shunning Sydney’s new light rail. Here’s what needs to happen to get them on board

Sydney thought it could beat Melbourne at its own game. But its $2.9 billion shiny new toy proves it absolutely can’t.

OPINION

A short walk from Sydney’s shiny new trams, as they rather too casually creep up George St, is an eerie reminder of expensive transport follies past.

Close to the spick and span Chinatown light rail stop, an incongruous rectangular box seems to be suspended almost in mid-air, attached precariously to an office block.

This was once the World Square monorail stop.

It looks odd now because the monorail track has been torn down, leaving the closed station peering onto the street below like a giant levitating Lego brick.

Mind you, the monorail always seemed odd even when it was in fine fettle.

A transport method straight out of The Jetsons, it looked like it should be connecting mining colonies on Mars rather than connecting one side of the CBD to, well, the other side of the CBD.

Remember the Sydney Monorail. The transport that took you from Myer to the Aquarium. Picture: AFP PHOTO / Greg WOOD

The former World Square Monorail station in the city that now hangs over the road shorn of track. Picture: John Applyard.

Only tourists looking for the aquarium seemed to use it and in 2013, the government put it out of its misery and tried its best to persuade us it was all just a horrid nightmare.

This week, it came stumbling back into the consciousness of Sydneysiders as they witnessed the shambles of Sydney’s new light rail line.

“Is this Sydney’s new monorail?” asked one wag on social media.

It’s a good question. Because at the moment the light rail looks like a multibillion-dollar boondoggle.

Sydney's light rail is seen along George Street in Sydney on the day of its launch. Picture: AAP

Just like the monorail, the light rail appears to be distinctly light on passengers. It has seemingly not made a good first impression to many commuters.

There’s even a social media account called Sydney Light Fail.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance said 115,000 people rode the new trams on the weekend, yet at 9am on Tuesday, trams slithered towards Town Hall with barely a person on board and on platforms, there were more staff than passengers.

RELATED: Poor turnout on first real test for Sydney’s new $2.9 billion light rail

Sydney’s light rail has been a controversial infrastructure project, with costs blowing out from $1.6 billion as predicted in 2014 to at least $2.9 billion in latest estimates. Picture: Getty

If looks were all that mattered, Sydney’s slick light rail with its fancy stops would easily beat Melbourne’s ageing system with its tiny trams and withered old stops.

Yet Melburnians can be forgiven for having a scoff in our direction.

Because, like some unkind people say about Sydney itself, the new trams seem to be all beauty and little brains.

It’s starting to look like a Sydney is living through a $3 billion tram fiasco.

The fiasco isn’t because a tram broke down on opening day. These things happen. And it’s not because it’s a year late and $1bn over budget. Although this is really quite awkward.

It’s because it’s not doing what it was built to do – shuttle people around quickly and easily.

An end-to-end journey from Circular Quay to Randwick takes up to 50 minutes. It’s a ludicrous amount of time.

A journey of 8km that takes longer than the 45km train trip from the CBD to Blacktown.

Google Maps actively advises people skip the light rail. A jaunt to the city, it suggests, is swifter if you walk for five minutes, get a bus, and then walk another five minutes.

The Daily Telegraph timed the route and found if you jogged it, you would arrive just two minutes later than the tram.

No wonder Transport for NSW was so reluctant to reveal how long tram trips would take in the lead up to the network’s launch.

The jaw dropping, embarrassing 50-minute figure was slipped out just a few days before the system opened.

With the parallel bus network still in place – for now – it’s little surprise people are opting for that rather than the light rail.

RELATED: Shocking number of near-misses on Sydney’s new light rail revealed

It takes a whopping 50 minutes for the light rail to complete its journey. Picture: AAP

Sydneysiders were given many promises about the light rail.

One was that the traffic-choked George St would be cleared of cars and given over to just trams and pedestrians. This one action has transformed the CBD for the better.

But it also means the trams have to amble along at a snail’s pace ringing their bells like demented cyclists so as not to run over distracted shoppers.

And while Melbourne’s Bourke St is also a tram/pedestrian melange, it’s that way for a single bock; George St has five large blocks cordoned off.

The government has indeed said that safety concerns are partly the reason behind the go slow and insist the trams will pick up the pace as all those soft humans learn to coexist with their new 67-metre steel friends.

But what’s the excuse elsewhere?

Trams seem to fearfully plod along streets where they have the right of way. They dilly dally at stops, almost as if they have to be coaxed into moving off. And there doesn’t seem to be a traffic light a tram can’t turn red as it approaches.

It’s ludicrous. The light rail has to do better.

Passengers will be praying it will do better because when the buses are axed in March, they will be the main transport option into the city from the south east.

By that point, Transport for NSW needs to have done three things.

Firstly, it needs to speed the damn things up, definitely when they’re in their own dedicated lanes.

Secondly, it needs to stop the dawdling at stops.

Lastly, it needs to listen to the many transport experts and give the trams some level of traffic light priority. The constant stop and go is infuriating.

The trams have undoubtedly transformed the once traffic clogged George St. Picture: Benedict Brook

Mr Constance has said the aim is to reduce travel times to close to 40 minutes. OK, but that’s still slower than the current buses.

People love trams, they really do. The Gold Coast tram has been a huge success. It’s a fact that given the choice between a tram and a bus, all things being equal, people prefer the one with tracks and wires.

But it doesn’t matter how shiny the carriages or how smart the stops, if the new trams make commuters’ daily routines worse, they will eventually find a way to avoid them.

We can’t have spent $3 billion to encourage more jogging from Randwick to the city.

Sydney already made a big fat transport mistake once with the monorail. Its ghostly reminders litter the city.

Let’s not make another mistake with the light rail. Let’s show Melbourne we can do this.

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