page_title: Trams in Sydney
section_title: Circular Quay to Central Station
hierarchical_section_title: Trams in Sydney / City Service / Circular Quay to Central Station
caption_attribution_description: Format: Glass plate negative. Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. Repository: Tyrrell Photographic Collection, Powerhouse Museum www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/collection=The_Tyrrell_Photographic Part Of: Powerhouse Museum Collection General information about the Powerhouse Museum Collection is available at www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database Persistent URL: [1] Acquisition credit line: Gift of Australian Consolidated Press under the Taxation Incentives for the Arts Scheme, 1985
context_page_description: The Sydney tramway network served the inner suburbs of Sydney, Australia from 1879 until 1961. In its heyday, it was the largest in Australia, the second largest in the Commonwealth of Nations, and one of the largest in the world. The network was heavily worked, with about 1,600 cars in service at any one time at its peak during the 1930s.
  Patronage peaked in 1945 at 405 million passenger journeys. Its maximum street trackage totalled 291 km in 1923.
context_section_description: This was an extremely busy service for passengers transferring from suburban trains at Central, particularly prior to the opening of the city underground railway lines in 1926. Trams operated from Central station across Eddy Avenue, along Castlereagh Street via Bligh, Bent and Loftus Streets to Alfred Street Circular Quay and returned via Pitt Street in a large anti-clockwise loop. The tram lines down Pitt and Castlereagh streets closed on 27 September 1957.
  These tracks were also used as the city route for some eastern and south-western routes during busy periods as opposed to Elizabeth Street. The services could also be short worked via Bent and Spring Streets at times when Circular Quay was busy or unavailable.
  The sandstone viaduct onto the colonnade at Central station were built across Eddy Avenue for this service, and are being used again today by trams of a sort in the form of the Inner West Light Rail system, however they are operating in the opposite direction.
caption: The approach to Central station, about 1912 with a coupled set of E class trams climbing to the colonnade. Pitt street lines can be seen to the Right of the image.
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