Today marks a significant moment in Sydney's transport heritage. It was seen as a sign of progress for the government of the day to scrap Sydney's former tram system, or light railway as such systems tend to get called these days, in favour of an expanded diesel bus service. In the photos below, many of the green/cream double decker buses carrying the Albion, AEC and Leyland brands complimented the third largest tram system in the world, with George Street carrying many of these trams and buses.

Between the late 1940s and 1961 buses slowly replaced trams in what one could describe was one of the largest displays of vandalism that ever took place in history. With each bus put on the road, two trams would be systematically towed to the railway yards at Redfern, stripped of their bogies and then doused in petrol and burned.

A few museums were fortunate enough to rescue a small number of Sydney's trams including some one-offs, including the prison tram that took villains from Sydney's courts to Long Bay Gaol and the track scrubbers. The famous R-class trams which were manufactured between 1933 and 1935 by Clyde Engineering (now known as Downer EDI) survive in numbers of less than 30. Sydney's government-owned bus fleet now exceeds 2,300.

But now, the days of buses dominating George Street are over. On Sunday, 4th October buses on routes that currently include George Street as part of their service will be directed down York Street, Castlereagh Street and Elizabeth Street or simply terminate at Circular Quay, Park Street or Druitt Street. George Street will become a mall between King Street and Bridge Street in stage over the three year period of the resurrection of the rail lines that will once again support a tram service between Circular Quay and Randwick Junction. With Sydney being no stranger to coupled trams, this line will carry the world's longest trams at a length of 67 metres. In the malled section, a third rail will supply 750 volts to the trams and traditional catenary wires will do this job in other parts of the new service. The photos below show Sydney's huge fleet of buses operating as normal on Saturday, 3rd October, with regular services of what the people of Sydney have for forty years called the 'Blue Mercedes' working with the vintage single and double deckers that complimented or ultimately replaced Sydney's last trams for the last time on George Street. The time for breathing burnt diesel and the hydrocarbons that come with it on this famous thoroughfare are over.

In a few short years electric trams will once again take their rightful place on what is Austraila's first declared carriageway only this time we need not tread in horse manure to get from the footpath to what is ultimately a clean and efficient mass transit system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Sydney

Yes, the trams fell to the same money schemes as happened in America, where GM and others paid cities to remove their electric trolleybuses and trams, and get noxious buses instead. It was much later that the mistake was realised, but by then it would cost too much to revert.

I've seen the tram depots at Ultimo (now the Powerhouse museum), Tempe and Newtown.

At Ultimo, the actual power house was between the depot and a bridge that carried a road over Darling Harbour goods yard. I haven't visited the area since the 80s, but back then the powerhouse was a dilapidated shambles. On the other side of the road bridge was an abandoned wool store. This went up in a spectacular fire sometime in the 90s, with the walls falling onto nearby parked cars.

Before the Opera House existed, there was the Fort Macquarie tram depot, a substantial red brick castle-like structure.

At Railway Square, there were so many trams that a signal box existed to switch them onto their proper lines and prevent collisions.

I've also walked the road (which was a tramway) linking the Harbour bridge with Wynyard station platforms 1 & 2 (now an underground car park under Wynyard Park).

That was the Mercantile Woolstore and I remember that fateful day. Darling Harbour is nothing like it was then and even the convention centre built in the 1980s is gone and its replacement is about half finished. On the other side there is a row of new skyscrapers under way.

A few years ago I paid the Rozelle tram shed a visit with a mate and we took a few photos of six trams that were still stored there until the demise of Harold Park next door. The tram shed is soon to be a shopping centre and the trotting track is gone, replaced by blocks of flats.

The good news is that those trams were rescued and are believed to be under restoration somewhere. The last will be returned to form part of the above mentioned shopping centre apparently. This particular tram is R-class 1995, the last of the old trams to be in service on the run to La Perouse in 1961.