This is where Sydney's history is quite different. From the dawn of time, so to speak, until the 1970s, all-door entry and exit was the standard on street public transport. Sydney bypassed the whole "passenger flow" movement in international operational philosophy. Front door entry started to creep in with introduction of OMO on buses from the 1950s, first on suburban private buses and then on government buses. It was such a non-normal thing that they had signs to direct that you had to board through the front door.

Of course everything was then ruined by the transport administrations from the 1970s onwards when front-door boarding of buses was enforced universally and now of course it's no longer necessary with smart cards. Small pockets of rebellion are breaking out among passengers who are often observed to hop aboard through the other doors, so there's hope that one day we might head back to the former ways. Melbourne of course went through a period of this stupidity on its trams but I guess it's well past it now. I understand that there's an enlightened private operator out Essenden way who allows all-door boarding.

I read a delightful story in some magazine by a lady who in her youth had moved from Bondi to the leafy suburb of Northwood where the private buses had already changed to OMO. The first time she went to catch the bus she didn't notice the orderly queue and stormed the vehicle as she was accustomed to on the Bondi tram, only to freeze and turn around when she felt the "silence" of a couple of dozen cold stares directed at her back.

Tony P

---InTramsDownUnder@..., <mal.rowe@...> wrote :

These same people often use (and block) the narrow front doors because they are accustomed to bus travel.

Mal Rowe - glad to see the front narrow door abolished on the E class.