Melbourne peaked at about 300 million ppa during the second world war. If
Sydney's system still operated today at its ww2 peak of over 400 million
ppa it would have the highest tram patronage in the world, just topping
Budapest and Prague. Of course back in the first half of the 20th century
there were a few large systems even busier than Sydney's, but it was
certainly up with the majors.

Haven't seen the final figure yet, but it looks like Sydney Trains in
2017-8 might be the first public transport system ever, of any mode in any
Australian city, to top Sydney trams' maximum patronage. It's only taken
138 years to get there. And heavy rail is supposed to be the heavy lifting
mode!

Tony P

On Tuesday, 14 August 2018 15:41:30 UTC+10, Greg Sutherland wrote:
>

> Easy to see why many in Sydney are to this day outraged by the closure

> of the 2nd generation Sydney Tramway system which for decades recorded

> patronage figures in excess of 1 million per day!

>

> Even present day observers are aghast at the culpability of those

> currently implementing the CSELR.

>

> Greg

>

>

> D McL wrote::

>

> "While Wien has the world's fifth-biggest tram system by kms of track, it

> carries 300m passengers a year compared to Melbourne's 200m. Of course,

> Wien's urban density is the reason for the patronage --- Melbourne is a

> much-less dense city and the tram lines are mostly longer than those in

> Wien."

>

>

>