Tram advocates and enthusiasts say the City of Perth’s 10-year vision for the city is a step in the right direction that signals a step back into the past.

The city announced “Shaping Perth City Centre – Towards 2036 and Beyond” last month – a report detailing the next decade of developments across Perth. Included in the project is the return of light rail, with two proposed tram lines running up and down St George’s Terrace and Wellington Street.

According to Danish urban design firm Gehl, who collaborated on the project, adding tram corridors on the two main CBD streets would provide more convenient and sustainable transport options for residents and visitors.

“Introducing such systems would help stitch the City Centre to its surrounding neighbourhoods in a more sustainable, and integrated way,” the firm said in the report.

“Consolidating public transit modes along these two corridors would help free the City Centre from the noise and clutter of the numerous, often low occupancy, suburban buses that currently dominate these streets.”

Curtin University sustainability Professor Peter Newman has been an advocate for trams in Perth for 20 years, and says it would easily replace inefficient buses and aid urban development.

He says a light rail network could also open up possibilities for more affordable and accessible housing in Perth.

“We are a very scattered, sprawling city, and the plan is only to build more housing further out, and they keep saying they want to build housing closer in around stations, but it never happens because they don’t have a way to do it,” he says.

“The tram network could unlock that land to make it possible.”

Trams in Perth – history, preservation, and the future

Light rail in Perth’s centre would not be something new for the world’s most isolated capital city.

The first tram network opened in Perth in 1899 and was privately owned and operated by English company Perth Electric Tramways Limited. The first line ran along Hay Street from East Perth to Thomas Street in West Perth.

Following acquisition by the state government, Perth’s tram network went on to grow to almost 30 lines servicing as far north as Osborne Park and as far south as Victoria Park and Como.

Trams in Perth were slowly replaced by buses in the aftermath of World War II, with the last tram running on July 19, 1958.

Perth Electric Tramway Society council member Michael Stukely says light rail’s decline in Perth during the 1950s was a result of a worldwide trend towards personal motor vehicles being the way of the future.

The Perth Electric Tramway Society is a group of volunteers who preserve and operate electric trams at Whiteman Park, about fifteen kilometres north of Perth.

PETS, named “Western Australian Transport Museum,” at the time, was established after the closure of the trolleybus system in 1969. In 1981, the museum split into two separate societies for tram and bus enthusiasts.

In its 45-year history, the society has found, restored, and operated trams from Perth and beyond. They currently run heritage tram rides at Whiteman Park, where, as a part of Metronet, tracks have recently been extended to the new Whiteman Park train station.

Mr Stukely says it is important to preserve the history of light rail in Perth, given the decades that have passed since the last tram took its course.

“I think preserving the history is very important because now there are probably two generations , at least, of people who have not encountered trams at all.”

Michael Stukely, Perth Electric Tramway Society

“It’s a different mode of transport completely from heavy rail or buses as passenger transport. They’ve got a character and a charm all of their own and people really remark on that when they ride trams out at the park,” he says.

“For the future, I think you always learn from history.”

Mr Stukely says the Perth City Council’s projects for trams in the CBD is necessary to handle growth and housing concerns in the near future.

He says a network would need to branch out into the suburbs for even better efficiency.

“I think it needs to go beyond the CBD to make it worthwhile. It’s got to go somewhere, basically. The CAT buses work very well in the CBD and they’re probably quite adequate, but it needs to go somewhere,” he says.

A potential return for light rail

Professor Newman also highlights the opportunity for a boom in development if proposed tramways go ahead. He says a new light rail network is the obvious choice moving forward as high passenger numbers and housing pressures emphasise Perth’s new era of growth.

He says efforts from the bus industry to halt development should be overlooked.

“The bus industry don’t like it at all. They have worked very, very hard to try and stop this. They say everything a tram or a train can do, a bus can do better and cheaper, and they’re wrong,” he says.

Professor Newman says the current energy crisis and panic over rising petrol costs shows the need for better, cheaper and more efficient transport in cities that tackle environmental concerns simultaneously.

“There is no future based on fossil fuels. They are constantly going to let you down. They are unpredictable, they are easy to blow up, they are very expensive now, and they’re getting less and less, and they cause climate change.”

He says conflict in the Middle East may sway public attitudes towards public transit.

“I think it’s a terrific opportunity to grasp. It’s a pity you have to have a war to induce it, but there’s a lot of people who now understand that oil is no longer the basis of how we run a city.”