Friday, April 23, 2010

early years of environmentally friendly rapid transport in Melbourne


Today's photo shows a set of Tait cars, as they were called after the Victorian railways commissioner of the time, on the Frankston Line in Melbourne.

Melbourne was the first city in Australasia to electrify its suburban railways, in 1919, followed by Sydney in 1926, one line in Christchurch in 1929 and in Wellington in 1938. Brisbane was electrified beginning in 1979 (see an earlier post) and Perth in the early 1990s.

For detailed information with lots of great pictures, see our book Railway Electrification in Australia and New Zealand, available where good books are sold in both countries.

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