Bendigo Heritage Proposes Light Rail to Connect Key City Destinations

Almost 20 years ago, transport expert and Professor of Sustainability Peter Newman recommended that the City of Greater Bendigo turn its heritage trams into a public transport option.

After three trials over the following months, the city's bosses decided not to adopt it, saying people still preferred their cars.

But now, with light rail making a global resurgence, Bendigo Heritage is proposing the city use light rail to connect key destinations.

The proposal calls for a short city-centre tram route of roughly 1 kilometre linking the Bendigo Station with the retail core and continuing to the Bendigo Art Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Oval precinct.

The proposal also wants trams to run along Barnard Street and connect with the hospital precinct.

Professor Newman says it is time Bendigo returned to the idea of trams as public transport.

"The communities need to want it, as well as the developers," he said.

"That process should begin straightaway because the opportunities are going to be there.

Trams ran along Mitchell and View streets until 1972, and the plan by the city's heritage body is to have battery-powered trams traverse that same path.

Bendigo Heritage chief executive James Reade said the resurgence of trams would improve connectivity for Bendigo residents and visitors.

"We propose a short city centre tram route of roughly 1 kilometre linking the Bendigo Station with the retail core and continuing to the Bendigo Art Gallery and Queen Elizabeth Oval precinct.

"With significant anchors at either terminus, it is a modest line with a mighty job to do."

The plan would involve reallocating one traffic lane in each of Mitchell Street and View Street to make way for the tram lines and stops.

Figures from the International Association of Public Transport's report on light rail in 2019 showed that, since 2000, more than 100 cities worldwide have opened their first modern light rail line, and light rail now runs in close to 390 cities.

It was found that in Europe more than 210 tram and light rail systems carry billions of passengers a year, and it is the fastest-growing corner of the sector.

Tram revival must meet passenger need

It's not the first time the return of light rail or trams has been proposed as a public transport option in Bendigo.

In 2005, the City of Greater Bendigo scrapped its plan to extend the heritage tram network around Lake Weeroona after the community opposed it.

Three years later, Professor Newman suggested modernising parts of the heritage tram network so it could function as a daily public transport service, but after a week-long trial of trams running every 20 minutes it was not continued.

This week, Professor Newman said Bendigo Heritage's plan was needed to attract private investment and unlock the urban development required to make the tramway a success.

"The right quotient is to bring into the room the people who would be putting money into that project in terms of the urban developments around it and the local, state and federal governments that would be contributing to it," Professor Newman said.

"If you do that, then you'll get an integrated solution rather than a tramway organisation saying, 'Oh, we just like this'.

Professor Newman backed the idea of battery-powered trams and said Auckland was considering "trackless trams", and there was a proposal for similar to be added to Parramatta Road in western Sydney, while Brisbane's metro used three-carriage battery buses which mirrored a light rail system.

But Public Transport Users Association spokesperson for regional Victoria, Paul Westcott, said light rail would have to run far more frequently than the current hourly heritage tram service along Pall Mall.

"Frequency is always the key to good public transport, not necessarily the mode by which the service is delivered," he said.

"But it's not much good putting a tram in unless you are going to provide the level of service and route coverage that is going to be attractive and useful to public transport users."

'Tram boulevards' for regional cities

The Gold Coast is one of the latest regions to add light rail to its public transport.

The 6.7-kilometre-long Stage 3 of its light rail opened early last month and cost $1.55 billion to build, more than double its initial projection of $709 million.

This week, the G21 conference in Geelong launched its campaign for $12.5 million for the planning and design of a rapid transport corridor between Geelong and the Surf Coast.

At the moment, commuters rely on a 53-minute bus ride to travel the 23 kilometres between the two destinations.

City of Greater Geelong mayor Stretch Kontelj said trackless trams, or a dedicated rapid bus lane, had already been touted as options.

"As they do between Adelaide and Glenelg, that's sort of my vision of how that could potentially work.

"I could see it would be hugely advantageous to people daily for commuting between the two areas, but also a great tourist attraction."

Mr Kontelj said the next stage would be about getting the costings of establishing the transport corridor.

Surf Coast Shire mayor Libby Stapleton said the Surf Coast Highway was already at capacity during peak times, and studies had shown that a business-as-usual approach that relied on cars would not work.

"We know that demand is increasing," she said.

'Cheaper and more accessible'

Ian McBurney has spent 25 years working with communities on sustainable transport and said arriving at Bendigo on the train and catching a tram to the art gallery, Queen Elizabeth Oval and hospital would be a great look for the city.

He said that while the tourism market loves trams, inner-city workers and residents needed a faster and more modern system that ran regularly and got passengers from A to B regularly.

"I'm pretty sure that running ten-minute electric buses would be far cheaper and more accessible," he said.

"Buses can take a lane of the current road, but we would need to build better bus stops. Laying tram tracks would be a complete redesign of the road.

The request for a feasibility study for a new Bendigo tram route has been sent to the Department of Transport and Planning as part of a review into Bendigo's bus network.