The various roles railways played in laying the foundations and ground rules
of contemporary mobility are analysed. Rail in leading the shift away from animated
mobility, transformed the relationship, as expressed in mobility, between space and
time. It led to the re-urbanisation of cities and to new forms of quotidian documentation
such as railway timetables and tickets. These impacts were exported across the globe to
such European outposts as Australia, where rail assisted national development and the
growth of cities and regional centres. As elsewhere in the world, in the second half of
the twentieth century rail experienced intense competition from the automobile and
from the aeroplane, and almost became obsolete as a mode of transport. In the face of
the need to ‘brand’ Sydney and attract global capital, NSW Transport’s programme of
renovating rail, especially intra-urban rail, is examined.
Keywords: Automobility, mobile communities, mobility theory, modernisation,
railways, Sydney Trains, suburbanisation, public transport.
