Over the years I’ve visited Sydney a number of times, and each time I make the trip up north, I’ve ended up on the monorail. For me the most memorable part was the monorail song – not to be confused with the version from The Simpsons.
I was on a family holiday back in 2001, when to pinch a few pennies we bought a single trip token for the monorail, and stayed onboard for a couple of laps of the city.
On passing Chinatown station the public address system started to play a cringeworthy children’s song telling us to ‘Do The Loop’, which thankfully shut off after 30 or so seconds. Unfortunately silence didn’t last, as on each subsequent circuit it came back to life again, so after a third lap we decided it was time to bail.
Fast forward to 2006 or thereabouts, when I was browsing the internet aimlessly, when I came across the ‘METROkids’ section of the Sydney Monorail website, and a MP3 version of song – titled ‘Do The Loop’.
In the years since, the monorail website has been updated and the song has disappeared, so I’ve uploaded it to YouTube for your listening displeasure.
If you want to sing along…
Put your left foot in, right one on the floor, let’s have some fun!
Dad, watch the door!
Put your arm right up, put your nose against the window.
What’s over there?
Do the loop doop doop.
Do the loop doop doop.
Do the loop and do the round.
Do the loop doop doop.
Do the loop doop doop.
Do the loop and fly through town.
Sydney’s Metro Monorail – it’s a loopy way to see the city.
So get on board, and…
Do the loop doop doop.
Do the loop doop doop.
Do the loop and fly through town.
As for the song being played onboard the monorail itself, by the time I visited again in 2012 it was gone. (this blog post from 2007 suggests it was still in use then)
Further viewing
- The Sydney Monorail in 1991 on YouTube
It’s a pity that the monorail hasn’t been maintained at the level that it was back in the ’90s. It was even suggested a couple of years ago that they may shut it down completely. However everytime I have been on the monorail, I have always had alwful images of that Simpsons episode when a monorail was installed in Springfield!
Keeping the monorail in service does seem to be getting harder as the years go on. When I was there recently, the train I was on stalled at a station until one of the carriages was taken out of service for defective doors. And I saw another train exhibiting the same fault in the days that followed:
Might want to be quick if you want to ride the monorail.
We were in Sydney in January & the Monorails last day of running is June 30th. Taking it down to make room for a new convention center.
Thanks also to Marcus for your interesting blog.
Glad you like my blog!
I made my last visit to Sydney in 2012 especially to ride the monorail before it gets pulled down, and made sure I went for another spin when I went up there again a month or two ago.
Barrie O’Farrell bought the monorail last year and announced that it will be closing permanently in June 2013 and dismantled.
Part of their reasoning was the same dodgy claim as Metcard, they can’t get the parts.
Pathetic excuses for shutting down the PROFITABLE Monorail.
“to make room for more buildings”. The whole point of a Monorail is that it DOESNT take up space! And it can take up 1 floor for a station in any new obstructing building.
“not enough people were using it/tickets were too expensive”. It was profitable. The private company that built it made their money back, i dont think it required ongoing subsidies?
London has a Cable-Car Gondola for crossing the Thames, maybe Melbourne should get one for crossing the Yarra.
You know it would be a better idea if the stupid government will put a monorail system in the same route they plan for the trams down George street.there would be an extra lane and more space of they put a monorail and monorails don’t stop at traffic lights which trams do do a monorail is faster and also can be a tourist attraction as well.