The Sydney Monorail near Darling Harbour Station,28th February 2009.The system was initially conceived in the late 1980s as part of the redevelopment of 50 hectares (120 acres) of land at Darling Harbour, providing a passenger link with the Sydney CBD. Initially operated by TNT Harbourlink, the monorail opened on 21 July 1988 after a construction period of 26 months.The first test services ran in October 1987 on a 500 metre section at Darling Harbour.In August 1998 TNT sold the monorail to CGEA Transport Sydney, which was owned by CGEA Transport (later renamed Connex) (51%), Australian Infrastructure Fund (19%), Utilities Trust of Australia (19%) and Legal & General (11%).