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The London County Council Tramways was an extensive network of public street tramways operated by the council throughout the County of London, UK, from 1899 to 1933, when they were taken over by the London Passenger Transport Board.
Under the Tramways Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 78) local authorities were permitted to acquire privately operated tramways in their area after they had been operating for twenty-one years. Accordingly, in October 1891 the LCC decided to exercise its option to take over four and a half miles of route operated by the London Street Tramways Company. The company disagreed with the price offered by the council, and the sale did not go through until 1 March 1895. As the LCC had no powers to operate tramways itself, it put the operation of the line out to tender, which the incumbent London Streetways won, being the only applicant.
In 1896 the London Street Tramways offered its network for sale to the county council, as did the North Metropolitan Tramways Company. The council purchased the lines, and the North Metropolitan was awarded a fourteen-year lease to operate them.
The council succeeded in having the London County Council Act 1896 passed, which gave it powers to operate trams. The next system to be acquired was that of the London Tramways Company in 1899, and from that date all lines taken over were operated by the county council itself. By 1909 most of the tramways in the county had been taken over, the LCC operating 113 miles (182 km) of tramways.
In 1900 a further Act of Parliament gave the council the power to electrify its system. On 15 May 1903 the first electrified section from Westminster to Tooting was opened by The Prince and Princess of Wales who rode the route in a specially decorated tramcar, and paid their fares with halfpenny coins minted for the occasion. The last horse tram ran on 30 April 1915. Much of the system used overhead power pickup, but also the conduit system of electric current, as the metropolitan boroughs had the power of veto on the installation of overhead wires.
The tramways north and south of the River Thames were almost completely separate until the opening of the Kingsway Subway in 1908.
From 1 July 1921 the LCC Tramways assumed operation of the Leyton Urban District Council Tramways trams.
In 1933, the LCC Tramways had 167 miles (269 km) of tracks in operation, of which about nine were in Leyton, and a quarter of a mile owned by the City of London. Much of Central London was never served by trams, these being excluded from the area by legislation passed in 1872.
LCC trams could also be seen outside the county of London. Apart from operating the Leyton system, there were connections and joint running arrangements with the neighbouring company and municipal systems. This brought council trams to Purley on the Croydon Corporation system, Barnet and Enfield on that of Metropolitan Electric Tramways, and Hampton Court on London United Tramways metals.
The council opened a coal-fired power station for the tramways on the Thames at Greenwich in 1906. As well as 22 tram depots around the county, refurbishment and maintenance works were opened at Charlton in 1909.
On 1 July 1933, the London County Council Tramways passed to the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), known as London Transport. However, the LCC tram management operated the large tram and small trolleybus fleet of London Transport at takeover and expanded the trolleybus fleet at the expense of the tram fleet, such that trams were virtually eliminated North of the Thames by 1940.
London's Trams and Trolleybuses, John R Day, published by London Transport in 1979
South Metropolitan Electric Tramways: History
Reading Transport Limited, trading as Reading Buses, is a bus operator serving the towns of Reading, Bracknell, Newbury, Slough, Windsor, Maidenhead, Wokingham and the surrounding areas in the counties of Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Hampshire, England, as well as parts of Greater London. The operating company is owned by Reading Borough Council.
There have been two separate generations of trams in London, from 1860 to 1952 and from 2000 to the present. There were no trams at all in London between 1952 and 2000.
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for local public transport in London and its environs from 1933 to 1948. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and brand was London Transport.
The Chesterfield and District Tramways Company and its successors ran a tramway system in the Derbyshire town of Chesterfield, England. The first horse-drawn line opened in 1882, and in 1897, the system was taken over by Chesterfield Corporation, who extended and electrified it in 1904 and 1905. Additional tramcars were purchased, but two had to be scrapped after a disastrous fire at the depot in 1916. The system suffered from a lack of maintenance as a result of reduced staffing levels during the First World War, and the trams were replaced by trolleybuses in 1927.
The Kingston upon Hull tramway network was a network of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge tram lines following the five main roads radially out of the city centre of Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Two of these lines went west, and two east. The fifth went to the north, and branched to include extra lines serving suburban areas. Additionally a short line linked the city centre to the Corporation Pier where a ferry crossed the Humber Estuary to New Holland, Lincolnshire.
London United Tramways Company Limited was an operator of trams and trolleybuses in the western and southern suburbs of London, UK, from 1894 to 1933, when it passed to the London Passenger Transport Board.
Metropolitan Electric Tramways Limited (MET) operated electric tram services in suburban areas of Middlesex and Hertfordshire from 1904 to 1933, when its services passed to the London Passenger Transport Board.
Trams in New Zealand were a major form of transport from the 19th century into the mid-20th century. New Zealand's first (horse) tramway was established in 1862 (Nelson), followed by a steam tramway in 1871 (Thames), and the first electric tramway in 1900. In New Zealand railway terminology a bush tramway is an industrial tramway, which usually did not carry passengers.
Between 1901 and 1949 Manchester Corporation Tramways was the municipal operator of electric tram services in Manchester, England. At its peak in 1928, the organisation carried 328 million passengers on 953 trams, via 46 routes, along 292 miles (470 km) of track.
Trams no longer operate in Hobart, the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania, but the city once had an extensive and popular system that reached the majority of its suburbs. It was the first complete electric tram system in the Southern Hemisphere, and the only one in Australia to operate double-decker trams.
The Southend-on-Sea trolleybus system once served the town of Southend-on-Sea, in Essex, England. Opened on 16 October 1925, it gradually replaced Southend-on-Sea Corporation Tramways.
Torquay Tramways operated electric street trams in Torquay, Devon, England, from 1907. They were initially powered by the unusual Dolter stud-contact electrification, but in 1911 was converted to more conventional overhead-line supply. The line was extended into neighbouring Paignton in 1911 but the whole network was closed in 1934.
The Zürich trolleybus system is part of the public transport network of Zürich, Switzerland. Opened in 1939, it combines the Zürich S-Bahn, the Zürich tramway network and Zürich's urban motorbus network to form an integrated all-four style scheme.
Leyton Urban District Council Tramways operated a passenger tramway service in Leyton between 1905 and 1933.
Aberdare Urban District Council Tramways operated a tramway service in Aberdare between 1913 and 1935. It was the only system in the United Kingdom which consisted of a tramway with feeder services run by trolleybuses from the start. The trolleybuses used the Austrian Cedes-Stoll system, and became increasingly difficult to maintain. Parts of the trolleybus network were converted to tramways in the early 1920s, and the rest stopped operating in 1925, when no trolleybuses were available for service. The tramway continued for another ten years, but was closed in 1934 and 1935 as a result of a downturn in the prosperity of Aberdare, due to collieries closing and the population dwindling. Motor buses took over the local services once the tramway had closed.
Pontypridd Urban District Council Tramways operated a tramway service in Pontypridd between 1904 and 1931. Part of it used the route of the Pontypridd and Rhondda Valley Tramway Company's horse tramway. Between 1919 and 1927, it was the only system in Wales where through running onto a neighbouring system occurred. In 1930, part of the system was converted to use trolleybuses, and the former horse tramway section was replaced by motor buses in 1931, bringing the tramway era to an end. During the Second World War, a number of trolleybuses were borrowed from other systems, to cope with heavy traffic, but the use of electric vehicles ended in 1957. Most of the vehicles were sold on to other undertakings, and the system was the last in Britain to be run by an Urban District Council.
Llanelly and District Electric Tramways operated a standard gauge tramway service in Llanelli, Wales, between 1908 and 1933. It was the successor to a 3 ft gauge horse tramway, which ran from 1882 until 1908. A complex series of negotiations took place in the early 1900s, resulting in the horse tramway being converted to an electric tramway. Standard gauge horse trams were run initially, until the company completed North Dock power station, which supplied electricity to the tramway. Two of the employees who worked on the construction went on to found Balfour Beatty.
Buses in Ipswich operate in the town of Ipswich in the English county of Suffolk. As of 2013 services are primarily operated by Ipswich Buses and First Norfolk & Suffolk, although other smaller operators, such as Galloway European, Carters Coaches and Beestons, operate routes from the town into the surrounding rural area. Many of the current routes are based on those established at the end of the 19th century when a horse tram network developed.
The Great Grimsby Street Tramways Company was a tramway serving Grimsby and Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire, England. It was a subsidiary of The Provincial Tramways Company. They opened a horse tramway in 1881, running from the Wheatsheaf Inn in Bargate to the border with Cleethorpes, with a branch along Freeman Street, and extended the line into Cleethorpes in 1887. It followed the trend of many British systems, and was converted to an electric tramway in December 1901. Small extensions were made to the system at both ends, but the basic plan of the system remained the same throughout its life.
London's last tram week refers to the last full week of operation of London's first-generation street tram system, from 29 June to 5 July 1952. It was the culmination of a three-year programme, known as Operation Tramaway, that saw the replacement of south London's entire tram network with a fleet of modern diesel buses, at a cost of £10 million. The trams had been very popular among Londoners, and in south London they accounted for the majority of local journeys by public transport. Many people regarded their demise as a particularly momentous event. On the last day of operation, large crowds gathered to see the last trams in service and to take a final ride. On arrival at its depot, the very last tram was ceremoniously received by a group of dignitaries, watched by a large number of spectators.