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.
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 first generation of trams in London started in March 1861 when a horse tramway began operating between Marble Arch and Notting Hill Gate. This was followed a month later by a route along Victoria Street in Westminster. [1] [2] These first lines were operated by an American entrpreneur, George Francis Train. Initially, there was strong opposition as, although it was popular with its passengers, the first designs had rails that stood proud of the road surface and created an obstruction for other traffic. This came to a head in 1861 when Train was arrested for "breaking and injuring" the Uxbridge Road and his plans were put on hold. [3]
Eventually Parliament passed legislation permitting tram services, on the condition that the rails were recessed into the carriageway and that the tramways were shared with other road users. Costs of maintenance of the tramway and its immediate neighbouring road carriageway would be borne by the tram companies, thus benefiting the ratepayers, who had been bearing the full cost of highway repairs since the abolition of turnpikes. Fares were set at 1d (1 penny) per mile, with half-price early and late workmen's services. [4] After a demonstration line was built at the Crystal Palace, the first lines authorised by the Act of Parliament in 1870 ran from:
The new tram companies all adopted the same standard gauge, with the intention of being able to link up services at later dates. Horse tram lines soon opened all over London, typically using two horses to pull a 60-person car. They proved popular as they were cheaper, smoother, roomier and safer than the competing Omnibus or Hackney carriages. Replacement by electric vehicles commenced in 1901; the last horse-drawn trams were withdrawn in 1915.
There were several early attempts to run motor-powered trams on the London tramlines: John Grantham first trialled an experimental 23-foot (7.0 m) steam tramcar in London in 1873 but withdrew it after it performed poorly. [5] From 1885, the North London Tramways Company operated 25 Merryweather and Dick, Kerr steam engines hauling long-wheelbase Falcon Engine & Car Works trailers, until its liquidation in 1891. [6] Although several towns and cities adopted steam trams, the problems associated with track weight, acceleration, noise and power held back their general acceptance in London.
Between 1881 and 1883, a small number of trams powered by compressed air were trialled on the Caledonian Road tramway. [7] [8]
In 1884, a cable tram was introduced for Highgate Hill, the first cable tramway in Europe, [9] which was followed by a second cable line to draw trams up Brixton Hill to Streatham. [10] Both these systems were replaced within 15 years by electric trams.
The electric tram took some decades to establish itself in London. After the storage battery was invented, an electric tram was tested on the West Metropolitan Tramways line between Acton and Kew in 1883 [5] but it was not until 1901 that Croydon Corporation introduced the first fully operational electric tram services in the Greater London area, using power delivered from overhead wires. Meanwhile, Imperial Tramways, under the directorship of James Clifton Robinson, had acquired the worn-out tram network in West London, which it renovated and extended from Shepherds Bush to Acton, Ealing, Chiswick and Uxbridge, as the London United Tramways Company, using overhead electrification throughout [6] and its own network of ornate power stations, starting with Chiswick. [11]
There were plans to run an underground tram line between South Kensington and the Albert Hall but it was withdrawn in 1891 and a pedestrian only route, the South Kensington subway, was built instead. [12] [13] The Kingsway tramway subway did go ahead - this started in 1902 going from Theobalds Road to the Victoria Embankment. [14] In the 1930s, the arched tunnels were removed to accommodate double decker trams. The last tram using the subway system ran on the night of 5/6 April 1952. [15]
After the slow start, electric trams rapidly became very popular; by 1903, there were 300 electric tramcars in London, which carried 800,000 passengers over Whitsun weekend in 1903. The London County Council Tramways first electric line opened in May 1903 between Westminster Bridge and Tooting and the LCC sold 3.3 million tickets in its third year of business, five times the traffic carried by its horse trams. The LCC saw the electric trams as a way of driving social change, as its cheap, fast service could encourage workers to move out of the crowded inner city and live healthier lives in the suburbs. [6] Soon other London boroughs introduced their own electric services, including West Ham, Leyton, Dartford and Bexley. Although the City of London and the West End of London never gave permission for tram lines to be built, trams were allowed to use the Victoria Embankment and cross the Thames over Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges; on 14 September 1909, Lord Mayor George Wyatt Truscott opened the widened Blackfriars Bridge and drove the first tram across it. [16]
By 1914, the London tram operators formed the largest tram network in Europe [6] but the onset of World War I saw a halt in the expansion of the trams and thousands of conductors left to join the armed forces to be replaced by "substitute" women conductors known as 'conductorettes' (A tram driver, like an omnibus driver, was deemed as a reserved occupation as it was considered that women did not have the physical capability of operating the heavy electrical controller or the brakes. Also, the tram driver was in an exposed position as the trams did not have windscreens, because the Metropolitan Police considered them dangerous). [17]
Several different companies and municipalities operated London's electric tramways. The largest was the LCC, with lines equipped with conduit current collection. Other operators mainly used the more conventional overhead electric wires. Many of London's trams had to be equipped with both systems of electricity supply, with routes being equipped with change points.
During their heyday, tram services covered much of inner London and reached out to the suburbs, assisted by facilities like the Kingsway tramway subway, which enabled the longest tram route entirely within the County of London to operate: a weekend service between Archway, then part of Highgate, and Downham via Brockley, 16 miles (26 kilometres).
Route coverage might have been wider still but the terms of the 1870 Act meant that the passage of new tramways had to be negotiated individually with local authorities, who would sometimes impose prohibitively expensive improvement works as a condition of approval. [18]
After the War, money for investment and maintenance became harder to find, as passengers migrated to the new motor bus services. In the 1930s, The London United and Metropolitan Electric companies purchased a large fleet of modern double-deck Feltham trams, built by the Union Construction Company at Feltham. LUT accompanied this change by introducing electric trolleybuses using twin overhead wires as a cheaper alternative for 17 miles (27 kilometres) of its routes in 1931.
A Royal Commission on Transport, held between 1928 and 1931, ensured that the tram companies retained complete responsibility for the maintenance of its rails and highway, which was shared with other road users who contributed its wear. But this was accompanied by Parliamentary bills in 1930 and 1933 that set up the London Passenger Transport Board to operate the LCC's existing bus and London Underground service and to purchase and manage all of London's tramways. Under the LPTB, there was no new investment in tram services and the maintenance of services became a hot political issue in elections in South London, an area poorly served by Underground trains. [19] The merged tram services were held back from introducing new, quieter and more comfortable track and vehicles, in favour of trolleybus services and tubes provided under the New Works Programme. Although the trams returned gross annual revenues of £850,000 (equivalent to £67,878,452 in 2023), [20] , the net surplus was £128,000 (equivalent to £10,221,696 in 2023), [20] after costs were taken by the LCC, partly to repay the debt of £18m resulting from the merger. [21]
At this time, trams were starting to be considered out-dated and inflexible and the phasing-out and replacement by diesel buses or trolleybuses started in earnest around 1935, when a large proportion of the trams and of the tracks and ancillary equipment were nearing the end of their useful life. Replacement continued until hostilities stopped the conversion programme in June 1940, leaving only the South London trams and the routes that went through the Kingsway subway into North London. After World War II, shortages of steel and electrical machinery were cited as reasons for not investing in maintenance, while the LCC reported that the service ran at a loss. On 15 November 1946 the London Passenger Transport Board announced that the remaining trams in London would be replaced by diesel buses, stated as being "eminently flexible and much cheaper". (London Transport Tramways Handbook, Willoughby and Oakley 1972). The market for trams became smaller as other tramways were being forced to close at that time, as the 1948 nationalisation of electricity suppliers removed access to cheap electricity for those undertakings which owned their local power company. [22]
Alexander Valentine, one of the five full-time members of the London Transport Executive, saw trams as a major cause of road congestion, which would be relieved by the introduction of buses, with the aesthetic benefit of doing away with overhead wires and their noisy operation. [23] A report in The Economist in 1952 suggested a more comprehensive list of reasons for their demise, including:
The capital cost of replacing and updating the worn-out infrastructure and trams was also seen as prohibitive when compared with the £9 m capital cost of buying buses with a slightly smaller carrying capacity. [23]
"Operation Tramaway", the replacement of the tram service by diesel buses, was announced in July 1950 by Lord Latham of the London Transport Executive. Retirement started in October 1950 and London's final first-generation trams ran in the early hours of 6 July 1952 to a rousing reception at New Cross Depot. [25]
No general improvement in traffic flow was seen after the trams were withdrawn. [23]
During the closure cycle of London's tram system, almost 100 of the most modern trams known as the "Feltham" class and dating from 1931 were withdrawn and sold to Leeds where they continued in service until the abandonment of that city's trams in 1959. Some London tramcars have been preserved on static display at London's Transport Museum (in Covent Garden) and in working order at the National Tramway Museum at Crich, Derbyshire. A working London tram can also be seen and ridden on at the East Anglia Transport Museum in Carlton Colville near Lowestoft, Suffolk.
The current generation of trams started with the opening of Tramlink in 2000. Croydon previously had many tramlines. The first to close was Addiscombe – East Croydon Station route through George Street to Cherry Orchard Road in 1927 and the last Purley - Embankment and Croydon (Coombe Road) - Thornton Heath routes closed in April 1951. However, in spring 1950, the Highways Committee was presented by the Mayor with the concept of running trams between East Croydon station and the new estate being constructed at New Addington. This was based on the fact that the Feltham cars used in Croydon were going to Leeds to serve their new estates on reserved tracks. In 1962 a private study, with assistance from BR engineers, showed how easy it was to convert the West Croydon - Wimbledon train service to tram operation and successfully prevent conflict between trams and trains. These two concepts became joined in joint LRTL/TLRS concept of New Addington to Wimbledon every 15 mins via East and West Croydon and Mitcham plus New Addington to Tattenham Corner every 15 mins via East and West Croydon, Sutton and Epsom Downs. A branch into Forestdale to give an overlap service from Sutton was also included. During the 1970s, several BR directors and up-and-coming managers were aware of the advantages. In fact, Peter Parker was very well aware of this even before becoming chairman. Chris Green, upon becoming managing director, Network South East, published his plans in 1987 expanding the concept to take in the Tattenham Corner and Caterham branches and provide a service from Croydon to Lewisham via Addiscombe and Hayes. Working with Tony Ridley, then managing director, London Transport, the scheme was brought out into the open, and Scott Mackintosh was appointed Light Rail Manager in 1989. [26]
The scheme was accepted in principle in February 1990 by Croydon Council, which worked with what was then London Regional Transport (LRT) to propose Tramlink to Parliament, resulting in the Croydon Tramlink Act 1994 giving LRT the legal power to build and run Tramlink. The new Act still incorporated major parts of the 1870 Tramways Act [27] which had held back previous private tram companies. However, as most of the routes affected were managed by the same authority, the obligation to maintain the road surface was not a new cost.
Tramlink operates with modern articulated tramcars of Bombardier low-floor design called CR4000, based upon the K4000 type of the Cologne Stadtbahn, with the tram units numbered from 2530. This number was the next in sequence from the last London tram, number 2529, withdrawn in 1952. [26] Since it opened on 11 May 2000, the 38 km of track have been operated by FirstGroup on behalf of Transport for London on three routes across South London. [28] It features accessible low platforms that match the 350 mm high car floor or tram stops at the same height as the pavement. Much of the track is dedicated tramway, with some sections shared with other road vehicles, including some of the same roads served by the previous generation of trams. The off-street track includes new rights-of-way, adapted former railway lines and one section running alongside a Network Rail line. Part of the formation between Mitcham and Hackbridge was originally used by the Surrey Iron Railway, the world's first public railway, authorised by Act of Parliament in 1803. [29]
New tram systems and extensions to existing tram lines have been discussed or planned:
Two more tram systems were planned but their development has been abandoned: [32]
Tramlink, previously Croydon Tramlink and presently branded as London Trams, is a light rail tram system serving Croydon and surrounding areas in South London, England. It is the first operational tram system serving the London region since 1952. Tramlink is presently managed by London Trams, a public body part of Transport for London (TfL), and has been operated by FirstGroup since 2017. It is one of two light rail networks in Greater London, the other being the Docklands Light Railway. Tramlink is the fourth-busiest light rail network in the UK behind the Docklands Light Railway, Manchester Metrolink and Tyne and Wear Metro.
The Kingsway tramway subway is a cut-and-cover tunnel in central London, built by the London County Council, and the only one of its kind in Britain. The decision in 1898 to clear slum districts in the Holborn area provided an opportunity to use the new streets for a tramway connecting the lines in the north and south. Following the pattern of tramways in New York and Boston, it was decided to build this as an underground connection.
Wimbledon is an interchange station in the centre of Wimbledon in London for London Underground, London Trams and National Rail services, and is the only station in London that provides an interchange between the London Underground and Tramlink.
Conduit current collection is an obsolete system that was used by some electric tramways to pass current to streetcars via a "conduit", a small tunnel under the roadway. Modern systems fall under the term ground-level power supply.
West Croydon is a combined railway, bus station and tram stop in Croydon, south London. It is served by National Rail, London Overground, Tramlink and London Buses services and is in Travelcard Zone 5.
Beddington Lane tram stop is a stop on the Tramlink tramway. There was previously a railway station on this site, on the single track line from Wimbledon to West Croydon, which closed in 1997 in order for it to be converted for Tramlink use. The stop is accessible from the east from Beddington Lane, and also from the pathway leading to the west and south. In late 2014, the track immediately to the west of the tram stop was doubled, though further west the bridge carrying trams over the main line at Mitcham Junction is still single-track.
The West London Tram was a proposed on-street light rail line that was to run along the Uxbridge Road (A4020) corridor in West London, England. The scheme was promoted by Transport for London (TfL). It was postponed indefinitely on 2 August 2007, as it was opposed by the councils of all three bisected London Boroughs.
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.
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.
Glasgow Corporation Tramways were formerly one of the largest urban tramway systems in Europe. Over 1000 municipally-owned trams served the city of Glasgow, Scotland, with over 100 route miles by 1922. The system closed in 1962 and was the last city tramway in Great Britain.
Leeds Corporation Tramways formerly served the city of Leeds, England. The original trams were horse-drawn, but the city introduced Britain's first overhead-powered electric trams in 1891, and by 1901, electrification had been completed. The tramway opened on 29 October 1891.
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.
Trolleybuses served the London Passenger Transport Area from 1931 until 1962. For much of its existence, the London system was the largest in the world. It peaked at 68 routes, with a maximum fleet of 1,811 trolleybuses.
Tramways in Exeter were operated between 1882 and 1931. The first horse-drawn trams were operated by the Exeter Tramway Company but in 1904 the Exeter Corporation took over. They closed the old network and replaced it with a new one powered by electricity.
Bath Tramways Company and its successors operated a 4 ft horse-drawn tramway service in Bath between 1880 and 1902. From 1903 until its closure in 1939 an expanded route carried electric trams operated by Bath Electric Tramways Company.
Hastings and District Electric Tramways operated a tramway service in Hastings between 1905 and 1929.
Halifax Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England between 1898 and 1939. After considering lifts and inclined planes to assist trams in negotiating the steep hills to the south of the town, they obtained permission to build a conventional system in 1897, and the first three routes opened in 1898. By 1905 there were 37 miles (60 km) of track and 96 tramcars, supplied by two manufacturers. In 1921, an additional route was added to the system, and the Corporation embarked on a programme of building their own tramcars, some of which replaced existing vehicles, while some extended the fleet. During the 1930s, the trams were gradually replaced by motor buses, either run by the Corporation or by private companies, and the last tram ran on 14 February 1939.
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.
The Sutton Link is a proposed new tram line in South London, between Colliers Wood via St Helier to Sutton. Proposed since the early 2000s, consultations on the proposed route took place in the late 2010s. A preferred route was announced in February 2020. Financial issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led Transport for London to put the project on hold in July 2020. Despite being identified in the London Plan, the project was cancelled in 2023, due to a "weak business case" and lack of funding.
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.
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