London tram

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A tram near the Palace of Westminster , 1931

From 1861 London had one of the largest tram networks in the world. After all companies were taken over by the London Passenger Transport Board (under the London Transport brand ) in 1933, all lines were gradually discontinued until 1952.

history

Before electrification

London United Tramways No. 13 on Boston Road in Hanwell, circa 1911

The first horse-drawn tram ran on London's streets on March 23, 1861, and two more routes were opened that same year. In 1862, however, the tracks on the three lines were removed again. On August 9, 1870, the government passed a Tram Act to regulate the licensing of trams. According to Section 43 of the Act, 21 years (or every seven years thereafter) after the concession was granted to a private investor, the municipality in which the concessioned route was located could, by decision of the council, buy the operation with all its facilities at its current value. Almost all municipalities made use of this right after 21 years, which often resulted in legal disputes that lasted for years about the purchase price. Especially in north-east London and in the County of London itself, the communities then operated the railways themselves. The outer communities in the north, west and south-west left the railways in private hands.

When the law came into effect, there were two tram operators in London that opened in May 1870, the North Metropolitan Tramways , which ran from Whitechapel to Bow, and the Metropolitan Street Tramways, which ran from Kennington to Brixton. In the following years numerous horse-drawn trams were built, which now opened up almost the entire area of ​​the city at that time. In detail, there were the following railway companies in private hands. The name of the company is mentioned immediately before the municipalization, for earlier names see individual articles on the railways. Also listed are railway companies that were taken over by another company before municipalization.

Operator of horse-drawn trams in London
society founding region Whereabouts of society
Street Rail Company February 1861 Hyde Park, Pimlico, Lambeth / Kennington Disbanded in 1862
Metropolitan Street Tramways July 12, 1869 south Taken over by the London Tramways on July 28, 1873
Pimlico, Peckham and Greenwich Street Tramways July 12, 1869 southeast Taken over by the London Tramways on July 28, 1873
North Metropolitan Tramways July 12, 1869 Northeast on June 24, 1896 in London County ( London County Council Tramways ), July 1, 1903 in West Ham ( West Ham Corporation Tramways ), June 25, 1906 in Leyton ( Leyton Urban District Council Tramways ), April 24, 1908 in East Ham ( East Ham Corporation Tramways ) communicated routes of the former North London Tramways in 1901 to Metropolitan Tramways and Omnibus Company ; in London County from June 24, 1896 to April 1, 1906 again leased back to the North Metropolitan Tramways
London United Tramways May 12, 1870 west Independent until 1933
London Street Tramways August 10, 1870 Northwest gradually communicated in London County from July 30, 1894 to May 27, 1897, leased to the North Metropolitan Tramways from June 24, 1896 to April 1, 1906
London Tramways December 14, 1870 South, southeast communicated in London County on January 1, 1899
Croydon Tramways August 8, 1878 Croydon, South Norwood communalized in Croydon on January 22, 1900 ( Croydon Corporation Tramways )
North London Tramways 1878 north Taken over by the North Metropolitan Tramways on August 1, 1891
London, Deptford and Greenwich Tramways July 3, 1879 southeast communicated in London County on July 7, 1904
South London Tramways 1879 southwest communicated in London County on November 22, 1902
Woolwich and South East London Tramways 1879 southeast communicated in London County on June 1, 1905
Lea Bridge, Leyton and Walthamstow Tramways August 11, 1881 Northeast communicated in Leyton on November 1, 1905 and London County on July 30, 1908; Walthamstow waived and handed over his part of the route to Leyton
London, Camberwell and Dulwich Tramways August 10, 1882 Peckham, Dulwich Closed in 1900, facilities communicated in London County on August 15, 1904
London Southern Tramways August 18, 1882 south communicated in London County on October 2, 1906
South Eastern Metropolitan Tramways July 14, 1884 southeast communalized in London County on April 1, 1902
Highgate Hill Tramway 1884 Highgate communicated in London County on August 24, 1909
Harrow Road and Paddington Tramways June 25, 1886 west Taken over in 1904 by Metropolitan Electric Tramways , but continued to operate as an independent company until August 16, 1906
Metropolitan Electric Tramways November 1894 North, northwest Independent until 1933

The various railway companies carried out numerous experiments with other propulsion systems. So there were steam trains (1873 in Pimlico , 1877 from Stratford to Harrow Green and 1885-1891 from Stamford Hill via Seven Sisters to Ponders End, Wood Green and Finsbury Park ) and a pneumatic trial operation in late 1881 between Stratford and Leytonstone and from 1883 to about 1888 on Caledonian Road. Cable trams ran in Highgate from May 30, 1884 to August 24, 1909, and in Brixton and Streatham from December 7, 1892 to April 5, 1904 . Experiments with accumulators began on March 4, 1882 between Stratford and Leytonstone, on March 10, 1883 on the Hammersmith –Kew Bridge route, and in February 1885 on Queenstown Road in Battersea , but each was short-lived. The Canning Town – Greengate line on Barking Road from June 14, 1889 to July 27, 1892 was operated for a longer period with accumulator railcars. The Croydon Tramways experimented with gas and oil powered railcars from 1891 to 1894. An electrical test operation began on May 13, 1898 with a short stretch from Alexandra Palace station to Alexandra Palace , which was only used in summer and was operated by a German company under the name Alexandra Park Electric Railway . It was shut down on October 1, 1899, but reopened a few years later by the Metropolitan Electric Tramways . Ultimately, electrical operation should prevail.

The gauge of most railways was standard gauge (1435 mm, 4 ft 8½ in) from the start. Only the Highgate Hill Tramway and the Woolwich and South East London Tramways were initially built in Cape Gauge (1067 mm, 3 ft 6 in) and were later switched to standard gauge with the electrification.

Electrification and network expansion

The underground busbar between the rails is clearly visible (to the right of the bike)

On April 4, 1901, the London United Tramways went electric for the first time. East Ham Ward's tram opened directly as an electric tram on June 22, 1901. That same year, on September 26th, the Croydon Corporation put the first electric line into operation. From 1903 the London County Council Tramways began to electrify their network, but they mostly used a form of underground power supply between the rails, which in later years required special designs for the vehicles and stops where the power system was changed. The last two horse-drawn trams in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe were closed on May 1, 1915.

In the years that followed, all major districts except for the City of London and the West End were served by trams and in 1914 the London tram network was the largest in Europe.

North tunnel entrance to the Kingsway Subway

In 1905, a tram tunnel known as the Kingsway Subway, with two underground stations (Holborn and Aldwych), was built by the London County Council Tramways to connect their northern and southern routes. It went into operation on February 24, 1906 from the north entrance to Aldwych, the passage to the Victoria Embankment and thus the connection of the power supply units could not be opened until April 10, 1908. The tunnel was closed on February 4, 1930 and expanded for service with double-decker trams, which was completed on January 14, 1931. Finally it was closed as the penultimate route on April 5, 1952; the southern part is still used today as a road underpass, while the northern part with the Holborn station is still preserved, in the street Southampton Row the tunnel ramp can still be found with intact tracks.

Association of establishments and closure

On July 1, 1933, all tram, bus, underground and trolleybus operations in London were taken over by the London Passenger Transport Board and continued to operate under the collective name of "London Transport". The following tram companies were taken over:

society electrical operation since Network length (in miles) Network length (in km) vehicles
communal societies
London County Council Tramways (LCC) May 15, 1903 167.18 ‹1› ‹2› ‹3› 269.05 ‹1› ‹2› ‹3› 1713
Bexley and Dartford Urban District Councils ‹4› October 3, 1903 10.29 16.56 33
Croydon Corporation Tramways September 26, 1901 9.28 14.93 55
East Ham Corporation Tramways June 22, 1901 8.34 13.42 56
Erith Urban District Council Tramways August 21, 1905 5.42 8.72 19th
Ilford Urban District Council Tramways March 14, 1903 7.13 11.47 40
Walthamstow Urban District Council Light Railways June 3, 1905 8.93 14.37 62
West Ham Corporation Tramways February 27, 1904 16.27 26.18 134
private London and Suburban Traction Company
(jointly owned by British Electric Traction and Underground Electric Railways Company of London )
London United Tramways (LUT) April 4, 1901 29.05 46.75 150
Metropolitan Electric Tramways (MET) July 22, 1904 53.51 ‹5› 86.12 ‹5› 316
South Metropolitan Electric Tramways (SMET) February 10, 1906 13.08 21.05 52
total - 328.48 528.62 2630
Remarks

‹1› of which 198.43 km underline ( conduit ), 70.62 km overhead line
‹2› of which 14.5 km are owned by Leyton Corporation Tramways . Operated by LCC since June 1921
‹3› of which 0.4 km is owned by the City of London
‹4› joint operation since 1921
‹5› of which 68.6 km are leased from Middlesex County Council ; 21 miles leased from Hertfordshire County Council


After the London United Tramways had switched some of their routes to trolleybus operation (trolleybus) as early as 1931 , the LPTB continued this course, as the tram was held responsible for causing traffic jams and noise. The law decided to completely convert the tram network to trolleybus operation. The conversion should be done line-by-line at approximately three-month intervals, with normally more than one line per step. The first change was to take place in autumn 1935. In the previous two years, however, some unprofitable tram routes to Penge, Wilmington and Summerstown were shut down and diesel buses took over the transport tasks here.

By June 1940, all routes, except for those in south London and those leading through the tunnel, were closed. The Second World War interrupted the conversion and in 1946 it was decided to convert the remaining routes from 1950 to diesel buses rather than trolleybuses. In the meantime, responsibility for operations had passed to the London Transport Executive on January 1, 1948 . Again, the closures took place line by line every three months, beginning in autumn 1950. The last routes in south-east London were finally closed in the night of July 5th to 6th, 1952. Shortly after the final shutdown, a smog catastrophe occurred in December 1952 , for which, among other things, the buses replacing the trams were blamed.

phase date Set lines
1 September 30, 1950 3, 12, 26, 28, 31, 34
2 January 6, 1951 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 20, 22, 24
3 April 7, 1951 16, 18, 42
4th July 10, 1951 68, 70
5 October 6, 1951 7, 56, 58, 60, 62, 66, 84
6th 5th January 1952 5, 48, 52, 54, 74, 78
7th April 5, 1952 33, 35
8th 5th July 1952 44, 46, 72
9 October 4, 1952
was finally merged with phase 8 		36, 38, 40

The renaissance of the tram

At the end of the 1990s, as part of the pan-European renaissance of the tram , the authorities rethought, so that in 2000 a new tram service was opened in the southern district of Croydon , called Tramlink . However, other planned routes were not implemented.

Route network

Network plan (1934)

The tram network was mainly present in the outer parts of London, in the City of London and in the West End there were comparatively few routes. However, the tram did not keep up with the population growth, in the suburbs in the north that were emerging shortly before the Second World War, the tram only ran on the routes that had been built before. The network was thickest in the northeast, south and southeast of the city. After the discontinuation, the tram lines were replaced by trolleybus or diesel bus routes, which often ran the same route and had a similar line number. For example, bus route 55 (Oxford Circus - Holborn - Shoreditch - Hackney - Leyton, Baker's Arms) still runs almost the same route as the former tram route 55 (Holborn - Shoreditch - Hackney - Baker's Arms - Leyton).

vehicles

As in other cities in Great Britain, most of the trams in London were double-decker , developed from the early horse-drawn trams and buses with open top decks. Single -storey railcars were only purchased for the Kingsway Subway (and some smaller, earlier operations), as the tunnel profile ( clearance profile ) initially did not allow double-decker trains. After a renovation in the 1930s, double-decker trams could also be used there.

The different companies procured different vehicles, which, however, were not very different to the untrained eye. Only the Feltham wagons (named after their place of manufacture at the Union Construction Company in Feltham ) purchased in 1930 by Metropolitan Electric Tramways and London United Tramways were more modern than older models. Of the 100 purchased cars, most were handed over to Leeds and Sunderland in northern England after the London tram was closed .

Web links

literature

  • Robert J. Harley: London Transport Trams, a black and white album . Capital Transport Publishing Ltd, London 2012, ISBN 978-1-85414-365-5 (English).
  • John R. Day: London's Trams and Trolleybuses . London Transport, London 1977, ISBN 0-85329-082-2 (English).
  • John Reed: London Tramways . Capital Transport Publishing, Harrow Weald 1997, ISBN 1-85414-179-1 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Text of the Tramways Act 1870 in the original version
  2. ^ Sheila Taylor, Oliver Green: The Moving Metropolis: A History of London's Transport since 1800 . Laurence King Publishing Ltd, London 2001, ISBN 1-85669-241-8 (English).
  3. ^ Paul Collins: Tramway Memories London . Ian Allan Publishing, Hersham, Surrey , ISBN 978-0-7110-3037-4 , pp. 3 (English).