Manchester Corporation Tramways
Encyclopedia
Between 1901 and 1949 Manchester Corporation Tramways was the municipal operator of electric tram services in Manchester
, England (known as Manchester Corporation Transport Department from 1929 onwards)
At its peak in 1928 the organisation carried 328 million passengers, on 953 trams, via 46 routes, along 292 miles (469.9 km) of track.
It was the United Kingdom's second largest tram network after the combined services of 16 operators across the capital in 1933 by (London Passenger Transport Board
). Other large systems were in Glasgow
(which had 100 miles of double track at its peak and Birmingham
(80 miles).
The central and south central Manchester area had one of the densest concentrations of tram services of any urban area in the UK. MCT services ran up to the edge of routes provided by other operators in (what is now) Greater Manchester, and in some instances had running rights over their lines and vice versa. There were extensive neighbouring systems in Salford
, Oldham, Ashton & Hyde, Middleton, Rochdale and elsewhere.
Services were withdrawn earlier than most other British cities to be replaced by trolleybus and motor buses. Trams did not return to the city until the modern light-rail system Manchester Metrolink
opened in 1992.
service it was run by John Greenwood
and ran between Market Street and Piccadilly
and Pendleton
toll gate in Salford). In the subsequent years other companies joined the rush to provide services culminating by 1850 in 64 omnibuses serving the centre of Manchester from outlying areas. Passenger carrying trams had first began urban operation in Birkenhead
in 1860. By 1865 Greenwood merged with the other operators to become the Manchester Carriage Company
. The earliest proposals for the construction of rails on the streets of Manchester were made by Henry Osborn O'Hagan in 1872. Though these were resisted (partly because raised tram tracks had been the sources of many accidents elsewhere), by 1875, road congestion was so great that the 'tramway' could not be delayed much longer. Working with the Corporation of Salford
, Manchester successfully gained Orders under the 1870 Tramways Act, which permitted them to build and lease, but expressly not to operate, tramways. The first tracks therefore were built to allow the already existing lines from neighbouring Salford to run into the city along Deansgate
.
As extensions and new lines were agreed, the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company was formed in 1877 to operate horse-drawn trams on the lines constructed by both local authorities. The company had a total fleet of more than 90 horse-drawn vehicles, and, in 1877, it was they who gained the concession to operate the tramway, using the name 'Manchester & Salford Tramways'. By 1901 this company used 5000 horses to pull 515 tramcars over 140 route miles. Their first service therefore began on 17 May 1877, between Deansgate and Grove Inn on the Bury New Road. Just three years later a new organisation was formed called the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company
that continued with the expansion. By the 1890s it had turned itself into the most important transit operator in Lancashire
. At their height, the company had 5,300 horses, pulling 515 tram cars on almost 90 miles of route using 515 cars. By 1896 outlying areas served included; Ashton-under-Lyne
, Audenshaw
, Droylsden
, Failsworth
, Gorton
& Denton
, Heaton Norris
, Kersal
, Levenshulme
, Lower Broughton, Moss Side
, Peel Green
, Stalybridge
, Stockport
, Stretford
, Swinton
, Waterhead
and Withington
. There were also other horse-drawn tram services operating independently in some of the other settlements surrounding Manchester – notably Bolton
and Stockport.
Another company which had been set up by Henry O'Hagan proposed a tram network for all the urban areas east of Manchester, from Bacup
in the north via Rochdale
, Oldham
and Ashton to Hyde
. The first Manchester, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham Steam Tramways Company line opened in 1883, though by 1887 the company was declared bankrupt. A new company with almost the same name was begun in 1888 (simply by deleting the word "Manchester" from its name) and successfully ran steam tramways until the municipalities began building and operating routes at the turn of the 20th century. The Wigan
and District Tramways Company ran tram services between 1880 and 1902. On the other side of Manchester, the Trafford
family sold their land following the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal
in 1894, creating the Trafford Park Estates Company, which built a gas-powered tramway to serve the new factories in 1897. It was replaced by an electric powered tram line within the industrial estate from July 1903. The idea of local authorities running tram systems was developed locally in both Bolton and Wigan when in 1899 the corporations bought the routes of the E. Holden & Company. This enabled investment and conversion of the Bolton lines to electric traction during December of that year (followed in 1901 by Wigan). In 1900 the South Lancashire Tramways Company
was formed (later renamed Lancashire United Tramways and again Lancashire United Transport
in 1905), which ran an extensive inter-urban system from Atherton
.
leases were due to expire between 1898 and 1901, so the Corporation of Manchester agreed in 1895 to take over and modernise the existing tramways themselves. They sent inspectors to view the systems operated elsewhere in order to assess the best means of traction power and delivery for Manchester. The systems examined were: underground conduit, storage batteries, cable-hauled (used in Edinburgh
), steam
-powered (used by Leeds
trams), oil
, gas
(utilised in Lytham St Annes
) and a delegation was even sent to Paris to examine their compressed air
system. The decision was then taken to use electrical power carried overhead but the track itself needed complete overhaul from the horse-drawn days and at some junctions the track needed was to be so complex it even had to be ordered from the United States. It was thought that the initial requirement would be for as many as 600 electric cars but although this estimate was revised down to 400 it was still such a large number that it was beyond the manufacturing capacity of the period. Instead of having the entire network and fleet ready for the proposed opening in 1901, the Corporation gradually replaced the old Manchester & Salford Tramway routes as vehicles became available. Notwithstanding, over one hundred cars were delivered before the system actually opened from 1899 onwards.
The location for a new electrically equipped depot needed to be accessible to the first route so land on Queen's Road, Cheetham (part of a later extension to that depot is now home to the Greater Manchester's Museum of Transport
) was purchased and on 12 June 1900, the foundation stone was laid. Following the installation of power lines between Albert Square
and Cheetham Hill
, this first part of the new operation was inaugurated on 6 June 1901 with public services starting the next day. It took £1,500,000 and until 1903 to rebuild and re-equip the rest of the then 140 mile network, and to receive delivery of the full set of new tram cars (mainly double-deck but with some single decks (known as California cars)--mainly used on the L-shaped route 53—were also ordered), but on 13 April that year, horses pulled their last trams within Manchester. Horse drawn trams in London
by comparison, continued until 1915. By the end of 1901, further sections had been opened between Cheetham Hill Road and Rochdale Road; Deansgate and Hightown; High Street and Blackley
; High Street and Moston Lane; and High Street and Queens Park. Only 252 cars could housed at the Queen's Road depot so a further depot was constructed at Devonshire Street / Hyde Road in Ardwick-–and it was opened at the end of 1902.
, Glossop
, Hyde
, Mossley
, and Stalybridge
. The short 2.5 mile run in Trafford Park came under the joint control of the Corporations of Manchester and Salford.
The tracks arrived in Piccadilly, home of the Corporation Tramway offices, on 1 June 1902. By the end of the following year services from Piccadilly reached: Alexandra Park, Audenshaw
, Denton, Hollinwood, Moss Side
, Old Trafford
, Openshaw
, Newton Heath
, St. Peter's Square and Stretford
. By 1903 Manchester Corporation had just over 300 cars. The trams were also used to carry parcels from 1905. As late as winter 1905, horse-drawn buses still ran between Palatine Road and Cheadle
and on down to Northenden
, as well as on the route between Chorlton-cum-Hardy
and Hulme
. Manchester Corporation Tramways proposed an experimental motor bus to replace them from 1906, effectively and portentously becoming both a tram and bus operator. By 1910, the 582 cars in service running over 100 route miles were generating a profit of £150,000. Yet another depot was needed and Princess Road in Moss Side was opened on 9 June 1909 which would house nearly 300 tram cars.
In the run up to the start of the First World War there was an enormous expansion and consolidation of tram services to the extent that by 1915 trams were the most popular form of transit; the Manchester system was carrying 200 million passenger journeys a year on 662 vehicles (there were only a handful of buses at this time). It was then possible to traverse by tram the entire urban area now known as Greater Manchester
, and far into the surrounding towns of Lancashire
and Cheshire
, many of which had their own independent services. The extent of this inter-urban tram running compares with that found in parts of Belgium. Many of these services were also amalgamating or joint running. Stockport trams ran directly into Manchester with routes to Cheadle, Hazel Grove and Hyde. By 1913 there were so many services running in and out of Manchester city centre that the route names had to be replaced with route numbers – up to 46 MCT numbered routes are known though there were also some sub-sets of these routes. Despite the arrest of development and damage of the war years between 1914–1918 transport expansion was quick to be re-established. Women had been employed during the war as tram guards but there were shortages of materials and maintenance staff that led to deterioration of both the track and the vehicle fleet. In 1918 the city's Medical Officer of Health closed the tram network to help stop the spread of Spanish Flu
.
, Chadderton
and Rochdale
authorities in 1923. Middleton then granted Manchester a lease to operate on their former tracks in exchange for allowing them to run Corporation trams right in to Rochdale. Buses became one of the fastest growth areas (Manchester Corporation went from 16 vehicles in 1923 to 51 in 1926). However new tram lines were still being commissioned especially on the south side of the city (serving Anson Rd, Birchfields Rd, Kingsway, Platt Lane, Princess Road, Seymour Grove) and also in the north (at Heywood
, Middleton and on Victoria Avenue). A final addition to the tram system came in 1928 when it was connected with the Bury Corporation system from the Middleton line to Hopwood in Heywood. This expansion signalled the maximum extent the MCT system reached in 1929–30 with 163 route miles (292 track miles) and 953 electric cars, making it the third largest system in the country. Only the tram networks serving (what became Greater) London (around 400 route miles) and Glasgow (about 170 route miles) were bigger.
Elsewhere profits were being made on Express bus services, 27 in all, many running on the same routes as trams. In the early 1930s, tramcar revenue was lower than operating costs on some services and yet more replacement work was due and more buses were introduced. The City Council decided to abandon plans to extend the tramway to the new and rapidly expanding large council housing estate of Wythenshawe and to withdraw the trolley boys. No more new trams were ordered. Pilcher organised the UK's first major conversion of an intensively used tram route to buses in the United Kingdom when on 6 April 1930 the service from Cheetham Hill to Stretford Road was abandoned to the motorbus. Manchester's bus fleet then numbered over 100, and with lower overheads and profits increasing after conversion, Pilcher was seen as the man who persuaded some cynics that trams were outdated for British cities and that buses were the future. Thirty years after their initial opening, the old tram routes were showing the need for capital expenditure on new infrastructure – Pilcher used this as one of the main reasons to push ahead with conversion to buses.
Major investment was needed for bridge widening on the long route to Altrincham
, therefore in June 1931 the trams were replaced by buses. It was followed a month later by the line to Sale Moor and in 1932 the long run up to Middleton got the chop. 12 November 1932 saw the Rochdale to Manchester trams being pulled out of service by Rochdale Corporation. In 1936 the council decided to replace the old trams on Ashton Old Road with new trolleybuses. A depot for the Manchester trolleybus system
was opened on Rochdale Road in 1936. By March 1938, 75 miles of single track tramway had been abandoned and 21 tram routes converted to motor or trolleybus. In 1939, 351 new motor buses and 77 trolleybuses were ordered (although 236 of the motor buses arrived before the start of the Second World War).
The final decision to completely abandon the tram system in favour of trolley buses and motor buses was taken on 7 July 1937 but the onset of war delayed some of this. However during the war 4917 tons of steel were turned over to the war effort by removing abandoned tram tracks. In 1945 the final S.H.M.D. Joint Board tramcar ran, the last tram in Oldham followed in 1946, and those in Bolton and Salford ended in 1947. By 1949 just a few miles of track were left in Manchester and the last tram ran on 10 January of that year. The last of the old tram cars were stored at Hyde Road depot until on 16 March they were set ablaze in a huge bonfire, permanently signifying an end to what was once the third largest tramway system in the country. A few trams were sold to other operators: the last of these in public service were in Aberdeen, in 1956.
The trams continued in Bury for a further month and the last tram ran in Stockport during 1951. The trolley bus routes remained until they were also abandoned by December 1966.
has been restored to occasional service, and currently has an operating fleet of 3 electric trams and one horse tram. One of these, tramcar, No 765, was stored at the museum
at Crich
in Derbyshire, before permanently moving to Heaton Park
in 1979.
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England (known as Manchester Corporation Transport Department from 1929 onwards)
At its peak in 1928 the organisation carried 328 million passengers, on 953 trams, via 46 routes, along 292 miles (469.9 km) of track.
It was the United Kingdom's second largest tram network after the combined services of 16 operators across the capital in 1933 by (London Passenger Transport Board
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...
). Other large systems were in Glasgow
Glasgow Corporation Tramways
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...
(which had 100 miles of double track at its peak and Birmingham
Birmingham Corporation Tramways
Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of tramways in Birmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, built to a gauge of 3 ft 6 inches...
(80 miles).
The central and south central Manchester area had one of the densest concentrations of tram services of any urban area in the UK. MCT services ran up to the edge of routes provided by other operators in (what is now) Greater Manchester, and in some instances had running rights over their lines and vice versa. There were extensive neighbouring systems in Salford
City of Salford
The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...
, Oldham, Ashton & Hyde, Middleton, Rochdale and elsewhere.
Services were withdrawn earlier than most other British cities to be replaced by trolleybus and motor buses. Trams did not return to the city until the modern light-rail system Manchester Metrolink
Manchester Metrolink
Metrolink is a light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. It consists of four lines which converge in Manchester city centre and terminate in Bury, Altrincham, Eccles and Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The system is owned by Transport for Greater Manchester and operated under contract by RATP Group...
opened in 1992.
History
Though horse-drawn omnibuses were first introduced in Manchester as early as 1824 (arguably the worlds first busBus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
service it was run by John Greenwood
John Greenwood (bus operator)
John Greenwood , transport entrepreneur, was the keeper of a toll-gate in Pendleton on the Manchester to Liverpool turnpike. In 1824 he purchased a horse and a cart with several seats and began an omnibus service, probably the first one in the United Kingdom, between Pendleton and Manchester...
and ran between Market Street and Piccadilly
Manchester Piccadilly bus station
Manchester Piccadilly Gardens Bus Station, often abbreviated to Piccadilly or Piccadilly Gardens is one of two main bus stations in Manchester's city centre....
and Pendleton
Pendleton, Greater Manchester
Pendleton is an inner city area of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is about from Manchester city centre. The A6 dual carriageway skirts the east of the district....
toll gate in Salford). In the subsequent years other companies joined the rush to provide services culminating by 1850 in 64 omnibuses serving the centre of Manchester from outlying areas. Passenger carrying trams had first began urban operation in Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
in 1860. By 1865 Greenwood merged with the other operators to become the Manchester Carriage Company
Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company
The Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company was incorporated in 1880, the result of a merger of the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company and the Manchester Carriage Company, to provide horse-drawn tram services throughout Manchester and Salford, England, and surrounding districts...
. The earliest proposals for the construction of rails on the streets of Manchester were made by Henry Osborn O'Hagan in 1872. Though these were resisted (partly because raised tram tracks had been the sources of many accidents elsewhere), by 1875, road congestion was so great that the 'tramway' could not be delayed much longer. Working with the Corporation of Salford
County Borough of Salford
Salford was, from 1844 to 1974, a local government district in the northwest of England, coterminate with Salford. It was granted city status in 1926.-Free Borough and Police Commissioners:...
, Manchester successfully gained Orders under the 1870 Tramways Act, which permitted them to build and lease, but expressly not to operate, tramways. The first tracks therefore were built to allow the already existing lines from neighbouring Salford to run into the city along Deansgate
Deansgate
Deansgate is a main road through the city centre of Manchester, England. It runs roughly north–south in a near straight route through the western part of the city centre and is the longest road in the city centre at over one mile long....
.
As extensions and new lines were agreed, the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company was formed in 1877 to operate horse-drawn trams on the lines constructed by both local authorities. The company had a total fleet of more than 90 horse-drawn vehicles, and, in 1877, it was they who gained the concession to operate the tramway, using the name 'Manchester & Salford Tramways'. By 1901 this company used 5000 horses to pull 515 tramcars over 140 route miles. Their first service therefore began on 17 May 1877, between Deansgate and Grove Inn on the Bury New Road. Just three years later a new organisation was formed called the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company
Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company
The Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company was incorporated in 1880, the result of a merger of the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company and the Manchester Carriage Company, to provide horse-drawn tram services throughout Manchester and Salford, England, and surrounding districts...
that continued with the expansion. By the 1890s it had turned itself into the most important transit operator in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. At their height, the company had 5,300 horses, pulling 515 tram cars on almost 90 miles of route using 515 cars. By 1896 outlying areas served included; Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne
Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it lies on the north bank of the River Tame, on undulating land at the foothills of the Pennines...
, Audenshaw
Audenshaw
Audenshaw is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is located on the east side of the River Tame, along the course of both the M60 motorway and the Ashton Canal, southwest of Ashton-under-Lyne and east of the city of Manchester...
, Droylsden
Droylsden
Droylsden is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is to the east of Manchester city centre, and west-southwest of Ashton-under-Lyne, it has a population of 23,172....
, Failsworth
Failsworth
At Failsworth lies north-northwest of London. It shares common boundaries with Manchester and Oldham, on its west and northeast respectively. Failsworth is traversed by the A62 road, from Manchester to Oldham, the heavy rail line of the Oldham Loop and the Rochdale Canal, which crosses the...
, Gorton
Gorton
Gorton is an area of the city of Manchester, in North West England. It is located to the southeast of Manchester city centre. Neighbouring areas include Longsight and Levenshulme....
& Denton
Denton, Greater Manchester
Denton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is five miles to the east of Manchester city centre, and has a population of 26,866....
, Heaton Norris
Heaton Norris
Heaton Norris is now a mainly residential area of Stockport, England bordering on Heaton Chapel, Heaton Mersey and Heaton Moor. Formerly it was the name of the parish, that included Heaton Chapel, Heaton Mersey and Heaton Moor and was in Lancashire....
, Kersal
Kersal
Kersal is an inner city area of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. The centre of Kersal is northwest of Manchester city centre, and north-northwest of Salford's conventional centre at Greengate....
, Levenshulme
Levenshulme
Levenshulme is an urban area of the City of Manchester, in North West England. It borders Longsight, Gorton, Burnage, Heaton Chapel and Reddish, and is approximately halfway between Stockport and Manchester City Centre on the A6 road. The A6 bisects Levenshulme. The Manchester to London railway...
, Lower Broughton, Moss Side
Moss Side
Moss Side is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre and has a population of around 17,537...
, Peel Green
Peel Green
Peel Green is a district, which along with Patricroft and Barton upon Irwell forms the western end of the town of Eccles, in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England and lying within the historic county boundaries of Lancashire...
, Stalybridge
Stalybridge
Stalybridge is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 22,568. Historically a part of Cheshire, it is east of Manchester city centre and northwest of Glossop. With the construction of a cotton mill in 1776, Stalybridge became one of...
, Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, Stretford
Stretford
Stretford is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Lying on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, it is to the southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Salford and northeast of Altrincham...
, Swinton
Swinton, Greater Manchester
Swinton is a town within the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. Located on the A6 road it stands on gently sloping ground on the southwest side of the River Irwell, and within the bounds of the orbital M60 motorway. It is west-northwest of Salford, and west-northwest of Manchester...
, Waterhead
Waterhead, Greater Manchester
Waterhead , is an area of Oldham, and an electoral ward of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England...
and Withington
Withington
Withington is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury, and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near the centre-to-south edges of the Greater Manchester Urban Area; in the...
. There were also other horse-drawn tram services operating independently in some of the other settlements surrounding Manchester – notably Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
and Stockport.
Another company which had been set up by Henry O'Hagan proposed a tram network for all the urban areas east of Manchester, from Bacup
Bacup
Bacup is a town within the Rossendale borough of Lancashire, England. It is located amongst the South Pennines, along Lancashire's eastern boundary with West Yorkshire. The town sits within a rural setting in the Forest of Rossendale, amongst the steep-sided upper-Irwell Valley, through which the...
in the north via Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
, Oldham
Oldham
Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester...
and Ashton to Hyde
Hyde, Greater Manchester
Hyde is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2001 census, the town had a population of 31,253. Historically part of Cheshire, it is northeast of Stockport, west of Glossop and east of Manchester....
. The first Manchester, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham Steam Tramways Company line opened in 1883, though by 1887 the company was declared bankrupt. A new company with almost the same name was begun in 1888 (simply by deleting the word "Manchester" from its name) and successfully ran steam tramways until the municipalities began building and operating routes at the turn of the 20th century. The Wigan
Wigan
Wigan is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Douglas, south-west of Bolton, north of Warrington and west-northwest of Manchester. Wigan is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its administrative centre. The town of Wigan had a total...
and District Tramways Company ran tram services between 1880 and 1902. On the other side of Manchester, the Trafford
Trafford
The Metropolitan Borough of Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It has a population of 211,800, covers , and includes the towns of Altrincham, Partington, Sale, Stretford, and Urmston...
family sold their land following the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...
in 1894, creating the Trafford Park Estates Company, which built a gas-powered tramway to serve the new factories in 1897. It was replaced by an electric powered tram line within the industrial estate from July 1903. The idea of local authorities running tram systems was developed locally in both Bolton and Wigan when in 1899 the corporations bought the routes of the E. Holden & Company. This enabled investment and conversion of the Bolton lines to electric traction during December of that year (followed in 1901 by Wigan). In 1900 the South Lancashire Tramways Company
South Lancashire Tramways
South Lancashire Tramways was a system of electric tramways in south Lancashire authorised by the South Lancashire Tramways Act of 1900. The South Lancashire Tramways Company was authorised by the act to build over of track to serve the towns between St Helens, Swinton, Westhoughton and Hulton...
was formed (later renamed Lancashire United Tramways and again Lancashire United Transport
Lancashire United Transport
Lancashire United Transport was a tram, bus and trolleybus operator based at Howe Bridge in Atherton, 10 miles north west of Manchester...
in 1905), which ran an extensive inter-urban system from Atherton
Atherton, Greater Manchester
Atherton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of Lancashire. It is east of Wigan, north-northeast of Leigh, and northwest of Manchester...
.
Birth of Manchester Corporation Tramways
The Manchester Carriage and Tramways CompanyManchester Carriage and Tramways Company
The Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company was incorporated in 1880, the result of a merger of the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company and the Manchester Carriage Company, to provide horse-drawn tram services throughout Manchester and Salford, England, and surrounding districts...
leases were due to expire between 1898 and 1901, so the Corporation of Manchester agreed in 1895 to take over and modernise the existing tramways themselves. They sent inspectors to view the systems operated elsewhere in order to assess the best means of traction power and delivery for Manchester. The systems examined were: underground conduit, storage batteries, cable-hauled (used in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
), steam
Steam
Steam is the technical term for water vapor, the gaseous phase of water, which is formed when water boils. In common language it is often used to refer to the visible mist of water droplets formed as this water vapor condenses in the presence of cooler air...
-powered (used by Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
trams), oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
, gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...
(utilised in Lytham St Annes
Lytham St Annes
Lytham St Annes is a conurbation in the Fylde district of Lancashire, England. The neighbouring towns of Lytham and St-Anne's-on-the-Sea have grown together and now form a seaside resort...
) and a delegation was even sent to Paris to examine their compressed air
Compressed air
Compressed air is air which is kept under a certain pressure, usually greater than that of the atmosphere. In Europe, 10 percent of all electricity used by industry is used to produce compressed air, amounting to 80 terawatt hours consumption per year....
system. The decision was then taken to use electrical power carried overhead but the track itself needed complete overhaul from the horse-drawn days and at some junctions the track needed was to be so complex it even had to be ordered from the United States. It was thought that the initial requirement would be for as many as 600 electric cars but although this estimate was revised down to 400 it was still such a large number that it was beyond the manufacturing capacity of the period. Instead of having the entire network and fleet ready for the proposed opening in 1901, the Corporation gradually replaced the old Manchester & Salford Tramway routes as vehicles became available. Notwithstanding, over one hundred cars were delivered before the system actually opened from 1899 onwards.
The location for a new electrically equipped depot needed to be accessible to the first route so land on Queen's Road, Cheetham (part of a later extension to that depot is now home to the Greater Manchester's Museum of Transport
Museum of Transport in Manchester
The Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester is a museum that aims to preserve and promote the public transport heritage of Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. Owned by Transport for Greater Manchester, the museum is located in the Cheetham Hill area of...
) was purchased and on 12 June 1900, the foundation stone was laid. Following the installation of power lines between Albert Square
Albert Square
Albert Square is the fictional location of the BBC soap opera EastEnders. It is ostensibly located in the equally fictional London borough of Walford in London's East End. The square's design was based on the real life Fassett Square in Hackney, and was given the name Albert Square after the real...
and Cheetham Hill
Cheetham Hill
Cheetham Hill is an inner city area of Manchester, England. As an electoral ward it is known as Cheetham and has a population of 12,846. It lies on the west bank of the River Irk, north-northeast of Manchester city centre and close to the boundary with the City of Salford...
, this first part of the new operation was inaugurated on 6 June 1901 with public services starting the next day. It took £1,500,000 and until 1903 to rebuild and re-equip the rest of the then 140 mile network, and to receive delivery of the full set of new tram cars (mainly double-deck but with some single decks (known as California cars)--mainly used on the L-shaped route 53—were also ordered), but on 13 April that year, horses pulled their last trams within Manchester. Horse drawn trams in London
London Transport
London Transport could refer to:*London Transport Transport authorities that operated services under the brand:*London Passenger Transport Board *London Transport Executive *London Transport Board...
by comparison, continued until 1915. By the end of 1901, further sections had been opened between Cheetham Hill Road and Rochdale Road; Deansgate and Hightown; High Street and Blackley
Blackley
Blackley is an area of the city of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It is north of Manchester city centre, by a meander of the River Irk. Further north is Middleton...
; High Street and Moston Lane; and High Street and Queens Park. Only 252 cars could housed at the Queen's Road depot so a further depot was constructed at Devonshire Street / Hyde Road in Ardwick-–and it was opened at the end of 1902.
Expansion and peak
1901–1910
From 1902 onwards both Salford and Manchester tram systems, uniquely in Britain, employed uniformed "trolley boys" – over at thousand at their peak (Jan 1930) – whose job it was to assist guards on double-truck trams by giving the driver a bell signal at the stops and helping passengers on and off. Because by the early 1900s there were multiple organisations owning various sections of tramways in the Manchester and surrounding areas, Manchester took the lead in rebuilding and electrifying their routes so that they could be leased back for operational services. The largest boroughs (Ashton-under-Lyne, Oldham and Salford) continued to operate their own lines and began their own modernisation. At Bury, Oldham and Rochdale, the steam services were also brought under the control of the local municipalities. In 1904 the Glossop Urban District Supply Company was set up to provide electric trams to DukinfieldDukinfield
Dukinfield is a small town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies in central Tameside on the south bank of the River Tame, opposite Ashton-under-Lyne, and is east of the city of Manchester...
, Glossop
Glossop
Glossop is a market town within the Borough of High Peak in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the Glossop Brook, a tributary of the River Etherow, about east of the city of Manchester, west of the city of Sheffield. Glossop is situated near Derbyshire's county borders with Cheshire, Greater...
, Hyde
Hyde, Greater Manchester
Hyde is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2001 census, the town had a population of 31,253. Historically part of Cheshire, it is northeast of Stockport, west of Glossop and east of Manchester....
, Mossley
Mossley
Mossley is a small town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. The town is located in the upper section of the Tame valley in the foothills of the Pennines, northeast of Ashton-under-Lyne and east of Manchester.Mossley has the distinction of...
, and Stalybridge
Stalybridge
Stalybridge is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 22,568. Historically a part of Cheshire, it is east of Manchester city centre and northwest of Glossop. With the construction of a cotton mill in 1776, Stalybridge became one of...
. The short 2.5 mile run in Trafford Park came under the joint control of the Corporations of Manchester and Salford.
The tracks arrived in Piccadilly, home of the Corporation Tramway offices, on 1 June 1902. By the end of the following year services from Piccadilly reached: Alexandra Park, Audenshaw
Audenshaw
Audenshaw is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is located on the east side of the River Tame, along the course of both the M60 motorway and the Ashton Canal, southwest of Ashton-under-Lyne and east of the city of Manchester...
, Denton, Hollinwood, Moss Side
Moss Side
Moss Side is an inner-city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre and has a population of around 17,537...
, Old Trafford
Old Trafford
Old Trafford commonly refers to two sporting arenas:* Old Trafford, home of Manchester United F.C.* Old Trafford Cricket Ground, home of Lancashire County Cricket ClubOld Trafford can also refer to:...
, Openshaw
Openshaw
Openshaw is a ward of the city of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, North West England. It lies about two miles east of Manchester city centre. Historically a part of Lancashire, Openshaw was incorporated into the city of Manchester in 1890. Its name derives from the Old English Opinschawe, which...
, Newton Heath
Newton Heath
Newton Heath is an urban area of the city of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It is east north east of Manchester city centre and has a population of 9,883....
, St. Peter's Square and Stretford
Stretford
Stretford is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Lying on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, it is to the southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Salford and northeast of Altrincham...
. By 1903 Manchester Corporation had just over 300 cars. The trams were also used to carry parcels from 1905. As late as winter 1905, horse-drawn buses still ran between Palatine Road and Cheadle
Cheadle, Greater Manchester
Cheadle is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport in Greater Manchester, England. It borders the districts of Cheadle Hulme, Gatley, Heald Green and Cheadle Heath in Stockport, and the East Didsbury area of Manchester. As of 2001 it had a population of 14,261.-Early history:There has...
and on down to Northenden
Northenden
Northenden is a suburban area and electoral ward of the city of Manchester in North West England. It lies on the south side of both the River Mersey and the M60 motorway, west of Stockport and south of Manchester city centre. Northenden is bounded by the districts of Didsbury, Gatley and...
, as well as on the route between Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Chorlton-cum-Hardy
Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of the city of Manchester, England. It is known locally as Chorlton. It is situated about four miles southwest of Manchester city centre. Pronunciation varies: and are both common....
and Hulme
Hulme
Hulme is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, England. Located immediately south of Manchester city centre, it is an area with significant industrial heritage....
. Manchester Corporation Tramways proposed an experimental motor bus to replace them from 1906, effectively and portentously becoming both a tram and bus operator. By 1910, the 582 cars in service running over 100 route miles were generating a profit of £150,000. Yet another depot was needed and Princess Road in Moss Side was opened on 9 June 1909 which would house nearly 300 tram cars.
1911–1920
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
, and far into the surrounding towns of Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
and Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, many of which had their own independent services. The extent of this inter-urban tram running compares with that found in parts of Belgium. Many of these services were also amalgamating or joint running. Stockport trams ran directly into Manchester with routes to Cheadle, Hazel Grove and Hyde. By 1913 there were so many services running in and out of Manchester city centre that the route names had to be replaced with route numbers – up to 46 MCT numbered routes are known though there were also some sub-sets of these routes. Despite the arrest of development and damage of the war years between 1914–1918 transport expansion was quick to be re-established. Women had been employed during the war as tram guards but there were shortages of materials and maintenance staff that led to deterioration of both the track and the vehicle fleet. In 1918 the city's Medical Officer of Health closed the tram network to help stop the spread of Spanish Flu
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
.
1921–1930
In 1921 the Manchester Corporation formed a new body with Ashton Corporation and Stalybridge Joint Board which took over the Oldham, Ashton and Hyde Tramway allowing Manchester trams to run on the Ashton via Guide Bridge section. Due to price rises after the war, operational costs rose from £681,000 in 1919 to £1,520,000 by 1922. This led to calls from some quarters for tram expansion to be halted. Middleton Electric Traction Company was jointly taken over by MiddletonMiddleton, Greater Manchester
Middleton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Irk, south-southwest of Rochdale, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester...
, Chadderton
Chadderton
Chadderton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of Lancashire...
and Rochdale
Rochdale
Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...
authorities in 1923. Middleton then granted Manchester a lease to operate on their former tracks in exchange for allowing them to run Corporation trams right in to Rochdale. Buses became one of the fastest growth areas (Manchester Corporation went from 16 vehicles in 1923 to 51 in 1926). However new tram lines were still being commissioned especially on the south side of the city (serving Anson Rd, Birchfields Rd, Kingsway, Platt Lane, Princess Road, Seymour Grove) and also in the north (at Heywood
Heywood, Greater Manchester
Heywood is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the south bank of the River Roch and is east of Bury, west-southwest of Rochdale, and north of the city of Manchester. The town of Middleton lies to the south, whilst to the north is the...
, Middleton and on Victoria Avenue). A final addition to the tram system came in 1928 when it was connected with the Bury Corporation system from the Middleton line to Hopwood in Heywood. This expansion signalled the maximum extent the MCT system reached in 1929–30 with 163 route miles (292 track miles) and 953 electric cars, making it the third largest system in the country. Only the tram networks serving (what became Greater) London (around 400 route miles) and Glasgow (about 170 route miles) were bigger.
Decline and replacement
In spring 1929 a decision was needed to replace track on the circular 53 route. Because the tracks passed beneath a number of low bridges, running double deck trams had been impossible. In order to increase capacity it would have been necessary to increase the bridge height and that was seen as prohibitively expensive so the decision was taken by the new general manager Mr. Stuart Pilcher, to replace the trams with motorbuses between Stretford Road and Cheetham Hill. The effect was to increase passenger numbers by 11 percent and the route became profitable to operate; thus commencing the start of tramway abandonment. In recognition of the growing importance of bus services, Pilcher managed to get the company name changed to Manchester Corporation Transport this year.Elsewhere profits were being made on Express bus services, 27 in all, many running on the same routes as trams. In the early 1930s, tramcar revenue was lower than operating costs on some services and yet more replacement work was due and more buses were introduced. The City Council decided to abandon plans to extend the tramway to the new and rapidly expanding large council housing estate of Wythenshawe and to withdraw the trolley boys. No more new trams were ordered. Pilcher organised the UK's first major conversion of an intensively used tram route to buses in the United Kingdom when on 6 April 1930 the service from Cheetham Hill to Stretford Road was abandoned to the motorbus. Manchester's bus fleet then numbered over 100, and with lower overheads and profits increasing after conversion, Pilcher was seen as the man who persuaded some cynics that trams were outdated for British cities and that buses were the future. Thirty years after their initial opening, the old tram routes were showing the need for capital expenditure on new infrastructure – Pilcher used this as one of the main reasons to push ahead with conversion to buses.
Major investment was needed for bridge widening on the long route to Altrincham
Altrincham
Altrincham is a market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on flat ground south of the River Mersey about southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Sale and east of Warrington...
, therefore in June 1931 the trams were replaced by buses. It was followed a month later by the line to Sale Moor and in 1932 the long run up to Middleton got the chop. 12 November 1932 saw the Rochdale to Manchester trams being pulled out of service by Rochdale Corporation. In 1936 the council decided to replace the old trams on Ashton Old Road with new trolleybuses. A depot for the Manchester trolleybus system
Trolleybuses in Manchester
The Manchester trolleybus system once served the city of Manchester, now also the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in north west England...
was opened on Rochdale Road in 1936. By March 1938, 75 miles of single track tramway had been abandoned and 21 tram routes converted to motor or trolleybus. In 1939, 351 new motor buses and 77 trolleybuses were ordered (although 236 of the motor buses arrived before the start of the Second World War).
The trams continued in Bury for a further month and the last tram ran in Stockport during 1951. The trolley bus routes remained until they were also abandoned by December 1966.
Museums
A short line in Heaton Park TramwayHeaton Park Tramway
The Heaton Park Tramway is a heritage tramway running old trams as a visitor attaction in Heaton Park, Manchester.The tramway was briefly closed after thieves stole overhead cables on 17 October 2011, engineers worked flat out to get the tramway fully operational again, within a week.- History...
has been restored to occasional service, and currently has an operating fleet of 3 electric trams and one horse tram. One of these, tramcar, No 765, was stored at the museum
National Tramway Museum
The National Tramway Museum, at Crich, in Derbyshire, England, is situated within Crich Tramway Village, a period village containing a pub, cafe, old-style sweetshop, including the tram depots. The village is also home to the Eagle Press, a small museum dedicated to Letterpress Printing including...
at Crich
Crich
Crich is a village in Derbyshire in England. It has the National Tramway Museum inside the Crich Tramway Village, and at the summit of Crich Hill above, a Memorial Tower for those of the Sherwood Foresters regiment who died in battle, particularly in World War I.Built in 1923 on the site of an...
in Derbyshire, before permanently moving to Heaton Park
Heaton Park
Heaton Park, covering an area variously reported as , 247 hectares, , over and is the biggest park in Greater Manchester, England and one of the biggest municipal parks in Europe. The park comprises the grounds of a Grade I listed, neoclassical 18th century country house, Heaton Hall...
in 1979.
See also
- Transport in ManchesterTransport in ManchesterThe transport infrastructure of Manchester is built up of numerous transport modes and forms an integral part of the structure Greater Manchester and North West England...
- Trolleybuses in ManchesterTrolleybuses in ManchesterThe Manchester trolleybus system once served the city of Manchester, now also the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, in north west England...
- Manchester Carriage and Tramways CompanyManchester Carriage and Tramways CompanyThe Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company was incorporated in 1880, the result of a merger of the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company and the Manchester Carriage Company, to provide horse-drawn tram services throughout Manchester and Salford, England, and surrounding districts...
- Manchester MetrolinkManchester MetrolinkMetrolink is a light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. It consists of four lines which converge in Manchester city centre and terminate in Bury, Altrincham, Eccles and Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The system is owned by Transport for Greater Manchester and operated under contract by RATP Group...
External links
- http://www.gmts.co.uk
- http://www.lrta.org/hh/hhlist06.html
- http://www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history/fleetlists/manchester1.htm
- http://www.tundria.com/trams/GBR/Manchester-1944.shtml