Streetcar History
Edmonton Streetcar #26 newly delivered from the Ottawa Car Company stands at 24 (124) Street and Athabasca (102) Avenue ready to return to Syndicate Avenue (95 Street) in this 1911 scene.
© Glenbow Archives NA-55-3
Tramways or street railways were common throughout the industrialised world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but they disappeared from many North American and British cities in the mid-20th century. In continental European cities they remained quite common. In recent years, they have made a huge comeback in many places around the world.
The very first tram worldwide was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in south Wales, UK; it was horse-drawn at first, and later moved by steam and electric power. The Mumbles Railway Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1804, and the first passenger railway (which acted like streetcars did in the US some 30 years later) started operating in 1807.
The first streetcars, also known as horse cars in North America, were built in the United States and developed from city stagecoach and omnibus lines that picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route without the need to be pre-hired. These trams were an animal railway, usually using horses and sometimes mules to haul the cars, usually two as a team. The first streetcar line -- the New York and Harlem Railroad's Fourth Avenue Line --began service in 1832. It was followed in 1835 by New Orleans, Louisiana, which has the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world.
Tramways developed after that in numerous cities, including London, Berlin, Paris, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Melbourne. Faster and more comfortable than the omnibus, trams had a high cost of operation because they were pulled by horses. That is why mechanical drives were rapidly developed, with steam power and cable cars in 1873, and electricity after 1881, when Siemens AG presented the electric drive at the International Electricity Exhibition in Paris.
The cable car sought to reduce labour costs and the hardship on animals. They are pulled along the track by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed that individual cars grip and release to stop and start. The power to move the cable is provided at a site away from the actual operation. The first cable car line in the United States was tested in San Francisco, California, in 1873. The second city to operate cable trams was Dunedin in New Zealand, from 1881 to 1957.
Cable cars suffered from high infrastructure costs, since an expensive system of cables, pulleys, stationary engines and vault structures between the rails had to be provided. They also require strength and skill to operate. The cable had to be dropped at particular locations and the cars coast, for example when crossing another cable line. Breaks and frays in the cable, which occurred frequently, required the complete cessation of services over a cable route, while the cable was repaired. After the development of electrically-powered trams, the more costly cable car systems declined rapidly.
Cable cars were especially effective in hilly cities, because the cable laid in the tracks physically pulled the car up the hill at a strong, steady pace, as opposed to the low-powered steam dummies trying to chug up a hill at almost a crawl, or worse a horse-drawn trolley trying to pull a load up a hill.
This concept partially explains their survival in San Francisco. Though significantly reduced in numbers, the cable cars in this city continue to perform a regular transportation function, in addition to being a tourist attraction.
The convenience and economy of electricity resulted in its rapid adoption once the technical problems of production and transmission of electricity were solved. The world's first electric tram line opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin, Germany, in 1881.
In North America, electric streetcars were first successfully tested in service in Richmond, Virginia, in 1888. The line was built by Frank J. Sprague and since his installation was the first to prove successful in all conditions, he is credited with being the inventor of the trolley car. He later developed multiple unit control, first demonstrated in Chicago in 1897, allowing multiple cars to be coupled together and operated by a single motorman. This gave birth to the modern subway train.
Up to the 1920s and early 1930s streetcar and electrical interurban systems served most North American cities and provided efficient transportation for everybody. The demise came with the arrival of the privately owned automobile, helped by the US auto and tire manufacturers who conspired to buy up many successful streetcar systems only to close them down within a short time frame.
Similar but more subtle pressures and events occurred in the UK. Britain had the first European trams, and until 1935 a large and comprehensive network of systems. For example, it was possible to go by tram across northwest England, from Liverpool to Bolton, using connecting systems. These were mostly closed by a mixture of the same forces as in the US, but with political overtones, since most of the UK systems were municipally owned. The oil and car industries did not like the fact that the municipal tram systems were powered by electricity generated from coal, and to some extent made car ownership unnecessary. The 1931 Royal Commission on traffic argued that trams held up cars. However, there was a big public reaction against tramway abandonment in the UK. Not all tram passengers transferred to the expanding network of flexible and cheaper buses, as car ownership continued to increase. Increased car ownership, as well as increased demands on road space by buses, resulted in the congested cities in the UK today.
After the war, many countries in continental Europe had little choice but to rebuild their tramways as they could not import oil or rubber but had steel and electricity. Thus, many systems have survived and since been modernized and expanded.
The largest tram network in the world is in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and has 499 trams running on 249 km of track with 1770 tram stops.
In recent times, trams and streetcars have become very fashionable again. The dream of cities designed exclusively for automobiles has let to huge congestions and a sharp awakening. Subway trains and underground LRT lines may be a solution, but are extremely costly to build. A large number of European and North American cities have thus re-introduced the streetcar in a modern form. In France alone 17 brand new systems were built within the last 20 years with more to follow. Modern streetcars are most efficient low floor vehicles and transport a large amount of passengers at very reasonable cost. They may well be the answer for many more cities plagued by increasing traffic congestion and limited budgets.
(The above text was written with information from Expedia).