| AdminHistory | Public transport had been operating in Birmingham since 1834, when a horse-drawn service between Snow Hill and Edgbaston was operated privately by a Mr J. Smith. Its success saw an irregular network of such operators grow up, often competing on the same routes. In 1869 the first real omnibus company was formed. The Birmingham Omnibus Company was operated by William and Daniel Busby, who ran several services from High Street, Birmingham, with a fleet of cars at much cheaper prices. In the same year, the first horse drawn tramway companies appeared. These were the Birmingham and Staffordshire Tramways Company and the Birmingham Tramway Company (also owned by the Busbys).
The companies wanted to lay tracks in the streets, and in 1870, the Tramways Act was passed, which allowed local authorities to construct tramways on the authority of orders granted by the Board of Trade (laid through the Public Works Department), although the tramways had to be operated by private companies, since the act did not permit local authorities to run services themselves. Both the Birmingham and Staffordshire Tramways Company and the Birmingham Tramway Company obtained Acts to enable them to lay tramways outside the borough of Birmingham. These two companies then amalgamated in 1871, to form the Birmingham and District Tramways Company, which then took over the Birmingham Omnibus Company the same year.
By 1872, the Corporation was undertaking a huge tramway construction project, many of which would link up with private lines outside the borough, and issued its first seven year lease to the Birmingham and District Tramways Company the following year. However, the company went bust in 1874, leaving little public transport in Birmingham, until the newly formed Birmingham Tramways and Omnibus Company stepped in. Due to the shortage of horses, in 1879, an Act of Parliament was passed allowing steam powered trams, and by 1882 the Birmingham Central Tramways Company and the South Staffordshire and Birmingham District Tramway Company were in operation. By 1885, the Birmingham Tramways and Omnibus Company had also folded.
A Tramways Sub-Committee was appointed in November 1899, but the following November, a full standing Tramways Committee was formed, to exercise all powers conferred upon the Council by Acts of Parliament and Bye-Laws relating to tramways, chief of which was the Tramways Act of 1870. These areas included the leasing of tramlines and liaising with private companies regarding any issues that may arise and deal with staffing issues.
On October 1901 the committee became more proactive and were to prepare what became the tramways elements of the wider Birmingham Corporation Act, 1903, giving the authority the right to work tramways on its own lines once the current leases expired; the first being in January 1904, between Steelhouse Lane and Aston Cross. Under the Act, the committee set the date for city take-over for July 1911 and outlining its plan to convert all tramways to run on overhead electricity (the Corporation had taken over the City electricity supply in 1899), so, in January 1906, with a few exceptions, the first electric cars replaced steam, cable (trolley bus) and horse on city tramways. The committee also needed to cost and timetable journeys, deal with accident and injury claims, as well as purchase land for tram depots, and by 1906 they had departmental depots including Washwood Heath, Coventry Road, Moseley Road, Rosebery Street and Miller Street.
In July 1911, the expiry of the franchises held by the City of Birmingham Tramways Company (formerly Birmingham Central Tramways) and the British Electrical Traction Company Limited saw Birmingham operations taken over by the Birmingham City Corporation, and during the following years a great expansion occurred, both in service and in depots, as the city boundaries were extended to incorporate Aston, Yardley, Handsworth and Kings Norton. In 1913, the first Council motor-omnibuses appeared in Birmingham, between Selly Oak and Rednal and in 1914, those services that were still operating by agreement between the Birmingham Midland Motor Omnibus Company (later Midland Red), which had been formed in 1904, and the Birmingham City Council were bought out by the Council, with only those services that crossed the city boundary being allowed to continue to operate. Further, 1914 also saw the first trials of a night service, and by 1916 women began to be employed as conductors due to the conscription of men into the armed forces during the First World War. Free fares were also granted for wounded service personnel.
In 1919, the National Joint Industrial Council for the Tramway Industry was formed, which was to be a joint employee/employer venture to secure the best way forward for the industry. As a result, the Council, local private companies, the Municipal Tramways Association, the Tramways and Light Railway Association and the National Transport Workers’ Federation all signed up to the scheme. In 1923, the committee drew up a new set of passenger regulations, in 1926 it introduced the outer circle route, and by November 1927, further extensions in both the tram and particularly the omnibus services resulted in a change of name for the committee to the Tramways and Omnibus Committee. This committee continued with the same functions it had previously enjoyed, while introducing new rates and fares. In January 1928, it announced concessionary rates for schoolchildren and in April 1931, free passes were issued to Tramways Department staff.
In November 1937 the committee changed its name to the Transport Committee, although its functions, once again, remained the same. The committee was slowly abandoning tramways in favour of bus services, as the costs of maintenance, replacement cars or needed improvements were too high, an example of which was the City to Stechford route, which was abandoned in favour of bus services in 1939 and indeed, the last trams in Birmingham ran on 4 July 1953, on the Short Heath, Pype Hayes and Erdington routes. In 1949, the first passes for old age pensioners were introduced.
Under the terms of the Transport Act, 1968, in July the following year the transport services in many large conurbations, such as Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle were taken away from their City Councils to create a more local integrated transport system, called Passenger Transport Authorities (PTAs). The Birmingham City Transport Department became a part of the new West Midlands PTA, which comprised of the Birmingham and Coventry City Councils, and Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton Metropolitan Borough Councils. |