brisbanetrams

Some interesting facts about Brisbane's public transport through history: TRAMS AND TRAINS Until 1885 Brisbane was a 'walking city. There was a train from the city to Ipswich in 1875, but this was mainly an appendage to the Darling Downs freight service into Ipswich. A line to Sandgate through Fortitude Valley was primarily a Sandgate service, as the seaside village had been started early by speculators as a watering place for town dwellers. A horse tram service began in 1885, running from North Quay to Exhibition and Breakfast Creek Road. Within the next four years, the service was extended to New Farm, the Bulimba Ferry (Teneriffe), West End, and Woolloongabba. The beginning of an urban railway network was laid down, to Cleveland (1889) and from Corinda to Stanley Street, via Dutton Park (1884). A train journey into South Brisbane from Dutton Park was started in 1891. Between 1881 and 1891 metropolitan Brisbane's population grew from 37,000 to 100,000. The horse-drawn trams were replaced with an electric system in 1897, running from Logan Road to Victoria Bridge. By 1904 there were electric services to Red Hill, Ascot, Kelvin Grove, Clayfield, East Brisbane, Newmarket, and Toowong. Affluent residents of New Farm and the gentlemen's villas along Milton Road, and workers at West End could now catch a tram into town. The concept of greater Brisbane was gaining currency. The metropolitan area had a population of nearly 120,000 in 1901, compared with nearly 29,000 in the Brisbane municipality and 25,500 in South Brisbane. Source: queenslandplaces.com.au/brisbane-and-greater-brisbane

Of the Australian capital cities which closed their networks between the 1950s and 1970s (only Melbourne and Adelaide retained trams, although Adelaide only had one line in operation), Brisbane was the last capital city to close its tram network. Despite the decision to shut down the network, Brisbane's trams were held with great affection by locals, and their removal was termed "one of the most appalling urban planning mistakes in the city’s history".[2] There have been ongoing proposals since the early 1990s to reinstate a functional tram network. Through the 1940s and 1950s, the tram system enjoyed strong political support within the council, which continued to expand the tram network and upgrade its fleet with some of the most advanced trams in Australia.[3] Trolleybuses were introduced in 1951. The last tramway to open was in March 1961.[1] Clem Jones became Lord Mayor of Brisbane the same year, and all new route construction was canceled.[1] The decline of the electric street transport systems By 1948 Brisbane's trams failed to return a profit as they could not compete with the more efficient bus services.[3] Urban development, often well away from public transport, the rise of suburban shopping centers, and the relative decline in the cost of motorcars meant that as elsewhere, Brisbane's public street transport system increasingly had to compete with the private motor car and patronage slowly declined from a post-war peak of 148 million passenger journeys in 1946 to approximately 64 million passenger journeys in 1968. Political support for the tram system waned in the 1960s, particularly so after the Paddington tram depot fire on 28 September 1962. 67 trams were destroyed, which represented 20% of the entire fleet.[3] Brisbane's Lord Mayor Alderman Clem Jones was a pro-freeway and private car. The Kalinga, Toowong, Rainworth, and Bulimba ferry routes closed in December 1962.[4] The Brisbane Tramway Museum Society was formed in 1968 to preserve some of Brisbane's trams. At present the museum has 24 Brisbane trams in its collection, with 6 operational; California type tram 47, Ten Bench tram 65, Baby Dreadnought tram 99, Dropcentre tram 341, Four Motor tram 429, and the last tram built and officially operated in Brisbane, Four Motor Phoenix tram 554. Tramway operations commenced at the museum at Ferny Grove in 1980. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Brisbane

The official opening of the first electric tramway took place on June 21, 1897, a car being run from Logan Road to the southern end of Victoria Bridge by Mr. Badger, with Mr. Clapp on the platform with him. The car stopped at the Council Chambers and picked up Alderman A. F. Luya (Mayor) and other aldermen of the South Brisbane Council. Others accepted a gene-ral invitation to board the car, including the band of the Queensland Volunteer Rifles, which played for a few trips to and fro. The electric service in Queen Street commenced on July 3, 1897, about a year before electric trams were used in Glasgow, which has one of the best tramway systems in the world. Steady progress was made for several years and many new lines and extensions were constructed, as under: 1897 Logan Road Ithaca George Street Red Hill Part of the Paddington line 1899 Ipswich Road Paddington extension Ascot 1901 Gladstone Road Kelvin Grove Clayfield 1902 Wharf Street Edward Street 1903 Lower Edward Street East Brisbane (to Norman Bridge) Newmarket 1904 Toowong Rosalie 1905 Enoggera Terrace 1908 Dutton Park 1914 Greenslopes Windsor Kedron Park Mer-thyr Road 1915 Coorparoo Cracknell Road 1917 Grey Street (single track in place of in-bound track in Stanley Street) When the electrification took place in 1897 there were only 20 trams running on 15 miles of track, but when the Brisbane Tramways Co. ceased operations on December 31, 1922, they left 181 cars providing services on 42½ miles of tram routes, or (counting double lines as two) 70½ track miles. The older sections had been laid with rails weighing 55 and 77 lbs. to the yard. but the Brisbane Tramways Company had these replaced by 83 lb. rails, and towards the end of its tenure, the Company laid new rails on some sections of track. Source: www.qocs.org.au/brisbane-tramways-their-history-and-devel...