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. The system closed in 1962.

Overview
The Glasgow Street Tramways Act was passed by Act of Parliament in 1870. The act provided legislation that allowed Glasgow Town Council the right to decide whether or not they were willing to have tramways within Glasgow. In 1872, the Town Council laid a 2½-mile route from St George's Cross to Eglinton Toll (via New City Road, Cambridge Street, Sauchiehall Street, Renfield Street and the Jamaica Bridge).

The Tramways Act prohibited the Town Council from directly operating a tram service over the lines. The act further stipulated that a private company be given the operating lease of the tram-lines for a period of 22 years. The St George's Cross to Eglinton Toll tram line was opened on 19 August 1872 with a horse-drawn service by the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company. The Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company operated the tram-line and subsequent extensions to the system until 30 June 1894.

In declining to renew the Glasgow Tramway and Omnibus Company operating lease, Glasgow Town Council formed the Glasgow Corporation Tramways and commenced their own municipal tram service on 1 July 1894.

Electrification
The electrification of the tram system was instigated by the Glasgow Tramways Committee, with the route between Springburn and Mitchell Street chosen as an experiment. With a fleet of 21 newly built tramcars, the experimental electric route commenced on 13 October 1898 and was considered a success. The city-wide horse-drawn tram service was withdrawn at the end April 1902.

An additional 400 new trams were built and fitted with electrical equipment, with the Glasgow Corporation Tramways workshops at Coplawhill, Pollokshields heavily involved in the construction of the new trams. Following the closure of the tram system, the workshops were converted into the Glasgow Museum of Transport in 1964. Following the Museum's relocation to the Kelvin Hall in 1987, the buildings were subsequently adapted to become the Tramway Theatre.

To provide the electrical supply, a generating station was built on the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal, near Springburn. The Pinkston Power Station opened in 1901. The Pinkston Power Station and substations located at Coplawhill, Dalhousie, Kinning Park, Whitevale and Partick also powered the Glasgow Subway. The power station operated for 57 years, until it was handed over to the South of Scotland Electricity Board in 1958 and ceased operating in the early 1960s.

Coronation Trams
By the mid-1930s, the Glasgow tram fleet was becoming increasingly dated and unattractive. Other British cities had taken decisions to either abandon or modernise their tramway systems. The Empire Exhibition at Bellahouston Park in 1938 would also require additional vehicles to transport the expected visitors. Accordingly, Glasgow Coporation decided to construct a fleet of 100 new double-deck trams, the first of which were delivered in 1937 - the year of the Coronation of King George VI.

Cunarders
The Cunarder trams were a post-war development of the Coronation trams and, as such, were amongst the last double-deck trams to be built in the UK. Though comfortable, they were not regarded as being as reliable or capable as the Coronation trams. The Cunarders were fairly similar in design to the Coronations, a notable difference being the route number indicator being above the side window of the cab (rather than on the front of the tram).

The Green Goddesses: ex-Liverpool trams
In 1954, with the impending closure of Liverpool's tram system (in 1957), 46 of that city's most modern streamlined trams were purchased by Glasgow Corporation. These tramcars, built in 1936, were intended to replace some of the ageing Standard tramcars. They did not prove wholly successful in Glasgow and were mostly withdrawn within a few years; they were normally confined to only two routes (with relatively few sharp curves).

Glasgow rejected an offer from Liverpool to purchase more Green Goddesses or the four-wheeled version, known as "Baby Grands".

Closure
The tram system was gradually phased out between 1956 and 1962 (in favour of diesel-powered buses), with the final trams operating on 4 September 1962. Apart from the Blackpool tramway, Glasgow became the last city or town in the UK to operate trams until the opening of the Manchester Metrolink in 1992.

In 1949 one tram line was converted to trolleybus operation. Thereafter Glasgow developed several trolleybus routes, but these were all replaced by diesel buses by 1967.