Locale Leicester Close 9 November 1949 Propulsion system(s) Electric | Open 1 July 1901 Status Closed | |
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Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ⁄2 in) | ||
Leicester Corporation Tramways was a tramway system in Leicester, England from 1901 to 1949.
Contents
History
The first tramways in Leicester started horse-pulled operation in 1874, by the Leicester Tramways Company. The first route was from the Clock Tower to Belgrave. This was soon followed by lines to West Humberstone and to Victoria Park, which opened in 1875. 1878 saw further extensions, of the Victoria Park line along London Road to Knighton Road, and new arterial routes along Aylestone Road in the south, and to Woodgate in the north.
Leicester Corporation took over the tramways in 1901, under the Leicester Corporation Act, and a conversion to electric trams took place in 1904. This was accompanied by a large expansion, with links to Highfields, Clarendon Park, Western Park, and Narborough Road. Further expansions took place from 1915 to 1927.
From the 1920s the Corporation Transport department had run a motor bus service, and these started to replace trams in 1933. The last tram ran in 1949, on the Humberstone Road line. The main depot, at Abbey Park Road, continued in use as a bus depot by First Leicester, the successor to Leicester Corporation buses, until 2007 when a new depot opened on Abbey Lane. The site is to be redeveloped as flats. Another depot stood next to the Bell Hotel on Humberstone Gate.
Network and routes
Route numbers were introduced in 1932.
Trams
From 1904 the tramway used a fleet of 99 double deck trams, supplemented by an additional 40 in 1905. Twenty new trams arrived in 1913/1914 for an experiment with "pay as you enter" boarding. The last new, numbers 161–178, came into service in 1920.
The National Tramway Museum holds tram No. 76, which was introduced in 1904 with electrification and stayed in use until 1947.