From horse-drawn to electric, take a look back at Melbourne’s iconic trams
Melbourne trams today are a far-cry from the old cable car you grew up riding. We take a look at the evolution of our state's iconic mode of transport and the unique ways we got around in the 1800s.
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Trams (and their trademark ding) are quintessentially Melbourne.
Our city may be a small by international standards, but one thing we can boast about is the size of our tram network.
We’ve got the largest operating tram network in the world with 250 kilometres of track, almost 500 trams and 1763 tram stops — pretty impressive.
Sitting in the coveted window seat, you can watch Melbourne go by at a top speed of 16km/h without missing a thing.
Here’s a look back at the development of the city’s trams.
HORSE POWER
Melbourne’s first public transport was provided by horse drawn trams — or as they were known, omnibuses.
In 1869 Francis Boardman Clapp established the Melbourne Omnibus Company with William McCulloch and Henry Hoyt.
They operated a fleet of eleven horse-drawn trams from the city to Fitzroy, Richmond, Carlton and North Melbourne.
The demand for transport grew as Melbourne flourished, and by 1881 the fleet had 158 horse buses, each carrying 12-14 seated passengers, Yarra Trams says.
It was the cheapest way to get around the city, costing three pennies for a trip — far less than a taxi.
CABLE TRAMS
Melbourne’s horse drawn tram pioneer Francis Boardman Clapp was closely watching the development of the cable tram in San Francisco.
In 1877 he bought the Victorian patents for American Andrew Halladie’s cable tram inventions and introduced the system to Melbourne.
After years of lobbying, the Victorian government eventually passed the Melbourne Tramway and Omnibus Act in 1883 citing the trams “would be of great public and local advantage”, Gary Vines says in the Melbourne Metropolitan Tramway Heritage Study.
Under the Act, local councils built tracks and steam powered engines for the cable trams — which were then leased to Boardman Clapp’s company.
The first cable tramway opened in 1885, running from the corner of Bourke and Spencer Streets via Flinders Street, Wellington Parade and Bridge Road.
Cable trams were an engineering marvel that required a huge amount of manpower to build and operate the system.
Deep tunnels were constructed under Melbourne’s roads to house thousands of metres of cables that ran through massive steam engine powerhouses that pulled them through the city.
Cable trams had an open-air ‘dummy’ car at the front and a closed tram car behind.
The dummy contained the grip mechanism that attached or detached the tram from the moving cable.
The tram car had room for 22 passengers seated and 34 standing, and the dummy had seating for 20, or standing room for 22, Yarra Trams says.
By 1891 Melbourne had 71km of tramways powered by 11 engine houses with cable lines running along most main streets.
Services were frequent, coming as often as every two minutes on the busiest lines at the busiest times — Melbourne really was on the move at a great pace.
In the early days there were no tickets and the conductors punched a small hole in long cardboard trip slip that was pinned to their uniform.
At the end of the day, the ‘confetti’ was collected from the punch and counted to balance it with the money that was taken.
ELECTRIC TRAMS
Melbourne’s first electric tramway opened in 1889 with a 3.6km line from Box Hill to Doncaster but it ceased operation 1896.
Victorian Railways began the serious move to trams in 1906 when it opened an electric tramway from St Kilda to Brighton.
In the same year a private company, the North Melbourne Electric Tramway & Lighting Company Ltd, opened a line from Flemington Bridge to Essendon and Maribyrnong.
The following year Prahran and Malvern Councils applied to construct tramways and, by 1910, the Prahran & Malvern Tramways Trust was ready to go into service with 13 cars on two routes.
Over the next 10 years the system grew to almost 100 trams and 56.3km which extended to St Kilda, Caulfield, Glenhuntly, Hawthorn, Kew, Camberwell and Mont Albert.
Over the next few years, many other Melbourne councils followed suit and it was soon realised that the mass of private and public operators needed to be co-ordinated.
In 1919, the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board was established to operate the entire system.
The Board decided to standardise the fleet with a newly designed tram which would become a Melbourne icon — the much loved W-class.
The first ‘W’ was built in 1923 and the design remained relatively unchanged until the orange Z-class was introduced in 1975.
In 1983 all forms of public transport were brought together under one state operator, The Met, before the state government decided to privatise them in 1997.
Swanston Trams and Yarra Trams were operating tram services throughout the city, before Yarra Trams took over responsibility for the entire network in 2004.