Up to 1896, electric tramway schemes had remained in abeyance, but though the Light Railways Act removed many obstacles to their increase, and made electric traction commercially possible, it did not bestow perfect liberty of action. But the fresh legislation on the subject, anticipated during this year’s session of Parliament, will doubtless result in such amendment of the Act as will abolish all ground of complaint on the part of the advocates of the industry.
At the time the 1896 measure became law, hardly any Tramway Company in Great Britain, whether horse-drawn or steam-propelled, paid its way, except in a few large centres. The companies knew that the time was drawing near when they could be bought out by corporations; so they had no inducement to make expensive reforms; and only by charging high fares, and by avoiding every possible form of capital-expenditure, could they keep their heads above water. Their undertakings, one and all, sank into a state of inefficiency, and a strong public feeling arose in favour of their being reformed, and worked with improved cars and at popular tariffs by local authorities. So, one by one, these bodies absorbed the private companies, placed new rolling-stock on the lines, and adopted electrical traction, to the advantage of the public, and in one notable instance—that of Glasgow—it is claimed, at great pecuniary benefit to the ratepayers also.
MUNICIPAL TRAMWAY UNDERTAKINGS
Throughout the British Isles these municipal tramway undertakings now flourish and increase in number. Take a map, and we shall see that the coast line from the North Foreland to Plymouth is dotted with towns provided with electric trams, while inland, Camborne, a Cornish tin-mining centre, marks their western English limit. Then round Land’s End along the Bristol Channel it is the same. South and North Wales show a blank until Llandudno is reached. Then up-to-date towns provided with electric traction thicken on the Lancashire coast as far as Fleetwood. In the Isle of Man there are no fewer than four electric tramways. Except at Glasgow and district, the west of Scotland is bare of any kind of tram, and continues so round the North Cape and the East Coast until we come to Aberdeen, Dundee, and Kirkcaldy. Next are clusters reaching from North Shields to Middlesbrough. After this, electric trams are to be found at Hull, Great Grimsby, and Yarmouth.
Inland are three great centres—Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham—around which “electrified” towns gather thickly. Isolated Guernsey and the Isle of Wight each possess an electric tram, the latter being on Ryde pier.
In Ireland there is a wide stretch of country, empty and desolate from an electric tramway point of view, i.e. from the Giant’s Causeway to Cork, except at Newry, Dundalk, Lurgan, and Dublin. By far the greater number of these British and Irish tramways are on the overhead trolley system.
The 1896 Act provided for the establishment of a Light Railways Commission of three members, whose special work was to facilitate the construction and working of tramways or light railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the Commissioners being appointed by the Board of Trade.
Application for a Light Railway Order may be made for a county, borough, or district council by any individual, corporation, or company, or jointly by councils, individuals, corporations, or companies. Applications have to be referred to the Commissioners in the first instance, and, if approved of, are placed before the Board of Trade for confirmation. Provision is made by the Act for the purchase of land under certain conditions specified in the Lands Clauses Act. Provision is also made for enabling local authorities to acquire any undertaking whose route passes through their district, the time and terms of purchase being arranged by agreement between the promoters and the municipalities, the terms of sale, usually thirty-five years’ purchase, being settled on the basis of a fair market value of the line in full work, but with no allowance for compulsory acquisition.
Local authorities, landowners, and adjacent railway companies have the right to object to proposed lines. The local authorities, however, possess no power of veto, but generally the Commissioners refuse applications from promoters if their schemes are strongly protested against by the municipalities concerned.
To what extent this Act has been taken advantage of may be judged by the fact that last year no fewer than forty-seven municipalities were stated to have disbursed, or to have decided to disburse, eleven millions sterling in their electric tramways. In several instances the municipality owns the tramways and leases them on certain conditions to large companies or syndicates, a kind of compromise between absolute urban control and unrestricted private enterprise.