The tramway network's near death and rescue
Launch library · evergreen read
At various points across the twentieth century, as cars became the dominant symbol of modern transport, the tram network came under serious threat of being scaled back or removed entirely, following a pattern seen in many cities elsewhere. Planners at the time genuinely believed cars represented the inevitable future, viewing trams as a quaint but doomed relic of an older era.
What kept the network largely intact here, unlike in many comparable cities, was a combination of public attachment and practical stubbornness, a reluctance to tear up infrastructure that, however inconvenient at times, still moved people efficiently through crowded streets. Public campaigns at various points argued forcefully against removal, pointing to efficiency and character rather than pure nostalgia alone.
That decision now looks like remarkable foresight, since the surviving network has become one of the more distinctive and admired features of the city, precisely because so many other places abandoned the same technology decades ago. Cities that did remove their own networks decades ago have, in some cases, since spent considerable sums trying to rebuild something similar.