What's in the issue

Not many municipal tramways lasted as long as that which operated in the City of Leeds. The system had its origins in 1871 as a horse tram system, but was electrified by the Corporation when it took over operations in 1894 and its first electric tram service commenced in August 1897. That the City’s council put its faith in its trams, rather than trolleybuses and motor buses, is evidenced by the last trams service operating as late as 1959, by which point the majority of towns and cities with municipal operators had already moved over to other means of providing public transport on their streets.

Of course, as elsewhere, Leeds ran motor buses too, and these complemented the trams until they superseded them completely from 1960. In this edition of ‘On the Buses’ we are fortunate to have a good selection of colour slides of both tram and bus operations in the West Yorkshire city as lensman Geoff Lumb was there in the mid-1950s and again in the 1960s to record the contemporary scene.

We also visit Blackpool, another location famous for its trams, though on this occasion we focus on its bus services. We also go to Doncaster in South Yorkshire, where Geoff captured action on the still-surviving trolleybus system in the early 1960s, as well as the town’s motor buses.

Liverpool has a proud transport history and we discuss this in detail, including the demise of its unique Overhead Electric Railway, we go to East Anglia for a look at major operator Eastern Counties, who also build bus bodies via its subsidiary at Lowestoft, and explore the burgeoning business started by entrepreneur, George Readings, whose early ambitions in Cheltenham led to the establishment of one of the best-known and well-liked long-distance coach operators, Black & White Motorway services. The company in turn became a founder of Associated Motorways which saw Cheltenham become an important interchange point for national long-distance coach services.