Editing Reading Buses (section)

===Electric tram era===
[[File:Reading Corporation Tramways, 22 July 1903.jpg|thumb|[[Reading Corporation Tramways]] opening ceremony on 22 July 1903]]
{{main|Reading Corporation Tramways}}
The new [[electric tram]]s started operating in July 1903. Extensions were constructed to the Wokingham Road and London Road (both from Cemetery Junction), and new routes added to [[Whitley, Berkshire|Whitley]], Caversham Road, Erleigh Road and Bath Road. The trams operated from a new depot in Mill Lane, a site that was to remain Reading Transport's main depot until it was demolished to make way for [[The Oracle, Reading|The Oracle]] shopping mall in 1998.<ref name=bzret>{{cite web | url = http://www.buszone.co.uk/RTLtram.html | title = Reading Corporation Tramways / Transport | publisher = Bus Zone | access-date = 27 February 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080827183217/http://www.buszone.co.uk/RTLtram.html | archive-date = 27 August 2008 | url-status = live}}</ref>

The electric tram services were originally operated by 30 four-wheeled double decked cars supplied by [[Dick, Kerr & Co]]. In 1904, six [[bogie]] cars and a water car (used for keeping down the dust on the streets) were added to the fleet, from the same manufacturer. No further trams were acquired, and a planned extension from the Caversham Road terminus across [[Caversham Bridge]] to [[Caversham, Berkshire|Caversham]] itself was abandoned because of the outbreak of [[World War I]]. The war also led to a significant maintenance backlog.<ref name="bzret"/>

In 1919, Reading Corporation started operating its first motor buses. These ran from [[Caversham Heights]] to [[Tilehurst]], running over the tram lines and beyond the tram termini. Because of the state of the track, the Bath Road tram route was abandoned in 1930, followed by the Erleigh Road route in 1932. Eventually it was decided that the tramways should be abandoned and replaced by [[trolleybus]]es, operating over extended routes. The last tram ran on the Caversham Road to Whitley route in July 1936, and the last car on the ''main line'' ran in May 1939.<ref name="bzret"/>