Editing Trams in London (section)

=== First electric trams ===
[[File:First Tram on Kingston Bridge.jpg|thumb|right|The first electric tram on Kingston Bridge, 1906]]
After the slow start, electric trams rapidly became very popular; by 1903, there were 300 electric tramcars in London, which carried 800,000 passengers over [[Whitsun]] weekend in 1903. The [[London County Council Tramways]] first electric line opened in May 1903 between Westminster Bridge and Tooting and the LCC sold 3.3 million tickets in its third year of business, five times the traffic carried by its horse trams. The LCC saw the electric trams as a way of driving social change, as its cheap, fast service could encourage workers to move out of the crowded inner city and live healthier lives in the suburbs.<ref name=movingmet/> Soon other London boroughs introduced their own electric services, including West Ham, Leyton, Dartford and Bexley. Although the [[City of London]] and the [[West End of London]] never gave permission for tram lines to be built, trams were allowed to use the Victoria Embankment and cross the Thames over [[Westminster Bridge|Westminster]] and [[Blackfriars Bridge]]s; on 14 September 1909, Lord Mayor [[George Wyatt Truscott]] opened the widened Blackfriars Bridge and drove the first tram across it.<ref name=wheels>{{cite book |last=Marshall |first=Prince |date=1972 |editor-last=Perry |editor-first=George |title = Wheels of London: The Story of London's Street Transport |publisher = The Sunday Times Magazine |location=London| isbn=9780723000686 |oclc=859233}}</ref>

By 1914, the London tram operators formed the largest tram network in Europe<ref name=movingmet/> but the onset of [[World War I]] saw a halt in the expansion of the trams and thousands of conductors left to join the armed forces to be replaced by "substitute" women conductors known as 'conductorettes' (A tram driver, like an omnibus driver, was deemed as a reserved occupation as it was considered that women did not have the physical capability of operating the heavy electrical controller or the brakes. Also, the tram driver was in an exposed position as the trams did not have [[Windshield|windscreens]], because the [[Metropolitan Police Service|Metropolitan Police]] considered them dangerous).<ref name=wheels/>

Several different companies and municipalities operated London's electric tramways. The largest was the LCC, with lines equipped with [[conduit current collection]]. Other operators mainly used the more conventional overhead electric wires. Many of London's trams had to be equipped with both systems of electricity supply, with routes being equipped with change points. The overhead wires were made of [[copper]], which weighed half a pound a foot.<ref name=wheels/>

During their heyday, tram services covered much of inner London and reached out to the suburbs, assisted by facilities like the [[Kingsway tramway subway]], which enabled the longest tram route entirely within the County of London to operate: a weekend service between [[Archway, London|Archway]], then part of [[Highgate]], and [[Downham, London|Downham]] via [[Brockley]], {{convert|16|mi|km|abbr=off}}.

Route coverage might have been wider still but the terms of the 1870 Act meant that the passage of new tramways had to be negotiated individually with local authorities, who would sometimes impose prohibitively expensive improvement works as a condition of approval.<ref>{{cite news |title= Letters |newspaper=The Times |location= London |date=29 April 1901}}</ref> Passengers had to make a hazardous journey into the middle of the street before they could board a tram.<ref name=wheels/>

After the War, money for investment and maintenance became harder to find, as passengers migrated to the new motor bus services. In the 1930s, The [[London United Tramways|London United]] and [[Metropolitan Electric Tramways|Metropolitan Electric]] companies purchased a large fleet of modern double-deck [[Feltham Tram|Feltham trams]], built by the [[Union Construction Company]] at [[Feltham]]. LUT accompanied this change by introducing electric [[trolleybuses]] using twin overhead wires as a cheaper alternative for {{convert|17|mi|km|abbr=off}} of its routes in 1931.

A [[Royal Commission]] on Transport, held between 1928 and 1931, ensured that the tram companies retained complete responsibility for the maintenance of its rails and highway, which was shared with other road users who contributed its wear. But this was accompanied by Parliamentary bills in 1930 and 1933 that set up the [[London Passenger Transport Board]] to operate the LCC's existing bus and [[London Underground]] service and to purchase and manage all of London's tramways. Under the LPTB, there was no new investment in tram services and the maintenance of services became a hot political issue in elections in South London, an area poorly served by Underground trains.<ref name=times1929>{{cite news |newspaper= The Times |location= London |date =5 February 1929 |title= Local Issues In Battersea. Derating And Tramways }}</ref> The merged tram services were held back from introducing new, quieter and more comfortable track and vehicles, in favour of trolleybus services and tubes provided under the [[New Works Programme]]. Although the trams returned gross annual revenues of £850,000 (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|850000|1930|{{Inflation-year|UK}}|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}),{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}}, the net surplus was £128,000 (equivalent to £{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|128000|1930|{{Inflation-year|UK}}|r=0}}}} in {{Inflation-year|UK}}),{{Inflation-fn|UK|df=y}} after costs were taken by the LCC, partly to repay the debt of £18m resulting from the merger.<ref name=times1930>{{cite news| newspaper=The Times |location= London |date =23 July 1930 |title= London County Council - The Tramways Surplus }}</ref>