(RE-WRITTEN MAY !895·) 

Why we want Municipal Tramways. 
In every large town or thickly populated district, tramways have 
now become a necessity. Unhealthy areas are constantly beingdemolished, with the result that the workers are driven from the 
slums and rookeries where they used to herd. They are thus being 
more and more forced to live in the suburbs of great cities; and 
cheap, rapid and regular means must be provided to convey them to 
and from their work. 
The companies are organizations of capitalists for running tram-
ways as a means of gaining profits. They only care for big dividends; 
and dirty cars, high fares, and shamefully overworked drivers 
and conductors are matters of quite secondary importance. Supplyand demand, they say, must arrange these details. The first business 
of the directors is to earn a good dividend ; and it is their last 
business also. So long as the dividends do not go down, the shareholders 
ask no questions. This system may suit the capitalists well 
enough, but it suits no one else. 

l. TRAMWAYS MUST BE WORKED IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. 
We want tramways for the public; low fares; comfortable cars ; 
and well ordered waiting-rooms at every terminus, properly warmed 
in winter, and provided with time-tables. We want lines pushedinto suburbs and through trams running at frequent intervals, in 
order to induce the workers to live out in the healthier districts. 

II. FAIR TREATMENT OF LABOR. 
We want tramway men properly paid for a forty-eight hours 
week. No public body can work a man 115 hours a week for 2I/(
as the Bradford company did), or 98 hours for 24/-, as till recently 
was common enough in London. 

III. THE PROFITS FOR THE PuBLIC. 
The shareholders have made dividends enough out of their 
monopoly. In future we want the profit for the public. 

The Tramways of the United Kingdom. 
There are in the United Kingdom thirty-seven public authorities 
and I I6 companies owning tramways. These tramways use 30,528 
horses, 564 locomotives, and 4,179 cars. The number of men employed 
is not given, but it must amount to something like 2o,ooo. 
The total number of passengers carried during the year 1893-4 was 
6r6,972,83o. On 975 miles of lines in use, £14,388,698 has been 
expended. The gross receipts during the year were £3,6I5,837, and 
the net profit was £756,78I; giving a return of over 5} per cent., or 
something like 1 per cent. greater profit than is obtamed from the 
capital invested in railways. It is obvious therefore that municipalities, 
which can now borrow at 3 per cent., can profitably invest in 
tramways yielding s! per cent. The clear 2! per cent. surplus on;the 
£10,50I,I64 of capital belonging to private shareholders is £236,275 


2 

a year. This is the golden stream which the apathy of publicauthorities allows to flow into the pockets of the capitalist class. 

Municipal Ownership at Work. 

Already thirty-seven local authorities own their tramlines, and in 
most cases lease them to companies which pay a considerable rent. 
For example, Birmingham has leased its lines so as to yield 4 per 
cent., and after 1896 5 per cent., on the cost, and the company contributes 
to a sinking fund which will have paid off the capitalexpended by the time the lease expires. Manchester has received 
nearly £6o,ooo in relief of rates over and above interest on capital,
and £J7,ooo has been received towards repayment of the principal.
London, indeed, is said to be the only large city where the tramwaycompanies have used the streets without paying for the privilege. 

By the Tramways Act, 1870, under which tramway companies 
are formed, the local authority has power at the end of twenty-one 
years from the date of the concession to take over the lines at the 
actual value of the stock and plant. In 1891 the London CountyCouncil availed itself of the first opportunity of beginning to acquirethe tramways ; and after vehement opposition from the Moderates, 
and lawsuits carried to the House of Lords, it has succeeded in acquiring, 
for £ r 29,798, four-and-a-quarter miles of tramlines and plantwhich were valued by the company at £6o4,090. As the opportunity 
for taking over the remainder has not arrived, the CountyCouncil cannot at present conveniently work the part it has acquired, 
and it has therefore agreed to lease its property to the London 
Street Tramways Company for three or five years, providing in the 
lease that the cars be kept in order to the satisfaction of the 

L.C.C. inspector, th<1t workmen's cars be run, that fares be not raised 
on Sundays and holidays, and that no employee be worked longerthan sixty hours in a week, eleven hours in any one day, or an 
average of ten hours each in any two consecutive days; and finallythat a rent be paid yielding 5~ per cent. on the Council's outlay.
Moreover, the newly-elected Council has applied for power to work 
the lines itself, and the House of Commons has passed the Bill. 
Every other local authority where tramways exist will have a 
similar opportunity as the twenty-one years' term expires, and should 
on no account neglect to use its power. By insisting on proper 
terms in the lease, not only financial gain but many other advantagescan be secured. Manchester, for example, has since 1875 stipulatedfor a service of workmen's cars, morning and evening, at hours to be 
approved by the Council, and at fares not exceeding -!d. per mile 
with a minimum of rd. Edinburgh has recently purchased thirteen 
miles of tramways for £r8s,ooo, borrowed at 3 per cent., and has 
leased them to a company at 7 per cent. on all the capital expended. 
It has bargained for an improved service, and for a reduction of 
hours of labor from sixty-one to fifty-four. 

Municipal Management at Work. 

A number of towns have already evicted the capitalist from their 
tram lines with marked success. 
Httddersjield (steam tram) led the way in this reform. Its men 
have an eight hours day and fair wages. The policy af the Town 


3 

~ouncil ha.s been ~o extend its tramways over its large area (the town 
1s a collectwn of Villages, and there are twenty ·three miles of sinrrle 
trac~ lines for a population of 1oo,ooo), and to provide a good, ch;apserv1ce, even at some expense to the ratepayers. The latest return 
for ten months to January, 1895, shows a loss of £I,o2o after allowing 
£7,9 I 6 for interest, sinking fund and depreciation. 

Blackpool, during the year ending March, 1894, the first complete 
year of municipal management, obtained a profit of £2,239 or over 
7 per cent. on a capital of£31 ,433· ' 

Plymouth purchased its tramways mainly "in order to get rid of 
the company management, which had failed to give the public an 
efficient service, and which had exhibited no inconsiderable disregard 
of public convenience and remonstrances. And in the second place, 
to place the direction and control of the policy of tramway extension 
in the hands of the Council as representing the general body of 
ratepayers for the general benefit of the borough, instead of leaving 
the tramway-system to be developed and extended for the purposeof securing profits to shareholders without regard to local necessities" 
(Report of Town Council, 31st December, 1894.) For six months to 
September, 1894, there was a loss of £6or, after payment of interest 
and £197 to sinking fund, and £234 as an exceptional charge for 
interest. But as the number of passengers carried increased in 
eleven months of 1894 by 198,578, or 23 per cent., the Corporationis confid·ent of the future. Time-tables have been issued, a waiting-
room fitted up, and the employees provided with partial uniform. 

Glasgow, for the first six months of public management ending3rst December, 1894, had a credit balance after reducing fares in 
some cases 33 per cent., paying a rent to the city funds at the rate of 
£9,000 a year, as well as all charges and interest. · 

Leeds took over the management of fourteen miles of its tram-
ways on rst February, I 894, and for five months to June 30th, the 
net receipts were £r,355, being at the rate of 2! per cent. on a 
capital of £II7,357· 

Free Trams for the Future. 

What we want is free tramways. Roads and bridges are free to 
all. Already we have a free steam ferry on the T~ames at Woolwich. 
It is for the benefit of all that some should hve far from the 
centres of the towns. Indeed, the re-housing of the people will 
necessitate the spreading out of the population over an ever wider 
area, and will compel many more workers ~o live at a distance from 
their .work. Why should those who do th1s have to expend moneyas well as time as a penalty for so doing?

The municipalities must not merely own the tramways but must 
work them in the public interest. They must have power to make 
the tramways as free as the highways for the use of all, and the cost 
must be paid out of the Unearned Increment of Land Values, which 
now goes into the pockets of the landlords. 

' 

• I
'· 

The statistics have been chiefly ottained from (r) Board of Trade Return of 
Tramways, 30th June, 1894 (H. C. 270); (2) Municipalities at Work, by F. Dolman 
(Methuen, 1895); (3) Information supplied direct by the municipal authorities of 
the places named. 


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