The MTT’s electric trams and trolleybuses were Adelaide’s main public transport for some 50 years. (From 1925 the MTT also operated and/or licensed fuel buses which supplemented the tram system, but that is another story). At its full extent Adelaide had trams running on 61.5 miles (99 Kms) of double track and 18.4 miles (29.6 Kms) of single track plus, at Port Adelaide, a further 3.3 miles of double track and 3.7 miles of single track. Over its life the MTT operated 313 electric trams, and 91 trolley buses. But from the early 1930s onwards the system declined largely as a result of events outside of its control.

The economic depression and the Second World War

The major investment in railways and the economic effects of the depression and the Second World War burdened the state government budget, plus the post war shortage of materials meant that upgrading and maintenance was drastically curtailed. By the 1950s the entire tramway system was suffering from nearly 20 years of deferred maintenance. Only one new tram was built after 1929 and that was in 1952; a prototype for proposed replacement stock. The capital needed to replace the ageing fleet and infrastructure was formidable and beyond the Trust’s resources. As well, trams were increasingly seen as an impediment to the free flow of private motorists’ cars.

Costs rising and patronage falling

At its passenger peak in 1945 the tram system carried 95 million passengers and in spite of war-time shortages of parts and personnel the MTT kept 97% of its rolling stock available; the system remained in surplus. But by 1951 patronage had quickly declined to 78 million - the effect of the abolition of wartime petrol rationing and the increasing ownership of cars. Operational losses were rising. In that year the MTT lost £313,320.

Prototype H 1 type in service, Hackney Road, 1950s.
Noel Reed