ELECTRIC TRAMS IN BR STOL

Evening Star, Issue 9889, 28 December 1895, Page 3

ELECTRIC TRAMS IN BR STOL

Following the example of Leeds and WttU tall the Bristol Tramways Company* who have one of tha smartest,worked services in,, the kingdom, and; have, carried 150 million passengers in the twenty years of the e-»m----pany'a ex'stence, have just ppened funr, miles of electric tram line from Bristol to §t. George and Kingswood (says the 'Daily News'of the 15th October). These populous suburbs, the centre of the boot and shoe industry, with a population of about 60,000, will thus be brought into close communication with the city. The construction of the line involved an outlay of £50,00?. The contractors are the British ThomsonHouston Company, and the overhead trolley system has been adopted. It has the advantage of being able to meet gradients of every character, an important consideration in a hilly country like that surrounding Bristol, and in the extension pretty nearly every difficulty to be met with in the construction wort had to be encountered, the contour of the line and dense street traffic offering great obstacles. There is a double track for most of the route, and at the starting point are four cross-overs to suit any arrangement of traffic. The sharpest incline is one of 15 for 200 yds. The trial trip occupied half an hour. At luncheon afterwards it was stated that in IJfc. George parish, for example, there had been an increase of only 248 per annnm in population for, forty years prior to trams being used, whilst during the tram service • of.the last twenty years the district had grown at the rate of 1,000 per annum, and houses were being built at the rate of 250 a, year. -DtStlvajnus Thompson recognised in generous terms the success of the undertaking, and said that Bristol, profiting by past experience elsewhere, had really provided the pioneer line in electric tramways in England, whilst there could be no objection to the overhead wires, looking at the plan on which they had been constructed in Bristol and the way in which the wire had been safeguarded at all points. I