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Between 1901 and 1949 Manchester Corporation Tramways was the municipal operator of electric tram services in Manchester, England (known as Manchester Corporation Transport Department from 1929 onwards〔 〕) At its peak in 1928 the organisation carried 328 million passengers, on 953 trams, via 46 routes, along of track. It was the United Kingdom's second largest tram network after the services of 16 operators across the capital were combined in 1933 by the London Passenger Transport Board. Other large systems were in Glasgow (which had 100 miles of double track at its peak〔http://www.semple.biz/glasgow/jubilee1922.shtml〕 and Birmingham (80 miles). The central and south central Manchester area had one of the densest concentrations of tram services of any urban area in the UK.〔http://www.old-bus-photos.co.uk/wp-content/themes/Old-Bus-Photos/articles/lower_mosley_street/lower_mosley_street_part_1.php〕 MCT services ran up to the edge of routes provided by other operators in (what is now) Greater Manchester, and in some instances had running rights over their lines and vice versa. There were extensive neighbouring systems in Salford, Oldham, Ashton & Hyde, Middleton, Rochdale and elsewhere. Services were withdrawn earlier than most other British cities to be replaced by trolleybus and motor buses. Trams did not return to the city until the modern light-rail system Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992. ==History== Though horse-drawn omnibuses were first introduced in Manchester as early as 1824 (arguably the world's first bus service it was run by John Greenwood and ran between Market Street and Piccadilly and Pendleton toll gate in Salford). In the subsequent years other companies joined the rush to provide services culminating by 1850 in 64 omnibuses serving the centre of Manchester from outlying areas. Passenger carrying trams had first began urban operation in Birkenhead in 1860. By 1865 Greenwood merged with the other operators to become the Manchester Carriage Company. The earliest proposals for the construction of rails on the streets of Manchester were made by Henry Osborn O'Hagan in 1872. Though these were resisted (partly because raised tram tracks had been the sources of many accidents elsewhere), by 1875, road congestion was so great that the 'tramway' could not be delayed much longer. Working with the Corporation of Salford, Manchester successfully gained orders under the Tramways Act 1870, which permitted them to build and lease, but expressly ''not to operate'', tramways. The first tracks therefore were built to allow the already existing lines from neighbouring Salford to run into the city along Deansgate. As extensions and new lines were agreed, the Manchester Suburban Tramways Company was formed in 1877 to operate horse-drawn trams on the lines constructed by both local authorities. The company had a total fleet of more than 90 horse-drawn vehicles, and, in 1877, it was they who gained the concession to operate the tramway, using the name 'Manchester & Salford Tramways'. By 1901 this company used 5,000 horses to pull 515 tramcars over 140 route miles. Their first service therefore began on 17 May 1877, between Deansgate and Grove Inn on the Bury New Road. Just three years later a new organisation was formed called the Manchester Carriage and Tramways Company that continued with the expansion. By the 1890s it had turned itself into the most important transit operator in Lancashire. At their height, the company had 5,300 horses, pulling 515 tram cars on almost 90 miles of route using 515 cars. By 1896 outlying areas served included; Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Droylsden, Failsworth, Gorton & Denton, Heaton Norris, Kersal, Levenshulme, Lower Broughton, Moss Side, Peel Green, Stalybridge, Stockport, Stretford, Swinton, Waterhead and Withington. There were also other horse-drawn tram services operating independently in some of the other settlements surrounding Manchester – notably Bolton and Stockport. Another company which had been set up by Henry O'Hagan proposed a tram network for all the urban areas east of Manchester, from Bacup in the north via Rochdale, Oldham and Ashton to Hyde. The first Manchester, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham Steam Tramways Company line opened in 1883, though by 1887 the company was declared bankrupt. A new company with almost the same name was begun in 1888 (simply by deleting the word "Manchester" from its name) and successfully ran steam tramways until the municipalities began building and operating routes at the turn of the 20th century. The Wigan and District Tramways Company ran tram services between 1880 and 1902. On the other side of Manchester, the Trafford family sold their land following the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal in 1894, creating the ''Trafford Park Estates Company'', which built a gas-powered tramway to serve the new factories in 1897. It was replaced by an electric powered tram line within the industrial estate from July 1903. The idea of local authorities running tram systems was developed locally in both Bolton and Wigan when in 1899 the corporations bought the routes of the E. Holden & Company. This enabled investment and conversion of the Bolton lines to electric traction during December of that year (followed in 1901 by Wigan). In 1900 the South Lancashire Tramways Company was formed (later renamed Lancashire United Tramways and again Lancashire United Transport in 1905), which ran an extensive inter-urban system from Atherton. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Manchester Corporation Tramways」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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