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Trams

The Chatham & District Light Railways Company began operating electric trams around the Medway Towns in 1902.  The first routes ran within Chatham and Gillingham only.  However Rochester’s original distaste for such mechanical intrusion into the ancient city was dispelled with the evident success of the Chatham system, and after a flurry of competing proposals during 1903 the tramlines gradually extended into Rochester over the next two years.  A major extension to Rainham in 1906 saw the system achieve the network of routes recognisable to Medway townspeople for the next 50 years.

The original fleet of 25 elegant Edwardian vehicles eventually doubled in number.  The depot and generating station at Luton had been built with expansion in mind and were each large enough to service the whole system.  Fares were deliberately set low, given the volume of traffic of both workmen and servicemen.  Service frequencies varied between 10 and 15 minutes.

The trams carried on through the First World War, but the neglect and deprivations of the times took their toll.  Coupled with increasing competition from motor buses, including several individual owner-operators, things got progressively more difficult for the trams. A backlog of repairs and renewals to trams and infrastructure was partially addressed, but the cost of both materials and wages was increasing.

A turning point came in 1927, when the British Thomson-Houston company, which had originally promoted the tram system, sold its interest to the Maidstone & District Motor Services Ltd.  “M&D” had been set up in 1911 and over subsequent years had developed a network of routes around north and mid-Kent, including several around the Medway area which supplemented the tram services.

Although the trams still continued to run, economies were introduced and the system began to look run down.  Whilst the trams when new were fitted out with typical Edwardian exuberance, after almost 30 years of use they’d become literally the worse for wear.  Like many of those towns who had so enthusiastically introduced them around the turn of the century, Medway decided the trams’ day had passed.

Tram in Rochester High Street