PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Turnpike abolition in 1872 made possible the provision of public transport between the town and outlying districts. Horse buses came to Ward End and Alum Rock in the late 1870s, and by 1884 these had been replaced by horse-drawn trams. Within the Borough (Aston Street, Great Lister Street) the tracks were laid by the Corporation and leased to the Birmingham Central Tramways Co., which laid them from the Rea to Slade-field and Highfield Roads. Proposals for lines along Landor Street and Adderley Road were never carried out. Steam trams replaced horses on the Saltley routes after 1886, but were universally hated.

Smoke and smuts, particularly in the narrow and closely-built main roads of Saltley, were the bane of passengers, walkers, and residents alike. There was a depot opposite Gate Street. After the enlargement of 1891 (see below) the City bought the Central Co.'s lines and acquired its rolling stock.

By 1907 electric-motored cars in yellow and navy-blue livery, powered by overhead cable, had been introduced on all routes, the Alum Rock terminus had moved on to Belchers Lane north end, and the Bordesley Green one to the same lane farther south. In the 1920s the lines on Washwood Heath Road were extended to the then boundary of the city at the Fox and Goose, and Bordesley Green East was made to and across the Cole, enabling trams to reach a terminus in south Stechford.

Buses were running on the Outer Circle route from 1926 and on the Inner Circle two years later. The Kingstanding to Small Heath route via Belchers Lane and Coleshill Road completed the municipal system in the Ward. Local train services declined drastically in consequence. Diesel buses replaced trams in the 1950s.

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