PUBLIC TRANSPORT

In the 1870'a, after the abolition of turnpikes, horse-buses plied through Hockley to Dudley Port, along Hagley Road and Harborne Lane. Birmingham Corporation laid down the first of its many tram-tracks from Colmore Row to Hockley and leased them to the Birming-ham & District Tramway Co. in '73. They operated steam tramcars, hauliers and two-deck trailers, and similar machines were trundling along Dudley Road by '85. Four years later the Hockley route was converted to take cars hauled by an endless cable housed in a con-duit between the rails. The depot was in Whitmore Street. This odd system survived for 22 years.

Meanwhile in 1906 Corporation-owned electric cars powered by overhead cable came into use on Dudley Road and on newly-completed tracks along Lodge Road, Heath Street, and Icknield Port Road, the last having a single line at three points. A planned circular route from Hagley Road to Hockley was not made because of Monument Road's narrowness. Opposition from Broad Street traders prevented tramlines being laid along Broad Street. Soon after World War One unreliable petrol 'buses began to ply from Five Ways through Edgbaston to Acocks Green, the 1 and 1A routes.

The Outer Circle service began in '26, via City Road and Winson Green Road, and the Inner Circle two years later by way of Islington Row, Ladywood Road, Icknield Street. Decline in use of railways for com-muting led to the closure for passengers of the Harborne Line in '34, followed by several inner suburban stations. Since the war more stations have closed, the rails have been taken up on the B.W.& D. and Harborne lines, and commercial traffic on the canals has ceased.

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