Public Transport

In 1745 the 'Flying Coach' to London completed its journey from Birmingham in two days 'if the road permitted'. Forty years later the duration was fourteen hours due to turnpike improvement. By then 52 coaches a week were going to the capital and 16 to Bristol. In the 1830's steam roadcars were competing so successfully that rival interests combined to restrict their speeds and raise their tolls: but for this steam would have taken over the roads, and much of our rail network might never have been built.

By 1833 horse omnibuses were plying between Birmingham and seven local towns, stopping whenever hailed. Services to what are now suburbs began the following year on Bristol, Hagley, and Soho Roads. As turnpikes were freed during the next three decades, other companies and individuals joined in the growing business. The Sutton Coldfield Railway with six stations opened in 1862. Lines for horse tramways were laid outside the Borough boundaries after 1870 - to West Bromwich and Tipton, Moseley and Kings Heath, and Salford. Birmingham Corporation began to lay tracks in '73, beginning with a route from Colmore Row to Hockley, and leased them to companies.

The next year the Harborne Railway opened, a single-line steam tramway with four stops, which joined the Stour Valley line at Dudley Road, and carried both passen-gers and freight. The Birmingham & South-West Suburban line of '76 from Kings Norton to Granville Street (to the new Midland Station in Station Street in '85) had five stations in five miles: leasing a strip of land beside the Worcester Canal, it required no major works until the tunnels east of Five Ways. Also in '76 the Bristol Road tramway opened as far as Bourn Brook.

5.1. Map 5

The last horse-drawn cars were started on the Nechells line in '84, and these changed directly to electric traction in 1906, whereas steam locomotives with trailers were introduced on all routes old and new in 1885. The next year Company cars were trundling along 13 radial routes from termini about the town centre. In '89 the Hockley route was re-opened as a cable tramway: this system, possible only on a fairly straight run, lasted until 1911. After unsuccessful trials with battery power on the Bournbrook route, 1890-1901, overhead cables were provided for elec-tric cars. By 1905 three routes had been electrified. Most City line leases ex-pired the following year, and 200 Corporation cars took over. The Bristol and Pershore Road routes were acquired six years later.

Midland Red petrol buses first plied for hire in 1904, but were so unreliable that they were replaced by horses. Improved vehicles began several services in 1912. Corporation single-deckers ran to Rubery and Rednal from Selly Oak the next year, and replaced Midland Reds on in-City routes in '14. The Twenties brought tramline extensions on sleeper tracks and central reservations - to Rubery, Rednal, Shirley Stechford. Circular tram routes were planned, but when the services were begun (1926-30) they were provided by buses. Trams were economical but necessitated major road widening and held up other traffic, so between l937 and '57 they - and the trolley buses which had been introduced on two routes - were replaced by diesel buses.

Rail commuting was at peak before War One. 48 stations on ten lines served 'railway suburbs' all about the City, which had had good rail connections before they had road services. There are now 28 stations, 16 of them on the Longbridge -