Tramway Hotel

The Tramway Hotel in full view - a typical building of its kind from around 1900 and one which marks the southerly terminating point of the former Lowestoft tramway system.
 

The intention to build this means of transport was announced in November 1900 and followed up by the Lowestoft Corporation Act of 1901. The single-route double-track line - just over four miles in length - ran from Yarmouth Road, close to Lowestoft North railway station (at a point between what is now Harris Avenue and Hollingsworth Road), to the Pakefield terminus already referred to.

The system was in operation from 22 July 1903 to 8 May 1931, on a three feet six inches gauge track - with a spur-line built along Denmark Road to enable the trams themselves to get from, and return to, the depot at the bottom of Rotterdam Road. The buildings there are still in use for different kinds of East Suffolk District Council municipal matters. The town’s electrical generating station stood not far away, in Norwich Road (placed there in 1901), and it was made to increase its capacity in order to supply the tramway. Initially, a universal fare of one penny (1d) was charged for whatever length of journey was undertaken on a single run, with a tram available for travel every seven minutes.

The rolling-stock used was built by G.F. Milnes & Co. of Birkenhead and consisted of eleven double-deck, open-top cars (Nos. 1-11) and four single-deck, covered ones (Nos. 21-24), which were added to in 1904 by a further four double-deckers (Nos. 12-15). The total cost of creating the tramway system (with or without trams, not known) was £90,000 - c. £12-13,000,000 in today’s money - with £800 revenue being generated in the first two weeks. In 1910, the price of a one-way journey was increased to 2d (with a half-stage ride either way to the Central Railway Station costing 1d) and was raised further to 3d in 1913 - at which price it remained until closure.

By the late 1920s, both the track and the overhead power supply equipment needed replacing, so the decision was made to replace the trams with buses. These vehicles had been introduced to the town in 1927, with two single-deckers running a summer-only service between North Parade and the South Pier. The following year, three more were purchased to provide another route from Cemetery Corner (Normanston Drive-Rotterdam Road junction) via the Town Centre. Neither of them was a particular success and some of the buses were used to start a half-hourly service along the tramline route itself in 1929. In April 1931, the trams were replaced by buses on the northern section of line and on the southern section in May.

Eight new double-decker vehicles were purchased to increase the size of the fleet and the Corporation livery of primrose yellow and chocolate brown became a commonplace feature around the whole of the town. A most appropriate reminder of the town’s one-time public transport is to be found at the East Anglian Transport Museum in Carlton Colville, where a double-decker tram of 1904 (No. 4) remains in working order. Two of the later bus models also form part of the collection: an AEC Regent II double-decker of 1947 vintage and a single-decker AEC Swift of 1969 - both of them having bodies built at the Eastern Coachworks plant, which closed down in 1987 and had its site cleared to create the North Quay Retail Park. The information contained in this account was gathered and collated from a variety of Internet sources. Piecing them together was time-consuming, but well worthwhile.