"FAREWELL, OLD TRAM"

(5 Oct 1950) London trams are doomed and already several routes have been abolished - the first of the nine stages in a change-over, which will take two year to complete. There is a "graveyard" at Charlton for old vehicles, and many a fond farewell is taken as they come in to be broken up for scrap.
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[@thierrydevant7690]

A total mistake, trams were iconic to London, now its just a mess with to much traffic and polution.

[@eirugsiongriffiths8563]

Trams and trolleybus replaced with polluting desil buses was a daft idea. Trams and trolleybus gave a clean mode of transport and should have been kept such as designing new trams and trolleybus would have been better in the long run and would have saved millions of pounds in building new tram routes not just in London but in other UK cities.

[@samanli-tw3id]

Eirug Sion Griffiths during 50s, petrol was cheap as water, and overhead lines needed lots of maintainance and they were regarded ugly.

[@eletemmorzsaiblog]

very stupid decision was made for sure. Trams are way much more environmental friendly than buses! i wish there would be a tram in central London instead of the bus pollution.

[@gunslingereastwood8664]

Similar situation was in the US. Explanation is simple. Petroleum magnates had incentives to get profit from liquid fuel. That's all. Nothing personal just business.

[@samanli-tw3id]

People didn’t care much about environment back in the 50s.

[@deepakpednekar4231]

Thanks

[@NickRatnieks]

A large amount of money was spent mending the tramways that had been damaged by bombing in London and then having done this, it was decided to eliminate the trams. If this was the only mad thing done with regard to transport in Britain we would have been lucky but it was one of a multitude of such crazy decisions.

[@36_snaps]

0:46 rip

Unfair as Teplitz's trams because they replaced trams with trolleybuses and it is horrible since 1959.

[@johnjephcote7636]

Shewing the new (condiut) trackwork being laid for the Festival of Britain. The road lobby, then for trolleybuses, made sure that the prewar trams were denied kerbside loading or central reservations as in any modern city. The whole idea was to keep telling the public that trams were of the past. Even before the revival occurred in Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield, trams were still being cautiously referred to as 'light rail' - until common sense returned.

[@warmike]

the new trams are called light rail because of how advanced they are over the old trams, both technologically and in terms of right of way on the road

[@jacksugden8190]

Progress???

[@eggballo4490]

Quite the contrary.

[@user-kc7tn9pr4g]

Italian worb?