Trams in Shanghai (1908–1975)

First generation trams in Shanghai began operating in 1908 using a steel wheeled

The first proposal for a tram network in Shanghai was in 1881; Jardine Matheson proposed to the French Concession Board of Directors the opening of tram services in the French Concession, and both parties began planning for a tram network. The Board of Directors adopted the initiative and began planning a tram network.^[2]

The first tram line in Shanghai (China’s first tram appeared in Beijing in 1899), Yingshang No. 1, opened on January 21, 1908, and operated between

On November 14, 1914, Shanghai was the first city in China to use trolleybuses in the former French Concession.

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  The first tram in Shanghai (1908)
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  Trams on Jiujiang Road in the 1920s
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  A tram in the 'British system' in the 1920s

Three tramway systems

Three tram companies expanded their routes step by step, and collectively reached their maximum extent in 1925 with 328 tramcars and 14 routes. By the 1920s, trams carried supplementary letters to their numbers: 'B' for British and 'F' for French.

• The British system ("Shanghai Tramways"; The Shanghai Electric Construction Co. Ltd.) was the largest with seven routes and 216 trams;
• The French system ("La Compagnie Francaise de Tramways et d'Eclairage Electrique de Changhai") had three routes and 60 trams;
• The Chinese system ("Chinese Tramways Company"; Chinese Electric Power Co. Ltd.) had four routes and 52 trams, totaling 23.5 km in length.^[6]

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  1903 map showing the built and planned tram routes in the French concession
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  1936 Shanghai tram map on recent street map
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  1936 Shanghai tram map
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  1937 Shanghai tram map with all three systems
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  1939 tram map of the Shanghai International Settlement, showing disrupted routes

During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in

On the British tramways, traditional four-wheel single-deck cars built by the Brush Electrical Engineering Company Limited in their Falcon Works at Loughborough, England were utilized. These trams were similar to the trams of London's Metropolitan Electric Tramways that were used for their Alexandra Palace line.

See also

References