The first tram route ran from High Street in the city centre to the Docks run by the Cardiff Tramway Company.

[2] In 1898, Cardiff County Borough Council obtained Parliamentary powers to take over all the tramways in the area,[3] and to use new electric trams, owning them from 1903.

[4] Electricity was supplied from the Cardiff power station at Roath adjacent to the tram depot.

The Hayes Island Snack Bar was built in 1911 as the main parcel depot and functioned until closure in 1942.

[citation needed] By 1929, the tram network stretched from Victoria Park in the west, to Grangetown and Cardiff Docks in the south, to Roath[9] and Splott in the east, and to Gabalfa in the north.