Southend-on-Sea Corporation Transport

[9] As the town expanded, there was a need for public transport, and so a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge electric tramway, using overhead wires to supply the power, was constructed, and opened for business on 19 July 1901, after central government passed the Southend Light Railway order in 1899.

A branch ran from Southend Victoria railway station along Southchurch Avenue to reach the beach, while a circular route ran northwards along Victoria Avenue to Prittlewell, where it turned west along West Road, and then southwards along North Road to reach the Cricketers Hotel, where it rejoined the route to Leigh-on-Sea.

[9] The Corporation owned a small loading pier on the sea front, near to the gas works, and this was rebuilt in 1914, incorporating a spur to enable trams to run onto it.

They were painted grey, and worked from 1915 until the early 1930s, when the steam engines at the power station were replaced by diesel generators that came from three former German U-boat, siting them at Leigh, London Road and Thorpe Bay.

Unlike most of the rest of the system, these extensions were created on separate rights of way, rather than along roads, and the double track boulevards were lined with trees.

[9] Four single deck toastrack cars were ordered from Brush Engineering in 1914 for use on the circular route, to be numbered 40 to 43, but only the first three arrived before the onset of the war, and the fourth one was not delivered until 1921.

A large amount of refurbishment work took place between 1925 and 1927, with many of the open topped vehicles receiving a roof on the upper deck, and later windscreens were added to protect the driver from the elements.

They were fully enclosed double deck trams, with 8 wheels, and again had to be regauged, as the Accrington system was 4 ft (1,219 mm) gauge.

[20] The trolleybuses lasted until 28 October 1954, when pressure for an integrated transport network based on the motor bus caused their demise.

From this hub the routes were: Southend-on-Sea Corporation had operated a tramway system in the town and surrounding districts since 1901, which had been steadily extended to cover 9.22 miles (14.84 km) by 1914.

Once World War I was over, the committee looked at ways to meet the transport needs of the increasing number of residents and visitors to the seaside town in the early 1920s.

A report was submitted by the electrical engineer in 1923, and members of the Committee visited Birmingham,[24] where a trolleybus system had begun operating on 27 November 1922.

[25] The committee were sufficiently impressed by the Birmingham system, that they decided to supplement the trams on the service to Prittlewell with trolleybuses, for a trial period of 12 months.

They contacted the Railless Electric Traction Company of Leeds, who agreed to provide two trolleybuses on loan, and to erect the overhead wiring.

They were fitted with a 35 hp (26 kW) motor supplied by Dick, Kerr & Co, and a cam controller operated by a foot pedal, manufactured by English Electric.

They were similar in design to vehicles supplied to Ashton-under-Lyne and West Hartlepool, but had an open drivers cab, which gave them a neater appearance.

[27] To run the service, five more Garrett trolleybuses were obtained, fitted with double deck bodies, capable of seating 60 passengers, and powered by 60 hp (45 kW) Bull motors with British Thompson-Houston control gear.

The possibility of extending the system westwards from Prittlewell was soon proposed, and the Corporation obtained an Act of Parliament in 1930, which authorised an additional nine routes.

The first of these to open was some 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, running along Fairfax Drive from Priory Park in the east to the borough boundary in the west, on which services began on 21 January 1932.

The Corporation negotiated a co-ordinated scheme with local bus companies, which meant that the new trolleybus routes were free from competition by motor buses.

These had lowbridge bodywork, with an offset sunken gangway on the upper deck, which was thought to make the vehicles more stable, and might enable them to run on new routes which included low bridges.

Other work was in progress, and the Fairfax Drive route to the west was extended to Chalkwell Schools, which was also served by the tramway running along London Road.

However, such plans were affected by the outbreak of the Second World War, and although 36 more trolleybuses were ordered to allow for the conversion and the extension to Shoeburyness, delivery was to be made "when conditions permitted".

The corporation argued that because the replacement had been scheduled for early 1941, essential maintenance had not been carried out, and if the tramways were to be retained for any length of time, considerable expenditure would be needed to put them back into good order.

It was not feasible to obtain enough trolleybuses to run the full service, and so parts of the tramway network would be replaced by motor buses.

[35] Due to the issues with the future of the tramway in the 1920s, the Corporation revisited the use of buses, and by the mid 20s a plan was drawn up to use 14 seater minibuses but it was rejected by the full council.

By 1942, buses replaced the remaining tram routes after winning a battle with local Traffic commissioner Sir Haviland Hiley.

[43] Further routes were added, like the X21 from Shoeburyness to Green Park in London, and the organisation greatly expanded their coach fleet to meet the demand.

[46] In April 1987, Culturebus, the London sightseeing bus service was purchased from Ensignbus, however it was failed to be marketed properly and was ended in December of the same year.

[48][49][47] The company started purchasing AEC Routemasters from London Transport in 1988, running them until 1993, with the buses painted in a new livery of Blue, White and Red designed by John Lidstone.