Swansea Improvements and Tramway Company

Swansea is Wales's second-largest city and was a leader in the Industrial Revolution, owing to the ready availability of local resources of coal and good access via its seaport to imported metal ores, especially copper, from the West Country, Cornwall and Devon.

Industry and workers' housing was expanding northwards towards Morriston, up the Swansea Valley whilst wealthier homes spread westwards along the coast towards Sketty.

As many of the workers using the trams were unable to read, route numbers were not used but a system of letters by day and coloured lights by night was used until 1934.

[3] In 1905, following a failed attempt to take over the tramway, Swansea Corporation won the right to build several new lines but had to give the running powers to the SITC.

[4] Glamorgan County Council, meanwhile, built an extension northwards from Morriston to Ynysforgan (intended to be a new system to Pontardawe but never completed) for which the SITC also provided the cars and electric power.

[7] The variety and different incarnations of tramcars made for an interesting system for the enthusiast even if it did lack the prestige of the modern streamlined models being introduced in the 1930s by (mostly) larger cities such as Sheffield, Liverpool, Glasgow and Belfast.

Local opposition was fierce, but unlike many other European countries, trams were seen in the UK as less flexible and providing less comfort than buses and the decision was final.