Bus, Trolleybus and Tram Routes of Kingston upon Hull Corporation
Predecessors and Successors. 1899 to 1986

Preface

Prior to 1876 there existed no provision for regular public transport within the town of Kingston upon Hull, such transport as was available being in the form of horse-drawn wagonettes. For longer distances there was, of course, the stage coach serving local townships and other towns and cities further afield, however these were declining due to the arrival of the railways some twenty or so years earlier. The railways, however did not serve the local areas very well with only places like Wilmington, Southcoates and Marfleet having rail connections.

The Hull and Barnsley line with its embankments around the city was still to come; all in all, public transport was poor. It was not surprising that the following passing of the 1870 tramways in Hull. Of these, only six were actually applied for, the seventh, from Great Union Street and along Hedon Road was dropped from the application. The remaining six Tramways Act that some entrepreneur would seize the opportunity which existed in the town. In 1873 the Continental and General Tramways Company applied for a Provisional Order to construct seven lines were Beverley Road to Holderness Road; George Street to Junction Street; Nelson Street to Junction Street; Spring Bank to Prospect Street; Anlaby Road to St John Street and Hessle Road to Osborne Street. The application was duly granted and the first section, the Beverley Road route, was completed and put into operation, using horse trams in January 1875. Horse trams were chosen as the town was totally flat in nature. No further lines were built that year and early the following year the line and powers were sold to a local company, The Hull Street Tramways Company, who completed the remaining tramways under the powers which it held. These were completed and in operation by 1878. Another local company, the Drypool and Marfleet Steam Tramway Company constructed and operated the seventh line which had been dropped from the original application. It was in operation by May 1899, by, as its name implied, the use of steam trams. By 1890 the line had reached as far along Hedon Road as the Holderness Drain, but the final section to Marfleet was never built by the Drypool Company. The town terminus was adjacent to the Hull Street Tramways Holderness Road route, where connections from the horse trams could be made. There was, however, no physical connection between the two systems. The horse tram route was sold, however, in 1891 to the Drypool and Marfleet Company, but the latter retained the horse trams for the Holderness Road route.

The Hull Street Tramways Company by 1895 was finding itself in a bad financial situation and the tracks were getting in dire need of renewal. The company put itself into receivership and in May 1895 it was purchased by the Corporation for 12,500, the Corporation put out a tender for operation of the services until such time as it could be converted for electrical operation. In the interval the Corporation prepared for its entrance into public transport by the conversion of the Anlaby Road and Hessle Road routes to electric tramway services. The horse trams on the two routes were withdrawn and both sets of tracks were re-laid using the centre-groove rail which gave a smoother ride through pointwork and crossings. This type of rail was only used in this country by Hull and Doncaster and remained unique. The Corporation trams ran first on 5th July 1899 which marked the start of a new era in Hull. Three months after the start of the electric trams the Corporation also purchased the Drypool and Marfleet Company with the aim of replacing the steam trams also by electric ones.

The basic network of public transport in Hull was laid down by 1890 by the private tramway operators and were only improved and extended by the Corporation. By 1903 all the tramways were converted to electric operation and it is from this start that the trolleybus and motorbus network has developed. Every main road out of Hull was now served by a tram route, these being from west to east Hessle Road, Anlaby Road, Spring Bank, Beverley Road, Holderness Road and Hedon Road; in addition the only southerly road was that to the Pier via Market Place. Here the electric tramway used the new road which had been opened by Alderman Alfred Gelder and bore his name, thus the narrow Whitefriargate was relieved of its traffic. In the early years of the twentieth century the area in the new town was being re-developed and many of the older streets disappeared to make way for new wider roads. St John Street and Junction Street were lost in the creation of the Queen Victoria Square where a tramway station was built taking the termini which had been displaced. Also in the build was King Edward Street and during this period trams used the original horse tram route of Albion Street and Bond Street, but were diverted along Prospect Street and King Edward Street when the latter was completed. Extensions of the tramway continued to the late twenties and a lot was on reserved track, which accounts for the wide roads in the outer part of the city now. Unfortunately most of these reserved tramways were lost to motorbus operations in the coordination with East Yorkshire Motor Services Ltd in 1934. Subsequently all but the Hedon Road route were converted to trolleybus operations between 1937 and 1945 the trolleybus, themselves succumbed to motor buses between 1961 and 1964.

The pioneer motor bus route was a short lived service between North Bridge and Stoneferry which commenced in 1909 using second hand Saurer buses acquired from the Mersey Railway Company. As time passed, the buses grew more and more unreliable and the service was discontinued in April 1913.

Another early bus route was the City - Fish Dock - Beverley Road - Stoneferry service which opened a route parallel to Hessle Road, but served the western docks and railway yards. It was this route which was developed into the inner circle in the 1980s. Other roads which were opened up by the motor bus were Boothferry Road, Priory Road, Sutton Road, Dansom Lane, Cleveland Street and Preston Road. From these and the tram routes the basic network in the city of Hull was formed and apart from extensions into new housing areas, there was no drastic change to the pattern until the mid 1960s. At this point a network of cross-city and inter-district services for schools and workers was instituted. Whilst many were based on existing main road routes there were several which had no origins in the basic network. In addition at this time a new housing estate was being developed to the north of the city. The estate was named Bransholme and was destined to become the size of a small town. Routes to Sutton Road Estate, Sutton Village and Stoneferry were initially extended to serve the embryo estate. In due course the estate grew and a relatively separate area, North Bransholme, was also developed, and some services operated in the two parts of the estate only. New express services were also introduced between Bransholme and the city centre, which gave a quicker journey time than normal services.

Due to the fact that there were originally very few cross-city routes, the chapters are arranged to follow chronological developments on each main road or spoke of the wheel as it were. These chapters are arranged alphabetically and are as follows 1: Anlaby Road, including Boothferry Road and Priory Road; 2: Beverley Road, including Cottingham Road; 3: Dansom Lane including Garden Village; 4: Hedon Road; 5: Hessle Road; 6: Holderness Road; 7: Princes Avenue and Spring Bank including Bricknell Avenue; 8: Spring Bank West including Chanterlands Avenue; 9: Stoneferry Road; 10: Sutton Village via all routes; 11: Bransholme area only; 12: Market Place and miscellaneous routes; 13: Inner Circle and Fish Dock service 14: Outer Circle 15: Dual licence services. The final five chapters cover those services which do not fit conveniently into the previous chapters. In the compass of these chapters all services operated by Hull Corporation from 1909 to deregulation in October 1986 will be covered. Post deregulation services and those of the Councils successors will not be covered.

At the heading of each chapter the following data will be shown, as applicable, a): electric tramway service letter(s); b): trolleybus route number and c): Motorbus Road Service Licence number. In the latter case the licence number is given as there were a number of service numbers and changes to each licence, details are given in the text. After these headings, there follows a chronological description of the services, with all subsequent alterations and withdrawals. As this can get somewhat confusing, there is also a separate index in licence number order showing each service and its history in a tabulated form.

The statements in this work are derived by myself from various sources, and are in no way to be taken as official statements by the Corporation or sucessors. Any errors or omissions are mine, and I would be pleased if any errors or omissions are found I would be pleased to hear of them.

Keith Easton
11/2011

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