One Network, One Line, 125 Years!
It is worthy of note that the early route was single track with (presumably?) passing places. The church below will appear in Friday’s blog.
Note also that the city centre was busy wth shoppers who would have travelled there using the one tram route in 1899 and following.
fbb is not sure whether the above picture really is of Liepaja as there were no sidings or junctions in the city. But the bridge below was real enough and, much widened, still stands today.
By the time the above photo was snapped, double track running in the city centre was apparent. The double tracking had begun in 1904 not long after the system opened. The assumption is that the line was successful and an increased frequency necessitated the extra track. Extra trams were added to the fleet in 1903.
The next intake of new rolling stick was in 1957 when more substantial “Gotha” trams arrived.
fbb should have mentioned that the track is metre gauge, not “standard” gauge as in UK railways and in the curremnt UK tram systems.
Messily they tended to wear all over advertsing livery.
In 1974, the company’s on-line history summary reports that total passengers carried reached 12 million annually which is quite an achievement for a one-line system in a town with a popukation of only 77,000. That is in the same order as Kettering, Paisley and Peterborough, none of which has trams! Blackpool’s count is 142,000 and it, like Liepaja has one tram route.
These are very smart, although fbb does wonder about the practicality of the white plastic finish in the interior.
The four (uncomfortable?) seats right at the back do give some idea of the constraints of metre gauge bodywork!
The trams are unidirectional with turning circles at both ends of the route …
.jpg){kind=link}
On Friday, we take a virtual ride along the system, look at fares and glimpse the Liepaja bus netwrok.
