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Following decades of relative inaction in the realm of mass transit, South Africa celebrated the debut of the Gautrain back in 2012. The mass rapid transit railway network with service into central Johannesburg is the first rail-based commuter service of its kind to be built in the country since the 1970s. With 80 kilometres of track and links to several major city centres and the O. R. Tambo International Airport, the Gautrain has been a success, helping reconnect much of South Africa's largest urban population centres to one another via rail. This traditional mode of transportation had been subject to years of neglect and wholesale abandonment since the 1960s within much of the continent as elsewhere around the globe. Once a proud proponent of the merits of electric street rail and interurban tram networks, Johannesburg, along with the rest of South Africa, was formerly home to a massive streetcar network. The Johannesburg Municipal Tramway once covered a distance of 136 kilometres, with a fleet of 242 trams spread across 14 separate lines. This edition of Once Upon a Tram will take a look back at the fascinating 70-year history of the Johannesburg Municipal Tramway, which ran from 1891 to 1961, through Dutch rule, British Rule, the Boer War, WWI, WWII, and Apartheid.
Begun in 1891, what eventually became incorporated as the Johannesburg Municipal Tramway started its 70-year run as a horse-car service, with single and double-deck trams pulled by teams of two horses upon rails through the heart of the city. Criss-crossing the centre a town that had just been founded in 1887, the horse-drawn tram network was more than adequate to serve the public of the day. The bustling colonial town enjoyed a rise in prominence with the discovery of gold at the turn of the century, the significance of which would in many ways lead to the conflict known as the Second Boer War of 1899-1902 between the Orange Free State and Great Britain.
Following the British takeover of the entire Transvaal after the defeat of the Boers in 1902, Johannesburg continued to grow with the reopening of the gold mines after the war bringing about a sustained era of prosperity that would continue well into the first half of the 20th century. With the sustained construction of more and more grand boulevards, banks, office towers, and other impressive edifices, the upward rise of the city centre led directly to the outward spread of its first streetcar suburbs.
Early on in the conversion of the street rail network to electric power, a major hurdle was the main heavy rail line which bisected the city. Civil engineers were put to the task of constructing a series of "subways," or underpasses, which allowed the smooth travel of electric trams from one side of the tracks to the other. This made it possible for the network to expand to all corners of the city, with passengers eventually able to ride from one city to the next aboard smooth, electric-powered, interurban rail.
While the Boer War and subsequent transition of power had put a freeze on long-held plans for electrification, the service was fully electric by February 1906, with 45 kilometres of electrified track spread across 14 distinct streetcar lines serving every corner of the city and its suburbs by the end of the year. Within two decades' time, the network had tripled in length to 136 kilometres and boasted a fleet of no less than 242 trams, 138 motor buses, and 38 trolley buses by the start of the Second World War.
In 1936, the City of Johannesburg introduced its first fleet of electric trolleybuses into the network, the modern technology seen at the time as a viable replacement for the city's aging fleet of trams, especially in light of the rise in popularity of the automobile. Though gradual at first, the replacement of tram lines in favour of trolleybus routes was carried out over the course of the late 1930s, 40s, and 50s, until all but a handful of original tram lines were left in operation.
In 1954, the fate of Johannesburg's tram network was sealed by a civic decision to scrap the entire fleet instead of ordering replacements. The city's streetcars were slowly but surely pulled from service over the next few years until the well-publicized ride of the last tram on March 17, 1961, during which the Mayor — and one-time conductor — declared that there was "no room for trams in a city like Johannesburg." Well attended by a boisterous crowd in a scene similar to countless other last runs around the world during this time, the end of Johannesburg's streetcar era was met with much public fanfare and viewed by most as a step into the future.
With a run that spanned 50 years from August 26, 1936 to January 10, 1986, the electric trolleybus continued the legacy left behind by the tram network for another quarter century past the latter's demise, after which point the motor coach became the only means of public transit in a city that grew from 1.7 to 4.4 million between 1985 and 2011.
More than simply a defunct service that brings up fond memories for many South Africans of a certain age, Johannesburg's streetcar legacy was intricately tied up in the troubling politics of Apartheid. It's entire existence was marred by the operation of fully segregated "European" and "Non-European" trams, which were labelled as such to indicate which were suitable for black "Natives," and which were meant for white "Europeans." Marked in English and Afrikaans, and painted in distinctly different livery, all riders knew which cars were for them, and which were not.
Jumping forward to the present, at a time when South Africa is once again ready to invest in mass transit, plans are now underway to boost the existing fleet of 24 Bombardier-built Electrostar trains up to 36, an increase of 50%. For while it may yet be some time until the 80-kilometre, majority commuter-based network is expanded, the expansion of the fleet will vastly improve headways between trains, which will in turn spur ridership and further decrease congestion on the nation's notoriously clogged motorways.
Having survived the tumult and upheaval of three major wars, colonization by not one but two world powers, and the long scar of Apartheid, the Johannesburg Municipal Tramway and its modern day successors are part of a continuous legacy of city building and urban planning that dates back 125 years to the days of Queen Victoria, to a time when the sun never set on the British Empire. For while it is currently unclear what the next few years will bring in terms of light and heavy rail in South Africa, recent and ongoing developments on that file appear hopeful, the Rainbow Nation more than ready to embrace the realities of life in the 21st century.
SkyriseCities will return soon with a new edition of Once Upon a Tram, which will take an in-depth look at the transit legacy of a city near you. In the meantime, feel free to join the conversation in the comments section below. Got an idea for this series? Let us know!
