page_title: Reading Tramways Company
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Reading Tramways Company / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The White Hart Hotel, No. 1 Oxford Road, Reading, at the corner of St. Mary's Butts. The sign advertises the ales of Blandy, Hawkins and Company, and the landlord's name, Alfred Coates. A gentleman in a hat and a top-coat with a velvet collar stands outside. To the left, part of the shop of Samuel Allwood, furniture dealer, at No. 4 St. Mary's Butts can be seen, and the shops of Frederick Gomm, basket maker, and Anne Baxter, fruiterer. 1900-1909: photograph by Walton Adams. Other prints at #1325246 and #1325247.
context_page_description: Reading Tramways Company operated a horse-drawn tramway service in Reading between 1879 and 1901.
  The company is one of the ancestors of the current Reading Buses, the town's municipally owned bus operator.
context_section_description: The origins of Reading Transport can be traced back to 1878, when the privately owned Reading Tramways Company (part of the Imperial Tramways Company) was formed. They were initially authorised to construct and operate a horse tram route on an east-west alignment from Oxford Road through Broad Street in the town centre to Cemetery Junction. Significantly, this route formed the core of what became known as the main line of the tram and trolleybus network.
  Construction started in January 1879, with the entire line being open by May. A fleet of six single decked cars were initially used, with 31 horses, providing a 20-minute frequency. The cars operated from a depot on the south side of the Oxford Road, immediately to the east of where Reading West railway station (opened 1906) was later built. By the 1890s the whole fleet had been replaced by double decked cars operating at a 10-minute frequency. The company made several proposals to extend the system, add routes and electrify the system. But none of these came to anything, and in 1899 the borough corporation decided to purchase the system.
caption: Horse tramlines in front of the White Hart Hotel, Oxford Road
exif: {}