Have you ever wondered what happened for towns and cities across the UK to turn their backs on trams so quickly during the 20th century? A new book by freelance journalist Mick Hamer is a searing expose of a campaign that falsely smeared trams as obsolete and led to first generation systems being almost completely wiped off the transport map.
For the first time the book unveils the shadowy forces that worked to kill off the tram. The tram was an early victim of so-called astroturfing, a deceitful PR technique used by oil companies to mimic a genuine grassroots movement.
This saw articles and letters in the press condemning trams as old-fashioned and called for them to be scrapped. Although this is commonly seen today on social media back in the early years of the 20th century it saw letter columns of newspapers bombarded to get the apparent message of the trams obsolescence across to the wider public.
The campaign was bankrolled by the oil companies and the book shows that lurking even deeper in the shadows were the security services, which used their propaganda expertise to provide the campaign organisers with handy hints.
The mud stuck from the campaign and in the 1931 Royal Commission for Transport there was a call for trams to be scrapped – helped probably in so small part by the make-up of the Commission being dominated by tram-hating motorists.
You can find all about this story in the new book The Great Tramway Conspiracy by Mick Hamer. It is due to be released on 30th May 2026 and is published by Pen & Sword Transport. RRP is £29.99.
Big mistake as it has turned out, driven by politics and vested interests-nothing new in that, unfortunately. Back they came (in a limited way) but there is hope that more will be built. Coventry next?
I have childhood memories of the trams in south London and in Edinburgh. In Hamburg in 1965, and in Brussels between 1968 and ’71 I relied on the trams to get around both cities. Sadly, Hamburg’s are no more, but Brussels’ continues to thrive.
I now live in Medway, Kent, which briefly enjoyed a limited tram network from 1902 to 1930. It was dismantled for the very reasons given in the book. The majority shareholder was the Maidstone and District Bus Company.
It is clear in this era of urban explosion, that Medway desperately needs a modern tramway.