Kowloon Trams – Proposals 1913 to 1918
IDJ has sent information, taken from the book Tramlines…, about several proposed tramways on HK Island and from Kowloon to China. This extract is about proposed trams in Kowloon which never came to fruition:
“The last in this series of proposals for extending the benefits of tramways to the citizens of Hong Kong came, not suprisingly, from the Hongkong Tramways Company (successors to Hong Kong Electric Tramways Ltd.).
During an interview given to the China Mail in April 1919, the chairman of Hongkong Tramways Company observed that it was not the fault of his company that no trams operated on the Kowloon Peninsula. Detailed proposals had been submitted to the government in 1913, 1914, 1916 and again in 1918: on each occasion they were unable to secure permission to run trams in Kowloon.
The colonial secretary was questioned on this matter and he stated that it was the intention of the government to put a tramway system into operation in Kowloon and to provide the public there with a very cheap service. Before this could be done the government wished to prepare the route by levelling the gradient. A splendid map was produced, remarkably similar to that proposed by the Tramway Company’s proposed routes, and the public settled down and awaited this new system. The trams have yet to run in Kowloon.”
The Tramways Company’s proposed routes in Kowloon
Source: Tramlines: The story of the Hong Kong tramway system, Martin Barnett, SCMP, 1984
Related Indhhk articles: