Christchurch Trams Carry History into Present
New Zealand City's Cars Date to the Earliest Days of 20th Century
Anyone with the desire to ride on a streetcar can do so in New Orleans, where it is never called a trolley and no longer goes to Desire.
Streetcars, trolleys, trams and other electric-powered vehicles often associated with the past are still very much in use around the world.
Few cities, however, have as elaborate and varied a network of antique rail vehicles as Christchurch, New Zealand, a city probably better known as a gateway for the South Island’s natural wonders, including Milford Sound. Mount Cook and Fox Glacier.
The cars are called trams in Christchurch, and their history there goes back nearly 130 years. Electric trams replaced horse-drawn and then steam-powered cars by 1905, and they in turn served the area for more than 50 years.
The trams ran from the city center to suburbs several miles away, but by the middle of the 20th century, they were replaced by faster, if less interesting, diesel-powered buses.
Historical Group Saves the Day
The last electric-powered tram was gone by 1954, but just six years later, a group called the Tramway Historical Society was formed with a stated objective of saving the last two Christchurch trams that had not been scrapped.
The group was not only successful in that goal, but eventually opened a tram park, at which electric, steam and horse-drawn cars spanning nearly a century of manufacture are operated. Ironically, private car and bus are the only motorized ways to get there.
The group began buying equipment from other cities that also had scrapped rail transit, among them Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia; Brussels, Belgium; Nagasaki, Japan; and Glasgow, Scotland. It still purchases and restores cars from around the world as they become available.
The Trams Return To Christchurch
By the late 1980s, the Christchurch City Council had decided to restore tram service to the downtown area. Chosen was a 1.6-mile rectangular route that links the city’s famed cathedral, provincial buildings, the city museum, major retail areas and other sites. By 1995, the trams had begun running again.
Today, 200,000 people ride them each year, and the number has increased in each of the past five years, according to Annelies Vranken, reservations and functions director of Christchurch Tramway.
While many of the newly restored wood-bodied cars had come from around the world, others were made locally, by Boon & Co., a Christchurch company.
One of the first cars restored and put back into operation was a 1921 Boon & Co. product called the Brill. It can carry 54 passengers. It is known as #178 for the numbers painted on the front and back.
Another Boon train is #152, completed in 1910. The 48-passenger tram featured an open center area, allowing passengers to get on and off quickly. Both ends have enclosed seating areas. Minor tram repairs are carried out at a nearby tram shed, withmajor repairs contracted out to Heritage Tramway Trust, which leases the trams to the city.
The oldest car, called the Dunedin Horse Tram, was originally an open-sided car from Dunedin, also on New Zealand’s South Island, in the late 19th century. It is used as a trailer during busy seasons.
There’s even a tram restaurant, a former Melbourne car converted into a 12-table eatery that seats 36. Passengers dine as the car leaves Cathedral Square at 7:30 every night of the year. The City Council is looking at expanding the tram route to double its size in five years as part of Christchurch's new inner-city revitalization program. Part would be completed by June 2011 for the Rugby World Cup, to be held in New Zealand.
The trams operate about every 10 minutes from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. from November through March and from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from April through October. Vranken said about 85 percent of the ridership comes from visitors.
Tickets are NZ $15 (about $9.25 U.S. as of late May 2009), but that’s for unlimited use on two consecutive days. They can be purchased on board. The trams accommodate wheelchairs and baby buggies.
In New Zealand, further information may be obtained by calling 366-7830. The number for restaurant bookings is 366-7511.
A tram pulls into the Christchurch Tram Station.
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