Manchester Corporation Tramways

Between 1901 and 1949 Manchester Corporation Tramways (known as Manchester Corporation Transport Department from 1929 onwards^[1]) was the municipal operator of electric tram services in Manchester, England. At its peak in 1928, the organisation carried 328 million passengers on 953 trams, via 46 routes, along 292 miles (470 km) of track.^[2]

It was the United Kingdom's second-largest tram network after the services of 16 operators across the capital were combined in 1933 by the London Passenger Transport Board. Other large systems were in Glasgow (which had 100 miles of double track at its peak^[3] and Birmingham (80 miles).

The central and south-central Manchester area had one of the densest concentrations of tram services of any urban area in the UK.^[4] MCT services ran up to the edge of routes provided by other operators in (what is now) Greater Manchester, and in some instances had running rights over their lines and vice versa. There were extensive neighbouring systems in Salford, Oldham, Ashton, Hyde, Middleton, Rochdale, and elsewhere.

Services were withdrawn earlier than most other British cities to be replaced by trolleybus and motor buses. Trams did not return to the city until the modern light-rail system Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992.