Super Prestige 25 Oldham Corporation Transport

The second of Colin Reeve's books on Greater Manchester municipalities charts the history of public transport on the roads of Oldham from the days of the horse and steam trams through to the demise of the CorporationÂ's operation and its inclusion in the SELNEC PTE. Horse trams started running in 1880 and the first steam trams some five years later, the latter operated by the notorious Manchester, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham Steam Tramways Company, which was once quoted as an example of the result of building a tramway on the cheap. The leases of both operators ran out in 1901 and the Corporation opted to run its own electric trams. The first motor buses took to the streets in 1913 but did not last long and it was not until 1924 that a second successful attempt was made. Oldham dabbled in trolley buses but this was also short-lived and the fleet consisted solely of motor buses until the end of its independent existence in 1969.