Reading Corporation Tramways
Tram No. 6 has just crossed the junction, heading westwards along Oxford Road. Photograph taken on 22 July 1903, the first day of operation for the electric cars. Photograph by Walton Adams.
Operation
Locale	Reading
Open	1 November 1901
Close	20 May 1939
Status	Closed
Infrastructure
Track gauge	4 ft (1,219 mm)
Propulsion system	Electric
Depot(s)	Mill Lane
Statistics
Route length	7.45 miles (11.99 km)

Reading Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service inReading in theEnglish county ofBerkshire between 1901 and 1939.^[1]

The tramway is one of the ancestors of the currentReading Buses, the town's municipally owned bus operator.

The corporation purchased the assets of the horse drawn services of theReading Tramways Company and took ownership from 1901. Modernisation was undertaken and the first electric service started operating in July 1903. Extensions were constructed to the Wokingham Road and London Road (both from Cemetery Junction), and new routes added toWhitley, Caversham Road, Erleigh Road and Bath Road. The trams operated from a new depot in Mill Lane, a site that was to remain Reading Transport's main depot until it was demolished to make way forThe Oracle shopping mall in 1998.^[2]

The electric tram services were originally operated by 30 four-wheeled double decked cars supplied byDick, Kerr & Co. In 1904, sixbogie cars and a water car (used for keeping down the dust on the streets) were added to the fleet, also from Dick, Kerr & Co. No further trams were acquired, and a planned extension from the Caversham Road terminus acrossCaversham Bridge toCaversham itself was abandoned because of the outbreak ofWorld War I. The war also led to a significant maintenance backlog.^[2]

In 1919, Reading Corporation started operating its firstmotor buses.^[3] These ran fromCaversham Heights toTilehurst, running over the tram lines and beyond the tram termini. Because of the state of the track, the Bath Road tram route was abandoned in 1930, followed by the Erleigh Road route in 1932. Eventually it was decided that the tramways should be abandoned and replaced bytrolleybuses, operating over extended routes. The last tram ran on the Caversham Road to Whitley route in July 1936, and last car on themain line ran in May 1939.^[2]

All remaining infrastructure was removed after the subsequent cessation oftrolleybuses in 1968, with the exception of a pole outside The Three Tuns pub near the Wokingham Road route terminus, and a plaque on the Erleigh Road route. Acast-ironurinal, which was formerly sited at the Erleigh Road terminus of the tramway and intended for use by the tram crews, has been preserved and restored. It can now be found in theNational Tramway Museum, atCrich in the English county ofDerbyshire.^[4] A larger public convenience erected at the Caversham Bridge terminus in 1906 has been preserved at theChiltern Open Air Museum.^[5]

• 
  The crossing at the junction of Broad Street, St. Mary's Butts, Oxford Road and West Street, looking westwards along Oxford Road, 1903. The rails are in place, but not yet filled in with setts.
• 
  Broad Street, Reading, looking eastwards from an upper storey window, c. 1904. A tramcar heads eastwards, and two horse-drawn cabs wait in the middle of the road, by the trolley-pole.
• 
  A plaque in Erleigh Road on the pavement outside Café YOLK, placed around 1903 to herald the arrival of the electric tram.
• 
  This cast-iron urinal was formerly sited at the Erleigh Road terminus and is now at the National Tramway Museum.

• British Tramway Company Uniforms and Insignia

• Tram transport in England
• 4 ft gauge railways in England
• Companies based in Reading, Berkshire
• Transport in Reading, Berkshire

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