Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 4, 1933 Operations officially began for trolleybus system in the town of Huddersfield in northern England. The public officials who took part in the brief ceremony marking this transportation milestone included Albert Hirst (1865-1941), who had become mayor of Huddersfield earlier that year and would serve in the position until 1935. The Huddersfield Daily... Continue Reading →
April 4, 1901 In Switzerland, a funicular railway in the city of Zurich first went into service. This railway was built to carry people up and down the Zürichberg, a 2,228-foot (679-meter)-high hill in the northeastern part of the city. A key destination on this hill at the time was a restaurant named Rigiblick that... Continue Reading →
April 1, 1928 The first four trolleybuses to serve the English town and borough of Hastings began operations. These vehicles were each decorated with flags and bunting for the occasion and they were introduced as part of the plan to ultimately replace the entire aging fleet of trams in Hastings with trolleybuses. Those trams were... Continue Reading →
September 26, 2009 More than a quarter-century after its operations were halted, the trolleybus system in the city and commune (municipality) of Chieti in central Italy was brought back into service. The following month, Omar Cugini reported on this milestone was in the Rome-based magazine TheCommuter: News from the World of Mobility and Public Transport.... Continue Reading →
August 30, 1983 Miguel Ángel de Quevedo station of the Mexico City Metro, the rapid transit system serving the metropolitan area of Mexico’s capital, was officially opened. This station is part of Line 3, which is the longest of the Mexico City Metro’s 12 lines. Miguel Ángel de Quevedo station is specifically located at the... Continue Reading →
March 9, 1951 The public transport agency Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos del Distrito Federal (now known as Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos de la Ciudad de México [STE]) officially launched the first trolleybus route in Mexico City. Transportes Eléctricos, in preparation for this new transit service in Mexico’s capital, had purchased a total of 20 trolleybuses... Continue Reading →
May 12, 1968 After three decades of service, the trolleybus system in Northern Ireland’s capital city of Belfast officially ceased operations. (Belfast also has the distinction of being the largest city in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.) The original trolleybuses for this system made their first runs on March 28, 1938,... Continue Reading →
May 13, 1933 A trolleybus system made its debut in the resort town of Bournemouth on England’s southern coast. The new system was formally inaugurated by John Robert Edgecombe, the lord mayor of Bournemouth. The first of those trolleybuses to go into service was driven by William Biddlecombe. Over the next few years, this trolleybus... Continue Reading →
February 23, 1910 A new trolley system serving the city of Johnstown in Pennsylvania’s Cambria County was incorporated. The Johnstown Traction Company (JTC) took over the street railway operations of the Johnstown Passenger Railway Passenger Railway Company, which had been launched in 1883 to provide horse car services. (In the wake of the historic flood six... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 