Normanton-Castleford-Pontefract tram service

In 1906, Normanton; Castleford and Pontefract constructed a diesel-powered tram system to allow faster transportation between the towns. Passengers would get onboard at the Market Place station, move into Castleford via High Street and from its market place to Pontefract’s within some 50 minutes. The tram service was not especially popular, and the much faster omnibus quickly superseded it, with the service closing in 1927 and its tracks dug up.

One example of the hazard the trams posed can be seen in September 1910, when a child ran in front of a tram. In this instant the driver was able to pull the emergency brakes and an accident was avoided. This did not happen on Tuesday 25 October, 1910, however. On this occasion a two year old boy, John Hurt, was knocked over as he ran across the street to a shop window. Suffering serious injuries from the wheels, he died two hours later. On Wednesday 16 October, 1912 a man named Walter Blakestone was also struck and killed by a tram, having failed to get off the track when called to.

During the Great War, conscription had taken up much of what remained of the Tramway Company’s staff, and they began hiring female cleaners and conductors. In July 1918 an equality argument was already underway between the company and its staff over pay. The company refused to pay women to an equal salary on the grounds that women tended to be employed for a shorter time, and so money was needed to be saved in order to seek out eventual replacements.

On Monday 12 March, 1919 a Pontefract-Castleford tram was caught up in a collision with a hearse, its horse having moved its leg onto the platform of the passing tram. No one was hurt, and traffic returned to normal after half an hour. On 13 June another collision took place, this time more serious in Castleford when a lorry for the Ind Coope, Ltd. brewery company (now part of Coors) was struck by a tram as it was turning out from Carlton Street. Ind Coop sued the West Riding Tram Company for £100 in damages which was reduced to £69.3s.11d.

On Tuesday 27 November, 1923 another motor lorry collided with a tram, this time in Pontefract; the lorry driver suffered facial wounds from smashed glass.

The combat the new threat of omnibuses, the Tramway Company set up its own bus company – West Riding Automobile Company – to reel profit back in order to paradoxically support their trams. In 1925, the company had had enough and made demands to the Normanton and Castleford town councils to fight against the new bus companies in order to keep the tram open. The two towns rejected the demand, and the company formally began the process of retiring the tram service.

Perhaps expressing the public dislike for the tram service in its last days, the Yorkshire Evening Post commented its supposedly unlucky associations, albeit working heavily in math to make this appear true: The superstitious may surely claim that the circumstances in which the Pontefract, Castleford, and Normanton tram service has ended justify the proverbial atachment of ill-luck to the number 13.
 * The track from Pontefract to Normanton and back is exactly 13 miles in length; the last car which passed over the track when the service ceased was No. 13; the number of the last ticket issued to a passenger was No. 1,570, the units of which total 13; the number of persons on the car was 13; and the car ran into the Castleford depot at exactly 10.48, the units again totalling 13.
 * The first ticket issued on the first tram which ran on the system, 19 years ago, was handed to the Pontefract correspondent of “The Yorkshire Evening Post,” and the last ticket issued yesterday evening was taken by his son.