The last tram out of York left in 1935. This time, it might actually come back.
York had trams for 55 years. It's been arguing about getting them back for the other 90.
There's a half-timbered shelter on Station Road, opposite York station, that most people walk straight past. It's survived the recent redevelopment of that street, having been built in 1909 to keep tram passengers out of the rain. The last tram is sheltered anyone from ran in November 1935, when York's electric network - routes running out to Fulford, South Bank, Hull Road, and Haxby Road - was quietly wound up in favour of the motor-bus. Before that, from 1880, the same routes had been worked by horses.
Ever since, York has been a city that once had trams and doesn't anymore, which puts it in the company of most of Britain's cities, and makes the subject a recurring one at council level, always a few years away from going anywhere. In 2019, the city's Green group leader made the case again: reuse the dormant lines to Haxby and Strensall, borrow Sheffield's tram-train model, put a stop at the hospital and another near the new stadium at Monks Cross. It was, at the time, a compelling idea attached to no money and no authority capable of delivering it.
What's changed, seven years on, isn't the idea. It's who's now in a position to act on it.
