Corner of Yorkshire: York Electrobus Transformer Station used system which lasted until 1932
The new generation of electrically powered buses now appearing on city streets are the revival of an idea first introduced more than a century ago, although at that time no one used the word “green”.
Electrically powered street transport was pioneered in Berlin in 1882 with the world’s first electric trams. The first system in the UK was introduced by Blackpool three years later, the forerunner of the resort’s system that is still in use today.
As in other cities, York built a tramway in the 1880s with an inaugural route to Fulford, but it was horse-drawn. It wasn’t until 1909 that York Corporation Tramways decided to go electric, although with slightly smaller gauge tracks than elsewhere because of the city’s narrower streets. Technological change was rapid in the Edwardian period, however, and electric trams were already becoming obsolete. In June 1911 the UK’s first electric trolleybuses were introduced simultaneously by Leeds and Bradford.
In March 1915, York went ahead with a different system using buses with onboard batteries like today’s new vehicles. Known as Electrobuses, they were deployed on two of the city’s less popular routes and required charging hubs known as transformer stations to keep the Edison-built vehicles powered up.
Two Electrobus charging hubs still survive. One of them (pictured) is located on Clifton Green in the city’s north-west suburbs and charged buses which operated from Stockton Lane. The other is at Malton Road Corner on the north-east side of York.
The system lasted only until 1923.