The First Electric Trams

Melbourne’s first electric tramway opened in 1889 with a two-and-a-quarter mile (3.6 km) line from Box Hill to Doncaster but it operated only until 1896.

Victorian Railways began the serious move to trams in 1906 when it opened an electric tramway from St Kilda Station (today a light rail stop) to Brighton.  In the same year a private company, the North Melbourne Electric Tramway & Lighting Company Ltd, opened a line from Flemington Bridge to Essendon and Maribyrnong.

The following year Prahran and Malvern Councils applied to construct tramways and, by 1910, the Prahran & Malvern Tramways Trust was ready to go into service with 13 cars on two routes.

Over the next 10 years the system grew to almost 100 trams and 35 route miles (56.3 km) which extended to St Kilda, Caulfield, Glen Huntly, Hawthorn, Kew, Camberwell and Mont Albert.