Edinburgh celebrates 50 years
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• On Monday the first of 50 Leyland Atlanteens with Alexander dual entrance doubledeck bodies designed for one-man operation was handed over to Cilr. Mrs. Catherine B. M. Filsell, chairman of Edinburgh transport committee, by Mr. W. R. Alexander, chairman of W. Alexander and Co. (Coachbuilders) Ltd., and Mr. C. Watters, assistant bus sales manager, BLMC.
The ceremony had a double significance, however, as it marked the completion of 50 years of municipal transport in the Scottish capital and to commemorate the occasion a special brochure has been published. Edinburgh City Transport has had a shorter life than most municipal transport undertakings because the exercise of providing public transport in the city was left to the Edinburgh and District Tramways Co. Ltd. until July 1 1919, when the Corporation took over.
The following year Leith was amalgamated with Edinburgh and the former burgh's electric tram system was added to the undertaking.
In 1932 a new design of tram was introduced and many similar vehicles were built, mostly by the undertaking in its own Shrubhill works.
A decision to convert the entire tram system to buses was taken in 1952 and the last tram ran on November 16 1956.
The bus fleet is now standardized mainly on Leyland vehicles, the first Atlantean entering service in 1965. With the arrival of the first o-m-o double-deckers, Edinburgh City Transport faces a new era of operation.