On This Day, 16 May 1916

Birmingham Mail

Tuesday 16 May 1916

BIRMINGHAM TRAMWAYS.

AN INCREASE OF FOURTEEN MILLION PASSENGERS.

The Birmingham Tramways Committee, at a meeting to-day, presided over by Councillor Harrison Barrow, approved of the annual report of the department. This showed an increased traffic revenue last year of £125,000. There was an increase of fourteen millions in the number of passengers. The number of persons carried was 163,000,000, compared with 149,000,000. The number of miles run was slightly less, being 14,151,000, against 14,232,000 in 1914. This meant, in view of the great increase in the number of passengers, that there was a fair amount of overcrowding. The working expenses had substantially increased, and it was noteworthy that the amount of the allowances to the dependants of soldiers (men formerly engage in the tramway service) had doubled, being £37,000, compare with £17,000 in 1914.