Wallasey Electric Tramways

1919-1933

Part One

Wallasey tramways came through the 1914-18 war in better physical state than many others, and the principal worries as 1918 ended were financial. Greene, due to retire, was persuaded to remain in office to guide the department through its post-war recovery programme, and the Council approved a fares increase to take effect from Monday 16 December 1918. Gone were the days when managers vied with each other the longest distance for one penny, now they were struggling to contain inflation, working expenses in Wallasey having risen by 3d per car mile in twelve months. All 1d stages were shortened, some new 1½d fares were introduced, and the Seacombe-New Brighton through fare was raised to 3d (4d via Poulton). The workmen's return was increased to 3d, with a 7am restriction, and prepaid scholars' tickets (introduced in 1910-11) became 1s. a dozen. By March 1920 only 44% of tickets were 1d, as against 82% in 1913.

Receipts rose, an extra £3,750 being taken in the first months of 1919. To offer some compensation to residents, the Corporation introduced a system of prepaid discount tickets at a rate of 13 x 1d for 1s. and 13 x 1½d for 1s.6d. By March 1920 138,437 x 1d and 112,617 x 1½d had been purchased. Other seaside resorts had adopted the same policy, but with varying success. Southport allowed reductions of 1¼ in the shilling and Blackpool 2d in the shilling, but only on 2d stages. Wallasey withdrew the facility in July 1922.

Meanwhile, austerity was forgotten as thousands travelled to New Brighton for relaxation and enjoyment. Record business was reported and during the year to 31 March 1920 the cars carried the most passengers (21,435,873) andoperated the highest mileage (1,465,595) in the history if the undertaking, In August 1919 passengers again topped two million, a figure almost reached in both July and September. New Brighton terminus was hardly able to cope, some cars being despatched direct from Virginia Road into Victoria Road, and schemes were considered for additional sidings, mobile queue barriers were rejected as impracticable. A familiar sight to disappear was the New Brighton Tower, which had been declared unsafe and was dismantled for scrap between 1919 and 1921; cynics drew attention to the high price of scrap metal. A converted passenger shelter was erected on the north side of the sidings in September 1919.

Crowds were also carried during the Government designated peace days - public holidays called to celebrate victory. Illuminated car 54 re-appeared, liberally festooned with flags and bunting, and all trams stopped at Central Park Gates to provide direct access to the revived carnival. Only a few of the 49 stopping places eliminated in 1917 were reinstated after the war. From the commencement of operations, Wallasey used metal stop signs generally similar to those in Liverpool. Red indicated a compulsory stop and blue a request stop, but in some cases red or blue on a white background was used instead of white on red or blue. The Sunday afternoon extension of service P to New Brighton operated only on fine days, and a passenger shelter was erected in 1919 at Grove Road where the cars normally terminated.

During August 1920 the cars earned a record 27.05 pence per mile, but for the six months to 30 September 1920 receipts at £55,228 were almost matched by working expenses at £55,210, a dangerously narrow margin. The manager recommended an immediate increase of ½d on all fares, bringing in a 1½d minimum, to avoid an estimated loss of £22,517 for the current financial year. Against considerable opposition the penny stages were discontinued from 6 December 1920, introducing 1½d stages from Seacombe to Trafalgar Road, St. John's Church and Canterbury Road (average distance 1⅓ miles), with 2½d stages to Molyneux Drive, Field Road and Earlston Road on the S, RL and WD routes. Through fares to New Brighton on the WD and P were raised to 4d and 5d respectively, but for the first time children aged 5-12 were offered a reduction, with a universal fare of 1½d. On 3 January 1921 tow short-lived 3½d stages were introduced from Seacombe to Harrison Drive and from Marlowe Road to New Brighton. Receipts rose, but passenger figures fell and Greene stated that "the Revenue from the Undertaking has apparently reached its maximum under the present scale of fares".

However, the increases enabled the finances of the undertaking to regain their equilibrium, and the proportion of working expenses to revenue dropped from 83.6% in 1921-22 to 75% in 1922-23. This was lower than the 77.1% of 1919-20, the year which had seen the introduction of the 48-hour week. The Council reintroduced penny fares on 9 January 1922 but with shorter stages e.g. Seacombe to the Town Hall ( ⅔ of a mile) and New Brighton to Portland Street. The upper ages limit for the child's 1½d fare was raised from 12 to 14, and a 1d child's ticket was subsequently introduced on 1½ and 2d stages. A campaign against fare=dodging was conducted during December 1922 and January 1923; 59 cars were checked, and 79 out of 1,214 people had not paid when approached. Greene urged the conductors to work faster.

The only other fare changes during the life of the tramways were made in 1923, when on 4 April the penny stages from Seacombe were extended, the new limits being Trafalgar Road (S), Central Park Avenue (RL, WD) and Clifford Road (P). Other stages were lengthened similarly, the 2½d and 3½d stages being abolished altogether, and the through 5d fare on services P reverted to 4d. Some further stages were extended on 5 July.

Greene always opposed the concept of contract or season tickets, declaring that it would be impossible to prevent abuses and that if a high percentage of regular passengers switched to this kind of ticket it would seriously affect the revenue. Only Aberdeen and Blackpool still used them, leading in the latter case to an immediate increase in revenue of 13%. The free travel concession to military personnel was withdrawn in April 1921, but with free travel continued to be granted to disabled ex-servicemen.

Track and Cars

It was often said of Wallasey in post-war years that the cars were excellent, the track deplorable. This was partly due to divided responsibilities, the track being under the control of the Borough Engineer, whose estimates for work were often considered excessive by the Tramways Committee. In 1919 the committee wanted to relay the remaining five sections of heavily-used single line on route S, but owing to financial restraints imposed on all municipal departments the Borough Engineer opposed this and and recommended instead that the track should be treated by the Sandberg in situ hardening process and that the rail joints be electrically welded. In al, eight miles of track were dealt with by the National Welding Company over an 18-month period, starting in August 1920. The treatment offered a short-term solution, but was ultimately to lead to the abandonment of the tramway system when major track renewals could no longer be postponed some seven years later.

In one of his postwar reports Green had advocated the elimination of single track on Liscard Road and Seabank Road by reducing pavement width, purchasing frontages, obtaining owners' agreement to reducing the 9ft 6in distance from the kerb, or, in the last resort, ignoring the statutory requirements. Two short lengths of single line were doubled in 1929 (costing £4,316), over the railway bridge in Wheatland Lane and from Maddock Road to Manor Lane. Unfortunately plans to double the lengths from Hertford Drive to Cambridge Road were frustrated by residents who still refused to sell their frontages. At a later date, the Highways Committee successfully resisted a move by Coun. Meggeson to have the second track between Maddock Road and Manor Lane lifted on the grounds that it contravened the statutory 9ft 6in distance between rail and kerb; instead, extra street lights were provided to reduce the risk of accidents.

No further track improvements were possible on the S, but in December 1923 the Council received a grant from the Unemployment Grants Committee to meet 50% of the interest charges on a £21,477 15 year loan for doubling two sections of track in Rake Lane, where the old quarry was to be filled in and the road widened. Early in 1924 the short length of single track opposite Princes Road was doubled, with a new crossover south of Sandfield Road. This enabled football cars to lie over on the southbound track during New Brighton's football club's home games at Sandhey Park ground (opened in 1921) whilst service cars passed on the northbound track using the crossover at Earlston Road; New Brighton were then in the Football League and attracted sizeable crowds. An earlier proposal for a football siding on Seabank Road near Cambridge Road had been rejected. Next winter the very narrow portion of Rake LAne between Edinburgh Road and the Cemetery gates were widened to include double track, giving a continuous run from Liscard to Mount Pleasant Road. Falkland Road and parts of the New Brighton grid-iron were also relaid.

The tramcar works was handed back by the government in December 1918 and hurriedly equipped with new and secondhand machinery for use in over-taking the wartime arrears of maintenance. During 1919 the Council approved the purchase of 20 new cars similar to Nos 63-68, then in 1920 reduced the order to ten cars plus ten new bodies. This was then further amended in favour of an extensive rehabilitation programme, and selected cars from Nos 1-36 were stripped to their frames, some receiving new roofs, main pillars, waist and rocker panels. All had their upper decks strengthened, trucks, motors, controllers and brakes were thoroughly overhauled and worn parts replaced. The curtains and seat carpets were restored in some cars, but this was short lived.

When the first two of the ten new cars (No 69-70) were delivered in late July 1920 the cost had risen to £2,060 per car, and the final two delivered in October (77-78) cost £2,203. After assembly the average cost per car was £2,307 compared with £895 for similar cars 63-68 bought in 1915. They differed structurally only in having direct stairs, this at the insistence of the Board of Trade who had otherwise refused to sanction a £22,000 15-year loan. Car No 69 was pressed into service partially painted following a collision between Nos 17 and 34 in Warren Drive.

The state of the track in Liscard was the subject of many complaints, cars being described as swaying dangerously when crossing the junction. In July 1921 the committee rejected a claim for damage to a motor car caused allegedly by defective rails in Liscard Village, but they agreed to pay 8s 6d to a Mrs. Wells to clean her dress after the conductor of No 12 had spilt tea on it.

Council Motor Buses

In 1919 the manager proposed that the Council should apply for Parliamentary powers to run motor buses within the town. Thiswas granted, and the first motor bus route opened on 3 April 1920. It followed the S tram route from Seacombe to Manor Road,then along Manor Road to Liscard Village, continuing via Wallasey to Harrison; an earlier plan to run it purely as a feeder between Seabank Road (at Manor Road) and Harrison Drive were rejected. The trams were protected over common sections by higher bus fares, and the through fare was sixpence for a journey of 20 minutes. The vehicles six AEC "YC" 32-seaters with bodies by E & A Hora were noisy and uncomfortable, and represented no threat to the trams; Greene's successor described them as "vibrating monsters". In their first year the buses lost £9,000, but the Council was determined not to subsidise them from tramway profits.

The spare buses were used to assist the tramways when necessary, mainly during power shortages. In June and July 1920 they covered for pert-way duties on the S between Seacombe and Holland Road, operating 983 miles and carrying 11,654 people. They also worked on the P from Seacombe to St. Luke's Church and Harrison Drive. During the three-week national coal strike from 23 October 1920 they were drafted on to Seabank Road to supplement the trams between New Brighton ferry and Egremont when the New Brighton ferry was suspended (25-29 October) ; the service continued after the boats resumed, but was withdrawn a week later. A major power failure halted all trams at 8pm on 22 November 1920, one bus, running running on each of tram routes RL, WD and P and two on the S. Sufficient power was restored by 2.30am for the trams to return to the depot, the crews stranded for six hours in freezing weather, being sustained by food and drink provided by residents. Altogether the buses operated 1,914 miles on the S in October and November 1920 and carried 8,116 passengers. A second more damaging coal strike took place from 31 March to 4 July 1921, and after it was settled power costs rose to 1.94 pence per unit in 1922 compared with 1.4d in 1915.

After the 1920 power failures, the Council reluctantly agreed to allow private coach firms to provide temporary winter cover, but they were never used. However, the Council rejected an application by one operator to run a late-evening service for theatre-goers between the Winter Gardens adjacent New Brighton Station and Seacombe via Warren Drive. Instead, special P and WD trams were later provided to wait for theatre patrons.

With the availability of more reliable power, the trams were able to offer a full service, releasing the buses to develop more routes. On 19 March 1921 joint services were inaugurated with Birkenhead Corporation, and in 1922 four buses virtually identical with the first six were purchased from Liverpool Corporation. The ten solid-tyred AEC buses remained in use until 1926 and were replaced by ten Leyland Lion buses with pneumatic tyres and comfortable upholstered seats which were to play an important part in influencing local opinion in favour of the motor bus.

1923 saw the introduction of a circular boat-and-tram tour enabling passengers to travel for an inclusive one-shilling fare from NewBrighton to Liverpool and back to Seacombe by boat and then the P tram to New Brighton. 2,092 people were carried during the 1923 season from 14 May to 29 September, the ferries receiving 8d and the trams 4d. The tour was repeated each year until 1926. However, a suggestion that cars should run to meet the all-night boats were rejected in 1923 because the late cars run on election night had not justified the overtime paid to crews. An experiment to hold outbound WD cars at Egremont after 7pm to wait for passengers off the ferries was short-lived, and a suggestion for express cars between Seacombe and New Brighton via Seabank Road was rejected as impracticable.

Proposals were put forward in 1922 to link the Wallasey and Birkenhead tramways by a line over Poulton Bridge connecting Wallasey's route P with Birkenhead's Line of Docks and Claughton routes. Wallasey envisaged joint operation with Birkenhead and access to Woodside station, but the scheme failed and Wallasey turned to the motor bus, which could negotiate the dock estate with far less potential disruption. Passenger shelters were provided in 1923 at Mill Lane and at Earlston Road/Seaview Road. One was proposed for Church Road/Liscard Road, but postponed until a tram body was eventually used about 1931.

Under New Management

During the early 1920's R.R Greene was ageing and there is some evidence of inertia in the management of the Wallasey undertaking. Eventually he retired on 28 February 1923, aged 70, after 22 years' managerial service. He was awarded a pension of £286 per annum and a free pass for life. By 1923 most of the long-serving members of the Tramways Committee had gone - Augustine Quinn, C.J Woodroffe, F.E Howse, W.S Chanterell, A.H Evans and J.Farley. During their stewardship from 1902 to 1924, the department had contributed £144,398 to the relief of rates, equal to almost 9½% of the gross revenues.

The new manager, selected from 52 applicants and a short list of ten, was Herbert Harold Lincoln ("Hell-fire" Harry), an engineertrained at Birmingham and Huddersfield with steam, cable, accumulator and electric trams. At his previous post in Sheffield he had been responsible for building new cars. His salary on appointment was £550 per year. After taking the office on 1 March 1923, he soon clashed with some of the senior staff. The chief clerk, R.Samuel, who had held the post since 1901 asked for his job to be redesignated Assistant General Manager - he was moved to another corporation department. Doel, the car shed superintendent was placed on indefinite leave following a disagreement with Lincoln; his services were dispensed with on 31 December 1924. The newly appointed traffic superintendent, Mathews. was reprimanded for using disrespectful language to the manager, and on December 1924 the senior wages clerk was suspended for irregularities and asked to resign. Trotter Brown, the Tramways Committee chairman, supported Lincoln throughout and was determined to establish an undisputed chain of command.

Lincoln wanted to involve himself in all aspects of the undertaking and influence decision-making, instead of relying on the advice of his departmental heads. He particularly wished to gain control over any track reconstruction programme. However, despite considerable pressure from Trotter Brown and deputy chairman Samuel Panter Brick, the bid failed and the Borough Engineer remained in control of permanent way.

By the end of 1923, Lincoln had prepared a three-year programme aimed at overcoming the department's three main problems - track renewal, track doubling and car reconstruction. Meanwhile, the main feeder cables were renewed during the year and in some cases laid underground, £2,000 being spent on those linking Seaview Road substation with Mainwaring Road and Liscard. The substation at Seacombe was enlarged to cope with the increased demand. Steel tyred wheels became standard, replacing the last chilled-iron ones. During 1924 Lincoln was still attempting to alleviate the problems caused by the remaining lengths of single track, and one scheme envisaged a by-pass line in Liscard along Queen Street, Grosvenor Street and Martin's Lane to remove southbound RL and WD cars from the narrow stretch in Liscard Road. The plan would have cost £10,000, but met with opposition from traders and was dropped.

There had been several derailments on the worn out track in Liscard, and the Council agreed to renew it. As part of the abortive scheme to re-route southbound cars via Grosvenor Street, the north side of Liscard junction was relaid in March 1926 to include a double turnout from Seaview Road, into Liscard Village; the cost was £2,420, partly financed by an unemployment grant. the main renewal programme cost £21,862 (much over the £15,900 estimate) and provided a double track on the WD from Merton Road to Massey Park (but not as far as the depot) and from Earlston Road to Hose Side Road. A crossover for partway cars was added north of Earlston Road, and a passenger shelter was added in 1927.When this work was completed, the system comprised 8.42 miles of double track, 3.60 miles of single track and 0.9 track miles in the depot complex.

A major operation was mounted during the closure of Seacombe Ferry from noon on Saturday 2 May 1925 to 7am on Monday 4 May to facilitate the positioning of a new floating landing stage. Route S cars were terminated at Egremont, where there was an increased ferry service; RL cars worked to Egremont via Seacombe but returned to Liscard via Church Street, whilst the P and WD routes were combined to form a circular route linking Egremont with Poulton, Liscard and Harrison Drive. Another disruption of the service pattern was caused by a major fire in 1927 at the Gandy Belt factory, when heat melted the overhead in Wheatland Lane; the RL cars were diverted via Church Street and Falkland Road, the P terminated at Lloyd's Corner, and a shuttle operated between Lloyd's Corner and Liscard.

The financial year 1924-25 proved to be a watershed for Wallasey trams, when two proposals for tramway extension were rejected in favour of buses. Firstly, a double track line was envisaged along Leasowe Road towards Moreton, which was to be incorporated into Wallasey in 1926. Leasowe Road was being improved, but was already traversed (since July 1920) by Crosville buses running into Wallasey Village from West Kirby via Hoylake, Moreton and Leasowe, connecting for a while with P at St. John's Road. With the collapse of the Moreton tramway proposal, agreement was reached for Crosville to extend their buses to Liscard (The Queen's Arms) as from 13 April 1925, but they never succeeded during the tramway era in serving the ferry stations. In April 1928 Wallasey Corporation buses began running to Moreton, from both Seacombe and Liscard.

The other proposal was for double track to be laid from a point off Poulton Road along Gorsey Lane, a new highway under construction to link up with Duke Street Bridge and Birkenhead. This would have created a link between Birkenhead and Wallasey tramways, but the Dock Board refused to consider a cross-docks tramway over Duke Street Bridge. Still hemmed in by the dock estate, Wallasey turned to the more flexible motor bus, which could negotiate the dock estate unhindered, and made no further attempts to expand its tram system.

In the year 1924-25 the Borough Engineer's office produced a detailed plan for relying virtually the entire tramway system over an eight-year period from 1925 to 1933, at a cost of £194,850. The programme provoked considerable debate both in and outside the Council chamber on the long-term future of the trams, and Lincoln began work on a policy document detailing the alternative of tramway abandonment. Meanwhile some urgent track renewals were done, as already detailed. Most of the work done in 1926, which included repainting all the poles, was designed to relieve unemployment.

The last proposals for new tracks were contained in the Corporation's 1927 Act, which authorised two tram sidings, neither of which were built. The first, 96 yards of single track in Queens Road on the north side of the Town Hall, was intended for use in connection with special functions. The second was for a 100-yard six-car siding in Harrison Drive to allow part-way and private hire cars to wait without obstructing other traffic, extra cars turning on the crossover were causing congestion. Some cars were sent up Harrison Drive in reverse. In the Parliamentary submission it was stated that 30,000 passengers were carried to Harrison Drive by trams and buses during the weekend of 10-11 July 1926 and at August Bank Holiday the figure was 100,000, the trams frequently carrying over 90 people. The duty inspector could only despatch a car every five minutes, to prevent two heavily-laden cars ascending Broadway in close proximity.

The last length of track to be relaid was Demesne Street during 1927, at a cost of £5,200. Completed in October, it incorporated a new junction at Brougham Road enabling southbound cars to reverse in Brighton Street, thus making the Town Hall siding unnecessary. The Ministry of transport in 1927 sanctioned the borrowing of £16,000 to relay the Seabank Road line from Trafalgar through to New Brighton, including track-doubling, but the loan was never negotiated. Another proposal, to relay St. Paul's Road, Wheatland Road and Manwaring Road at a cost of £17,600, was postponed pending a decision on the future of the tramways. However, the worn-out curve from Wheatland Lane into St. Paul's Road was relaid for £180 in May 1929.

1927 was the year in which buses appeared on the tram routes on Sunday mornings. Demand for Sunday morning trams was small, and there were also religious objections. An experimental Sunday morning bus service at 20 minute intervals was run in September 1925 between Lloyd's Corner and Harrison Drive via Poulton and Wallasey Village, but was withdrawn for lack of patronage. From 1 August to 21 October 1926 15-minute Sunday morning tram services were run on all four tram routes between Seacombe and New Brighton, and despite being unrenumerative they were repeated from June to September in both 1927 and 1928. The buses were used in Winter; from 27 October 1927 buses were run over tram route S to Molyneux Drive, WD to Hose Side Road (via Wheatland Lane) and P to Harrison Drive. From 4 March 1928 the Seabank Road journeys were extended to New Brighton (the first Corporation buses to reach the resort). The Poulton buses were discontinued with the opening of new bus routes to Moreton on 1 April 1928, and the Hose Side Road bus was not resumed in October 1928.

The buses continued to erode tramway traffic. From 12 September 1927 a peak hour limited stop bus service was started between Seacombe and Harrison Drive via Poulton Road and Breck Road, taking only 13 minutes compared with 18 minutes on the bus via Liscard and 23 minutes on the trams. The introduction of buses to Moreton on 1 April 1928 provided all-day competition for the Poulton trams. Bus fares were generally reduced from the same date and tram fares revised on 16 April to eliminate anomalies, two 2½d stages being reintroduced on route P. A month later the 1½d of bus fare between Seacombe and Canterbury Road was discontinued, a 2d minimum fare being charged where buses duplicated trams. To revive Egremont ferry's flagging fortunes, a new all-day bus service was started on 10 June 1928 between the ferry and Albion Street (Hotel Victoria) via Penkett Road and Mount Road; this extended traffic from the WD and RL routes and to some extent from the S. Through bus and boat returns were introduced at 9d to encourage the further use of the ferry.

Trolleybuses

In July 1927 the first of several sub-Committees met under the chairmanship of Councilor Storey to consider to consider the future of the trams and the respective merits and demerits of buses and trolleybuses. The manager had estimated in March that capital expenditure on the trams during the next five years would be £150,000 for the new track and £24,000 for ten new cars. At this time the trolleybus was a serious contender for a prime role in local transport, and had the outspoken support of Councilor C.F.Rymer, an Independent member who was a motor dealer and held the agency for Tiling Stevens who had flirted briefly with the trolleybus.

Rhymer had tried to interest Wallasey previously in the trolleybus. He had set up a demonstration at Wigan in 1921, and arranged for the manager and members of the Committee to attend another at St. Helens on 26 November 1923. They were sufficiently impressed to ask him to organise a demonstration in Wallasey, and an AEC vehicle made a number of trips on 28 December 1923 along Brighton Street outside the Town Hall, with the positive boom on the tramway overhead and a negative skate trailing in the tram track.

Powers to operate trolleybuses as auxiliaries to the tramway system were included in the important Wallasey Corporation Act 1927 which also authorised the annexure of Leasowe and Moreton and the construction of the new promenade between New Brighton and Harrison Drive. The trolleybus routes authorised were from New Brighton to Harrison Drive then via Wallasey Village, Perrin Road, Broadway, Broadway Avenue, Belvidere Road and Wallasey Road to Liscard Village, a branch along the eastern arm of Broadway Avenue into the depot, and a link along Belvidere Road, Rolleston Drive and Sea Road back to the promenade. The estimated cost for the five mile route was £32,000 including £11,2000 for seven 36-seat vehicles, and fares were to be 1½d per mile. Only the Liscard-Harrison Drive section would have been operated throughout the year, the remainder being seasonal, a highly unrenumerative prospect.

No action was taken on this proposal, but in November 1929 Lincoln was asked to submit a report on the desirability of replacing the remaining trams and the Seabank Road buses with trolleybuses. He acknowledged that trolleybuses would continue to use municipally-produced electricity and their superior acceleration, silence and reliability, but condemned their inflexibility. He refuted arguments that the existing overhead poles could be re-used, and concluded by stating "In my opinion the Borough of Wallasey is not large enough for two distinct modes of transport and I would remind the Committee that we now have 56 motor buses". He added that to convert the S route to trolleybuses would have required 20 vehicles, plus special depot wiring, and there would have been limited use for surplus vehicle capacity outside peak hours.

However, this was not the end of the matter as the Corporation decided in 1930 to apply for powers to operate trolleybuses in place of trams. these were granted in the Wallasey Corporation Trolley Vehicles Order 1931, which authorised the use of trolleybuses on all the original tram routes and on a number of other roads which would have been useful as turning loops or alternative routes, viz, Borough Road, Oxton Road, Woodstock Road, Torrington Road and St. Hilary's Brow. The appearance of the statutory notices on the traction poles created the impression that the trolleybuses might appear at any moment. The Order envisaged a trolleybus fleet equal in size to the tram fleet - 77 vehicles - and empowered that Corporation to borrow £154,000 for purchase of trolleybuses and £26,103 for overhead and other equipment.

Despite continued fact-finding expeditions to trolleybus systems such as Wolverhampton, the powers were never exercised. The success if the motor bus undertaking and the lack of interest in trolleybuses shown by neighbouring Birkenhead put an end to these schemes. The arrival in Wallasey of efficient and comfortable motor buses epitomised first by the Leyland Lion and then the Leyland Titan inevitably influenced the debate on the future of the trams, and in the year when the last tram ran the title of the undertaking was changed to Wallasey Corporation Motors.

The last innovation on the tramways was the provision in April 1927 of postal boxes on cars, leaving New Brighton at about 9.30pm. They were attached to the front dash, and people would gather at stops to post their letters. They were a feature of Wallasey operation until about 1935.