Search Results for 'Tramway Company'

The Galway and Salthill Tramway Company was inaugurated in 1877. The Town Commissioners gave the project every encouragement and extended the time limit in which the tracks had to be laid. The single tramline was two and a quarter miles long with eight passing loops, roughly 250 yards apart. The rails were heavy steel, the gauge was three feet wide and the trams were horse-drawn, there was no electricity in Galway for another 12 years or so. The cost of construction was £13,000. The depot was in Forster Street and the western terminus was opposite the Eglinton Hotel.

An entrepreneur named Mr Berry was probably one of the first people to organise buses in Galway. He had over a dozen horse drawn vehicles that plied regularly between Eyre Square and the Eglinton Hotel. The fare was one penny. Each vehicle was marked to carry a certain number of people and the police were vigilant to see that there was no overloading. In 1868 he bought a new bus that was allowed to carry inside and outside passengers. This could travel on longer excursions, to Barna and Oughterard, etc, but an accident on Knockbane Hill seriously affected his business.