Belfast Transport: From Horse Tram to Metro

• Many period photographs are previously unpublished
  
  
• Several ‘before and after’ photographs show how the city has changed
  
  
• This is the first book that covers the entire period of operation
  
  
• Fascinating glimpses into what might have been

Belfast Transport: From Horse Tram to Metro is the story of public transport in Belfast from the horse buses of the 1860s to the Metro system that was introduced in 2005. It is a fascinating story encompassing the change from horse buses to horse trams; the introduction of motor buses; thirty years of the trolleybuses; the closure of the tramways in the early 1950s; the closure of the trolleybus system in the late 1960s; and the total dependence on diesel buses.

The story is told mainly through pictures with extended captions, describing not only the vehicles, but also their physical and social contexts. It covers the period of civil disturbances known as ‘The Troubles’ from 1969 during which the Belfast Corporation and its successor Citybus lost staff, vehicles and millions of pounds. It covers managers such as Andrew Nance in the late 19th century, Werner Heubeck in the late twentieth century and Ted Hesketh in the early twenty-first century. Different men and different methods, but with the same purpose: to provide that best transport that they could in the climate in which they operated.

[custom_html] The story of Belfast Transport from the 1860s to the early 21st century.[/custom_html] 

[smallDescription]The story of Belfast Transport from the 1860s to the early 21st century.[/smallDescription]



[tabs] [tab title="AUTHOR(S)"]Mike Maybin had a varied career working as a social worker, lecturer and civil servant until retirement in 2006. His interest in public transport was as an enthusiastic amateur, although like many small boys of that era, he badly wanted to be a bus driver. Maybin has written several books on aspects of Belfast transport over the last twenty years, but this will be his first covering the entire period from the 1860s to the present. He is married with three grown-up children and three grandchildren, one of whom is being raised on buses and trains.


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