Two different eras, two different systems, two different objectives. For those born after 1960 it is hard to picture a city like Johannesburg (today so dominated by motor vehicles) as ever having an extensive and fully fledged tram system. The Johannesburg Tramway Network operated between 1891 (initially horse-drawn) and 1961 where, after having been gradually replaced by the trolleybus system from 1936, it was eventually phased out. The blog Johannesburg 1912 provides a well researched and interesting short history of the Joburg tramways which we highly recommend for anyone interested in the tram topic in particular and Johannesburg history in general. Some great photographs and reflections can also be found in the excerpts of a 1961 ‘farewell to the tramcars’ article featured on the Heritage Portal. While running through some of the old photos in the post, we took a moment to reflect on the jestful quip; “we were so futuristic in the past, weren’t we!” The two-toned double-decker tram cars, with their overhead electric lines, ornate poles and dedicated lanes, juxtapose the sepia-toned scenes of old Johannesburg as transport time travelers; vehicles of a future world outlived in the past.

Flash forward to today, the emphasis of citywide public transport planning in Johannesburg in recent years gave us cause to compare the old tramway network against its closest contemporary ‘equivalent’, the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system. Finding an accurate map of the old Tramway Network was a little tricky, but we settled on a beautifully drafted Tourist Map of Johannesburg, sourced from the David Rumsey online historical map archive, which provided a good depiction of the network circa 1951. A 1929 Holmden Street map with the tramways physically drawn thereon was used as a cross-check in areas where it offered more detail than the Tourist Map. The tramways were digitized from the map using a GIS, distinguishing between: Tramcar Routes (yellow)

Trolleybus Routes (green) A base map was built using Mapbox with the data served and visualised through an interactive Carto map [see Map Inset]. Here you can pan and zoom to your own areas of interest, and display the various layers in combination using the legend. The BRT network layer as per 2014 was added as an overlay, distinguishing between: Trunk Routes (red)

Feeder Routes (blue)

Interactive Map: Tramways 1951 vs BRT 2014