Madras ran electric trams for 58 years, from 7 May 1895 until 12 April 1953, and at their peak about 97 cars on roughly 24 km of track carried around a lakh of passengers a day. When the company went bankrupt, the city switched to buses almost overnight, and very little of the system survives above ground.
With Chennai Metro’s Poonamallee to Vadapalani stretch opening on 11 October 2026, it is a good moment to look back at the city’s first rail transit on its streets: where the lines ran, why they shut, and what you can still trace.
From horse cars to electric trams
The first attempt used horses. The Families in British India Society records a horse-drawn tram from 1874, on about 11 miles of metre-gauge track, which by 1886 was being called a dismal failure. A London company, the Madras Electric Tramway Company, was registered on 2 April 1892, construction began in 1894, trial runs started in February 1895, and public service opened on 7 May 1895 with seven cars. The same record describes it as the first electric tram system in India.
The network grew fast. By 1905 it had about 21 km of route and 51 cars, and by 1921 it reached its peak of 97 cars on 24 km of track. DT Next gives the same peak figures, and says cars came in two lengths, 50 ft and 35 ft, each carrying up to about 150 people. Accounts of speed vary between about seven and ten miles an hour.
Where the trams ran
The backbone was a north to south line. A Madras Musings reader history describes it running from Parry’s Corner past the Central station area to Luz junction in Mylapore, with an east to west line from Central to Roxy cinema at Purasawalkam, and shuttles between Parry’s Corner and Royapuram and between Luz and San Thome.
- Main line: Parry’s Corner, Central, Mount Road, Royapettah, Luz.
- East to west: Central to Purasawalkam.
- Shuttles: Parry’s Corner to Royapuram; Luz to San Thome.
- Other streets named in accounts: Westcott Road in Royapettah, and Triplicane, where shorter cars served the crowded lanes (Madras Musings, 2020).
Trams ran from sunrise until after ten at night. The 2018 account recalls a ride from Sripuram to Parry’s taking almost an hour for two annas, and a Sunday ticket allowing unlimited rides for four annas. The tram sheds stood at Egmore and Mylapore; the Mylapore shed was at the junction of today’s Thiru Vi Ka Road and Radhakrishnan Salai.
Why the trams stopped
The end was financial, and it was political too. According to DT Next, the operator said it was losing ₹50,000 a month by the late 1940s. Its power came from the electricity company, which the government took over; charges were raised and a 50-year contract was set aside, which the company protested in a July 1949 petition. It then tried to cut 300 jobs. The two tram unions, one of them a Congress union led by R. Venkataraman, who later became President of India, opposed the cuts.
Meanwhile, buses, cars and suburban trains were growing after the war, and trams looked dated. The company went bankrupt around 1950, a receiver was appointed for the debenture holders, and the government showed no interest in running the system itself. Service ended on 12 April 1953. DT Next reports that 1,651 workers lost their jobs and that extra buses were put on tram routes as a stopgap.
Traces you can still find
Almost nothing physical remains, which is partly why the trams are so often forgotten.
- Rails under the roads: lifting the rails cost too much, so they were left in place for years after 1953, catching cycle and rickshaw wheels. Most have since been buried under repeated relaying of roads.
- Route lines: the main line’s path from Parry’s to Luz is still one of the city’s busiest bus corridors, and Phase 2 Metro Corridor 3 now runs under parts of Mylapore that the trams once served.
- Depot sites: the Mylapore shed location at the Thiru Vi Ka Road and Radhakrishnan Salai junction is a useful marker for anyone walking the old route.
- Photographs: wartime images taken by US servicemen are held in the Hensley and Bond Collection at the University of Chicago, as noted by Madras Musings.
For original paperwork such as the tramway concession, company petitions and government orders on the closure, the Tamil Nadu Archives at Egmore is the place to search, under the rules for records more than 30 years old.
Quick answers
When did trams start in Chennai?
Electric trams began public service on 7 May 1895, after a horse tram from 1874 had failed.
When did the last tram run?
The system closed on 12 April 1953.
Why did Madras stop running trams?
Mounting losses, higher power charges after the government took over the electricity company, failed job cuts and competition from buses left the operator bankrupt, and the state chose not to take it over.
How big was the network?
At its 1921 peak, about 97 cars ran on roughly 24 km of track, and daily ridership has been put at around one lakh.
Information checked against official sources on 18 October 2026. Fees, dates and rules can change; confirm on the linked official pages before acting.
Sources
- Madras Tramways (Families in British India Society)
- The day the trams stopped chugging for Madras’s one lakh daily commuters (DT Next, April 2020)
- Metro’s ancestor remembered (Madras Musings, February 2018)
- The vanished gentleman of the road: remembering the Madras tram (Madras Musings, May 2020)
- Research Rules (Tamil Nadu Archives and Historical Research, Government of Tamil Nadu)
