Nottingham was first introduced to horse drawn trams on 17th September 1878 when the Nottingham and District Tramways Company opened its first routes from the City to Trent Bridge, although horse drawn buses were operational as early as 1848. 
Lace, textiles, tanning and brewing were the staple trades of the City in 1878, the Old Market Square was called the Great Market Place, and Boots the Chemists consisted of 2 shops on Goosegate.
Colour coding was introduced to Nottingham in 1881, yellow painted cars went to Trent Bridge, Red to Carrington and Dark Blue to Basford.
Electrification followed with the first Electric Trams operating in January 1901 and within 2 years over 100 trams were in service on 8 lines.
Drivers medicals are introduced in 1915 after a driver dropped dead at Bulwell before he took his car out. This was also the year that sun and rain blinds were introduced to help give the drivers some protection from the weather.
Child fares were introduced on January 18th 1919 for a 1/2d and the number of standing passengers was limited to 10.
A major expansion of the system became necessary and it was decided to use motorbuses and trolleybuses, three double deck motorbus’ were purchased to operate to Carlton, they were extremely uncomfortable and unreliable and were withdrawn in 1908 (Motorbuses were first introduced in 1906 and trolleybuses in 1927).
The Parliament Street depot as we know it today was opened in June 1929.
Transfer tickets (not a new idea) were extended in 1926 to cover the Bagthorpe and Sherwood trams.
After a visit to Birmingham in 1924 it was recommended to replace a single tramline route with trolleybuses, the first trolley bus operating in Nottingham in 11th April 1927, and by 1930 a number of routes had been converted from tram to trolleybus including Nottingham Road, Wilford Road and Wells Road.
Goose Fair moved from the Market Square to the Forest site in 1929, NCT will have provided the people of Nottingham with 75 years of service in 2004.
The summer of 1931 saw the issue of straw hats to all drivers and the introduction of late night services from dances, with some principal routes extended until 11.20pm.
The diesel bus had proved its worth and by 1935 there were no more conversions from tram to trolleybus, the trolley bus fleet having reached its peak at 106 vehicles – the largest fleet in the country. The trams finally gave way to progression with the last tram (to Arnold) running in September 1936. 
The 1939-45 war brought reduced services, and economy measures (including the trying of diluting diesel with creosote!) and blackout screens on vehicles. It wasn’t until after the war, that large deliveries of diesel buses took place, allowing the withdrawal of the last petrol engined buses. By the end of the 1950, trolley buses were in decline, the last new trolley bus joining the fleet in 1952 reaching a maximum fleet of 155 vehicles. The first one person operated bus appeared in 1951, although the driver was his own conductor!
Staff recruitment problems surfaced in 1953, newspaper ads and cards in bus windows had little effect, applicants over 40 years of age were now accepted, with the revised maximum age being 55. Some success was gained in employing students as conductors during their vacation.
Vandalism rose its ugly head in 1953 with employees being offered £10 to bring to notice cases of seat slashing which led to a conviction.
In 1954 guide dogs were allowed to remain on the lower saloon of all vehicles and heaters were installed in all cabs in 1956.
 Clifton Bridge was opened in March 1958 with the Clifton services being re-routed over the bridge, this also was the start of the works services to Players, Boots and Raleigh.
1963 brought the introduction of high capacity rear engined buses, being built with a new style body work built to Nottingham specification. Trolleybuses disappeared between April 1965 and July 1966, and the West Bridgford UDC Transport undertaking came under Nottingham’s control in 1968.
One-man operation came into force in January 1970 and by 1977 nearly all services were one-man operated, while November 1972 saw the first Park and Ride service operated.
1974 saw a name change to “City of Nottingham Transport” and by 1976 an all time high of 494 operated vehicles was reached.
1986 saw the deregulation of the industry under the Transport Act, and Nottingham City Transport Limited was formed. Deregulation saw the advent of the minibus and unregulated competition, of which Nottingham had some, but not as much as most cities. In 1988 the Company purchased Stevenson's Bus services at Ilkeston and formed a subsidiary company Erewash Valley Services Ltd, these services were integrated with the main company in 1990. In 1991, South Notts was purchased, giving a main route from  Nottingham to Loughborough and a garage at Gotham, and in 1997, Pathfinder (Newark) Limited was bought, giving a presence in the north of the County. Both fleet names and liveries are retained within the company. The City Council remained 100% owners, despite many offers to buy NCT, until 11th May 2001, when 5% of the ordinary shares, and convertible preference shares to a possible value of another 13% of ordinary shares, were issued to Transdev plc, a member (along with NCT) of the Arrow consortium, who were formed to facilitate the NET (Nottingham Express Transit), a return of the tram to the streets of Nottingham. What comes around, goes around… |
