Grand Parade, Cork City
View of the Grand Parade in Cork from the early 1900s. A tram can be seen taking a corner before the river.
Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.Grand Parade, Cork City
Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.
Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.
Grand Parade, Cork City
View of the Grand Parade in Cork from the early 1900s. A tram can be seen taking a corner before the river.
Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland.First Cork Trams
Like most of Ireland's major cities and towns, traffic congestion is a problem in Cork. Too many cars in the city centre cause traffic jams and pollution. A tram system, like Dublin's Luas, has been proposed as one solution to traffic congestion in the city.
A tram system for Cork is not a new idea. In the 1860s, an American named George Train drew up a plan for a tram system in the city. His plan was to link the railway stations with horse-drawn trams. His idea was put into practice in 1872 by the Cork Tramway Company. Rather confusingly, the trams were popularly known as 'Train cars', in honour of the man who brought the first trams to Cork.
The system set up by George Train did not survive for very long. The horse-drawn trams were not very popular. Just three years after they first appeared, these trams disappeared from the streets of Cork city.