.jpg){kind=link}
The story
Predecessors
HTM traces its origins back to 21 March 1864, when a group of English investors founded The Dutch Tramway Company Ltd. (DTC). Within five months, DTC constructed the first horse-drawn tram line in the Benelux along the Scheveningseweg in The Hague, including a depot and stables at the Badhuisplein. After DTC went bankrupt in 1866, several successor companies attempted to continue operations. The Belgian Société Anonyme des Tramways de La Haye (TH) acquired the concession and expanded the network, connecting The Hague’s city centre with the railway stations Hollandsch Spoor and Rijnspoor (later Staatsspoor, now Den Haag Centraal).
Formation
On 17 May 1887, the N.V. Haagsche Tramweg-Maatschappij (HTM) was founded with Dutch capital, taking over all rights and obligations from TH and accepting the conditions of the existing concession for tramway construction and operation in The Hague and its surroundings.
At that time, the network consisted of six horse-drawn tram lines. HTM began modernising the system, converting the horse-drawn line to Delft into a steam tram line in July 1887. The company also experimented with battery-powered trams from 1890, but these proved unreliable and noisy.
HTM developed plans for full electrification of the network, and after lengthy negotiations, the municipality granted HTM a concession to operate electric tram lines in 1904. The first electric tram ran on 6 August 1904, replacing the battery tram. By the end of 1926, HTM operated 16 tram lines with over 200 vehicles.
1927 - 2002
On 1 January 1927, the original HTM company was reorganised as N.V. Gemengd Bedrijf Haagsche Tramweg-Maatschappij (GBHTM), a mixed public-private company in which the municipality of The Hague held the majority of shares. The economic crisis of the 1930s forced HTM to postpone expansion plans and implement cost-saving measures such as one-man operation and the removal of trailers. Despite these challenges, some network extensions were realised.
During World War II, HTM’s tram network was severely affected by military operations and occupation policies. Fuel shortages made trams indispensable, and ridership soared, with 138 million passengers carried in 1943. However, maintenance was neglected, and many vehicles were requisitioned by the occupying forces. After the war, HTM rapidly restored and modernised its network, and expanded bus services to new residential areas. From the 1950s onwards, increased car ownership led to a decline in public transport use. Nevertheless, HTM continued to expand its bus network.
Since 2002
On 11 June 2002, the company adopted its current name, HTM Personenvervoer N.V. (lit. 'HTM Passenger Transport') The introduction of the Wet personenvervoer 2000 (Passenger Transport Act 2000) introduced market competition to Dutch public transport, but in The Hague, as in other major cities, the concession was directly awarded to HTM.
Since 2006, HTM has operated the RandstadRail light rail connection to Zoetermeer. From 9 December 2012 to 15 December 2019, city bus services were operated by HTMbuzz, a joint venture between HTM and Qbuzz. After this period, these services returned to the HTM brand.
Read the full text
In September 2012, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) announced its intention to acquire a 49% stake in HTM. The municipality of The Hague approved the sale in April 2013, with NS paying €45 million for the shares.
On 6 July 2016, it was announced that the municipality would buy back the shares from NS, and since 7 December 2016, HTM has been fully owned by the municipality of The Hague, with the Metropolitan Region Rotterdam The Hague (MRDH) holding a special share. On this date, HTM also obtained the rail concession for public transport in the region of The Hague for the period 2016–2026, later extended to 2031.
On 17 May 2017, the MRDH announced that HTM would be granted the bus concession for the region, effective from 8 December 2019 for the period 2019–2034.
From Wikipedia’s article on HTM Personenvervoer, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4