The story
Establishment
Oslo Tramway was established in 1875 as a horsecar network by Kristiania Sporveisselskab. In 1887 it rejected a proposal from L. Samson, a real estate developer, to build a line to his projects at Majorstuen. He contacted engineers H. E. Heyerdal and A. Fenger-Krog, the latter having studied tramways abroad. They submitted to the municipality a proposal that never expressed explicitly the form of power. At the time Europe had no electric tramways in operation. KSS retained it priority in laying new lines.
They received permission for two lines: from Jernbanetorget (the square outside Oslo East Station) to Majorstuen and a branch that would feed into the line from Inkognitogaten and Drammensveien to Skøyen, 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) of track. The city engineer initially discouraged overhead wires, but after his trip to Germany he relented. On 19 May 1892 the municipal council granted a 30 year concession; the municipality retained the right to municipalize the company at fifteen years or at the end of the concession.
The 800,000 Norwegian krone (NOK) worth of shares issued in October 1892 were totally subscribed in a month. Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei AS was incorporated on 16 December 1892. Heyerdal was chair of the board until his death in 1917 and Fenger-Krog was hired as managing director. Six companies bid to deliver trams and electrical equipment; Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft (AEG) won and delivered seven Class A motor trams and five trailers. In June 1893 the contract to lay the tracks was issued to H. W. Wessel. The company wanted the municipality to buy power from its Oslo Lysverker, but was rejected. Instead a municipal power station was constructed at Majorstuen where was constructed the first depot, a prefabricated corrugated galvanized iron structure from Germany. Investments totaled NOK 817,572.
Early operations and expansion
Test runs started on 10 January 1894. The official opening of the first Nordic electric tramway took place on 2 March 1894 and ordinary operation commenced the following day. It was the seventh electric tramway in Europe in operation. Public sentiment concerned the reaction of horses (particularly those of KSS) toward horseless trams. When the horses seemed to cope with the new vehicles the union's proposal that trams have mounted on lead vehicle fronts stuffed horses was disregarded. Trams originally headway was every six minutes, but the pace proved difficult to maintain and it was increased to eight-minutes.
Other changes in operation included separating motorman driving and fare collection it immediately inefficient so conductors were hired. A bottleneck developed between the Skøyen Line and the Briskeby Line at Parkveien, as trams from Majorstuen were full and most passengers were forced to walk into town. In April KES introduced an express line from Skillebekk on the Skøyen Line to Jernbanetorget. The company soon found they had too few trams and four were delivered by year's end. The Skøyen Line was extended to Frognergaden on 31 December.
The original network was entirely single track with passing loops but express trams led to increased traffic. In 1896 KES applied for permission to lay double track from Parkveien to Jernbanetorget. A stipulation of the permit was the municipality bought newly issued shares for NOK 200,000 owning a fifth of the company. Work commenced in 1898, which also included moving the tracks from Parkveien to Inkognitogaten and from Bogstadveien to Valkyriegaten. In 1898 the double track opened to Majorstuen, and in three years the Skøyen Line. The latter included an extension to Thune.
The company gradually expanded its fleet and by 1898 it had taken delivery of twenty-one Class A trams and twelve trailers. A year later a further six trailers were delivered. Jørgen Barth took over as managing director in 1898. The same year the Holmenkollen Line opened and at Majorstuen there was a transfer between the trams of KES and Holmenkolbanen. The company took delivery of its first nine larger Class U trams in 1899. This was followed by a further five in 1902 and another five each in 1905 and 1906. From 1901 KES introduced regular stops instead of stopping on signal.
The company's next task was extending the Skøyen Line and building a route via Frogner plass to Majorstuen. The KSS permit to extend its Vestbanen Line to Frogener was contingent on a construction start in 1901. That failure caused the municipality to offered KES the permit. The first phase of the Frogner Line, from Parkveien to Frogner plass, opened in October 1902 and KES was paying an eight percent dividend. The Skøyen Line, which was at the time named the Bygdøy Line, was operational to Skøyen on 21 June 1903. There was little investment the following years, although in 1907 and 1908 the company built double track to Frogner and to Thune. By 1907 the company had an annual revenue of NOK 700,000.
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Later operations
KES was evaluated at NOK 3 million in 1908 and the fast approaching maturity of 1909 municipal buy-out stipulation. Sentiment was prevalent during the 1899 establishment of the municipal-owned Kristiania Kommunale Sporveie and the 1905 sale of it to KSS. By 1908 a strong Conservative majority in the city council, quelled similar high-profile debate about tram munisipalization. Instead the municipality negotiated for itself a four percent share of the company's gross revenue, increasing to five percent from 1914.
The power station efficiency was improved in 1909, cutting the coal usage from 4.0 to 1.3 kilograms (8.8 to 2.9 lb) per kilowatt hour. The company decided identified the need of enclosing the tram's open platform bays chiefly by the purchase of new rolling stock. The final five Class U trains were delivered in 1909, bringing the total to twenty-four. One issue that developed was the tram size based on a perceived belief of a wheelbase not exceeding a tenth of the minimum curve radius. When this proved wrong larger trams were delivered in 1909: eight Class SS trams. Deliveries resumed in 1912 and in the following two years a further twenty-six Class SS units followed.
In 1909 when KES introduced numbered routes, being the first of the two companies to do so, secured them the lowest digits. The Briskeby Line was Line 1, the Frogner Line 2 and the Skøyen Line 3. From 1910 the increased rolling stock allowed most routes to reduce headway to five minutes. KES and KSS reached an agreement in 1912 to better coordinate their services. This first materialized in a connecting line in Hegdehaugsveien, which allowed trams to run from Stortorvet via the Ullevål Hageby Line to Majorstuen. At Skillebekk a connection was built through Munkedamsveien, allowing the Vestbanen Line access to the Skøyen Line. In conjunction with the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition at Frogner, the Frogner Line was opened along Kirkeveien to Majorstuen on 15 May 1914. In September a new depot opened at Majorstuen, with place for 75 vehicles—the largest in Scandinavia.
The third connection opened in 1915, linking Jernbanetorget to the Kampen Line and the Vålerenga Line through a connection along Vognmannsgata, Brugata and Vaterland Bridge. By 1915 the street tram network consisted of thirteen services, of which two were operated by KES and six were joint operations. All services via Homansbyen and Frogner to Majorstuen were joint services. The joint services were operated the relative number of trams in proportion of the ownership of trackage along the line and where each company simply kept the revenue it created on their services. The first women conductors were hired in 1916. Ten older Class A trams were rebuilt with larger wheelbase and bodies in 1918 and 1919, supplemented by 37 new motor trams and 56 new trailers.
From the company's opening it had charged 10 øre ride fare, but this was raised to 15 øre in 1918, a price which would remain unaltered for the rest of its history. To ease management of such an odd amount, token coins were popular. They were sold with a quantity discount and were commonly used in Oslo as a conventional coin worth 15 øre. During this period the country was experiencing inflation. KES and the labor union could not reach an agreement for wage increases and the company was hit by a strike from 11 January to 22 March 1920. It was resolved through the municipality offering to reduce its charges. As part of the agreement, the 5 øre commuter prices in the morning and afternoon were abolished.
The company started looking into a further extension of the Skøyen Line in 1912, intending to reach Bestum and Øraker. They applied for a permit in 1913, which was issued in July 1915. KES immediately started construction of the Lilleaker Line. Trial runs were carried out on 8 May 1919 and the line officially opened to Lilleaker the following day. Unlike the rest of the network, the Lilleaker Line was built as a suburban light rail, running on an exclusive line rather than in the streets. KES started planning further extensions in 1917 and received permission in 1921 to extend the line to Avløs.
Municipalization
KES and KSS both had concessions which expired on the same date, in March 1924. At this point the municipality was free to purchase the companies at par value. A municipal committee was appointed in 1922 to look into the matter. KES was valuated at NOK 9 million, while KSS was worth NOK 12.5 million. Oslo Municipality was not interested in taking over the Lilleaker Line, as it was situated in the neighboring municipality of Aker. The committees majority proposed a merger and that KSS received a prolonged concession, while the minority recommended that the tramways be bought by the city. A third option, a jointly public and privately owned company, was also proposed, where the municipality would own fifty-one percent.
The issue was considered by the council's executive board, which supported the joint public–private proposal with eleven against nine votes. The argumentation was largely ideological: the left side accused the right for bringing economical advantages for private investors, while the right accused the left of insufficient financial investigations of municipal operations. The issue was voted on in the municipal council in December, with 43 against 41 councillors supporting the joint model. The latter were members of the Communist Party and the Labor Party, who both were in favor of a municipal take-over. The new company, Kristiania Sporveier, was incorporated in May 1924 and took over all street tram operations. The city changed its name to Oslo on 1 January 1925, as did the tram company.
With the municipalization, most of the assets were transferred to Oslo Sporveier. The exception was the Lilleaker Line, which was kept by the private company. That part was changed into a new tram company, Bærumsbanen. The street trams were transferred to Oslo Sporveier, although a few were kept until 1 July, when the Lilleaker Line was extended to Bekkestua. One the same day it took into use twelve Class A suburban trams.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3