December 15, 1929: The company running the Malta Tramways ceased its operations and ‘it-tramm’ was no longer to be seen on Maltese roads after this date. The company then went into liquidation the following year, leaving debts totalling about £15,000. The three tram lines operating from Valletta to Birkirkara, Żebbuġ and Cospicua. Photo: En-Wikipedia.org Malta had been served by a railway since 1883, but 1905 saw the beginning of another mode of public transport: the tramways. The intention behind its inception was to service areas that were not on the railway route. Preparations had been going on since July 2, 1903, when the local government gave a 99-year-long concession to Macartney, McElroy & Co. Ltd to run electric tramways on the island. A year and a half later, on the afternoon of Thursday, February 23, 1905, the Governor of Malta, Sir Charles Mansfield Clarke, declared the Malta Tramways open, while the dynamos to feed the power lines were switched on by Lady Clarke. Three hundred guests were then taken to Valletta in a convoy of trams, led by a suitably-decorated leading car. For the rest of the day, the public benefited from free transport. Thus a new form of...