Double decker bus on Gertrude Street, Fitzroy C.1953
The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board operated buses from the mid 1920s. In 1940 the Bourke Street cable tram routes to Northcote and East Brunswick were replaced by a fleet of 45 double deck buses (numbered 201 to 245). This is one of these buses, along with the disused cable engine house and abandoned cable tram tracks. Along Gertrude Street can be seen new M&MTB steel poles supporting new sodium vapour street lighting. The Board’s double deck buses were built on the Leyland Titan TD5c ‘Gearless’ chassis, a new development from the pre-war clash gearboxes. Unfortunately these buses proved unsuccessful. They were slow to load, carried less passengers than a tram, struggled on the Bourke Street hills and were expensive to operate. They were not popular with the travelling public and were replaced between 1949 and 1954 by single deck vehicles before electric trams commenced operations on these routes in 1955.