Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board

Government owned authority in Victoria, Australia

The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) was a government owned authority that was responsible for the tram network in Melbourne, Australia between 1919 and 1983, when it was merged into the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It had been formed by the merger of a number of smaller tramway trusts and companies that operated throughout the city.

The MMTB commenced operations on 1 November 1919, taking over the cable tram network with 44 route miles of track, 539 grips cars, 485 four wheel trailer cars, 58 double bogie trailers, 11 engine sheds and 15 carriage sheds. On 2 February 1920, it took over the six suburban electric tramway trusts, which were dissolved later that month. The MMTB took over the North Melbourne Electric Tramway & Lighting Company's tramways operation on 1 August 1922, and its lighting undertakings on 21 December 1922. Most of the cable tram system was converted to electric tramways (such as the tram lines along Swanston Street and Elizabeth Street), but the routes to West Melbourne (along Spencer Street to the current route 57), Port Melbourne (the original line on street, not the current light rail line), Collingwood (along Johnston Street from Lygon Street to Johnston Street Bridge) and Carlton North (a branch off the Johnston Street line along Rathdowne Street to the end of it near the Inner Circle Line), along with the Lonsdale Street line in the city and other short sections were converted to motor buses. Trams would only ever return to the Bourke Street lines and La Trobe Street lines in the 1950s.

The MMTB was established under the Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Act 1918 (No.2995). The seven members of the Board, including a chairman and a deputy chairman, were appointed by an order of the Governor in Council dated 22 July 1919. The inaugural chairman was Alexander Cameron who had been chairman of the Prahran & Malvern Tramways Trust. The MMTB was an independent statutory body which reported to the Minister of Public Works until 1952 and subsequently to the Minister of Transport.

Five people held the role of MMTB chairman from 1919 when the MMTB was established to 1983 when it was absorbed by the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Alexander Cameron – 1919 to 1935. Robert Risson – 1949 to 1970. Francis Kirby – 1970 to 1976. Dudley Snell – 1976 to 1983.

The MMTB's main maintenance facility was Preston Workshops, with depots at Brunswick, Camberwell, Coburg, East Preston, Essendon, Footscray, Glenhuntly, Hawthorn, Kew, Malvern, North Fitzroy, South Melbourne and Thornbury.