The birthday of Hong’s Kong’s iconic tram
It is one of the most popular attractions among business travellers with an hour of free time to spend during their trips: Hong Kong’s Peak Tram. The tram, the first cable funicular railway in Asia, just celebrated its 130th anniversary.
Few people know that the tram was the idea of Scottish entrepreneur Alexander Findlay Smith. The tram was built to increase trade to Smith’s hotel, which stood at the top of The Peak. 600 people rode The Peak Tram on its first day of operation. In the first year it carried 150,000 passengers; in 2017, more than two million people took the journey up to The Peak
The original wooden tram held 30 passengers and was operated by coal and steam, and consisted of open rows of seats and an enclosed compartment for first class travellers. Later, the service operated green metal carriages; today, the trams carriages are red and can sit up to 120 passengers.
Further reading on travelweekly-asia.com
