NOW this is how a busy station interchange should operate...

This photo, taken in the 1920s, shows two trams parked beneath the city walls opposite the railway station. The one on the left was operating on the Fulford-Acomb route, the one on the right on the Haxby Road - South Bank route. Trams operated in York between 1910 and 1935. For most of that time, they were managed by York Corporation Tramways (YCT), although this merged with the West Yorkshire Road Car Company on April 1, 1934.

The caption to this photograph, which comes from Explore York's Imagine York archive, says that following a re-organisation of tram routes in 1918 there were 23 departures from each side of the city every hour. That meant a lot of trams stopping at the station. But, since they were all electric, they generated no pollution in the city centre.

In 1935, the decision was made to abandon electric trams, sadly: with results we're all familiar with today...

Stephen Lewis