The Isle of Thanet Electric Tramways and Lighting Company operated a tramway service between
Margate
Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...
and
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town and civil parish in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in eastern Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2021 it had a population of 42,027. Ramsgate' ...
between 1901 and 1937.
History
Services started on 4 April 1901 on a route which ran from Canterbury Road, Margate, via
Cliftonville
Cliftonville is a coastal area of Margate in the Thanet District, Thanet district of Kent, England. It includes the Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay estate, built in the 1930s with wide avenues and detached and semi-detached houses with driveways, gar ...
, High Street
Broadstairs
Broadstairs () is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 ...
, Dumpton Park Drive, to a terminus at
Ramsgate Town railway station.
The main depot for the tramway was located at (at the foot of Northdown Hill where it has a junction with Westover Road, Northdown Road and what is now Dane Valley Road).
Electric power was supplied by
Thanet power station adjacent to the tram depot.
A smaller depot was located at at the terminus in
Westbrook.
Fleet
The initial livery was maroon and cream.
*1-40
St. Louis Car Company 1901.
*41-50
G.F. Milnes & Co. 1901
*51-60
British Electric Car Company 1903
Accidents

On 27 May 1905 car 47 failed to take a bend and came off the tracks into a grocer's shop in Bellevue Road, Ramsgate, seriously
injuring the driver, conductor and the grocer's 7-year-old daughter.
On 3 August 1905, car 41, during a routine descent of the precipitous, and adverse camber leading down Madeira Walk hill into Ramsgate harbour, suddenly careered out of control, jumping the tracks, causing it to crash straight through the railings, so that it then dropped over the cliff edge adjacent. Providentially, only a few passengers were travelling on car 41 that day, and they came out of the ordeal unscathed, but the driver, who was new to the job, sustained some injury.
Closure
The tramway service closed on 27 March 1937 but the company continued to supply electrical power to the district for domestic and commercial consumption.
References
External links
Margate Museum Factsheet: The Isle of Thanet Tramway System 1901–1937
{{Historic UK Trams
Tram transport in England
Margate
Ramsgate
3 ft 6 in gauge railways in England