In February 1872 a charter was granted to the form the New Bedford and
Fairhaven Street Railway. By September of that year horse drawn cars
were traveling over the old bridge and carrying passengers south from
Bridge Street to Ferry Street. In 1886, tracks were added from Bridge
Street north to Oxford Village and Riverside Cemetery. At the same time,
tracks were extended south on Main and Streets to Fort Phoenix. The
following year the New Bedford and Fairhaven Street Railway and the
Acushnet Street Railway were merged into the Union Street Railway Co.
In
1891, track was installed running east on Washington Street from Nye's
Corner (Main and Washington Street) to the Mattapoisett line. A separate
line ran from there to Onset.
Horse
cars were replaced by electric trolleys in 1895, five years after the
routes in New Bedford were electrified. In the mid-1930s bus routes
began to replace the trolley routes. The last trolley to run in
Fairhaven was on the North Fairhaven route which switched to a bus route
in June of 1940.
 |
| Horse Car #10 at
the intersection of Main and Oxford Streets ca. 1890. This trolley,
built the the J.G. Brill Co. of Philadelphia in 1880, is now at the
Seashore Trolley Museum at Kennebunkport, ME. |
 |
| This
photo, from Old-Time Fairhaven vol. 3 by Charles A. Harris, shows a
two-horse car on the Fort Phoenix line. Beginning in 1886, trolleys brought people by the
hundreds to the beach and the clambake pavilions located at the south end of Fort Street. |
 |
| An electric car on Main Street in front of Browne's Pharmacy in the 1920s. |
 |
| Electric open car at Fort Phoenix, 1935. Photo courtesy of David Despres. |
 |
| Electric cars at North Fairhaven, September 1938. |
