Smoking Restrictions on BCT Buses (and Trams)

[JLB]

I need help. I'm trying to relive a bus and tram trip to Cannon Hill Park that I made as a child in 1942 with my Dad and my Nan. Dad was a heavy smoker - would we have needed to travel on the upper deck ('on top') so Dad could smoke? When were smoking restrictions introduced?
I know we caught the No 32 tram from Lodge Road to Edmund Street, then the No 1 bus from Congreve Street to the park.
Thanks everyone.
John

 

[pjmburns]

Hansard 1962 (I was surprised it wasn't law before this date but it seems most bus companies did have a rule about smoking upstairs only).

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[mw0njm.]

i think it was up to the company to ban smoking

Perilous rules of the omnibus: from the archive, 25 August 1927

Manchester Guardian, 25 August 1927: Youthful and immature bus drivers race against other buses, smoke and gossip, to the danger of the public

www.theguardian.com

in 1964 The original decision to ban smoking brought many protests, and drivers and conductors at bus depots decided that they would not enforce the ban, nor would they accept any attempt to discipline any busman for failing to do so.

 

[Radiorails]

This goes a long way back before the 1960's. The Tramways Department Bye Laws and Regulations probably covered the topic in 1903 and in 1923.
JLB mentioned the Lodge Road tram, 32, service to Edmund Street. This route survived until March 1947 (saved from closure by WW2 in 1939) and was then replaced by bus route 96.

 

[JLB]

Thanks to all of you for your contributions.
I certainly remember there were smoking restrictions on the No 11 Outer Circle buses taking me to and from school in the 1950s. As schoolkids, we always scrambled upstairs, hoping to claim a prized front seat. We were ignorant of the dangers of breathing in the smoky fug.
I'm guessing that the same rules would have applied ten years earlier.
Incidentally, I regularly used the 32 tram, and later the 96 bus until I left the area in 1971.
John