commerce provided the impetus for increased hauls, which included passengers, though human traffic on the trams saw slow growth. The competition from rickshaws remained stiff. Nonetheless, the reduction in tram fares increased ridership to 32,000 in 1909; at the end of that year, the company was in the black – albeit with an ultra-modest profit of £134.26. The tram operators faced the strain of having to replace the tracks and maintain the generators. By 1913, all the tracks required replacement and the generators were worked to full capacity. The outbreak of the First World War restricted the overhauling efforts; by 1921, Singapore Electric Tramways was making losses of £50,000 annually. It sought professional advice from the successful Shanghai Electric Construction Company, and then undertook a complete rehabilitation in a last-ditch effort to keep the system alive. The trams were rebuilt and the fare scales revised. Fares for short-distance travellers (less than approximately 2.4 km) were reduced and the result was dramatic. There was a 235-percent increase in ridership and revenues increased by 95 percent. Singapore Electric Tramways saw a profit of £23,000 in 1923.28. Just as the system started becoming viable, however, the municipal commissioners refused to extend tramway concessions. They cited incompatibility of the parties’ interests over the state of the roads on which the trams ran and were embarrassed that the reconstructed tracks ran on fine, metalled surface while the outside lanes were battered. On 1 October 1925, the electric tramways was taken over by the Singapore Traction Company (STC), which was tasked to convert from trams to trolley buses. The last trams ran on the streets in 1927. Subsequent developments, 1910-1941 In 1904, the Sultan of Johore signed off a 194 km line between Gemas and Johor Bahru which was completed in 1909. There was now an almost continuous rail link between Singapore and Penang excluding the crossing of the Straits of Johor, which was served using two boats named Singapore and Johore. In 1913, the Singapore-Kranji Railway was sold off to FMSR at a price of $4.136 million in anticipation of eventual connections between the two railways. This connection was finally fulfilled in 1923 with the opening of the Causeway. From 1929 to 1932, the portion of the railway between Bukit Timah and Pasir Panjang was deviated from its original alignment to a new route running through Tanglin and Alexandra to Tanjong Pagar to eliminate the