In 1875 White was working with some of the richest and most influential men in Bristol. William Butler was the chairman of the
Bristol Tramways Company who had already made a fortune in tar-distilling. Wholesaler Henry Gale Gardner and coal magnate Joseph Wethered were also on the board, and George White became the part-time secretary of the Bristol Tramways Company at a salary of £150 per annum. Over the next ten years, White grew his stockbroking firm, using money borrowed from Henry Gale Gardner's wagon-building company and working on behalf of the wealthy contacts he had already made including
Stuckey's Bank. White continued to become more prominent in the Bristol Tramways Company. The 1880s saw the tramway network in Bristol grow and demand for more growth was abundant. George White maintained a good public profile and worked the local press so that the working class districts of Bristol would see the benefits the trams would give them. In the more affluent
Clifton it was feared that the trams would bring in undesirable visitors and depress property values, resulting in the Clifton route being served only by horse omnibuses. In 1892 he also became involved in the
Imperial Tramways Company, which operated horse trams in
Middlesbrough,
Dublin,
Gloucester and
Reading, the
Corris Railway and, from 1894,
London United Tramways, which operated horse trams in
West London. In 1887 the Bristol tramways company was merged into the new
Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company with White as managing director after the company gained a monopoly on horse-drawn cabs travelling from
Bristol Temple Meads station. By 1889 the company owned 876 horses and by 1891 the combined tramways, cab and omnibus company provided 38 journeys per head of Bristol's population per year. In the 1890s White was an enthusiastic promoter of electric tramways together with the engineer
James Clifton Robinson, to cut the high costs and get rid of the dirty aspects of horse-drawn trams. Starting with a line in
Old Market and quickly rolling out the electric line to the existing tram system, as well as extending lines to
Fishponds,
Bedminster Down,
Knowle,
Brislington and
Hanham, which was completed by 1900. White's influence went far beyond Bristol. By 1892 he gained control of
Imperial Tramways Company which ran networks in Dublin, Reading and Middlesbrough. In 1894 White and Clifton Robinson formed
London United Tramways and created a major suburban transport system for the capital out of the derelict remains of the West Metropolitan Tramways Company. White also got himself involved in greater projects such as expansion of the Bristol & London & South Western Junction Railway, which involved using the tracks that the London and South Western Railway ran on for trains from
Waterloo. Whilst the venture did not come to fruition due to overwhelming opposition from Great Western Railway, it still increased White's profile and standing with Bristol's civic and commercial elite. By 1887, White was the largest shareholder in the Bristol Port Railway & Pier Company and launched an ambitious but unsuccessful project to link the city docks with the
Avonmouth Docks, opened only 10 years previously, to make a direct connection with the
Midland Railway at Bristol. White understood the importance of publicity and worked closely with his brother-in-law,
Edward Everard to publish illustrated guides and brochures to advertise his companies' services. White became Managing Director of Bristol Tramways in 1894 and chairman in 1900, a post he retained until his death. Under his leadership the company introduced motor buses in 1906, and began the manufacture of buses in 1908. It was renamed as the
Bristol Omnibus Company in 1957. == Motor vehicles ==