When the line opened, passenger services were provided by six trams a day in each direction, with the journey taking one hour in either direction. By October 1884 the tramway was carrying 3,000 passengers per week, while for fetes and other special events as many as 2,000 passengers a day were carried. The tram competed with the Wisbech Canal that also ran between Wisbech and Upwell. The canal was struggling financially when the tramway opened, and although there was some transfer of coal between the railway and canal at Outwell, the tramway gradually took its trade, and it closed in 1922. Trains on the tramway were limited to , and passengers could be picked up of dropped off at any point on the line. Most trains were mixed, with the passengers often having to wait while goods wagons were shunted. From 1904, the speed limit was increased to , and the trains only stopped at designated places, although this included a number of request stops, as well as the formal stations.