Trams in Europe

A tram in Innsbruck

In Austria, Gmunden, Graz, Innsbruck, Linz and Vienna all have tramway systems. With 173.4 km of track, Vienna's network is one of the largest in the world. The cars have been constantly modernised over the years and many are now ultra low-floored.[7] Many of the Austrian tramlines have been in constant operation since they were first opened. Vienna started with horse trams in 1865 and electrification followed in 1897. Graz had horse trams in 1878 and electric cars in 1898 while Linz goes back to 1880 with electrification in 1897.[8] The Gmunden Tramway, only 2.3 km long, is currently one of the shortest in the world, and with gradients of up to 9.6%,[9] it is also one of the steepest and has become a popular tourist attraction.[10] Innsbruck, which traditionally used second-hand trams from other cities, replaced its whole fleet with 32 Bombardier low-floor cars in Summer 2009.[11] The Pöstlingbergbahn, in Linz, an unusual "mountain tramway", has a gradient of 10.6%, which makes it one of the world's steepest gradients on a surviving adhesion-only railway.[12] The tramway now reaches the city centre via the tracks of the urban tram system.

There are four tram systems in Belarus currently: Minsk, Mazyr, Novopolotsk and Vitebsk.

The Belgian Coast Tram near Ostend.

In Belgium an extensive prewar system of tram-like local railways called Vicinal or Buurtspoorweg lines used to exist, which had a greater total route kilometre length than the main-line railway system. The only survivors of the Vicinal system are the Kusttram, the longest tram line in the world, which almost reaches France at one end of the line and the Netherlands at the other, and two short lines that form part of the Charleroi Pre-metro.

Urban tram networks exist in Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels, and are gradually being extended. In Liège a new tram line is currently under construction.

A Sarajevo tram

Sarajevo was not the first city in Europe to have a full-time (from dawn to dusk) operational electric tram line despite the claims on several websites. The electric tram started in Sarajevo only in 1895,[13] which was much later than the first line in Austria-Hungary Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram that was opened in 1883 in Vienna. It was the first tram in the world in regular service that was run with electricity served by an overhead line with pantograph current collectors. Sarajevo was among the pioneers but not the first.

Several trams were badly damaged during the Bosnian war. Several European countries donated out of use trams to Sarajevo in the years after the war.

Recently, more modern vehicles have arrived to upgrade and expand the fleet.

A tram in Sofia

Sofia had its first horse-drawn tram in operation in 1898. On 1 January 1901 the electric tram system was inaugurated and had 25 cars and 10 carriages and the total length of the lines was 25 km. Currently Sofia's extensive tram network consists of 16 routes, 3 of which are operated on standard gauge. Due to the construction of the Sofia Metro there were some closures and retracing, but the system continues to be one of the largest in Europe. According to the official website, as of 2006 there are 308 km of track, with 190 trams in service on any given weekday.[14]

Crotram low-floor trams in Zagreb, Croatia.

Zagreb has had a tram service since 5 September 1891; it is now an extensive tram network with 15 day lines and 4 night lines covering over 116 km (72 mi) of tracks through 255 stations. ZET, the major transit authority in Zagreb, ordered 210 new, 100% low-floor trams from Croatian consortium Crotram. As of 2010, all of these locally produced, low-floor Crotram trams have been delivered, with a mixture of vehicle types in operation, including Czech Tatra Cars and various locally produced trams. Zagreb is one of the few tram networks in the world where most of the operations run at the kerb.

The only other Croatian city with trams still in operation is Osijek. The first tram route commenced in 1884 (connecting the railway station and city square) and trams have been running since. Between 2006 and 2007, the trams were refurbished and modernised. Two lines presently exist, with another two extensions planned, doubling the network length.

Dubrovnik, Opatija, Pula and Rijeka previously also operated trams.

Ostrava tram VarioLF3 in its traditional blue-and-white colour combination.

The Czech Republic is well known for its extensive tram infrastructure, with trams often being present even in small cities. The largest network is in Prague, with 141 kilometres of track and 35 lines, including 9 night lines. Other cities with tram systems are Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň, Olomouc, Most and Litvínov (common network), Liberec (including intercity line to Jablonec). Tram networks in nine other cities were closed down mainly during the 1960s and replaced with trolleybuses or buses.

Before changes in 1989, ČKD Tatra in Prague was the largest tram producer in the world, mainly exporting its trams to Soviet Bloc countries. Production was definitely stopped in 2001, after ČKD was sold to Siemens AG. The tradition of tram production is continuing with Škoda Transportation, Inekon and PRAGOIMEX.

A system is in operation in Aarhus, the Aarhus Letbane where a new town tramway is combined with converted local railways, starting operation in 2017[15] As of March 2018, only a part of the new line had been opened. The rest of the new line together with the converted lines is still waiting for opening. [16] Construction has also already begun of the tramway system in Odense with expected completion in 2021.

Tatra KT4 tram in Tallinn.

In Estonia, trams are used only in the capital, Tallinn. There has been a growing tram network in Tallinn since 1888, when traffic was started by horse-powered trams. The first line was electrified on 28 October 1925. Estonian-built electric trams were also used, with some gas-powered trams having been used in the 1920s and 1930s. The last part of the system to be electrified was the spur to Kopli in 1951, which was also converted to double track at the time, and was connected to the rest of the network in 1953.

From 1955 to 1988, German-built trams were used. The first Czechoslovakian-built tram arrived in 1973. In 2007, 56 Tatra KT4SUs, 12 KTNF6s (rebuilt KT4SUs) and 23 second-hand KT4Ds trams were in use. There are four lines, with total length of tramlines 39 km. Plans have been in the works since the late 1970s to open a light rail line from one of the suburbs, Lasnamäe, to the city centre.

In 2017, an extension was opened to Tallinn Airport. This is the first extension to the network since 1955, when the stretch to Ülemiste district was lengthened.

The track and electrical systems have also undergone major work to enable the system to accommodate 20 new vehicles delivered by CAF in 2016.

Old style Valmet trams in Helsinki

In Finland, there have been three cities with trams: Helsinki, Turku and Viipuri. Only Helsinki has retained its tram network. The system has operated continuously since 1891 and it was fully electrified by 1901. Currently there are 12 tram lines on 89.5 kilometres of track. Around 200,000 passengers use the tram network each weekday and within the inner city of Helsinki trams have established a position as the main form of public transport. The network is being actively developed, with a new line opened in 2008 and more lines planned to connect new residential areas to be built in 2009–2015. In 2009, the city invited bids for manufacturers to produce 40 new low-floor trams, with an option for further 50 available.

The City of Tampere begun construction of a tram network in late 2016, with phase 1 from the city centre to Hervanta, and the University hospital. The first phase of the tram system is scheduled for completion in 2021, with services expected to begin in the same year. Construction of phase 2, from the city centre to Lentävänniemi is expected to begin in 2020.[17]

The cities of Oulu and Turku have started the planning of tram networks. Turku has accepted The Light Rail Network of Turku's principal plan as obeyed normatively.[18] Even though Oulu's vice mayor rejected the idea,[19] the city included it in The Zoning Scheme of New Oulu as "normative" and "necessary".[20]

Trams in Besançon, France.

Despite the closure of most of France's tram systems in previous decades, a rapidly growing number of France's major cities boast new tram networks, including Paris (the largest French network), Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Montpellier, Saint-Étienne and Besançon. Since the 1990s, tram systems have been introduced, or expanded, in twenty-seven towns and cities. Many experiments, such as ground level power supply in Bordeaux, avoiding the need for overhead line equipment, or trolleybus-tram-BRT hybrids in Nancy and Caen with Bombardier Guided Light Transit. Smaller cities like Avignon are now planning tram lines.

Five generations of trams in Berlin, Germany.

Tramways in Germany served as the primary means of urban transport until the early 1960s when they were systematically replaced by buses. Tramways begun to reappear in the 1980s, before once again becoming a modern means of public transport in the 1990s. Popular notions of fashion have been used by scholars to explain this cycle of acceptance rejection and restoration.

Germany (where tramways are referred to as Straßenbahn, meaning street railway) is notable for its large numbers of extensive tram systems, although even in this country many systems were closed after the Second World War, such as the tramway in Hamburg which last ran in 1978. Following the renaissance of trams in France and positive experience with tram-train and similar concepts (e.g. the Karlsruhe model), most German tramways are expanding, including new systems in cities that had previously abandoned them or entirely new systems in cities without any tram history.

Stadtbahn, literally city railway in the German language, is the term for light rail in Germany and is the predecessor of the North American light rail. Most German light rail systems were started in the 1960s and 1970s with the intention of establishing full-scale underground, or U-Bahn (short for Untergrundbahn) systems. By the 1980s virtually all cities had abandoned these plans due to the high costs of converting tramways, and the most common systems are a mixture of tramway-like operations in suburban areas, with U-Bahn style operation, featuring underground stations, in the city centre areas..

Tram in Athens, Greece.

Trams were the main mode of mass transportation in Athens and Thessaloniki before World War II.

The first trams in Athens begun operating in 1882. They were light vehicles drawn by three horses running on an extensive network throughout the city centre and a line reaching the suburb of Faliro. After the German occupation the tramways begun to decline, with lines gradually abandoned and replaced by trolleybuses, considered more appropriate and agile for the urban environment at that time. It is frequently mentioned somehow poetically that "The last bell of the Athens Tram rang on the midnight of October 16, 1960". The tram had been a trademark of Athens until that date, and it is still viewed nostalgically. One tram line was left in Perama, which remained in operation until April 1977. A modern tram line was installed for the 2004 Summer Olympics, with vehicles designed by the famous Ferrari designer Sergio Pininfarina. There are three routes and 24 km of tramlines, running from Syntagma Square to Eden Station, and from Peace & Friendship Stadium in Piraeus to Glyfada along the coast. Routes were extended by 0.7 km from Glyfada to Voula in 2007, and will expand 2.5 km further from Peace & Friendship Stadium to Piraeus centre by 2017.

The Hungarian cities of Budapest, Miskolc, Debrecen and Szeged currently have tramways. The Budapest network, at 156 km, is the backbone of the capital's transit system and is by far the most extensive in the country.

Historically, Hungary has had tramways in Sopron until 1923, Pécs until 1960, Nyíregyháza until 1969 and Szombathely until 1974.

The Luas in Dublin, Ireland.

Replacing a once-extensive network of Dublin tramways which closed in 1949, in 2004 the Irish capital Dublin opened the first two lines of a new light-rail system known as Luas, Irish for "speed". It features on-street running in the city centre, but is considered a light-rail system as it runs along a dedicated right-of-way for much of its suburban route. Two light-metro lines fully segregated from traffic were planned to be built by 2014, but were cancelled due to the economic downturn.

Plans also exist for light-rail systems in the cities of Cork, which had a modest system until the early 20th century, and Galway. In January 2007, the Green Party promised that, if it formed part of the next government in 2007, it would have light rail systems built in those two cities.[21] A smaller campaign was also ongoing for the construction of a light rail system in Limerick.[22]

#8 Tram in Rome, Italy.

Trams in Italy have been in constant operation since the mid-19th century. The first horse-drawn line opened in Turin in 1871, whilst the first electric line was opened in 1893 in Milan.

Current tramways in Italy are:

• Bergamo – since 2009 with 1 suburban light rail line running over 12.5 km of track, operated by TEB Bergamo.
• Cagliari – since 2008 with 2 suburban light rail lines running over 12 km of track, operated by ARST.
• Florence – since 2010 with 2 urban lines running over16.8 km of track, operated by a joint venture GEST between municipal transport company ATAF Firenze and RATP Paris.
• Messina – since 2003 with 1 urban line running over 7.7 km of track, operated by ATM Messina.
• Mestre/Venice – since 2010 with 1 urban line running over 7.7 km of track, operated by ACTV.
• Milan – since 1881 with 17 urban lines and 1 interurban line, running over 181 km of track, operated by ATM.
• Naples – since 1875 with 3 urban lines running over 11.8 km of track, operated by ANM Napoli.
• Padua – since 2007 with 1 Translohr urban line running over 10.3 km of track, operated by APS Padova.
• Palermo – since 2015 with 4 urban lines.
• Rome – since 1877 with 6 urban lines running over 40 km of track, operated by ATAC Roma.
• Sassari – since 2006 with 1 tram-train line running over 4.3 km of track, operated by ARST.
• Trieste – since 1902 with 1 hybrid tramway-funicular railway line running over 5.2 km of track, operated by Trieste Trasporti.
• Turin – since 1871 with 9 urban lines running over 84 km of track, operated by GTT Torino.

Škoda 15 T in Riga, Latvia

There are currently three tram systems in Latvia, in Riga, Daugavpils and Liepāja.

Trams began serving Luxembourg City in 1875, and in Esch-sur-Alzette in 1927.[23] First generation trams in the country ended with the closure of the Esch-sur-Alzette network in 1956, and the Luxembourg City network in 1964.[23] A second generation of trams began service in December 2017, along a new route that will, by 2021, run from Luxembourg Airport to the Cloche d'Or business district.[24]

Trams in Floriana in the early 20th century

A tram service was inaugurated in Malta on 23 February 1905, linking the capital Valletta with Floriana, Ħamrun, Birkirkara, the Three Cities, Qormi and Żebbuġ.[25] The service competed with the Malta Railway and later the Malta buses. Service eventually ceased on 15 December 1929.[26]

The Ministry of Transport has considered the reintroduction of trams in Malta.[27]

In the Netherlands many local light railways were referred to as trams, even where the steam locomotives did not have enclosed motion. Today, extensive tram networks exist in:

• Amsterdam (GVB)
• Rotterdam (RET)
• The Hague (HTM)
• Utrecht (Qbuzz)

Trikk 17 Rikshospitalet ved Oslo City

There are three tramways (Norwegian: Trikk) in Norway; the Oslo Tramway that operates as a hybrid between a light rail and a street tram with six lines, and the suburban line of Trondheim Tramway, the Gråkall Line. The Bergen Tramway was closed in 1965, but the new Bergen Light Rail opened in 2010.

Pesa 120Na in Warsaw

Trams currently operate in 15 Polish cities: Bydgoszcz, Częstochowa, Elbląg, Gdańsk, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Upper Silesian Industrial Region, Grudziądz, Kraków, Łódź, Olsztyn , Poznań, Szczecin, Toruń, Warsaw and Wrocław. The largest system is in Upper Silesia with 317 km of track and 35 lines, followed by Warsaw with 280 km of track and 34 lines and Łódź with 217 km of track and 28 lines. A system in Płock was planned but the construction was postponed indefinitely in 2011.

Authentic vintage (ITB1616) tram in Lisbon

The Lisbon tramway network has been managed by the Companhia Carris de Ferro de Lisboa, or Carris for short, for over a century. Since 1995, the fleet includes authentic vintage cars, units made from vintage bodies powered by modern engines, and fully modern articulated trams.

In Porto, a tram network has been in operation since 12 September 1895, making it the first electric tramway in the Iberian Peninsula.[28] Many routes closed in the 1970s and 1980s, but one survived and some closed sections have reopened in the 2000s, and four routes are currently in operation.

A heritage tram line operates seasonally in Sintra. Reductions in the network's original service started in 1954, until closure in 1975. It was re-opened in 1980 using a section of the former line and surviving trams.[29]

Almada has a light rail network, the Metro Sul do Tejo, which opened in 2007, following two decades of planning. Extensions to Seixal and Barreiro are currently planned.

V3A-CH-PPC low-floor tram in Bucharest, Romania

There are currently 11 tram systems in Romania, in Arad, Botoşani, Brăila, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Galaţi, Iaşi, Oradea, Ploieşti, Timișoara.

CAF Urbos 3 tram in Belgrade, Serbia

Belgrade has a large tram network with 12 lines on 127.3 km of track. The system is operated with around 250 units and with ČKD Tatra KT4 and Duewag Be 4/6 trams. The first horse-drawn tram line was introduced in October 1892 and the first electric one in 1894. There are long-term plans to build a new track to the Mirijevo neighbourhood, in the east of the city.

Previously the cities of Niš, Novi Sad, and Subotica also had tram networks, but these closed in Novi Sad and Niš in the 1950s, and in Subotica in 1974.

There are tram networks in both Bratislava and Košice.

The first trams in Bratislava started operation in 1895, and there are currently 8 lines in service with a track length of 39.5 km. A new tram line is being built across the river Danube to the Petrzalka suburb on the right bank. There are multiple plans for expanding the network, but funding is currently unclear.

Košice started operating trams in 1914, after wagons pulled by horses and a steam tramway. Trams currently run over 34 km of tracks and run on 7 lines within the city and 8 fast tram lines.

A tram running on a section of grassed track in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain.

In Spain, modern tram networks have been opened in Alicante, Barcelona (Trambaix and Trambesòs), Bilbao, Madrid, Murcia, Parla, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Seville, Valencia, Vélez-Málaga, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Zaragoza. Jaén had built a tram network in 2011, but it only operated for a short period.

An M31 tram running in central Gothenburg.

The most extensive network in Sweden is in Gothenburg with a total track length of 90 km double track. Gothenburg started with the Horse Tramway in 1879 and over the years the tramway has expanded into the Nordic region's largest tramway system.

Stockholm had horse-drawn trams from 1877; however, the large tram system began to be abandoned and removed in 1957, with the last tram running in September 1967. Presently Stockholm has four lines on three non-connected systems owned by Storstockholms Lokaltrafik: Spårväg City; Lidingöbanan; Nockebybanan and Tvärbanan. There are plans for future extensions and two projects are in active development.

Norrköping has an 18.7 km tram network consisting of two radial lines, which was extended by 5 kilometres in 2006–2011.

Lund inaugurated its first ever tram line on the 12th of December 2020. At a length of 5.5 kilometers, it connects Lund Central Station with the new urban development at Brunnshög and the research facilities MAX IV and ESS.[30]

A single-track heritage line has operated in Malmö since 1987, after the last "real" tram line closed in 1973. City officials decided in October 2008 that the city should have at least one light rail line operating before 2020, and up to six lines after that.

A combined tramway museum and heritage tramway is located at Malmköping, Södermanland County, maintained by Svenska Spårvägssällskapet, the Swedish Tramway Society.

A tram in Bel-Air stop, Geneva

The first tram in Switzerland began operations in 1862 in Geneva. The tram, which was initially horse-drawn, got converted to steam in 1877. In 1888 the second electric tram system in the world was inaugurated in Vevey, linking the city to Montreux and Château de Chillon. By 1923, a total of 29 towns and cities in the country operated tram networks, and at 170 km's in extension and operating beyond the country's borders into France, Geneva's tram network became Europe's largest system [31]

After WW2 and the introduction of buses and trolleybuses, many of the networks shrunk. Geneva lost all but one of its lines, and some cities closed their trams, including Fribourg, Lausanne, Lugano, Biel/Bienne, Luzern, Vevey, Montreux, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, or Zug.

However, Switzerland is remarkable in that a few major cities kept their networks mostly intact until today. For example, although some of the tram lines extending beyond the city of Zurich closed down, the vast majority of lines within the city did not suffer any closures. Similarly, Bern and Basel kept most if their tram lines intact.

Because, with the exception of Geneva and Lausanne, the country's major cities have not lost their tram systems, Switzerland has not witnessed a major re-construction of trams as happened in the rest of Europe in the decades following the 1990s. The major exception is Geneva, where the system has been growing back again from the one line and 8 km's that was left out of its original network, to 5 lines and 36 km's. By the end of 2019, with the opening of line 17, the network had once again extended over the border to the French city of Annemasse, with planned future extensions to over 50 km's by 2026.[32]

Recently revived historic tram line in Kadiköy, Istanbul

The first tram line in Istanbul was constructed by Konstantin Karapano Efendi, and started operating on 31 July 1871 between the districts of Azapkapi and Ortaköy. In 1869, the tram company "Dersaated Tramvay Şirketi" was established. 430 horses were used to draw the 45 carriages, including 15 summer-type and some double-deckers, on meter gauge track. In 1912, the horse-drawn tram had to cease to operate for one year because the Ministry of Defence sent all the horses to the front during the Balkan War. The tram network was electrified by overhead contact wire on 2 February 1914. The tram began to run on the Anatolian part of Istanbul on 8 June 1928 between Üsküdar and Kisikli. By the 1950s, the length of the tram lines reached 130 km. Trams were in service on the European part until 12 August 1961 and on the Anatolian part until 14 November 1966.[33]

Heritage trams returned to Istiklal Caddesi in 1990 and in Moda in 2003. Modern trams began service on the European side in 1992 and have since been expanded.

Istanbul is the only city in European Turkey with operating trams. In Anatolia, there are operating trams in Adana, Antalya, Bursa, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, and Kayseri. Izmir formerly had trams and new lines are currently being planned.

An old Double decker tram preserved at the National Tramway Museum (from the former Leeds Tramway)

Until 1935 there was a large and comprehensive network of tram systems. For example, one could travel by tram across northwest England, from Liverpool to Ashton-under-Lyne (approx. 43 miles) using connecting systems. Most UK systems were municipally owned. These had often been inherited from private sector operators, who had been granted limited-term leases and did not maintain their networks beyond bare necessities as the time for a forced handover approached. When councils acquired these dilapidated systems, it was almost always cheaper to replace them with buses. The 1931 Royal Commission on traffic argued that trams held up cars.[34]

There was some public reaction against tramway abandonment, but seemingly less than the similarly unsuccessful reaction against Beeching cuts in the 1960s. Some people, particularly motorists, welcomed the removal of trams, which were perceived as obstructing the highway.[35] Not all passengers transferred to replacement buses, and car ownership continued to increase.

Britain's tram systems were mainly dismantled between 1920 and 1960, and after the closure of Glasgow's once extensive GCT network in 1962, only Blackpool's trams survived, although the Great Orme Tramway funicular line continued to operate up the Great Orme in Llandudno.

Since the 1990s, a second generation of tram networks have been built and have started operating in Manchester in 1992, Sheffield in 1994, the West Midlands in 1999, South London in 2000, Nottingham in 2004 and Edinburgh in 2014, whilst the original trams in Blackpool were upgraded to second generation vehicles in 2012.

There have been numerous other proposals for tramways in other cities and extensions to existing systems the UK, whilst the systems in Manchester and the West Midlands are currently having extensions built.

On the Isle of Man, electric tram cars have run almost continuously since the late 19th century (albeit mainly as summer tourist attractions) on the Manx Electric Railway (Douglas to Ramsey) and the Snaefell Mountain Railway (Laxey to Snaefell summit), as well as horse trams along Douglas Promenade.

Trams in Kiev's Kontraktova Square. The St. Andrew Church is visible in the right background.

In many cities of Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan tramways have been facing difficulties since the disintegration of the USSR. Tramways of Shakhty, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Grozny, Tbilisi, Baku, Yerevan, Almaty, Sumqayit, Gandja and Tashkent have been abandoned. Some tramway systems have suffered extensive closures of vital parts of network (including Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev) and some are facing threats of closures (Nizhniy Novgorod) or even total abandonment (Voronezh).

The tramway network in Saint Petersburg is the largest in Europe, and was once the second-largest in the world, surpassed only by Pacific Electric's 1600 km network in Los Angeles. The network in Melbourne, Australia, is now larger.

Tram on Moscow Gate Square in Saint Petersburg.