धीमे जहर का क्या असर होता है कोलकाता की विरासत से पूछिये!

धीमे जहर का क्या असर होता है कोलकाता की विरासत से पूछिये!

एक्सकैलिबर स्टीवेंस विश्वास​

धीमे जहर का क्या असर होता है कोलकाता की विरासत से पूछिये!

चाहे विक्टोरिया मेमोरियल हो या फिर दक्षिणेश्वर और कालीघाट जैस धर्मस्थल, बंदरगाह हो या फिर हावड़ा और कोलकाता के बीच बहती गंगा, सबकी जान खतरे में है कोलकाता की ट्राम सेवा की तरह।गनीमत है कि नागरिक समाज और सरकारों को बाकी विरासत की थोड़ी बहुत चिंता लगी रहती है। लेकिन कभी कोलकाता महानगर की पहचान बतौर प्रसिद्ध ट्राम की धीमी गति जेटयुग के जमाने किसी की मनपसंद है नहीं।

कोलकाता ट्राम अनाथ है। कोलकाता ट्रामसेवा की मौत की घंटी तो तभी बज गयी थी,जब उसे रवींद्रसेतु पर निषिद्ध कर दिया गया, सेतु की सेहत का हवाला देकर। उस सेतु की क्या दुर्गति हो रही है,उसकी कथा अलग है। लेकिन हावड़ा से काट दिये जाने तक कभी हावड़ा मैदान और शिवपुर से लेकर जोका तक दौड़ने वाली ट्रामसेवा उसकी बस सेवा के लिए ही अब ज्यादा प्रासंगिक है।

भारत में कोलकाता एकमात्र शहर है, जहाँ ट्राम सेवा उपलब्ध है। ट्राम सेवा कैल्कटा ट्रामवेज़ कंपनी द्वारा संचालित है। ट्राम मंद-गति चालित यातायात है, व शहर के कुछ ही क्षेत्रों में सीमित है। मानसून के समय भारी वर्षा के चलते कई बार लोक-यातायात में व्यवधान पड़ता है।

पर्यावरणप्रेमी हालाकि यातायात में बढ़ते प्रदूषण के लिए अब भी ट्राम सेवा की प्रासंगिकता पर गाहे बगाहे आवाज लगाते रहते हैंष कहीं कोई सुनवाई नहीं होती।अब कोलकाता ट्रामवेज की हालत यह है कि वह बिजली बिल चुकाने लायक हालत में नहीं है और बंगाल की अर्थव्यवस्था का हाल यह है कि कर्मचारियों को वेतन और मंहगाई भत्ते के लिए कुल राजस्व आय कम पड़ जाती है।इसलिए सरकारी मदद असंभव है।

कोलकाता में ट्राम सेवा की सौ साल पुरानी विरासत है और इस सुदीर्घ इतिहास में जो कभी नहीं हुआ,नगरवासियों ने हमेशा की तरह खामोसतमाशबीन की तरह देखा की कोलकाता ट्राम की सेवा बिजली कनेक्शन के कट जाने से प्राणहीन होकर रह गयी शहर के कई हिस्सों में। बिजली बिल ही नहीं कोलकाता ट्रावेज पर जलकर भी वकाया है। फिर तुरत फुरत बिजली बिल जमा करके तब जाकर कहीं ट्राम सेवा बहाल की गयी। यह पिछले शनिवार को हुआ वाकया है।

इस सिलसिले में ट्रामवेज के अफसरान ने जुबान सी रखी है। संपर्क करने पर कोई कुछ बोलने को तैयार नही होता। जाहिर है मामला रफा दफा कर दिया गया है और ट्रामसेवा बाधित होने के लिए जिम्मेदार लोगों के खिलाफ कार्रवाई का कोई सवाल ही नहीं उठता।

कोलकाता ट्रावेज के पर लगातार छांटे जाते रहे।लेकिन नयी नियुक्तियां बंद हो जाने के बावजूद कोलकाता ट्राम कंपनी यानी सीटीसी में अबभी छह हजार के करीब कर्मचारी हैं। जबकि सालाना 80 से 90 करोड़ रुपये का घाटा हो रहा है कंपनी को । यह घाटा सहते हुए बदहाल सीटीसी की यात्रा कब तक जारी रह पायेगी,किसी को नहीं मालूम।

कोलकाता में जन यातायात कोलकाता उपनगरीय रेलवे, कोलकाता मेट्रो, ट्राम और बसों द्वारा उपलब्ध है। व्यापक उपनगरीय जाल सुदूर उपनगरीय क्षेत्रों तक फैला हुआ है। भारतीय रेल द्वारा संचालित कोलकाता मेट्रो भारत में सबसे पुरानी भूमिगत यातायात प्रणाली है।[29] ये शहर में उत्तर से दक्षिण दिशा में हुगली नदी के समानांतर शहर की लंबाई को १६.४५ कि.मी. में नापती है। यहां के अधिकांश लोगों द्वारा बसों को प्राथमिक तौर पर यातायात के लिए प्रयोग किया जाता है। यहां सरकारी एवं निजी ऑपरेटरों द्वारा बसें संचालित हैं।

भाड़े पर उपलब्ध यांत्रिक यातायात में पीली मीटर-टैक्सी और ऑटो-रिक्शॉ हैं। कोलकाता में लगभग सभी पीली टैक्सियाँ एम्बेसैडर ही हैं। कोलकाता के अलावा अन्य शहरों में अधिकतर टाटा इंडिका या फिएट ही टैसी के रूप में चलती हैं। शहर के कुछ क्षेत्रों में साइकिल-रिक्शा और हाथ-चालित रिक्शा अभी भी स्थानीय छोटी दूरियों के लिए प्रचालन में हैं। अन्य शहरों की अपेक्षा यहां निजी वाहन काफ़ी कम हैं। ऐसा अनेक प्रकारों के लोक यातायात की अधिकता के कारण है। हालांकि शहर ने निजी वाहनों के पंजीकरण में अच्छी बड़ोत्तरी देखी है। वर्ष २००२ के आंकड़ों के अनुसार पिछले सात वर्षों में वाहनों की संख्या में ४४% की बढ़त दिखी है।  शहर के जनसंख्या घनत्व की अपेक्षा सड़क भूमि मात्र ६% है, जहाँ दिल्ली में यह २३% और मुंबई में १७% है। यही यातायात जाम का मुख्य कारण है। इस दिशा में कोलकाता मेट्रो रेलवे तथा बहुत से नये फ्लाई-ओवरों तथा नयी सड़कों के निर्मान ने शहर को काफ़ी राहत दी है।

कोलकाता में दो मुख्य लंबी दूरियों की गाड़ियों वाले रेलवे स्टेशन हैं- हावड़ा जंक्शन और सियालदह जंक्शन। कोलकाता नाम से एक नया स्टेशन २००६ में ही बनाया गया है। कोलकाता शहर भारतीय रेलवे के दो मंडलों का मुख्यालय है – पूर्वी रेलवे और दक्षिण-पूर्व रेलवे।

शहर के विमान संपर्क हेतु नेताजी सुभाष चंद्र बोस अंतर्राष्ट्रीय हवाई अड्डा दम दम में स्थित है। यह विमानक्षेत्र शहर के उत्तरी छोर पर है व यहां से दोनों, अन्तर्देशीय और अन्तर्राष्ट्रीय उड़ानें चलती हैं। यह नगर पूर्वी भारत का एक प्रधान बंदरगाह है। कोलकाता पोर्ट ट्रस्ट ही कोलकाता पत्तन और हल्दिया पत्तन का प्रबंधन करता है। [38] यहां से अंडमान निकोबार द्वीपसमूह में पोर्ट ब्लेयर के लिये यात्री जहाज और भारत के अन्य बंदरगाहों तथा विदेशों के लिए भारतीय शिपिंग निगम के माल-जहाज चलते हैं। यहीं से कोलकाता के द्वि-शहर हावड़ा के लिए फेरी-सेवा भी चलती है। कोलकाता में दो बड़े रेलवे स्टेशन हैं जिनमे एक हावड़ा और दूसरा सियालदह में है, हावड़ा तुलनात्मक रूप से ज्यादा बड़ा स्टेशन है जबकि सियालदह से स्थानीय सेवाएँ ज्यादा हैं। शहर में उत्तर में दमदम में नेताजी सुभाषचंद्र बोस अंतर्राष्ट्रीय हवाई अड्डा जो शहर को देश विदेश से जोड़ता है। शहर से सीधे ढाका यांगून, बैंकाक लंदन पारो सहित मध्य पूर्व एशिया के कुछ शहर जुड़े हुये हैं। कोलकाता भारतीय उपमहाद्वीप का एकमात्र ऐसा शहर है जहाँ ट्राम यातायात का प्रचलन है। इसके अलावा यहाँ कोलकाता मेट्रो की भूमिगत रेल सेवा भी उपलब्ध है। गंगा की शाखा हुगली में कहीं कहीं स्टीमर यातायात की सुविधा भी उपलब्ध है। सड़कों पर नीजी बसों के साथ साथ पश्चिम बंगाल यातायात परिवहन निगम की भी काफी बसें चलती हैं। शहर की सड़कों पे काली-पीली टैक्सियाँ चलती हैं। धुंएँ, धूल और प्रदूषण से राहत शहर के किसी किसी इलाके में ही मिलती है।

उपनिवेशवादी अंग्रेज़ों के द्वारा भव्य यूरोपीय राजधानी के रूप में अभिकल्पित कोलकाता अब भारत के सबसे अधिक निर्धन और सर्वाधिक जनसंख्या वाले क्षेत्रों में से एक है। यह अत्यधिक विविधताओं और अंतर्विरोधों के शहर के रूप में विकसित हुआ है। कोलकाता को अपनी अलग पहचान पाने के लिए तीव्र यूरोपीय प्रभाव को आत्मसात करना था और औपनिवेशिक विरासत की सीमाओं से बाहर आना था। इस प्रक्रिया में शहर ने पूर्व और पश्चिम का एक संयोग बना लिया, जिसे 19वीं शताब्दी के कुलीन बंगालियों के जीवन कार्यों में अभिव्यक्ति मिली। इस वर्ग के सबसे विशिष्ट व्यक्तित्व थे, कवि और रहस्यवादि रवीन्द्रनाथ टैगोर। भारतीय शहरों में सबसे बड़ा और सबसे अधिक जीवन्त यह शहर अजेय लगने वाली आर्थिक, सामाजिक व राजनीतिक समस्याओं के बीच फला-फूला है। यहाँ के नागरिकों ने अत्यधिक जीवंतता दिखाई है, जो कला व संस्कृति में उनकी अभिरुचि और एक स्तर की बौद्धिक ओजस्विता में प्रदर्शित होती है। यहाँ की राजनीतिक जागरुकता देश में अन्यत्र दुर्लभ है। कोलकाता के पुस्तक मेलों, कला प्रदर्शनियों और संगीत सभाओं में जैसी भीड़ होती है, वैसी भारत के किसी अन्य शहर में नहीं होती। दीवारों पर वाद-विवाद का अच्छा-ख़ासा आदान-प्रदान होता है, जिसके कारण कोलकाता को इश्तहारों का शहर कहा जाने लगा है।

बंगाल की खाड़ी के शीर्ष तट से १८० किलोमीटर दूर हुगली नदी के बायें किनारे पर स्थित कोलकाता (बांग्ला: কলকাতা सहायता·सूचना) (पुराना नाम कलकत्ता ) पश्चिम बंगाल की राजधानी है। यह भारत का दूसरा सबसे बड़ा महानगर तथा पाँचवा सबसे बड़ा बन्दरगाह है। यहाँ की जनसंख्या २ करोड २९ लाख है।[1] इस शहर का इतिहास अत्यंत प्राचीन है। इसके आधुनिक स्वरूप का विकास अंग्रेजो एवं फ्रांस के उपनिवेशवाद के इतिहास से जुड़ा है। आज का कोलकाता आधुनिक भारत के इतिहास की कई गाथाएँ अपने आप में समेटे हुए है। शहर को जहाँ भारत के शैक्षिक एवं सांस्कृतिक परिवर्तनों के प्रारम्भिक केन्द्र बिन्दु के रूप में पहचान मिली है वहीं दूसरी ओर इसे भारत में साम्यवाद आंदोलन के गढ़ के रूप में भी मान्यता प्राप्त है। महलों के इस शहर को 'सिटी ऑफ़ जॉय' के नाम से भी जाना जाता है।

अपनी उत्तम अवस्थिति के कारण कोलकाता को 'पूर्वी भारत का प्रवेश द्वार' भी कहा जाता है। यह रेलमार्गों, वायुमार्गों तथा सड़क मार्गों द्वारा देश के विभिन्न भागों से जुड़ा हुआ है। यह प्रमुख यातायात का केन्द्र, विस्तृत बाजार वितरण केन्द्र, शिक्षा केन्द्र, औद्योगिक केन्द्र तथा व्यापार का केन्द्र है। अजायबघर, चिड़ियाखाना, बिरला तारमंडल, हावड़ा पुल, कालीघाट, फोर्ट विलियम, विक्टोरिया मेमोरियल, विज्ञान नगरी आदि मुख्य दर्शनीय स्थान हैं। कोलकाता के निकट हुगली नदी के दोनों किनारों पर भारतवर्ष के प्रायः अधिकांश जूट के कारखाने अवस्थित हैं। इसके अलावा मोटरगाड़ी तैयार करने का कारखाना, सूती-वस्त्र उद्योग, कागज-उद्योग, विभिन्न प्रकार के इंजीनियरिंग उद्योग, जूता तैयार करने का कारखाना, होजरी उद्योग एवं चाय विक्रय केन्द्र आदि अवस्थित हैं। पूर्वांचल एवं सम्पूर्ण भारतवर्ष का प्रमुख वाणिज्यिक केन्द्र के रूप में कोलकाता का महत्त्व अधिक है।

प्रबल जीवन शक्ति के बावजूद कोलकाता शहर में कई निवासी सांस्कृतिक पर्यावरण से बहुत दूर ख़ासी ख़राब स्थितियों में जीवन-यापन करते हैं। हालाँकि शहर की ऊर्जा, सबसे पिछड़ी झोपड़ियों तक भी प्रवाहित होती है, क्योंकि बहुत बड़ी संख्या में कोलकातावासी ऐसे लोगों की सहायता गम्भीरतापूर्वक करते हैं, जो ग़रीब व पीड़ित लोगों की मदद में जुटे हैं। संक्षेप में, कोलकाता विदेशियों के साथ-साथ अनेक भारतीयों के लिए भी रहस्यमय बना हुआ है। यह नवागतों के लिए पहेली है और वहाँ रहने वाले लोगों के मन में एक स्थायी लगाव उत्पन्न करता है।

ख़तरे में है 140 साल पुरानी ट्राम सेवा

 

कोलकाता भारत का इकलौता शहर है जहां आज भी ट्राम चलती हैं. पिछले दो दशक के दौरान निवेश की कमी, रख रखाव के अभाव और यात्रियों की संख्या में कमी के चलते ट्राम की स्थिति बदतर हुई है. फोटोग्राफ़र रॉनी सेन ने भारतीय ट्राम की स्थिति को कैमरे में कैद किया है.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/hindi/india/2013/05/130521_tram_india_gallery_pk.shtml

Calcutta Tramways Company

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Calcutta Tramways Company

CTC Logo
Type	Tramways
Founded	1880
Headquarters	Kolkata, India
Services	Tramways, City bus
Owner(s)	Government of West Bengal
Website	www.calcuttatramways.com

The Calcutta Tramways Company (1978) Limited (CTC) is a West Bengal, India,government-run company which runs trams in Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) and buses in and around Kolkata. The Kolkata tram is the oldest operating electric tram in Asia, running since 1902.

Contents   [hide]  1 Timeline 2 Tram routes 3 Buses operated by CTC 4 Management 5 Fleet 5.1 Rolling stock experiments 6 Fare structure 7 Technical details 7.1 Cars 8 Depots and terminals 9 Alignment & interchanges 10 Advantages and criticism 11 Future 12 See also 13 References 14 External links

Timeline[edit]

Horse-drawn trams in Kolkata, India (life-size model at City Centre arcade)

1873

An attempt was made to run a 2.4-mile (3.9 km) tramway service between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street on 24 February. The service was not adequately patronised, and was discontinued on 20 Nov.

1880

The Calcutta Tramway Co. Ltd was formed and registered in London on 22 December. Metre-gauge horse-drawn tram tracks were laid from Sealdah to Armenian Ghat via Bowbazar Street, Dalhousie Square and Strand Road. The route was inaugurated by the Viceroy, Lord Ripon, on 1 November.

1882

Steam locomotives were deployed experimentally to haul tram cars. By the end of the nineteenth century the company owned 166 tram cars, 1000 horses, seven steam locomotives and 19 miles of tram tracks.

1900

Electrification of the tramway, and reconstruction of tracks to 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) was begun.

1902

The first electric tramcar in Asia ran from Esplanade to Kidderpore on 27 March, and on 14 June from Esplanade to Kalighat.

1903

The Kalighat line was extended to Tollygunje, the Esplanade line to Belgachhia (via Bidhan Sarani, Shyambazar), and the Esplanade to Shialdaha route (via Binay Badal Dinesh Bag, Rajib Gandhi Sarani and [present] Mahatma Gandhi Road) opened.

1904

Esplanade to Bagbazar route through College Street opened.

1905

Howrah Station to Bandhaghat route was opened to trams in June. Electrification project completed.

1906

Bowbazar Junction to Binay Badal Dinesh Bag, Ahiritola Junction to Hatibagan Junction routes opened.

1908

Lines to Shibpur via G.T. Road prepared. Esplanade to Shialdaha station via Moula Ali Junction, Moula Ali Junction to Nonapukur, Wattganj Junction to J.Das Park Junction (via Alipur), Mominpur Junction to Behala routes opened.

1910

Shialdaha Station to Rajabazar route opened.

1915

Mirzapur Junction to Bowbazar Junction and Shialdaha Station to Lebutala Junction routes opened.

1920

Strand Road Junction to High Court route opened.

1923

S.C.Mallik Square Junction to Park Circus route (via Royd Street, Nonapukur) opened.

1925

Barhabazar Junction to Nimtala route opened.

1928

Kalighat to Baliganj route opened.

1930

Park Circus line extended to Garhiahat Junction.

1941

Rajabazar line extended to Galiff Street.

1943

The Calcutta system was well connected with the Howrah section through the new Howrah Bridge in February. With this extension, the total track length reached 42.0 miles (67.59 km).

1951

The government of West Bengal entered into an agreement with the Calcutta Tramways Company, and the Calcutta Tramways Act of 1951 was enacted. The government assumed all rights regarding the Tramways, and reserved the right to purchase the system (with two years' notice) on 1 January 1972 or any time thereafter.

1967

The Government of West Bengal passed the Calcutta Tramways Company (Taking Over of Management) Act and assumed management on 19 July. On 8 November 1976 the Calcutta Tramways (Acquisition of Undertaking) ordinance was promulgated, under which the company (and its assets) united with the government.

1970

The Howrah sections were closed in October; the 1971/1973 Nimtala route was closed down in May 1973, and realignment of the Howrah Station terminus occurred. Total track length was now reduced to 38 miles (61.2 km).

1980

Tram tracks on Bentinck Street and Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay Road closed for construction of the Kolkata metro; following construction, these stretches were not reopened. Overhead wires were present until 1994 on Bentinck Street. Tracks on Jawaharlal Nehru Road remained after realignment, making a new terminus at Birla Planetarium; the Birla Planetarium route closed in 1991. An overpass was constructed on that road in 2006.

1982

The Sealdah Station terminus (along with the Sealdaha – Lebutala stretch on Bipin Bihari Gangopadhyay Street) closed for construction of an overpass. The site is now occupied by Sealdah Court and a bus terminal.

1985

On 17 April, tracks were extended connecting Manicktola to Ultadanga via Manicktola Main road and C. I. T. Road 3.7 km (2.30 mi). This was the first Tramways extension since 1947.

1986

On 31 December, further extension of tram tracks from Behala to Joka was completed.

1992

Calcutta Tramways Company undertook a new venture by introducing bus service from 4 November, initially with a fleet of 40 buses.

1993

Howrah Station terminus closed and tram tracks removed on Howrah Bridge; the cantilever bridge proved too weak for trams. All routes terminated there were shortened to the Barhabazar (Howrah Bridge) terminus (formerly Barhabazar Junction).

1995

High Court terminus closed for reconstruction of Strand Road. Rails and wires were removed from there and from Strand Road, Hare Street and Shahid Kshudiram Basu Road. The site is now occupied by the newest building of the Kolkata High Court.

2004

Garhiahat Depot – Garhiahat Junction link on Gariahat Road closed for construction of the Gariahat overpass.

2006

Mominpur – Behala stretch on Diamond Harbour Road closed for construction of an overpass at Taratala. Initially, there was a plan to route tracks on that overpass after its completion, but the road was later converted to a National Highway and the plan dismissed. The Behala – Joka stretch is still in existence, along with the Behala terminus.

2007

Wattgunge Junction – Mominpur Diamond Harbour Road, Mominpur – Jatin Das Park Judges Court Road, Jatin Das Park – Kalighat Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road routes closed for reconstruction. As of October 2011, they have not yet reopened.

2008

Galiff Street terminus realigned. Irregular service from Bagbazar to Galiff Street converted to regular by Route 7/12. Rails and wiresremoved from part of Bidhan Sarani route (restored by end of year).

2009

Tracks on R. G. Kar Road from Shyambazar five-point crossing to Belgatchia tram depot closed down for reconstruction. As of early 2011, they are not yet restored.Now it was reopened.

2011

Joka-Behala stretch and Behala depot closed down for construction of the Joka-BBD Bag metro project;Ballygunj-Kalighat stretch closed for reconstruction.Lalbazar-Mirjapur down line was closed but up line still opened

Tram routes[edit]

Detailed tram route of Kolkata

Latest Kolkata tram map

A Kolkata Tram

One of the newer trams.

Route No.	Description	Length (km)	Streets served
1	Belgatchia toEsplanade	7.29	R.G.Kar Rd – Bidhan Sarani – College Street – Nirmal Ch. Street – Lenin Sarani
2	Belgatchia toBBD Bag	6.81	R.G.Kar Rd – Bidhan Sarani – College Street – B.B.Ganguly Street
4	Belgatchia to BBD Bag	6.92	R.G.Kar Rd – Bidhan Sarani – Aurobinda Sarani – Rabindra Sarani
5	Shyambazar to Esplanade	5.13	Bidhan Sarani – College Street – Nirmal Ch. Street – Lenin Sarani
6	Shyambazar to BBD Bag	5.13	Bidhan Sarani – College Street – B.B. Ganguly Street
8	Bagbazar to BBD Bag	5.13	Rabindra Sarani – Lalbazar Street
10	Shyambazar to BBD Bag	5.13	Bidhan Sarani – Aurobinda Sarani – Rabindra Sarani – Lalbazar Street
11	Belgachhia to Howrah Bridge	4.32	Bidhan Sarani – Mahatma Gandhi Road
12	Rajabazar to Esplanade	3.32	A.P.C.Road – A.J.C.Bose Road – Lenin Sarani
12/7	Galiff Street to Esplanade	6.52	Rabindra Sarani – Lalbazar Street – Hemanta Basu Sarani
14	Rajabazar to BBD Bag	3.81	A.P.C Road – Surya Sen St. – Raja Rammohan Sarani – B.B. Ganguly Street – Lalbazar Street
15/12	Rajabazar to Howrah Bridge	4.81	A.P.C.Road – Surya Sen St. – Mahatma Gandhi Road
16	Bidhan Nagar to BBD Bag	8.14	C.I.T. Rd. – Maniktala Main Rd. – A.P.C Rd. – Surya Sen St. – Raja Rammohan Roy Sarani – B.B. Ganguly Street – Lalbazar Street
17	Bidhan Nagar to Esplanade	8.14	C.I.T. Rd. – Maniktala Main Rd. – A.P.C. Rd. – A.J.C. Bose Rd. – Lenin Sarani
20	Park Circus to Howrah Bridge	8.43	S.A.Avenue – New Park Street – A.J.C.Bose Road – M.G.Road
21	Parkcircus to Howrah Bridge	11.43	S.A.Avenue – New Park Street – A.J.C.Bose Road – Elliot Road - Royd Street - Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road Lenin Sarani - Hemanta Basu Sarani - Lalbazar Street - Rabindra Sarani - M.G.Road
22	Parkcircus to BBD Bag	5.31	S.A.Avenue – New Park Street – A.J.C.Bose Road – Elliot Road – Royd Street – Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road – Lenin Sarani – Hemanta Basu Sarani
20/17	Parkcircus to Bidhan Nagar	8.25	S.A.Avenue – New Park Street – A.J.C.Bose Road – A.P.C. Road – Maniktala Main Road – C.I.T. Road
24*	BallygungeStation to BBD Bag (Route is temporarily closed for reconstruction.)	12.68	Rash Behari Avenue – S.P. Mukherjee Road – Judges Court Road – D.H. Road – Karl Marx Sarani – Kidderpore Road – Casuarina Avenue – Dufferin Road – Esplanade – Hemanta Basu Sarani
25	Gariahat to BBD Bag	7.25	Gariahat Road – Ashutosh Chowdhury Road – S.A. Ali Avenue – New Park Street – A.J.C. Bose Road – Elliot Road – Royd Street – R.A. Kidwai Road – Lenin Sarani – Esplanade – Hemanta Basu Sarani
26	Gariahat to Howrah Bridge	9.08	Gariahat Road – Ashutosh Chowdhury Road – S.A. Ali Avenue – New Park Street – A.J.C. Bose Road – M.G. Road
26/17	Gariahat to Bidhan Nagar	10.15	Gariahat Road – Ashutosh Chowdhury Road – S.A.Avenue – New Park Street – A.J.C.Bose Road – A.P.C. Road – Maniktala Main Road – C.I.T. Road
29*	Tollygunge to BBD Bag (Route is temporarily closed for reconstruction.)	12.55	D.P. Sasmal Road – S.P.Mukherjee Road – Judges COurt Road – D.H. Road – Karl Marx Sarani – Kidderpore Road – Casuarina Avenue – Dufferin Road – Esplanade – Hemanta Basu Sarani
30*	Kalighat to Howrah Bridge(Route is temporarily closed for reconstruction.)	11.86	S.P.Mukherjee Road – Judges Court Road – D.H. Road – Karl Marx Sarani – Kidderpore Road – Casuarina Avenue – Dufferin Road – Esplanade – Hemanta Basu Sarani – B.B.D. Bag – Lalbazar Street – Rabindra Sarani – M.G. Road
24/29	Tollygunge to Ballygunge Station	5.45	D.P. Sasmal Road – S.P. Mukherjee Road – R.B. Avenue
36	Kidderpore to Esplanade	4.99	Karl Marx Sarani- Kidderpore Road – Casuarina Avenue – Dufferin Road
36/30	Kidderpore to Howrah Bridge	10.11	Karl Marx Sarani- Kidderpore Road - Casuarina Avenue - Dufferin Road - Esplanade - Hemanta Basu Sarani - BBD Bag - Lalbazar Street - Rabindra Sarani - M.G.Road

"*" indicates routes in South-West Kolkata suspended for reconstruction. These routes will be restored only after the construction is complete, time yet unknown. Reconstruction route : Kalighat Tram Depot to Kidderpore Junction via Judges' Court Road - Mominpur - D H Road.

For closed routes, see the latest Kolkata tram map on right.

Buses operated by CTC[edit]

The Calcutta Tramways Company (1978) Ltd had undertaken a new venture by introducing bus service in November 1992. This enabled the CTC (by now a century old) to serve the people of Kolkata and the surrounding rural areas in accord with its tradition of dedication and commitment. Bus service would be an advantageous transport system for the company, as it would be able to access those areas not yet accessible by tram. It would continue the company's tradition of public service, and was expected to be fiscally advantageous. Since the introduction of the first CTC buses, the network has expanded rapidly. With over 40 routes throughout Kolkata and surrounding areas, its efficient service, comfort and smooth ride have won it a loyal ridership. The CTC fleet of buses, with its reputation for safety, reliability and punctuality, complements its tram service.

The initial bus service was introduced from Rajabazar with a fleet of 40 buses, augmented in 1993 with service from Kidderpore depot. The Tollygunge and Belgatchia depots were added in 1994 and 1995, respectively. In 2005, the CTC began bus service from Ghasbagan depot at Howrah.

Management[edit]

This section requires expansion. (June 2008)

SLC-type tram, running on Route 14, entering the B.B.D. Bagh terminus

The CTC is headed by a Chairman/Managing Director. Directors reporting to the Chairman are:

• Managing Director – Nilanjal
• General Manager – S.K. Pal
• Chief Accounts Officer/Secretary – Vacant as of early 2011
• Chief Operating Manager –
• Works Manager – S.S. Ghosh
• Chief Engineer – Vacant as of early 2011

Mid-level officers of the CTC include:

• Chief Medical Officer
• Controller of Stores
• Senior Engineers
• Assistant Engineers

Fleet[edit]

CTC owns 319 trams, of which 239 are operational; however, only 170 are running on the streets of Kolkata on a daily basis. The cars are single-deck articulated cars and can carry 200 passengers (60 seated).

The early horse-drawn cars were imported from England, as were the steel tram cars manufactured before 1952. Until then, most Kolkata tram cars were bought from the English Electric Company and Dick, Kerr & Co. After 1952, the cars were built in India.

Rolling stock experiments[edit]

The introductory stock was single-coach, like other Indian cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kanpur), because the new mode of transport was experimental. Since it gained popularity quickly, another coach was attached some years later (as in Mumbai), which is now standard. Double decker trams (like Mumbai's) have never yet been used in Kolkata. Triple-coach trams were unsuccessfully tried. Single-coach trams were used on the Shibpur line until its closure in 1970.

Earlier stock was of the SLT type. It was double-coach with three doors, four wheels under each coach and no wheels between coaches. SLT trams had no front iron net, but had a front-coach trolley pole. The both-end type had a front iron net and a rear-coach trolley pole. SLTs were the first double-coach trams, introduced only on the Kolkata side of the Hooghly River (not on the Howrah side). They were gradually replaced by articulated trams on all routes. The SLC type was introduced much later on the Bandhaghat line, and continued until its closure in 1971; after that, SLC trams began running on the G/H and T/G lines on the Kolkata side. Articulated trams were in use until 1989.

There are several types of rolling stock:

• Old SLC Type – The first double-coach tram with wheels between the coaches, manufactured at the Nonapukur workshop. It is sometimes called an 'elephant car' by the CTC; its cab and back side is narrow and slightly slanted forward, like the head of an elephant without the trunk. It was introduced as a higher-speed tram with an improved engine, designed to run on express routes such as Galiff Street, Baliganj, Tollyganj, Behala and Khidirpur. It was longer than an articulated tram, and was the first tram with a cab door. Although now fewer in number, SLC trams are still running (mainly on south Kolkata routes). One tram was modified with glass in front, and another with many lighted signs (making it resemble a moving billboard).

• SLC Type – This modified variation has a pivot, and is less stylish than articulated trams; it is also manufactured at Nonapukur. The only difference is that its front and back are straight, not slanted. It was also introduced as a higher-speed tram, with an improved engine, designed to run on express routes. Later, this type enjoyed more general use. "Modi-SLCs" are still in use, except on the Bidhannagar line due to its steep incline under the Kankurgatchi rail bridge. Three cars are still used as water cars.

Articulated tram

• Articulated SLC Type – This is a slightly less-stylish variation of the articulated tram, also manufactured at Nonapukur. The only difference is that its front and back are overhanging, and narrow towards the ends. It also had an improved engine, but was suitable for local routes. Later, this type was also used on express routes. Some early cars were well-maintained, and these are also still in use.

Old SLC-type tram

• Renovated SLC Type – After many years of SLC and articulated trams a new type of rolling stock arrived in Kolkata, made by Burn Standard India Ltd. It is stronger, heavier and faster than earlier designs. A result of the decision around 1982 to continue tram service, it changed the image of Kolkata trams. The improved stock began running throughout the city network on all routes. Some trams were partly modified with front glass; two were modified to resemble Melbourne's B-class trams, with fluorescent lights, back glass and double ends. These are the most common trams in Kolkata.

SLC-type tram

• New Cars – Before the introduction of the single-bogie tram in December 2012, this was the last new rolling stock, built by Jessop India Ltd and a variation of the pivot type, introduced about 1984. Some trams were partly modified with front glass; one was modified with fluorescent lights, FM radio, digital advertising and route boards. These are the second-most-common tram in Kolkata. Three years after its introduction, the closure of Kolkata's trams was again considered by the government, so no more modern stock had been introduced.

• Single-Bogie Type – Currently this is the latest new rolling stock, one of which has been running since 24 December 2012. These trams are claimed to be faster and more maneuverable than the current double-bogie trams with the carriage being longer than the carriages in the double bogie trams.^[1] There are now plans to introduce more single-bogie trams across the city, including air-conditioned bogies, possibly replacing the double-bogie trams with the single-bogies and reopening some closed tram routes.^[2]

Recently, two trams were completely renovated to world-class standards with front and back glass, fluorescent lights, FM radio, digital display boards, slanted seats and a fibreglass ceiling. More renovated trams are planned; from 2008 to 2010 the Nonapukur workshop manufactured 19 new-look trams, of which four are in the final stages of completion. The rooftop is clear polycarbonate sheeting with a wide window space, comfortable seating and better visibility from inside and out. Nonapukur Workshop is now manufacturing new tram cars and renovating existing steel-body (BSCL) cars. Currently-manufactured tram cars in the CTC workshop now compare favorably with those of other developed countries. After plans for banquet/cafeteria trams ^[3] and air-conditioned trams to attract commuters and foreign tourists as well as to increase revenue for the company, one single-bogie air-conditioned banquet tram has now been introduced and offers heritage tours to north Kolkata in the morning and south Kolkata in the evening.^[4] In addition to passenger cars, there are also rail-scrubber cars (which polish the tracks using jets of water), flat cars for goods transportation (some of which are modified from obsolete single-coach Howrah trams) and a tower-inspection car for checking wires.

Fare structure[edit]

• 1st class – Rs. 4 & Rs. 5.00 (depending on distance)
• 2nd class – Rs. 3.5 & Rs. 4 (depending on distance)
• 2nd class – Rs. 4 & Rs. 5.00 (depending on distance)With fan attached ( No 2Nd Class - As per new Order )

Technical details[edit]

Cars[edit]

• Length: 19.5 m (64.0 ft)
• Width: 2.1 m (6.9 ft)
• Weight: 20 or 22 tons empty, depending on design
• Car manufacturer: England pre-1952; India post-1952. Burn Standard Company in Howrah manufactured numbers 207 to 299 from 1982. In 1986 some were manufactured by Jessop. 684 to 700 are operational, but only 170 are operating.
• Length: 17.5 m (57.4 ft)
• Seating: 60 per car
• Speed: 60 km/h (37.3 mph) (max); avg speed: 30 km/h (18.6 mph)
• Controller: Three types – Cam (manufactured in London), GEC (manufactured in England) and Fuji (manufactured in Japan). Fuji is the most modern.
• Traction motor: Four types: TDK, Mitsubishi, Fuji and Bhel. EE-made traction motors are still in use – for example, 133A and 309/1B.
• Propulsion: Traction motor pinion, directly coupled via pinion-and-gear mechanism with drive wheel
• Track gauge: Standard gauge – 4 ft 8.5 in (1,435 mm)^{[citation needed]}
• Brakes: Pneumatic type through air compressor (DC 550V)
• Voltage: 550 volts DC in overhead wires.^[5]
• No vestibule or door shutter
• Single-ended car
• Current drawn by trolley pole

Depots and terminals[edit]

There are seven tram depots – Belgachhia, Rajabazar, Park Circus, Gariahat, Tollygunge, Kalighat and Kidderpur; nine terminals –Shyambazar, Galiff Street, Bidhannagar, Ballygunge, Esplanade, B. B. D. Bagh, and Howrah Bridge; and one workshop at Nonapukur. Rajabazar and Tollygunge depots are the largest in terms of tracks and area, respectively. Kidderpur depot is the oldest, and Kalighat the smallest. The Esplanade terminus has the most tram routes.

Alignment & interchanges[edit]

• While almost all routes are on-street running, the tram runs on reserved track across the Maidan between Esplanade and Kidderpore.
• The tram passes over the railway bridge between Shyambazar and Belgachhia, near Tala.
• The tram passes under the railway bridge between Maniktala and Bidhannagar, near Kankurgachi (only under-level track), and between Kalighat and Tollygunge, near Rabindra Sarobar.
• The tram runs parallel over metro track from Shyambazar to Belgachhia, and from Jatin Das Park to Tollygunge.
• The tram track crosses metro track at Aurobinda Sarani, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bipin Bihari Gangopadhyay Street and Lenin Sarani.
• The tram runs on both sides of the road on Lenin Sarani and Surya Sen Street, and on either the right or left side on part of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy Road, part of Acharya Jagadish Chandra Basu Road, Judges Court Road, Diamond Harbour Road, Karl Marx Sarani, Kidderpur Road, Dufferin Road, Casuarina Avenue, Elliot Road, Royd Street and Rabindra Sarani. On all other streets, tram runs in the middle of the road.
• The tram runs on overpass only at Sealdah.
• The tram passes under overpass at Barhabazar, Wattganj, Race Course and Garhiahat.
• The tram crosses canals between Shyambazar and Belgachhia near Shyambazar, between Maniktala and Bidhannagar near Maniktala, between Jatin Das Park and Mominpur near Alipur, and between Wattganj and Esplanade near Wattganj.
• There are interchanges with metro at Belgachhia, Shyambazar, Esplanade, Kalighat and Tollygunge. Shobhabazar, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Central, Jatin Das Park and Rabindra Sarobar metro stations also have tram accessibility.
• There are interchanges with train at Bagbazar, Bidhannagar, Park Circus, Ballygunge, Kidderpore, B.B.D Bagh and Tollygunge. Sealdah and Tala rail stations also have tram accessibility.

Advantages and criticism[edit]

Electric trams were the sole public transport until 1920, when the public bus was introduced in Kolkata. However, tram service until the 1950s was quite smooth and comfortable (although most new lines and extensions were built in pre-independence India). In 1950 there were around 300 tram cars, which were regularly operated on many routes in Kolkata and Howrah. Single-car trams operated on the Shibpur line until its closure; all other lines had double cars. Due to the large number of tram cars, the trams ran frequently (about a 5- to 7-minute wait between trams on all routes). This was possible due to less motor traffic on the roads than today. Derailments were very rare because of careful maintenance. All checkups were done at night, the water car was used for track smoothing and the tower car for wire-checking. Each tram was washed in the depot daily. Breakdown vans and overhead-wire inspection vans were ready at many junctions for quick repairs. Regular inspection of tracks, wires and so forth was done carefully. Tracks and track-bed gravel were replaced periodically for smoother service.

Anti-tram sentiment began about 1955, and spread around the world. Many countries (both developed and developing) began closing their tram systems, and India was no exception. Tram service closed in Kanpur in 1933, Chennai in 1955, Delhi in 1962 and Mumbai in 1964. Kolkata's network survived, but in a truncated form. At the same time the automobile boom began, quickly spreading throughout India.

Many streets were narrow (which was acceptable for tram service), but now cars, buses and lorries also used those roads. The government considered closing the trams, as an alternative to controlling motor traffic. Some routes (Bandhaghat, Shibpur and Nimtala) were closed for that reason, although traffic jams have not been alleviated. Many streets in Kolkata which have no tram line experience daily gridlock.

Although most track beds have been converted from stone to concrete, earlier paving of Strand Road closed the High Court route. Construction of the subway line also destroyed an important north-south connection, from Lalbazar to Jatin Das Park via Esplanade andBirla Planetarium. The development of overpasses is another reason for the decline of Kolkata trams. The Sealdah, Gariahat and Taratala overpasses were the main cause for the closing of the Sealdah terminus, Gahriahat link and the Joka route (which also made way for a national highway). There were many closures between 1970 and 1980, and many thought that it was the beginning of the end for trams in Kolkata, but the situation changed after 1990. At that time, many cities around the world began reevaluating tram service. Greater numbers of automobiles increased air pollution. High prices of petrol and diesel fuel on the international market also made electric-powered street rail more attractive.

Trams have many advantages:

• Clean and green – enhances the environment; no emissions at street level
• Safe – less prone to accidents
• Speedy – short trip times
• Avoid traffic congestion – through segregation and priority of routes
• Smooth and comfortable
• Pedestrian-friendly
• Civilizing – a city transported by trams is a less lonely place
• Acceptable and accepted – only rail-borne modes of transport can actually get people out of cars
• Reassuring – tram lines give confidence in accessibility
• High capacity – only metro systems have higher carrying capacity
• Affordable – the cheapest form of comfortable mass transit
• Versatile – can run at high speeds on rights-of-way way and can reach inner-city historic centers
• Adaptable – can cope with steep grades and tight curves
• Inspiring – modern trams can be aesthetically pleasing
• Heritage – Tramcars are a part of history.^[6]

Some political leaders (and many environmentalists) favored tram service. As a result the Kolkata tram survived, but not as robustly as it did before 1970. Tramways in Kolkata are now suffering, due to motor traffic and the outdated business model of its operators (the CTC and the government of West Bengal), although there has been some conversion of trackbed from stone to concrete and renovation of rolling stock.

Trams were the brainchild of the then-Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. His motives were to ensure better public transport for the native people, better passage of goods from ports and dockyards to their respective destinations, and rapid mobilisation of police contingents to sites of anti-British protests. Thus, trams were the first mode of police transportation in Kolkata since police cars, vans, buses, lorries and armoured cars were not been introduced until 1917. The trams of Kolkata had played a major role in stopping Hindu-Muslim riots during the pre-independence era; in contrast, many trams were also burned by local people as an act of protest against colonial rule, since the tram was viewed by many Indians as a "British" import. Even after independence, during the 1960s many trams were burned for raising fares by only one paise (1/100 Rupee).

The Kolkata tramway has many vintage features. It still uses a trolley pole and foot gong (after a failed experiment with electric horn during the late 1980s), which is rare among international tram systems (except heritage tramways and standard networks like Hong Kong and Toronto). It has tram cars with no front glass or destination board – instead, iron route-boards hang from the front iron net. The last new rolling stock was manufactured in 1987 by Jessop India Ltd, and many trams from 1939 are still running. The recent de-reservation of tram tracks flies in the face of international trends. Although trams are faster, and derailments rare, it is often impossible to get up or down from a moving tram on wide roads such as Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy Road, Acharya Jagadish Chandra Basu Road, Acharya Satyendra Nath Basu Sarani, Satin Sen Sarani, Syed Amir Ali Avenue, Lila Roy Sarani, Rash Behari Avenue, Deshapran Birendra Shasmal Road or Shyama Prasad Mukhopadhyay Road. Only one new branch (Bidhannagar) and one extension (the short-lived Joka) were built after independence, and no extension of the network is planned. With a mix of good and bad, however, the Kolkata tram is still running as Asia's oldest operating electric tram and the only tram in India.

Future[edit]

Plans have been proposed to refurbish stock and wires, extend the system to more areas or tunnel under the River Hooghly but (apart from paving the trackbed and repairing wires and masts), little real improvement has been done; for unmaterialized future plans, see the "latest Kolkata tram map" above. However, there have been some proposals to replace the current double-bogie SLC type trams with the new single-bogie trams and extend the tram system to places like Rajarhat and Bantala and reopening some closed routes.

See also[edit]

• Trams in India
• Kolkata metro
• Kolkata suburban railway

References[edit]

1. ^ "City's new public ride arrives on Christmas Eve". hindustan times. December 23, 2012.
2. ^ "More single-bogie trams to run on various streets in Kolkata soon". The Statesman. 11 March 2013.
3. ^ "Kolkata to get banquet and cafeteria trams". Daily News. Tuesday Feb 12, 2013.
4. ^ "Enjoy Kolkata's heritage with an AC tram ride". The Economic Times. 18 Apr, 2013.
5. ^ [1] IRFCA website. Accessed 31 January 2011.
6. ^ [2] CTC website. Accessed 31 January 2011.

• Niyogi, S. Shake, rattle & roll. The Sunday Story, Sunday Times of India, Kolkata, 25 June 2006. Available on Times of India e-paper (paid subscription required as of 2010).
• Pathak Pratap Shankar, The Sunday Story, Sunday Times of India, Kolkata

Tram

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about public transport vehicles running on rails. For other uses of "tram", see Tram (disambiguation).

"Streetcar" redirects here. For other uses, see Streetcar (disambiguation).

Trams in Vienna, one of the largest existing networks in the world

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A tram (also known as a tramcar; a streetcar or street car; and a trolley,trolleycar, or trolley car) is a rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets (called street running), and also sometimes on separate rights of way. Trams powered by electricity, which were the most common type historically, were once called electric street railways. Trams also includedhorsecar railways which were widely used in urban areas beforeelectrification.

Trams may also run between cities and/or towns (for example, interurbans,tram-train), and/or partially grade separated even in the cities (light rail). Trams very occasionally also carry freight.

Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than conventional trains and rapid transit trains. However, the differences between these modes of public transportation are often indistinct. Some trams (for instance tram-trains) may also run on ordinary railway tracks, a tramway may be upgraded to a light rail or a rapid transit line, two urban tramways may be united to an interurban, etc.

Most trams today use electrical power, usually fed by an overhead pantograph; in some cases by a sliding shoe on a third rail or trolley pole. If necessary, they may have several power systems. Another power source is diesel oil; a few trams use electricity in urban streets, and diesel in more rural environments. Steam, petrol (gasoline), gas and draft animals have historically been used as power sources. Horse and mule driven tramsdo still occur, mostly for the tourist trade. Certain types of cable car are also known as trams.

Tramways are now included in the wider term "light rail",^[1] which also includes segregated systems. Some systems have both segregated and street running sections, but are usually then referred to as trams, because it is the equipment for street running which tends to be the decisive factor. Vehicles on wholly segregated light rail systems are generally called "trains", although cases have been known of train equipment built for a segregated system being sold to new owners and becoming "trams".^{[citation needed]}

Contents   [hide]  1 Etymology and terminology 2 History 2.1 Horse-drawn 2.2 Steam 2.3 Cable-hauled 2.4 Hybrid funicular electric 2.5 Electric (trolley cars) 2.6 Gas trams 2.7 Other power sources 3 Design 3.1 Low floor 3.1.1 Ultra low floor 3.2 Articulated 3.3 Double decker 3.4 Tram-train 4 Non-commuter 4.1 Cargo trams 4.2 Hearse-tram 4.3 Dog car 4.4 Contractors' mobile offices 4.5 Restaurant trams 4.6 Mobile Library Service 4.7 Nursery tramways 4.8 Work Trains and others 4.9 Advertising 5 Tramway operation 6 Tram and light-rail transit systems around the world 6.1 Popularity 6.2 Largest tram systems 6.3 Asia 6.4 Europe 6.5 North America 6.6 Oceania 6.7 South America 7 Pros and cons of tram systems 7.1 Advantages 7.2 Disadvantages 8 In media 8.1 In literature 9 In popular culture 9.1 In the news 9.2 In scale modelling 10 Types 11 Regional 12 See also 13 References 14 Further reading 15 External links

Etymology and terminology[edit]

Old tram stop on-demand notifier

Main article: Passenger rail terminology

The terms tram and tramway are derived from the Scots word tram,^[2] referring respectively to a type of truck used in coal mines, and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram probably derived from Middle Flemish tram("beam, handle of a barrow, bar, rung"), a North Sea Germanic word of unknown origin meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, also the barrow itself. Tram-car is attested from 1873.^[3]

Although the terms tram and tramway have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English; North Americans prefer streetcar, trolley, or trolleycar. The term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, and originally referred to horsecars drawn by draft horses. When electrification came, Americans began to speak oftrolleycars or later, trolleys. These terms are believed to derive from the troller (possibly from the words travelerand roller), a four-wheeled device that was dragged along dual overhead wires by a cable that connected the troller to the top of the car and collected electrical power from the overhead wires.^[4]

The troller design frequently fell off the wires, and was soon replaced by the more reliable trolley pole. This newer device was fitted to the top of the car, and was spring-loaded in order to keep a small trolley wheel or alternately, a grooved lubricated "skate" mounted at the top of the pole, firmly in contact with the underside of the overhead wire. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller.^[5] Trams using trolley-pole current collection are normally powered through a single pole, with return current earthed through the steel wheels and rails. Modern trams often have an overhead pantograph mechanical linkage to connect to power, abandoning the trolley pole altogether.

In North America, trams are sometimes called trolleys, even though strictly this may be incorrect, and the term may even be applied to cable cars, or conduit cars that instead draw power from an underground supply. Conventional diesel tourist buses decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the US (tourist trolley). Furthering confusion, the term tram has instead been applied to open-sided, low-speed segmented vehicles on rubber tires generally used to ferry tourists short distances, for example on the Universal Studios backlot tour.

Over time, the term trolley has fallen into informal use, and may be applied loosely to a wide variety of different vehicle types. The word has taken on a historic or picturesque connotation, and is often associated with tourist or leisure travel. In North America, professional or formal documents generally use more precise alternative terms, such as streetcar or light rail vehicle (LRV).

Although the use of the term trolley for tram was not adopted in Europe, the term was later associated with the trolleybus, a rubber-tyred vehicle running on hard pavement, which draws its power from pairs of overhead wires. These electric buses, which use twin trolley poles (one for live current, one for return), are also called trackless trolleys (particularly in the northeastern US), or sometimes simply trolleys (in the UK, as well as in Seattle and Vancouver).

History[edit]

Main article: History of trams

Horse-drawn[edit]

The Welsh Swansea and Mumbles Railway ran the world's first passenger tram service

Main article: Horsecar

The very first tram was on the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in south Wales, UK; it was horse-drawn at first, and later moved by steam and electric power. The Mumbles Railway Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1804, and the first passenger railway (similar to streetcars in the US some 30 years later) started operating in 1807.^[6]

 External video

Clip from a Belfast horse tram in 1901

The first streetcars, also known as horsecars in North America, were built in the United States and developed from city stagecoach lines and omnibus lines that picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route without the need to be pre-hired. These trams were an animal railway, usually using teams of horses and sometimes mules to haul the cars, usually two as a team. Occasionally other animals were put to use, or humans in emergencies. The first streetcar line, developed by Irish born John Stephenson, was the New York and Harlem Railroad's Fourth Avenue Line which ran along the Bowery and Fourth Avenue in New York City. Service began in 1832. It was followed in 1835 by New Orleans, Louisiana, which has the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.^[7]

These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes or from theomnibus that first ran on public streets, using the newly invented iron or steel rail or 'tramway'. These were local versions of the stagecoach lines and picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route, without the need to be pre-hired. Horsecars on tramlines were an improvement over the omnibus as the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on iron or steel rails (usually grooved from 1852 on), allowed the animals to haul a greater load for a given effort than the omnibus and gave a smoother ride. The horse-drawn streetcar combined the low cost, flexibility, and safety of animal power with the efficiency, smoothness, and all-weather capability of a rail right-of-way.

Steam[edit]

Steam hauled tram in Italy c 1890s

Main article: Tram engine

The first mechanical trams were powered by steam. Generally, there were two types of steam tram. The first and most common had a small steam locomotive (called a tram enginein the UK) at the head of a line of one or more carriages, similar to a small train. Systems with such steam trams included Christchurch, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; other city systems in New South Wales; Munich, Germany (from August 1883 on)^[8] and the Dublin & Blessington Steam Tramway in Ireland. Steam tramways also were used on the suburban tramway lines around Milan; the last Gamba de Legn ("Peg-Leg") tramway ran on the Milan-Magenta-Castano Primo route in late 1958.^{[citation needed]}

Tram engines usually had modifications to make them suitable for street running in residential areas. The wheels, and other moving parts of the machinery, were usually enclosed for safety reasons and to make the engines quieter. Measures were often taken to prevent the engines from emitting visible smoke or steam. Usually the engines usedcoke rather than coal as fuel to avoid emitting smoke; condensers or superheating were used to avoid emitting visible steam.

The other style of steam tram had the steam engine in the body of the tram, referred to as a tram engine or steam dummy. The most notable system to adopt such trams was in Paris. French-designed steam trams also operated in Rockhampton, in the Australian state of Queensland between 1909 and 1939. Stockholm, Sweden, had a steam tram line at the island of Södermalm between 1887 and 1901. A major drawback of this style of tram was the limited space for the engine, so that these trams were usually underpowered.

Cable-hauled[edit]

Main article: Cable car (railway)

A San Francisco cable car: a cable pulled system, still operating as of 2013

The next motive system for trams was the cable car, which was pulled along a fixed track by a moving steel cable. The power to move the cable was normally provided at a "powerhouse" site a distance away from the actual vehicle.

The first practical cable car line was tested in San Francisco, in 1873. Part of its success is attributed to the development of an effective and reliable cable grip mechanism, to grab and release the moving cable without damage. The second city to operate cable trams wasDunedin in New Zealand, from 1881 to 1957. From 1885 to 1940, the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia operated one of the largest cable systems in the world, at its peak running 592 trams on 75 kilometres (47 mi) of track. There were also two isolated cable lines in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.^[when?]

New York City developed at least seven cable car lines.^[when?] A line in Washington DC ran to Georgetown (where some of the underground cable vaults can still be seen today).^{[citation needed]} Los Angeles also had several cable car lines, including the Second Street Cable Railroad, which operated from 1885 to 1889, and the Temple Street Cable Railway, which operated from 1886 to 1898. The most extensive cable system in the US was in Chicago.^{[when?][citation needed]}

In Dresden, Germany, in 1901 an elevated suspended cable car following the Eugen Langen one-railed floating tram system started operating. Cable cars operated on Highgate Hill in North London and Kennington to Brixton Hill In South London.^[when?] They also worked around "Upper Douglas" in the Isle of Man^[when?] (cable car 72/73 is the sole survivor of the fleet).

Cable tram dummy and trailer on the St. Kilda Line in Melbourne in 1905.

Cable cars suffered from high infrastructure costs, since an expensive system of cables,pulleys, stationary engines and lengthy underground vault structures beneath the rails had to be provided. They also required physical strength and skill to operate, and alert operators to avoid obstructions and other cable cars. The cable had to be disconnected ("dropped") at designated locations to allow the cars to coast by momentum, for example when crossing another cable line. The cable would then have to be "picked up" to resume progress, the whole operation requiring precise timing to avoid damage to the cable and the grip mechanism.

Breaks and frays in the cable, which occurred frequently, required the complete cessation of services over a cable route while the cable was repaired. Due to overall wear, the entire length of cable (typically several kilometres) would have to be replaced on a regular schedule. After the development of reliable electrically powered trams, the costly high-maintenance cable car systems were rapidly replaced in most locations.

Cable cars remained especially effective in hilly cities, since their nondriven wheels would not lose traction as they climbed or descended a steep hill. The moving cable would physically pull the car up the hill at a steady pace, unlike a low-powered steam or horse-drawn car. Cable cars do have wheel brakes and track brakes, but the cable also helps restrain the car to going downhill at a constant speed. Performance in steep terrain partially explains the survival of cable cars in San Francisco. However, the extensive cable car system of Chicago operated over a large relatively flat area.

The San Francisco cable cars, though significantly reduced in number, continue to perform a regular transportation function, in addition to being a well-known tourist attraction. A single cable line also survives in Wellington, New Zealand (rebuilt in 1979 as a funicular but still called the "Wellington Cable Car").

Hybrid funicular electric[edit]

Main article: Opicina Tramway

Former second generation cable tractor, used between 1978 and 2005, assisting a tramcar on the cable section of the Opicina Tramway in Trieste, Italy.

The Opicina Tramway in Trieste operates a hybrid funicular electric system. Conventional electric trams are operated in street running and on reserved track for most of their route. However, on one steep segment of track, they are assisted by cable tractors, which push the trams uphill and act as brakes for the downhill run. For safety, the cable tractors are always deployed on the downhill side of the tram vehicle.

Electric (trolley cars)[edit]

Historic German electric tram

Main article: History of electric trams

Electric trams (known as streetcars or trolleys in North America) were first experimentally installed in Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky as early as 1880. These trams, like virtually all others mentioned in this section, used either a trolley pole or a pantograph, to feed power from electric wires strung above the tram route. Nevertheless, there were early experiments with battery-poweredtrams but these appear to have all been unsuccessful. The first trams in Bendigo, Australia, in 1892, were battery-powered but within as little as three months they were replaced with horse-drawn trams. In New York City some minor lines also used storage batteries. Then, comparatively recently, during the 1950s, a longer battery-operated tramway line ran from Milan to Bergamo.

The first regular electric tram service using pantographs or trolley poles, the Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, went into service inLichterfelde, a suburb of Berlin, Germany, by Siemens & Halske AG, in May 1881.^[9] The company Siemens still exists.

Another was by John Joseph Wright, brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright, in Toronto in 1883. Earlier installations proved difficult or unreliable. Siemens' line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train, limiting the voltage that could be used, and providing electric shocks to people and animals crossing the tracks.^[10] Siemens later designed his own method of current collection, from an overhead wire, called the bow collector.

First type of Mödling and Hinterbrühl tramcars, bipolar overhead line

In 1883, Magnus Volk constructed his 2 feet (610 mm) gauge Volk's Electric Railway along the eastern seafront at Brighton, England. This two kilometer line, re-gauged to 2 feet 9 inches (840 mm) in 1884, remains in service to this day, and is the oldest operatingelectric tramway in the world. The first tram for permanent service with overhead lines was the Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram in Austria. It began operating in October 1883, but was closed in 1932.

Multiple functioning experimental electric trams were exhibited at the 1884 World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana, but they were not deemed good enough to replace the Lamm fireless engines that then propelled the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city.

Electric trams were first tested in service in the United States in Richmond, Virginia, in 1888, in the Richmond Union Passenger Railway built by Frank J. Sprague, though the first commercial installation of an electric streetcar in the United States was built in 1884 in Cleveland, Ohio and operated for a period of one year by the East Cleveland Street Railway Company.^[11]

Double-decker tram in Blackpool.

The first electric street tramway in Britain, the Blackpool Tramway, was opened on 29 September 1885 using conduit collection along Blackpool Promenade. Since the closure of the Glasgow Corporation Tramways in 1962, this has been the only first-generation operational tramway in the UK.

Sarajevo had the first electric trams on the continent of Europe, with a city-wide system in 1885.^[12] Budapest established its tramway system in 1887, and this line has grown to be the busiest tram line in Europe, with a tram running every 60 seconds at rush hour (however Istanbul's line T1, with a minimum headway of two minutes, probably carries more passengers – 265,000 per day). Bucharest and Belgrade^[13] ran a regular service from 1894.^[14][15] Ljubljana introduced its tram system in 1901 – it closed in 1958.^[16]

In Australia there were electric systems in Sydney, Newcastle, Broken Hill, Geelong,Ballarat, Bendigo, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Kalgoorlie, Laverton, Hobart and Launceston. By the 1970s, the only tramway system remaining in Australia was the extensive Melbourne system other than a few single lines remaining elsewhere: the Glenelg Tram, connecting Adelaide to the beachside suburb of Glenelg, and tourist trams in the Victorian Goldfields cities of Bendigo and Ballarat. An unusual line that operated from 1889 to 1896 connected Box Hill, then an outer suburb of Melbourne, to Doncaster, then a favoured picnic spot but now a dormitory suburb. In recent years the Melbourne system, generally recognised as one of the largest in the world, has been considerably moderrnised and expanded. The Adelaide line has also been extended to the Entertainment Centre, and there are plans to expand further.

In 1904 trams were put into operation in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Tramway is still in operation today and uses double-decker trams exclusively.

Gas trams[edit]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a number of systems in various parts of the world employed trams powered by gas, naphthagas or coal gas in particular. Gas trams are known to have operated between Alphington and Clifton Hill in the northern suburbs ofMelbourne, Australia (1886–1888); in Berlin and Dresden, Germany; in Estonia (1920s–1930); between Jelenia Góra, Cieplice, andSobieszów in Poland (from 1897); and in the UK at Lytham St Annes, Neath (1896–1920), and Trafford Park, Manchester (1897–1908).

On 29 December 1886 the Melbourne newspaper The Argus reprinted a report from the San Francisco Bulletin that Mr Noble had demonstrated a new 'motor car' for tramways 'with success'. The tramcar 'exactly similar in size, shape, and capacity to a cable grip car' had the 'motive power' of gas 'with which the reservoir is to be charged once a day at power stations by means of a rubber hose'. The car also carried an electricity generator for 'lighting up the tram and also for driving the engine on steep grades and effecting a start'.^[17]

Comparatively little has been published about gas trams. However, research on the subject was carried out for an article in the October 2011 edition of "The Times", the historical journal of the Australian Association of Timetable Collectors.^[18][19]

A tram system powered by compressed gas was due to open in Malaysia in 2012,^[20] but as of May 2013 there was no evidence of anything having happened; news about the project appears to have dried up.

Other power sources[edit]

The only petrol-driven tram of Stockholms Spårvägar, on line 19 in the 1920s

In some places, other forms of power were used to power the tram. Hastings and some other tramways, for example Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden and some lines in Karachi, usedpetrol trams. Paris operated trams that were powered by compressed air using the Mekarski system.

Galveston Island Trolley in Texas operates diesel trams due to the city's hurricane-prone location, which would result in frequent damage to an electrical supply system.

Although Portland, Victoria promotes its tourist tram^[21] as being a cable car it actually operates using a hidden diesel motor. The tram, which runs on a circular route around the town of Portland, uses dummies and salons formerly used on the extensive Melbourne cable tramway system and now beautifully restored.

Design[edit]

Low floor[edit]

Two Trams in Braunschweig, Germany. The left one is an 1981 high-floor tram, the right one a 2007 low-floor

For more details on this topic, see Low-floor tram.

The latest generation of light rail vehicles is of partial or fully low-floor design, with the floor 300 to 360 mm (11.8 to 14.2 in) above top of rail, a capability not found in older vehicles. This allows them to load passengers, including those in wheelchairs, directly from low-rise platforms that are not much more than raised footpaths/sidewalks. This satisfies requirements to provide access to disabled passengers without using expensive wheelchair lifts, while at the same time making boarding faster and easier for other passengers.

Entirely low-floor Škoda ForCity in Prague

Various companies have developed particular low-floor designs, varying from part-low-floor (with internal steps between the low-floor section and the high-floor sections over the bogies), e.g. Citytram^[22] and Siemens S70, to 100% low-floor, where the floor passes through a corridor between the drive wheels, thus maintaining a relatively constant (stepless) level from end to end of the tram.

Prior to the introduction of the Škoda ForCity,^{[citation needed]} this carried the mechanical penalty of requiring bogies to be fixed and unable to pivot (except for less than 5 degrees in some trams) and thus reducing curve negotiation. This creates undue wear on the tracks and wheels.

Passengers appreciate the ease of boarding and alighting from low-floor trams and moving about inside 100% low-floor trams. Passenger satisfaction with low-floor trams is high.^[23]

Low-floor trams are now running in many cities around the world, including Amsterdam, Dublin, Hiroshima, Houston, Istanbul,Melbourne, Milan, Prague, Riga, Strasbourg, Vienna, Zagreb, Helsinki and Zürich.

Ultra low floor[edit]

A type B ULF tram in Vienna

Main article: Ultra Low Floor

The Ultra Low Floor or (ULF) tram is a type of low-floor tram operating in Vienna, Austria andOradea, Romania, with the lowest floor-height of any such vehicle. In contrast to other low-floor trams, the floor in the interior of ULF is at sidewalk height (about 18 cm or 7 inches above the road surface), which makes access to trams easy for passengers in wheelchairs or with baby carriages. This configuration required a new undercarriage. The axles had to be replaced by a complicated electronic steering of the traction motors. Auxiliary devices are installed largely under the car's roof.

Articulated[edit]

Combino Supra articulated tram inBudapest

Articulated trams, invented and first used by the Boston Elevated Railway in 1912–13^[24] at a total length of about twelve meters long (40 ft) for each pioneering example of twin-section articulated tram car, have two or more body sections, connected by flexible joints and a round platform at their pivoting midsection(s). Like articulated buses, they have increased passenger capacity. In practice, these trams can be up to 53 metres (174 ft) long^[25] (such as in Budapest, Hungary), while a regular tram has to be much shorter. With this type, the articulation is normally suspended between carbody sections.

In the Škoda ForCity, which is the world's first 100% low floor tram with pivoting bogies, aJacobs bogie supports the articulation between the two or more carbody sections. An articulated tram may be low-floor variety or high (regular) floor variety. Newer model trams may be up to 72 metres (236 ft) long and carry 510 passengers at a comfortable4 passengers/m². At crush loadings this would be even higher.^[26]

Double decker[edit]

A double deck London tram in 1910

Main article: Double-decker tram

Double decker trams were commonplace in Great Britain and Dublin Ireland before most tramways were torn up in the 1950s and 1960s.

Hobart, Tasmania, Australia made extensive use of double decker trams. Arguably the most unusual double decker tram used to run between the isolated Western Australian outbackvillage of Laverton and its small suburb of Gwalia.

Double decker trams still operate in Alexandria, Blackpool and Hong Kong.

Tram-train[edit]

Main article: Tram-train

Tram-train operation uses vehicles such as the Flexity Link and Regio-Citadis, which are suited for use on urban tram lines and also meet the necessary indication, power, and strength requirements for operation on main-line railways. This allows passengers to travel from suburban areas into city-centre destinations without having to change from a train to a tram.

It has been primarily developed in Germanic countries, in particular Germany and Switzerland. Karlsruhe is a notable pioneer of the tram-train.

Non-commuter[edit]

Cargo trams[edit]

CarGoTram run by Volkswagen inDresden, Germany on a section of grassed track. It delivers parts to the Transparent Factory.

Since the 19th century goods have been carried on rail vehicles through the streets, often near docks and steelworks, for example the Weymouth Harbour Tramway in Weymouth, Dorset.^[27] Belgian vicinal tramway routes were used to haul timber and coal from Blégny colliery while in the USA several of the US interurbans carried freight. In Australia, three different "Freight Cars" operated in Melbourne between 1927 and 1977^[28] and the city ofKislovodsk in Russia had a freight-only tram system consisting of one line which was used exclusively to deliver bottled Narzan mineral water to the railway station.^[29]

Today, the German city of Dresden has a regular CarGoTram service, run by the world's longest tram trainsets (59.4 metres (195 ft)), carrying car parts across the city centre to itsVolkswagen factory.^[30] In addition to Dresden, the cities of Vienna and Zürich currently use trams as mobile recycling depots.

At the turn of the 21st century, a new interest has arisen in using urban tramway systems to transport goods. The motivation now is to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion and damage to road surfaces in city centres.

One recent proposal to bring cargo tramways back into wider use was the plan by City Cargo Amsterdam to reintroduce them into the city of Amsterdam. In the spring of 2007 the city piloted this cargo tram operation, which among its aims aimed to reduce particulatepollution in the city by 20% by halving the number of lorries (5,000) unloading in the inner city during the permitted timeframe from 07:00 till 10:30. The pilot involved two cargo trams, operating from a distribution centre and delivering to a "hub" where special electric trucks delivered the trams' small containers to their final destination. The trial was successful, releasing an intended investment of €100 million in a fleet of 52 cargo trams distributing from four peripheral "cross docks" to 15 inner-city hubs by 2012. These specially built vehicles would be 30 feet (9.14 m) long with 12 axles and a payload of 30 tonnes (33.1 short tons; 29.5 long tons). On weekdays, trams are planned to make 4 deliveries per hour between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and two per hour between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m. With each unloading operation taking on average 10 minutes, this means that each site would be active for 40 minutes out of each hour during the morning rush hour. In early 2009 the scheme was suspended owing to the financial crisis impeding fund-raising.^[31]

Hearse-tram[edit]

Specially appointed hearse trams were used for funerals in Milan, Italy, from the 1880s (initially horse-drawn) to the 1920s. The main cemeteries, Cimitero Monumentale and Cimitero Maggiore, included funeral tram stations. Additional funeral stations were located at Piazza Firenze and at Porta Romana.^[32]

In the mid-1940s at least one special hearse tram was used in Turin, Italy. It was introduced due to the wartime shortage of automotive fuel.^[33]

Newcastle, NSW, Australia also operated two hearse trams^[34] between 1896 and 1948.

Dog car[edit]

In Melbourne a "dog car" was used between 1937 and 1955 for transporting dogs and their owners to the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds.^[28]

Contractors' mobile offices[edit]

Two former passenger cars from the Melbourne system were converted and used as mobile offices within the Preston Workshopsbetween 1969 and 1974, by personnel from Commonwealth Engineering and ASEA who were connected with the construction of Melbourne's Z Class cars.^[28]

Restaurant trams[edit]

A Melbourne tramcar restaurant in St Kilda

A number of systems have introduced restaurant trams, particularly as a tourist attraction. This is specifically a modern trend. Inter alia, tram systems which have or have had restaurant trams include: Adelaide, Australia; Bendigo, Australia; Brussels, Belgium,Christchurch, New Zealand, (currently suspended pending post earthquake infrastructure assessment); Melbourne, Australia; Milan, Italy; Moscow, Russia; Turin, Italy; Zürich, Switzerland.

These type of vehicles are particularly popular in Melbourne where three of the iconic "W" class trams have been converted to restaurant trams. All three often run in tandem and there are usually multiple meal sittings. Bookings often close months in advance.

Bistro trams with buffets operate between Krefeld and Düsseldorf in Germany,^[35] whileHelsinki in Finland has a pub tram. Frankfurt, Germany has a tourist circle line called "Ebbelwei-Express", in which the traditional local drink "Apfelwein" is served.^[36]

Mobile Library Service[edit]

Munich tram No.24, delivered in 1912, was refurbished as a mobile library in 1928. Known as "Städtischen Wanderbücherei München", it was in public service until 1970. It was preserved and is now on public display in a railway museum in Hannover.^[37]

Nursery tramways[edit]

After World War Two, in both Warsaw and Wrocław, Poland, so-called tramways-nurseries^[38] were in operation, collecting children from the workplaces of their parents (often tram employees). These mobile nursuries either carried the children around the system or delivered them to the nursery school run by transport company.^[39]

Work Trains and others[edit]

Most systems had cars that were converted to specific uses on the system, other than simply the carriage of passengers. As just one example, the Melbourne system used or uses the following "technical" cars : a Ballast Motor, Ballast Trailers, a Blow Car, Breakdown Cars, Conductors and/or Drivers' Instruction Cars, a Laboratory Testing Car, a Line Marking Car, a Pantograph Testing Car, Per Way Locomotives, Rail Grinders, a Rail Hardner Loco., a Scrapper Car, Scrubbers, Sleeper Carriers, Track Cleaners, a Welding Car, a Wheel Transport Car and a Workshops Locomotive.^[28]

Advertising[edit]

Many systems have passenger carrying vehicles with all-over advertising on the exterior and/or the interior.

Tramway operation[edit]

Vasileostrovsky tram depot and Museum of electrical transport in St. Petersburg,Russia

There are two main types of Tramways, the classic tramway build in the early 20th century with the tram system operating in mixed traffic and the later type which is most often associated with the tram system having its own right of way. Tram systems that have their own right of way are often called Light Rail but this does not always hold true. Though these two systems differ in their operation their equipment is much the same.

Infrastructure and equipment

Tram stop

Main article: Tram stop

Controls

Main article: Tram controls

Track

Main article: Tramway track

Power supply

• Ground-level power supply
• Conduit current collection

Tram and light-rail transit systems around the world[edit]

Czech Tatra T3 – 14,113 units sold worldwide make it one of the highest-selling types of tram.

Main article: Tram and light-rail transit systems

See also: List of tram and light-rail transit systems

Throughout the world there are many tram systems; some dating from the late 19th or early 20th centuries. However a large number of the old systems were closed during the mid-20th century because of such perceived drawbacks as route inflexibility and maintenance expense. This was especially the case in North American, British, French and other West European cities. Some traditional tram systems did however survive and remain operating much as when first built over a century ago. In the past twenty years their numbers have been augmented by modern tramway or light rail systems in cities that had discarded this form of transport.

Popularity[edit]

Tramways with tramcars (British English) or street railways with streetcars (American English) were common throughout the industrialised world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but they had disappeared from most British, Canadian, French and US cities by the mid-20th century.^[40]

By contrast, trams in parts of continental Europe continued to be used by many cities, although there were contractions in some countries, including the Netherlands.^[41]

Since 1980 trams have returned to favour in many places, partly because their tendency to dominate the roadway, formerly seen as a disadvantage, is now considered to be a merit. New systems have been built in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France and many other countries.

In Milan, Italy, the old "Ventotto" trams are considered by its inhabitants a "symbol" of the city.

Largest tram systems[edit]

Two Melbourne trams passing Flinders Street Station in Swanston Street, 2013.

The five largest tram networks in the world by track length are; Melbourne, Australia (250 km (160 mi)),^[42] St. Petersburg (240 km (150 mi)), Berlin (190 km (120 mi)), Moscow (181 km (112 mi)) and Vienna (172 km (107 mi)).^[43] The longest single tram line in the world is theBelgian Coast Tram, which runs almost the entire length of the Belgian coast. Other large systems include (but not limited to), Amsterdam, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Kiev,Leipzig, Milan, Prague, the Silesian Interurbans, Toronto, Turin, Warsaw, Zagreb and Zurich.

Before its decline the BVG in Berlin operated a very large network with 634 km of route. The largest tram system ever with 857 km existed in Buenos Aires before the 1960s. During a period in the 1980s the world's largest tram system was in Leningrad, USSR, being included in Guinness World Records.

Until the system started to be converted to trolleybus (and later bus) in the 1930s, the first-generation London network was also one of the world's largest, with 526 km (327 mi) of route in 1934.^[44] While the largest streetcar network in the world used to be located in Chicago, with over 850 kilometres (530 mi) of track,^[45] all of it was converted to bus service by the late 1950s.

Asia[edit]

A double-decker tram in Hong Kong

Main article: Trams in Asia

Tramway systems were well established in the Asian region at the start of the 20th century, but started a steady decline during the mid to late 1930s. The 1960s marked the end of its dominance in public transportation with most major systems closed and the equipment and rails sold for scrap; however, some extensive original lines still remain in service in Hong Kong and Japan. In recent years there has been renewed interest in the tram with modern systems being built in Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea.

The new tram in Kolkata, India

In India trams still operate in Calcutta. Trams were discontinued in Chennai in 1954 and inMumbai in 1960.

The Northern and Central areas of the City ofColombo in Sri Lanka had an electric Tram Car system (42" Gauge). This system commenced operations about 1900 and was discontinued by 1960. Other countries with discontinued tram systems include Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan and Vietnam. However, a tram system is planned for construction in Gwadar, Pakistan where construction started in late 2011. In China the cities of Beijing, Zhuhai, Nanjing and Shenzhen are planning tram networks for the future.

Toyama Centram, Japan

The first Japanese tram line was inaugurated in 1895 as the Kyoto Electric Railroad. The tram reached its zenith in 1932 when 82 rail companies operated 1,479 kilometers of track in 65 cities. The tram declined in popularity through the remaining years of the 1930s and during the 1960s many of the remaining operational tramways were shut down and dismantled.

Europe[edit]

New Berlin MetroTrams

Main article: Trams in Europe

In many European cities much tramway infrastructure was lost in the mid-20th century, though not always on the same scale as in other parts of the world such as North America. Most of Eastern Europe retained tramway systems until recent years but some cities are now reconsidering their transport priorities. In contrast, some Western European cities are rehabilitating, upgrading, expanding and reconstructing their old tramway lines. Many Western European towns and cities are also building new tramway lines.

North America[edit]

San Francisco PCC heritage streetcar onMarket Street

Main article: Streetcars in North America

See also: Great American Streetcar Scandal

In North America, trams are generally known as "streetcars" (or sometimes as "trolleys"); the term tram is more likely to be understood as a tourist trolley, an aerial tramway, or apeople-mover.

In most North American cities, streetcar lines were largely torn up in the mid-20th century for a variety of financial, technological and social reasons, mainly as a result of the Great American Streetcar Scandal. Exceptions included Boston, New Orleans, Newark,Philadelphia (with a much shrunken network), Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Cleveland, andToronto. Pittsburgh had kept most of its streetcar system serving the city and many suburbs until severe cutbacks on 27 January 1967, making it the longest-lasting large-network US streetcar system.^{[citation needed]}

The Toronto streetcar system is the largest in North America.

Toronto currently has the largest streetcar system in the Americas in terms of track length and ridership, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. This is the only large-scale streetcar system existing in Canada, not including the light rail systems that some Canadian cities currently operate, or heritage streetcar lines operating only seasonally. Toronto's system uses Canadian Light Rail Vehicles and Articulated Light Rail Vehicles, after a history of using PCCs, Peter Witt cars, and horse-drawn carriages. The TTC has ordered a fleet of Bombardier's Flexity Outlook (also used in some European tram systems) as a replacement, and is in acceptance testing as of Fall 2012.^[46]

Streetcars once existed in Edmonton and Calgary, but both Canadian cities have since converted their systems to support light rail vehicles instead. Streetcars also once existed inOttawa, Montreal, Kitchener, Hamilton, Kingston and Peterborough. Some of these cities have restored their old streetcars and run them as a heritage feature for tourists, such as theVancouver Downtown Historic Railway.

In a trend started in the 1980s, some American cities have brought back streetcars, examples of these being Memphis, Portland,Tampa, Little Rock, Seattle and San Diego. In the late 20th century, several cities installed light rail systems, in part along the same corridors as the old streetcars. Several additional cities, such as Washington DC, Tucson, Detroit and Sacramento are planning or proposing new streetcar systems.

Portland revived its streetcar system in 1986. More recently, Portland received over $23 million in federal funding to enhance transportation connections throughout this Oregon city. Overall, the streetcar project costs were over $148 million, and a new 3.3-mile route was the most expensive streetcar expansion in US history. Oregon Iron Works, the only US company currently producing a modern streetcar, holds a contract valued at over $19 million with the city of Portland. The project is behind schedule, as only one of the five streetcars has been delivered.^{[citation needed]}

Oceania[edit]

A heritage H-Class model (foreground) and modern Flexity tram (background) in Glenelg, Adelaide

See also: Trams in Australia and Trams in New Zealand

In Australia, trams are used extensively only in Melbourne, and to a lesser extent, Adelaide, all other major cities having largely dismantled their networks by the 1970s. Sydney reintroduced its tram in 1997 on a modern light rail network, while Ballarat reintroduced their trams as a heritage system. Bendigo had a heritage system for a while which has recently been upgraded to a simple public transport system through an increase in frequency.

A distinctive feature of many Australian trams was the early use of a lowered central section between bogies (wheel-sets). This was intended to make passenger access easier, by reducing the number of steps required to reach the inside of the vehicle. It is believed that the design first originated in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the first decade of the 20th century. Cars with this design feature were frequently referred to as "drop-centres". Trams for Christchurch and Wellington built in the 1920s with an enclosed section at each end and an open-sided middle section were also known as boon cars, but did not have the drop-centre. Trams built since the 1970s have had conventional high or low floors.

New Zealand's last public transport tramway system, that of Wellington, closed in 1966. Christchurch however subsequently reintroduced heritage trams over a new CBD route, but the overhead wiring plus some track was damaged by the earthquake of 2011 and reintroduction of the system is currently tied into the debates about what form the city should take in the future. Auckland has recently introduced heritage trams into the Wynyard area, near the CBD using former Melbourne trams as no operable former Auckland cars are believed to exist. A heritage line exists in Queen Elizabeth Park on the Kapiti Coast, running through open countryside.

South America[edit]

Puerto Madero Tramway in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires in Argentina had once one of the most extensive tramway networks in the world with over 857 km (535 mi) of track, most of it dismantled during the 1960s in favor of bus transportation. Now slowly coming back, the 2 km Puerto Madero Tramway running in the Puerto Madero district is spearheading the move with extensions to Retiro station and La Boca in the planning stages. Another line, the PreMetro line E2 system feeding the Line E of the Buenos Aires Subway has been operating for the past few years on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, and a unique leisure "Tren de la Costa", an artery that stretches for 15 kilometres by the River Plate, from Olivos to the village of Tigre has also been running in Buenos Aires.

Also in the city Mendoza, in Argentina, a new tramway system is in construction, theMetrotranvía of Mendoza, which will have a route of 12.5 km and will link five districts of theGreater Mendoza conurbation. The opening of the system is scheduled for August 2011.

In Medellín, Colombia, there is a tram line under construction and the opening schedule is for December 2011.^[47] Bogota, Colombia used to have a very extensive tram system until the violent events of the Bogotazo in 1948.^[48]

Pros and cons of tram systems[edit]

This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. (March 2010)

All transit services, except personal rapid transit, involve a trade-off between speed and frequency of stops. Services that stop frequently have a lower overall speed, and are therefore less attractive for longer trips. Metros, light rail, monorail, and bus rapid transit are all forms of rapid transit, which generally signifies high speed and widely spaced stops. Trams are often used as a form of local transit, making frequent stops. Thus, the most meaningful comparison of advantages and disadvantages is with other forms of local transit, primarily the local bus.

Advantages[edit]

• Vehicles run more efficiently and overall operating costs are lower.^[49]
• In general, trams provide a higher capacity service than buses.
• Consistent market research and experience over the last 50 years in Europe and North America shows that car commuters are willing to transfer some trips to rail-based public transport but not to buses. Typically light rail systems attract between 30 and 40% of their patronage from former car trips. Rapid transit bus systems attract less than 5% of trips from cars, less than the variability of traffic.^[50]
• Steel wheels on steel track create about one-seventh as much friction as rubber tyres on bitumen, thus creating dramatically less pollution when carrying the same load.^[51]
• Unlike omnibuses, but like trolleybuses, (electric) trams give off no exhaust emissions at point of use.
• Since the beginning, many trams have been bidirectional (i.e. driver cabs at both ends) and most new trams being built (particularly by the major universal manufacturers) are bidirectional. The major advantage of a bidirectional tram over a unidirectional vehicle (tram or bus) is that stub terminals are used rather than turning loops, allowing a major saving in rail infrastructure and sometimes-expensive real estate. A few tram systems, particularly in North America, are still unidirectional.
• Compared to motorbuses the noise of trams is generally perceived to be less disturbing.^{[citation needed]} (However, the use by some trams of solid axles with wheels fixed to them can cause slippage between wheels and tracks when negotiating curves. This produces a characteristic squeal.)
• Trams can run on renewable electricity without the need for very expensive and short life batteries.^[50]
• They can use overhead wire set to be shared with trolleybuses (a three wire system).
• The existence of a fixed route gives people confidence in the robustness and long-term future of the system, allowing them to rely on it and build their lifestyles around it. A bus route could be cancelled at any time, but a tram line is far less likely to close down.
• Some trams can adapt to the number of passengers by adding more cars during rush hour (and removing them during off-peak hours). No additional driver is then required for the trip in comparison to buses.
• Multiple entrances allow trams to load faster than suburban coaches, which tend to have a single entrance. This, combined with swifter acceleration and braking, lets trams maintain higher overall speeds than buses, if congestion allows.^[52]
• The trams' stops in the street are easily accessible, unlike stations of subways and commuter railways placed underground (with several escalators, stairways etc.) or in the outskirts of the city center.
• Rights-of-way for trams are narrower than for buses. This saves valuable space in cities with high population densities and/or narrow streets.
• Trams can trackshare with mainline railways, servicing smaller towns without requiring special track as in Stadtbahn Karlsruhe and at greater speed than buses.
• Passenger comfort is normally superior to buses because of controlled acceleration and braking and curve easement. Rail transport such as used by trams provides a smoother ride than road use by buses.
• Because the tracks are visible, it is easy for potential riders to know where the routes are.
• Because trams run on rails, the ride is far more comfortable than that of a rubber-tyred bus. Blemishes in the road surface are less noticeable.

Disadvantages[edit]

• Tram infrastructure (such as island platforms) occupies urban space at ground-level, sometimes to the exclusion of other users.
• The capital cost is higher than for buses, even though a tramcar usually has a much longer lifetime than a bus.
• One study concluded that it would cost less to buy new fuel efficient cars for the low income riders of light rail who do not have cars than it does to subsidize light rail.^[53] However, others assert the study was "poorly researched and analytically deficient"^[54] or otherwise deficient.^[55]
• Trams can cause speed reduction for other transport modes (buses, cars) when stops in the middle of the road do not have pedestrian refuges, as in such configurations other traffic cannot pass whilst passengers alight or board the tram.
• When operated in mixed traffic (street running), trams are more likely to be delayed by disruptions in their lane. Buses, by contrast, can sometimes manoeuver around obstacles. Opinions differ on whether the deference that drivers show to trams—a cultural issue that varies by country—is sufficient to counteract this disadvantage.

Sign warning cyclists of tram tracks

• Tram tracks can be hazardous for cyclists, as bikes, particularly those with narrow tyres, may get their wheels caught in the track grooves.^[56] It is possible to close the grooves of the tracks on critical sections by rubber profiles that are pressed down by the wheelflanges of the passing tram but that cannot be lowered by the weight of a cyclist. If not well-maintained, however, these lose their effectiveness over time.
• When wet, tram tracks tend to become slippery and thus dangerous for bicycles and motorcycles, especially in traffic.^[56][57][58] In some cases, even cars can be affected.^[59]
• Steel wheel trams are noisier than rubber-wheeled buses or trolleybuses when cornering if there are no additional measures taken (e.g. greasing wheel flanges, which is standard in new-built systems). In older trams, the wheels are fixed onto axles so they have to rotate together, but going around curves, one wheel or the other has to slip, and that causes loud unpleasant squeals. A related improvement is rubber isolation between the wheel disc and the rim, as used on Boston (Massachusetts, US) Green Line 3400 and 3600 series cars. These cars are much quieter than those with solid metal wheels. (This construction requires a flexible cable to electrically connect the tire to the wheel body.)^{[citation needed]}
• Trams usually have less effective suspension systems than buses, which tends to negate the ride quality benefits of steel rails.^{[citation needed]}
• The opening of new tram and light rail systems has sometimes been accompanied by a marked increase in car accidents, as a result of drivers' unfamiliarity with the physics and geometry of trams.^[60] Though such increases may be temporary, long-term conflicts between motorists and light rail operations can be alleviated by segregating their respective rights-of-way and installing appropriate signage and warning systems.^[61]
• Rail transport can expose neighbouring populations to moderate levels of low-frequency noise. However, transportation planners usenoise mitigation strategies to minimize these effects.^[62] Most of all, the potential for decreased private motor vehicle operations along the trolley's service line because of the service provision could result in lower ambient noise levels than without.
• In the event of a breakdown or accident, or even roadworks and maintenance, a whole section of the tram network can be blocked. Buses and trolleybuses can often get past minor blockages, although trolleybuses are restricted by how far they can go from the wires. Conventional buses can divert around major blockages as well, as can most modern trolleybuses that are fitted with auxiliary engines or traction batteries. The tram blockage problem can be mitigated by providing regular crossovers so a tram can run on the opposite line to pass a blockage, although this can be more difficult when running on road sections shared with other road users or when both tracks happen to be blocked. On extensive networks diversionary routes may be available depending on the location of the blockage. Breakdown related problems can be reduced by minimising the situations where a tram would be stuck on route, as well as making it as simple as possible for another tram to rescue a failed one.
• Exclusive right of way (by law, or by physical exclusion) today can also be achieved by other modes of transport, which may claim to have a lower cost for a new system (like ULTra personal rapid transit). Dedicated busways with diesel or electric buses can support commuter services (such as Bus à Haut Niveau de Service in Paris, and BHNS High Level Service Bus in UK) with features (such as Solaris Urbino 18 Hybrid MetroStyle) similar to new trams. New technologies have blurred the previously rigid lines among traditional rail services, traditional bus services, and private automobiles, with new hybrid mode systems under development. Experimental vehicles, such as China's straddle bus promise new capabilities and flexibility not seen in traditional systems.

In media[edit]

In literature[edit]

One of the earliest literary references to trams occurs on the second page of Henry James's novel The Europeans:

From time to time a strange vehicle drew near to the place where they stood—such a vehicle as the lady at the window, in spite of a considerable acquaintance with human inventions, had never seen before: a huge, low, omnibus, painted in brilliant colours, and decorated apparently with jingling bells, attached to a species of groove in the pavement, through which it was dragged, with a great deal of rumbling, bouncing, and scratching, by a couple of remarkably small horses.

Published in 1878, the novel is set in the 1840s, though horse trams were not introduced in Boston till the 1850s. Note how the tram's efficiency surprises the European visitor; how two "remarkably small" horses sufficed to draw the "huge" tramcar.

James also makes comical reference to the novelty and excitement of trams in Portrait of a Lady (1881):

Henrietta Stackpole was struck with the fact that ancient Rome had been paved a good deal like New York, and even found an analogy between the deep chariot-ruts traceable in the antique street and the overjangled iron grooves which express the intensity of American life.^[63]

A quarter of a century later, Joseph Conrad described Amsterdam's trams in chapter 14 of The Mirror of the Sea (1906): From afar at the end of Tsar Peter Straat, issued in the frosty air the tinkle of bells of the horse tramcars, appearing and disappearing in the opening between the buildings, like little toy carriages harnessed with toy horses and played with by people that appeared no bigger than children.

In episode 6 (Hades) of James Joyce's Ulysses (1918), the party on the way to Paddy Dignam's funeral in a horse-drawn carriage idly debates the merits of various tramway improvements:

- I can't make out why the corporation doesn't run a tramline from the parkgate to the quays, Mr Bloom said. All those animals could be taken in trucks down to the boats.

- Instead of blocking up the thoroughfare, Martin Cunningham said. Quite so. They ought to.

- Yes, Mr Bloom said, and another thing I often thought is to have municipal funeral trams like they have in Milan, you know. Run the line out to the cemetery gates and have special trams, hearse and carriage and all. Don't you see what I mean?

– O that be damned for a story, Mr Dedalus said. Pullman car and saloon diningroom.

– A poor lookout for Corny [the undertaker], Mr Power added.

– Why? Mr Bloom asked, turning to Mr Dedalus. Wouldn't it be more decent than galloping two abreast?^[64]

In his fictionalised but autobiographical Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, published in 1930, Siegfried Sassoon's narrator ruminates from his hospital bed in Denmark Hill, London, in 1917 that "Even the screech and rumble of electric trams was a friendly sound; trams meant safety; the troops in the trenches thought about trams with affection."^[65]

Danzig trams figure extensively in the early stages of Günter Grass's Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum). In the last chapter the novel's hero Oskar Matzerath and his friend Gottfried von Vittlar steal a tram late at night from outside Unterrath depot on the northern edge ofDüsseldorf.

It is a surreal journey. Von Vittlar drives the tram through the night, south to Flingern and Haniel and then east to the suburb ofGerresheim. Meanwhile, inside, Matzerath tries to rescue the half-blind Victor Weluhn (who had escaped from the siege of the Polish post office in Danzig at the beginning of the book and of the war) from his two green-hatted would-be executioners. Mazerath deposits his briefcase, which contains Sister Dorotea's severed ring finger in a preserving jar, on the dashboard "where professional motorman put their lunchboxes". They leave the tram at the terminus and the executioners tie Weluhn to a tree in von Vittlar's mother's garden and prepare to machine-gun him. But Matzerath drums, Weluhn sings, and together they conjure up the Polish cavalry, who spirit both victim and executioners away. Matzerath asks von Vittlar to take his briefcase in the tram to the police HQ in the Fürstenwall, which he does.

The latter part of this route is today served by tram route 703 terminating at Gerresheim Stadtbahn station ("by the glassworks" as Grass notes, referring to the famous glass factory).^[66]

In his 1967 spy thriller An Expensive Place to Die, Len Deighton misidentifies the Flemish coast tram: "The red glow of Ostend is nearer now and yellow trains rattle alongside the motor road and over the bridge by the Royal Yacht Club^[67]..."^[68]

In popular culture[edit]

• Dziga Vertov's experimental 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera includes shots of trams (at 10 and 42 minutes).
• The Rev W. Awdry wrote about GER Class C53 called Toby the Tram Engine, which starred his The Railway Series with his faithful coach, Henrietta.
• A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951 film)
• Black Orpheus (1959), of which the main male character Orfeu is a tram driver in Rio de Janeiro's tram system.
• Toonerville Folks comic strip (1908–55) by Fontaine Fox featuring the "Toonerville Trolley that met all the trains."
• The children's TV show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood featured a trolley.
• The central plot of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit involves Judge Doom, the villain, dismantling the streetcars of Los Angeles.
• "The Trolley Song" in the film Meet Me in St. Louis received an Academy Award nomination.
• The 1944 World Series was also known as the "Streetcar Series".
• Malcolm (film), an Australian film about a tram enthusiast who uses his inventions to pull off a bank heist.
• Luis Buñuel filmed La Ilusión viaja en tranvía^[69] (English: Illusion Travels by Streetcar) in Mexico in 1953.
• In Akira Kurosawa's film Dodesukaden a mentally ill boy pretends to be a tram conductor.
• The Stompin' Tom Connors song "To It And At It" mentions a man who "can't afford the train, he's sittin' on a streetcar, but he's eastbound just the same."
• The predominance of trams (trolleys) gave rise to the disparaging term trolley dodger for residents of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. That term, shortened to "Dodger" became the nickname for the Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers).
• Jens Lekman has a song titled "Tram No. 7 to Heaven", a reference to line 7 of the Gothenburg tram which passes through his native borough of Kortedala.
• The band Beirut has a song titled "Fountains and Tramways" on the EP Pompeii.
• The Elephant Will Never Forget, an 11-minute film made in 1953 by British Transport Films to celebrate the London tram network at the time of the last few days of its operation.
• A W-class tram was used at the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
• The Full Monty, set in Sheffield, managed to squeeze a tram passing in the background into three scenes.
• 2009 Thomas Haggerty composed and produced 'Tram' generations 1, 2 and 3 for the popular group TRAM.
• A collaboration between John Ward and Elizabeth Harrod: "a great tram."
• In Chrome Shelled Regios, trams are being used in the Academy City Zuelni.
• Trams feature in the opening credits of the world's longest running TV soap opera Coronation Street, set in a fictional suburb ofGreater Manchester. A Blackpool tram killed one of the main characters in 1989 and the most recent faked accident involved a tram (modelled on the Manchester Metrolink) careering off a viaduct into the set in 2009.

In the news[edit]

• In the Tottenham Outrage in 1909, two armed robbers hijacked a tram and were chased by the police in another tram.
• On 7 June 1926 Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí was knocked down by a Barcelona tram and subsequently died.

In scale modelling[edit]

German models of trams (Düwag and Siemens) and a bus in H0 scale

Model trams are popular in HO scale (1:87) and O scale (1:48 in the US and generally 1:43,5 and 1:45 in Europe and Asia). They are typically powered and will accept plastic figures inside. Common manufacturers are Roco and Lima, with many custom models being made as well. The German firm Hödl^[70] and the Austrian Halling^[71] specialize in 1:87 scale.^[72]

In the US, Bachmann Industries is a mass supplier of HO trams and kits. Bowser Manufacturing has produced white metal models for over 50 years.^[73] There are many boutique vendors offering limited run epoxy and wood models. At the high end are highly detailed brass models which are usually imported from Japan or Korea and can cost in excess of $500. Many of these run on 16.5 mm (0.650 in) gauge track, which is correct for the representation of 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) in HO scale as in US and Japan, but incorrect in 4 mm (1:76.2) scale, as it represents 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm). This scale/gauge hybrid is called OO scale. O scale trams are also very popular among tram modellers because the increased size allows for more detail and easier crafting of overhead wiring. In the US these models are usually purchased in epoxy or wood kits and some as brass models. The Saint Petersburg Tram Company^[74] produces highly detailed polyurethane non-powered O Scale models from around the world which can easily be powered by trucks from vendors like Q-Car.^[75]

In the US, one of the best resources for model tram enthusiasts is the East Penn Traction Club of Philadelphia.^[76]

It is thought that the first example of a working model tramcar in the UK built by an amateur for fun was in 1929, when Frank E. Wilson created a replica of London County Council Tramways E class car 444 in 1:16 scale, which he demonstrated at an early Model Engineer Exhibition. Another of his models was London E/1 1800, which was the only tramway exhibit in the Faraday Memorial Exhibition of 1931. Together with likeminded friends, Frank Wilson went on to found the Tramway & Light Railway Society^[77] in 1938, establishing tramway modelling as a hobby.

Types[edit]

• AKSM
• Articulated Light Rail Vehicle
• Avanto
• Birney
• Citadis
• Citytram
• Canadian Light Rail Vehicle
• Combino
• Crotram
• Dick Kerr Type Tram
• Funicular (Incline)
• DL
• Double-decker tram
• DUEWAG
• Eurotram
• Flexity Swift
• Gothawagen
• GTL
• Horsecar
• К
• Konstal
• PESA
• PCC
• Peter Witt streetcar
• Sirio
• Soviet/Latvian RVR
• Soviet/Russian tramcars LM/LVS, MTV,KTM, Spektr
• Škoda ForCity and oth.
• Tatra T3
• Tatra KT4
• TMK 2200
• Tramino
• Tramway Français Standard
• TW 6000
• Ultra Low Floor
• US Standard Light Rail Vehicle
• W class Melbourne tram
• ZGT

Regional[edit]

Trams in Africa Trams in Asia Trams in Australia Trams in Europe

Trams in New Zealand Streetcars in North America Trams in South America

See also[edit]

• Air brake (rail)
• Armoured tram
• Capabus
• Cater MetroTrolley
• Dual-mode transit
• Girder rail
• General Motors streetcar conspiracy
• Ground-level power supply
• Haytor Granite Tramway
• List of town tramway systems
• List of tram builders
• List of transport museums
• Locomotive
• Premetro
• Railway electrification system
• Trams and roundabouts
• Streetcar suburb
• Toronto PCC—specification
• Tram spotter
• Tram stop
• Tram track gauge
• Tramways & Urban Transit

References[edit]

1. ^ Collins English Dictionary
2. ^ DOST: Tram
3. ^ Online Etymology Dictionary, etymonline.com. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
4. ^ Robert C. Post: Urban Mass Transit, p.43, from Google Books.com. Retrieved 13 February 2009.
5. ^ Middleton, William D. (1967). The Time of the Trolley, p. 60. Milwaukee: Kalmbach Publishing. ISBN 0-89024-013-2.
6. ^ The Mumbles Train from Welcome to Wales., welshwales.co.uk. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
7. ^ Bellis, Mary. "History of Streetcars and Cable Cars". inventors.about.com. Retrieved 10 January 2007.
8. ^ Münchner Straßenbahn. tram-muenchen.de.
9. ^ "This is how some of the world's familiar..." Popular Mechanics, May 1929, pg. 750. via Google Books.
10. ^ Wood, E. Thomas. "Nashville now and then: From here to there". Retrieved 7 August 2007.
11. ^ American Public Transportation Association. "Milestones in U.S. Public Transportation History". Retrieved 18 December 2008.^{[dead link]}
12. ^ Sarajevo through history. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
13. ^ City of Belgrade – Important Years in City History Retrieved 7 December 2010.
14. ^ Trams of Hungary. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
15. ^ Transport History in Bucharest. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
16. ^ "Historical Highlights". Ljubljanski potniški promet [Ljubljana Passenger Transport]. Retrieved 25 April 2012.
17. ^ "WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1886.". The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956) (Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia). 29 December 1886. p. 5. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
18. ^ "Australian Association of Timetable Collectors". Aattc.org.au. 2012-08-10. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
19. ^ The research included consultation of copies of the "Alphington Gazette" in the State Library of Victoria and the following websites:http://markthefitter.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.htmlhttp://www.google.com.au/search?q=%22gas+tram%22+Northcote+history&rls=com.microsoft:en-au:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGLL_en-GB&redir_esc=&ei=R1MvTpXqGamdmQW4ofgahttp://www.ceti.pl/js29a/ciepl/en,ecal.html
20. ^ Malaysia: first compressed natural gas tram in the world will be ready next year. Ngvjournal.com.
21. ^ http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Portland+Tram&rls=com.microsoft:en-au:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGLL_en-GB&redir_esc=&ei=RPExTqDCHKzzmAWQuZTxCg
22. ^ Citytram. Trampower.co.uk.
23. ^ Yarratrams Newsletter No 8. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
24. ^ MBTA (2010). "About the MBTA-The "El"". MBTA. Retrieved 8 December 2010.
25. ^ Draemmli.info (German)
26. ^ Avenio, Then new generation trams from Siemens,Transportation.siemens.com
27. ^ Weymouth Harbour Tramway. Transportdiversions.com.
28. ^ ^a b c d "Destination City. Electric Rolling Stock of the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board", various editions, Australian Electric Traction Association, Melbourne.
29. ^ Clean and efficient freight tram delivers goods – Amsterdam, NL, eukn.org. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
30. ^ George G. Wynne: 'CarGo Tram' Provides Freight Service on Dresden's Light Rail Tracks, apta.com. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
31. ^ Samenwest 5 December 2006, NOS3 television news 7 March 2007, Amsterdams Stadblad 4 June 2008
32. ^ Giornale della Reale società italiana d'igiene, Seduta del 5 febbrajo 1882, Archive.org
33. ^ (Italian) Tramditorino.it
34. ^ Tram hearse used in Newcastle, New South Wales : About New South Wales. About.nsw.gov.au.
35. ^ "Weltpremiere:Speisewagen im Straßenbahnnetz".
36. ^ "Sightseeing in Frankfurt with the Ebbelwei-Express".Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
37. ^ [http://http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stra%C3%9Fenbahn_M%C3%BCnchen "Strassenbahn Muenchen"]. de.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
38. ^ "Tramwaje Warszawskie - wagon-żłobek". Tramwar.republika.pl. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
39. ^ "Tramwaj-żłobek dowoził tylko maluchy do żłobka MPK". Wroclaw.gazeta.pl. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
40. ^ Jeffrey Spivak: Streetcars are back from Landscape Architecture Department, UC Davis. Retrieved 10 February 2009. ucdavis.edu
41. ^ (French) Musée des Transports Urbains – Histoire., amtuir.org Retrieved 11 February 2009.
42. ^ "Facts & Figures". Yarra Trams. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
43. ^ "Wien hat das fünftgrößte Straßenbahnnetz der Welt" [Vienna has the fifth largest tramway network in the world]. Wiener Linien website. Wiener Linien. 2011. Retrieved 4 March 2013.(German)
44. ^ London Passenger Transport Board: Annual Report, 1938
45. ^ Welcome to the Shore Line Interurban Historical Society | Chicago Surface Lines. Shore-line.org.
46. ^ National Post Staff (September 27, 2012). "Next-generation streetcars arrive in Toronto for trials". National Post. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
47. ^ "Metrotranvía deal signed". Railway Gazette International. 24 February 2009. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
48. ^ Morrison, Allen. "The Tramways of Bogota Colombia".Electric Transport in Latin America. Retrieved 16 February 2013.
49. ^ "Why are trams different from buses from Trams for Bath". Bathtram.org. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
50. ^ ^a b Sustainable Light Rail – professor Lewis Lesley. Claverton Energy Group Conference, Bath October 2008, claverton-energy.com
51. ^ Interview with The Hon. Tim Fischer on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National Breakfast program on Monday 1 August 2011 <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/> regarding his bookTrains Unlimited<http://www.harpercollins.com.au/books/Trains-Unlimited-Tim-Fischer/?isbn=9780730497400>.
52. ^ "Streetcar and Local Bus Comparative Review from Vancouver City". Vancouver.ca. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
53. ^ Molly D. Castelazo and Thomas A. Garrett (July 2004) Light Rail: Boon or Boondoggle?. The Regional Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
54. ^ Haynes C. Goddard (10 August 2004). "Comments on "Light Rail: Boon or Boondoggle?" by Molly D. Castelazo and Thomas A. Garrett, in The Regional Economist, July 2004, St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank." (PDF). Center for Transportation Excellence. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
55. ^ Lyndon Henry and David D. Dobbs (2007-05). "St. Louis Metrolink Light Rail – Rebuttal to Federal Reserve Board". Retrieved 19 February 2012.
56. ^ ^a b "Crossing tram tracks - Bicycle Network". Bv.com.au. 2004-07-14. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
57. ^ "Trams/Light Rail - Road Safety Authority Rules of the Road". Rulesoftheroad.ie. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
58. ^ File:NET-tram tracks warning.jpg
59. ^ Andrew Heasley (2004-04-29). "Slippery issue on track". Smh.drive.com.au. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
60. ^ Charles S. McCaleb, Rails, Roads & Runways: The 20-Year Saga of Santa Clara County's Transportation Agency, (San Jose: Santa Clara County Transportation Agency, 1994), 67. Besides recounting statistics and anecdotes, this source also reprints a San Jose Mercury News cartoon of one such accident, in which a bemused tow truck driver quips, "Dang! Rod Diridon was right! The trolley does reduce the number of vehicles on the road!"
61. ^ Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 69: Light Rail Service: Pedestrian and Vehicular Safety, Transportation Research Board TRB.org
62. ^ Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 23: Wheel/Rail Noise Control Manual, Transportation Research Board, TRB.org
63. ^ p. 313 of Penguin edition
64. ^ pp. 94–5 of Penguin edition
65. ^ Part 9, p. 163 of the Faber & Faber edition
66. ^ The chapter Die letzte Straßenbahn oder Anbetung eines Weckglases (The last tram or Adoration of a Preserving Jar). See page 584 of the 1959 Büchergilde Gutenberg German edition and page 571 of the 1961 Secker & Warburg edition, translated into English by Ralph Manheim
67. ^ Ryco.be. Ryco.be.
68. ^ Chapter 38, p. 198 of the Companion Book Club edition
69. ^ [1]
70. ^ Hödl, horlf-linir8.de
71. ^ Halling.at. Halling.at.
72. ^ (German) Marktübersicht Straßenbahnmodelle, from Strassenbahnfreunden-Hemer.de
73. ^ Bowser – Company History 1961 to Present. bowser-trains.com Retrieved 14 February 2009.
74. ^ Saint Petersburg Tram Company, sptc.spb.ru
75. ^ Q-Car, qcarcompany.com. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
76. ^ East Penn Traction Club, eastpenn.org. Retrieved 14 February 2009.
77. ^ Tramway & Light Railway Society, tramwayinfo.com

Further reading[edit]

• Accattatis, Antonio. 2007. "Linee tranviarie a Torino" (ISBN 978-88-87911-78-7). Firenze: Phasar Edizioni.
• Arrivetz, Jean. 1956. "Les Tramways Français" (No ISBN). Lyon: Editions Omni-Presse.
• Bett, W. C., and J. C. Gillam. 1962. "Great British Tramway Networks (4th Edition)", ISBN 0-900433-03-5. London: Light Railway Transport League.
• Blower, James M., and Robert S. Korach. 1966. "The NOT&L Story" (CERA Bulletin 109) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Brimson, Samuel. 1983. "The Tramways of Australia" (ISBN 0-949825-01-8). Sydney: Dreamweaver Books.
• Brinson, Carroll. 1977. "Jackson: A Special Kind of Place" (LCCN 77-081145) (No ISBN). Jackson, Mississippi: City of Jackson.
• Buckley, R. J. 1984. "Tramways and Light Railways of Switzerland and Austria" (ISBN 0-900433-96-5). Milton Keynes, UK: Light Rail Transit Association.
• Canfield, Joseph M. (ed.) 1965. "Electric Railways of Northeastern Ohio" (CERA Bulletin 108) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Canfield, Joseph M. (ed.) 1968. "West Penn Traction" (CERA Bulletin 110) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Canfield, Joseph M. 1969. "Badger Traction" (CERA Bulletin 111) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Canfield, Joseph M. 1972. "TM: The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Company" (CERA Bulletin) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Carlson, Norman (ed.), with Robert J. Levis (Research Coordinator). 1975. "Iowa Trolleys" (CERA Bulletin 114) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Chandler, Allison. 1963. "Trolley Through the Countryside" (No ISBN). Denver: Sage Books.
• Chandler, Allison, and Stephen D. Maguire, with Mac Sebree. 1980. "When Oklahoma Took The Trolley" (Interurbans Special 71) (ISBN 0-916374-35-1). Glendale (CA), US: Interurban Press.
• Charlton, E. Harper. 1955. "Street Railways of New Orleans" (Interurbans Specian No. 17, No ISBN). Los Angeles: Interurbans.
• Cox, Harold E. 1991. "Diamond State Trolleys – Electric Railways of Delaware." Forty Fort (PA), US: Harold E. Cox.
• Davies, W. K. J. 1986. "100 years of the Belgian vicinal: SNCV/NMVB, 1885–1985 : a century of secondary rail transport in Belgium" (ISBN 0-900433-97-3). Broxbourne, UK: Light Rail Transit Association.
• Dunbar, Charles S. 1967. "Buses, Trolleys & Trams" Great Britain: Paul Hamlyn Ltd. [republished 2004 with ISBN 0-7537-0970-8 or 9780753709702]
• Dyer, Peter, and Peter Hodge. 1988. "Cane Train: The Sugar-Cane Railways of Fiji" (ISBN 0-908573-50-2). Wellington: New Zealand Railway and Locomotive Society Inc.
• "Electric Railways of Indiana Part II, The" (CERA Bulletin 102) (No ISBN). 1958. Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• "Electric Railways of Michigan, The" (CERA Bulletin 103) (No ISBN). 1959. Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Fetters, Thomas. 1978. "Palmetto Traction: Electric Railways of South Carolina" (No ISBN) Forty Fort (PA), US: Harold E. Cox.
• Fletcher, Ken. 1995. "Centennial State Trolleys: The Life and Times of Colorado Streetcars" (ISBN 0-918654-51-3). Golden (CO), US: Colorado Railroad Museum.
• Gragt, Frits van der. 1968. "Europe's Greatest Tramway Network" (No ISBN). Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill.
• Hamm, Edward. 1992. "The Public Service Trolley Lines in New Jersey" (ISBN 0-933449-12-7). Poli (IL), US: Transportation Trains.
• Harper, James P. 1953. "Electric Railways of Wisconsin" (CERA Bulletin 97) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Hennick, Louis C., and E. Harper Charlton. 1999. "Street Railways of Louisiana" (ISBN 1-56554-564-8). Gretna (LA), US: Pelican.
• Hilton, George W. 1997. "The Cable Car in America: A New Treatise upon Cable or Rope Traction As Applied to the Working of Street and Other Railways", Revised Edition (ISBN 0-8047-3051-2). Stanford (CA), US: Stanford University Press.
• Howarth, W. Des. 1971. "Tramway Systems of Southern Africa" (No ISBN). Johannesburg: published by the author.
• Janssen, William C. 1954. "The Illinois Traction System" (CERA Bulletin 98) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Keenan, David. 1979. "Tramways of Sydney" (ISBN 0-909338-02-7). Sans Souci (NSW), Australia: Transit Press.
• King, B. R., and J. H. Price. 1995. "The Tramways of Portugal (4th Edition)" (ISBN 0-948106-19-0). London: Light Rail Transit Association.
• Krambles, George. 1952. "Electric Railways of Ohio" (CERA Bulletin 96) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Kramer, Frederick A., with Ed Wadhams. "Connecticut Company's Streetcars" (ISBN 0-911868-82-8). Newton (NJ), US: Carstens.
• MacCowan, Ian. 1992. "The Tramways of New South Wales" (ISBN 0-949600-25-3). Oakleigh (Victoria) Australia: published by the author.
• McCarthy, Ken. 1983. "Steaming Down Argent Street: A History of the Broken Hill Steam Tramways 1902–1926" (ISBN 0-909372-13-6). Sutherland (NSW), Australia: The Sydney Tramway Museum.
• Middleton, William D. 1967. The Time of the Trolley (ISBN 0-89024-013-2). Milwaukee (WI), US: Kalmbach Publishing.
• Misek, Frank J. 1956. "The Electric Railways of Iowa" (CERA Bulletin 100) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Misek, Frank J. (ed.). 1958. "The Electric Railways of Indiana Part I" (CERA Bulletin 101) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Misek, Frank J. (ed.). 1960. "The Electric Railways of Indiana Part III" (CERA Bulletin 104) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Molloy, D. Scott. 1998. "All Aboard: The History Of Mass Transportation In Rhode Island" (ISBN 0-7524-1256-6). Mount Pleasant (SC), US:Arcadia Publishing.
• Morrison, Allen. 1989. "The Tramways of Brazil – A 130-Year Survey" (ISBN 0-9622348-1-8) [2]. New York: Bonde Press.
• Morrison, Allen. 1992. "The Tramways of Chile – 1858–1978" (ISBN 0-9622348-2-6) [3]. New York: Bonde Press.
• Morrison, Allen. 1996. "Latin America by Streetcar: A Pictorial Survey of Urban Rail Transport South of the U.S.A." (ISBN 0-9622348-3-4). New York: Bonde Press.
• Myers, Rex. 1970. "Montana's Trolleys: Book 1, Helena" (No ISBN). Los Angeles: Interurbans.
• Meyers, Stephen L.: Manhattan's lost streetcars, Arcadia, 2005. ISBN 0-7385-3884-1
• Nye, David E.: Electrifying America : social meanings of a new technology, 1880–1940, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts c1990. ISBN 0-262-14048-9
• Olson, Russell L. 1976. "The Electric Railways of Minnesota" (No ISBN). Hopkins (MN), US: Minnesota Transportation Museum.
• Orr, Richard. 1996 O&CB: Streetcars of Omaha and Council Bluffs (ISBN 0-9653505-0-9). Omaha: published by the author.
• Pabst, Martin. 1989. "Tram & Trolley in Africa" (ISBN 3-88490-152-4). Krefeld: Röhr Verlag GMBH.
• Peschkes, Robert. "World Gazetteer of Tram, Trolleybus, and Rapid Transit Systems."

Part One, Latin America (ISBN 1-898319-02-2). 1980. Exeter, UK: Quail Map Company.

Part Two, Asia+USSR / Africa / Australia (ISBN 0-948619-00-7). 1987. London: Rapid Transit Publications.

Part Three, Europe (ISBN 0-948619-01-5). 1993. London: Rapid Transit Publications.

Part Four, North America (ISBN 0-948619-06-6). 1998. London: Rapid Transit Publications.

• Reifschneider, Felix E. 1947. "Toonervilles of the Empire State" (No ISBN). Orlando (Florida, US): published by the author.
• Reifschneider, Felix E. 1948. "Trolley Lines of the Empire State" (No ISBN). Orlando (Florida, US): published by the author.
• Röhr, Gustav. 1986. "Schmalspurparadies Schweiz", Band 1: Berner Oberland, Jura, Westschweiz, Genfer See, Wallis (ISBN 3-921679-38-9). Aachen: Schweers + Wall.
• Rowsome, Frank; Stephan McGuire, tech. ed. (1956). A Trolley Car Treasury: A Century of American Streetcars—Horsecars, Cable Cars, Interurbans, and Trolleys. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Schramm, Jack E., and William H. Henning. 1978. "Detroit's Street Railways, Volume I" (CERA Bulletin 117) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Schramm, Jack E., William H. Henning and Thomas J. Devorman. 1980. "Detroit's Street Railways, Volume II" (CERA Bulletin 120) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Schramm, Jack E., William H. Henning and Andrews, Richard R. 1984. "Detroit's Street Railways, Volume III: When Eastern Michigan Rode the Rails" (CERA Bulletin 123) (No ISBN). Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Schweers, Hans. 1988. "Schmalspurparadies Schweiz", Band 2: Nordostschweiz, Mittelland, Zentralschweiz, Graubünden, Tessin (ISBN 3-921679-46-X). Aachen: Schweers + Wall.
• "Smaller Electric Railways of Illinois, The" (CERA Bulletin 99) (No ISBN). 1955. Chicago: Central Electric Railfans' Association.
• Stewart, Graham. 1985. "When Trams Were Trumps in New Zealand" (OCLC 12723934). Wellington: Grantham House Publishing.
• Stewart, Graham. 1993 "The End of the Penny Section" (revised and enlarged edition) (ISBN 1-86934-037-X). Wellington: Grantham House Publishing.
• "Straßenbahnatlas ehem. Sowjetunion / Tramway Atlas of the former USSR" (ISBN 3-926524-15-4). 1996. Berlin: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blickpunkt Straßenbahn, in conjunction with Light Rail Transit Association, London.
• "Straßenbahnatlas Rumänien" (compiled by Andreas Günter, Sergei Tarknov and Christian Blank; ISBN 3-926524-23-5). 2004. Berlin: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blickpunkt Straßenbahn.
• Swett, Ira, with Fred Fellow. 1954. "Interurbans of Utah" (Interurbans Special 15) (No ISBN). Los Angeles: Interurbans.
• Swett, Ira. 1970. "Montana's Trolleys 2: Butte, Anaconda, BAP" (Interurbans Special 50) (No ISBN). Los Angeles: Interurbans.
• Swett, Ira. 1970. "Montana's Trolleys – III: Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls, Missoula, Proposed Lines, The Milwaukee Road (Interurbans Special 51) (No ISBN). Los Angeles: Interurbans.
• "Tramway & Light Railway Atlas – Germany 1996" (ISBN 0-948106-18-2). 1995. Berlin: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Blickpunkt Straßenbahn, in conjunction with Light Rail Transit Association, London.
• Turner, Kevin. 1996. "The Directory of British Tramways: Every Passenger-Carrying Tramway, Past and Present" (ISBN 1-85260-549-9). Somerset, UK: Haynes.
• Waller, Michael H., and Peter Walker. 1992. "British & Irish Tramway Systems since 1945" (ISBN 0-7110-1989-4). Shepperton (Surrey), UK:Ian Allan Ltd.

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