Heritage streetcar

The first two terms are often used interchangeably in the United States,[1] with trolley being preferred in the eastern US and streetcar in Canada and the western US.

In parts of the United States, internally powered buses made to resemble a streetcar are often referred to as "trolleys".

[4] Another heritage tram is operating in Styria between the railway station of Mariazell and the nearby Erlaufsee, mainly with Ex-Vienna streetcars.

[5] In Innsbruck the city's trams are collected and renovated – together with other Tyrolean railway vehicles – by the association Tiroler MuseumsBahnen which has its museum in the old station of the Stubaitalbahn.

In Belgium there are three tram museums, one in Brussels – organizing several weekend rides to Tervueren and around the city – and other in Antwerp.

[12] In France, the Deûle Valley tramway near Lille which runs along a 3 km (1.9 mi) track from Marquette-lez-Lille to Wambrechies features several tram vehicles dating back to the beginning of the 20th century.

Its fleet contains quite a few vehicles (trams, buses, trolleybuses, even metrocars) from the late 19th century until recent years and there are many more waiting to be repaired.

These trams operate on various lines around the cities in the late afternoons, evenings, and can be used by normal (seasonal) tickets usually.

[15] In the nearby metropolis of Milan, the continued, extensive use of the "Series 1500 tram" is an example of a heritage tramway which blends into everyday urban life to the extent that it is not regarded as one.

In Amsterdam the Electrisch Museumtramlijn operates historic trams over a 7 km (4.3 mi) length of former railway line.

[17][18][19] The association Tramweg Stichting maintains and operates in every three cities its own vehicles, partly as collection of these museums.

Tramvia Blau in Barcelona, also known as the Tibidabo tramway, has been in operation since 1904 but still uses trams built in 1904–15, and thus has become a heritage line.

In Malmö, a technical museum operates an in-street heritage tram line in the summer months.

Although trams are returning to British cities, they are modern transportation systems (also known as light rail), not heritage operations.

The San Francisco Municipal Railway, or Muni, runs exclusively historic trolleys on its heavily used F Market & Wharves line.

The line serves Market Street and the tourist areas along the Embarcadero, including Fisherman's Wharf.

It is also unique in that it used almost exclusively by commuters and is not particularly popular with tourists (and thus may not really be a true heritage system, despite the historic rolling stock).

Denver has the Platte Valley Trolley, a heritage line recalling the open-sided streetcars of the early 20th century.

The VTA in San Jose, California, also maintains a heritage trolley fleet for occasional use on the downtown portion of a new light rail system opened in 1988.

Other cities with heritage streetcar lines include Galveston, Texas; Kenosha, Wisconsin; and San Pedro, California (home of the port of Los Angeles).

In Buenos Aires, a heritage tram line was inaugurated In 1980[26] in the Caballito neighbourhood on existing vintage street tracks.

They were built by Belgian railway rolling stock manufacturer La Brugeoise, et Nicaise, et Delcuve between 1911 and 1919 for the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company's (Compañía de Tranvías Anglo-Argentina, CTAA in Spanish) first metro line.

They are the oldest metro rolling stock in commercial service in the world[27] as well as a tourist attraction and part of Buenos Aires cultural heritage.

They have been in continuous use for a whole century from 1913 to January 2013 when they were replaced by new coaches, with an average of about 300,000 daily passengers, up from the 170,000 who traveled on them on their first day.

Some of the coaches had already been preserved for touristic purposes, and now the rest of the fleet is under careful restoration and is intended to render service on weekends and holidays.

[26] Rio de Janeiro: The Santa Teresa Tramway, which has operated in the Santa Teresa district of Rio de Janeiro since the 19th century, is not primarily a tourist line but can be considered a heritage tramway because of its continued use of vintage or, since 2015, faux-vintage tramcars.

Auckland also has a short heritage line loop in the Wynyard Quarter District called The Dockline Tram, which opened 2011, closed several times due major roadworks and reopened in 2021 being operated on behalf of the Auckland Council's Development arm by the Museum of Transport & Technology.