History of tram and light rail transit systems by country
This was especially the case in North America, but postwar reductions and shutdowns also occurred on British, French and other Western European urban rail networks.
The urban system operates yellow cars (including some acquired from Copenhagen), primarily on street track.
The express system (Ramleh routes) operates three-car blue trains, including some double-deck cars, on largely reserved track.
[1] The Ethiopian Railway Corporation began construction of the 34.25-kilometre (21.3 mi) double-track electrified light rail project in December 2011, funded by the Export-Import Bank of China.
The Cape Town and Green Point Tramway Company was formed in September 1862, and began operations on April 1, 1863.
At the time of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, Cape Town and its suburbs had 32 electric trams running on about 23 miles (37 km) of track.
Although tram systems were well-established in Asia at the start of the 20th century, they began a steady decline during the mid to late 1930s.
Its popularity declined during the rest of the decade, a trend accelerated by the Pacific War, the occupation of Japan and the rebuilding years.
Streetcar lines were largely torn up during the mid-20th century for a variety of financial, technological and social reasons, and comparably few exist today.
The Sistema de Tren Eléctrico Urbano in Guadalajara, Mexico has the highest annual ridership among light rail systems in North America.
Most of the country's streetcar systems disappeared after World War II, giving way to buses: Toronto's system grew with the abandonment of streetcar operations in the United States and the rest of Canada, as the Toronto Transit Commission purchased cars from many former operators.
[8] Motive power was eventually largely transitioned to steam engine-hauled locomotives, then in 1873 the first practical cable car line was tested in San Francisco.
[further explanation needed] Exceptions to streetcar closures of the 1960s included the cities of New Orleans, Newark, Seattle, Philadelphia, Boston, and San Francisco.
These systems generally had more lines and larger service areas which were replaced by buses or largely scaled back.
These surviving "legacy" systems generally used preexisting tunnels, had exclusive right of ways, or were upgraded to light rail specifications around the 1980s.
The San Diego Trolley inaugurated service in 1981 as the first newly built light rail system in the United States since the 1950s.
Using Line A's surface non-revenue tracks in the Caballito neighborhood, the Asociación Amigos del Tranvía (Friends of the Tramway Association)[11] operates a heritage streetcar service with restored tram and metro cars on weekends and holidays from the Polvorín Workshop.
Serving tourists and commuters, it runs from the northern suburbs of Buenos Aires to Tigre along the Paraná River for about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi).
It Opened in 15 October 2015 as Translohr tram in city of Medellín and consists of 9 stations and 1 line and linelength of 4.3 km (2.7 mi) with two tracks and Ridership 10 million people.
A distinctive feature of many classic Australasian trams was their early use of a lowered central section between bogies (wheel sets), intended to make passenger access easier by reducing the number of steps required to reach the inside of the vehicle.
