Many additional tramlines were added over time, and the system reached its greatest extent in 1956 with 108 million passengers carried by 270 tram-cars on 56 tram lines.

The number of private cars also increased greatly, and many narrow streets, which were ideal for trams, now started filling up with motor vehicles.

At that time, modern buses provided faster and smoother journeys, whereas the trams were slower, narrow single-coach cars and had many outdated features like bow collectors.

In sum, the tramway had little comfort and was slow because it was caught in the traffic jam caused by the cars, and the tracks were also outdated, noisy and in the middle of the street.

The uncontrolled increase in petrol-based vehicles like buses, taxis, and private cars began to choke the streets of Istanbul.

For being situated mostly in Asia, Turkey suffered by many problems common to developing countries, including pollution, traffic jams, illegal migration, low literacy and increasing population, etc.

From 1970 onwards, all this problems grew rapidly, and by the mid-1980s people of Istanbul realized that the failure to control motor vehicles, and the closure of tram network, was a great mistake.

Many cities around the world like Tunis, Buenos Aires, etc., also realized this error and, like them, Istanbul also planned for the return of the tram.

The following termini were – Kadıköy, Kısıklı, Bostancı, Fenerbahçe, Tünel, Beyazıt, Harbiye, Fatih, Maçka, Sirkeci, Kurtuluş, Moda, Bebek, Eminönü, Ortaköy, Topkapı, Bahçekapı, Yedikule, Edirnekapı, Kabataş.