Trams in Europe
Some of these networks have been upgraded to light rail standards, called Stadtbahn in Germany, premetros in Belgium, sneltram in the Netherlands, metro ligeiro in Portugal and fast trams in some other countries.
The introduction of trams in all the major cities of the late 19th century forced users and non-users alike to adjust to this intrusive, but clean and efficient form of transportation.
By the mid-1910s, the urban population were fully accustomed to trams as a fashionable mode of transport for work and leisure, and as a very positive and visual sign of the prosperity and prestige of the city.
[2] A number of cities have retained - but also expanded - their original 19th century tram network, notably Warsaw (1866), Lisbon (1872), Gothenburg (1879), Budapest (1887), Prague (1891), Kyiv (1892), Milan and Genoa (1893), Rome, Bucharest and Belgrade (1894), Porto (1895), Vienna (1897), Helsinki (1899), and Gdańsk and Sarajevo (1895).
In some places, tram networks have been added or expanded through the introduction of hybrid tram-train or stadtbahn systems which may combine standard railway, on-street and underground operations.
[7] All the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, excluding Albania, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova and Slovenia, have extensive tram infrastructure.
One of the exceptions is Warsaw, Poland, where the last trolleybus line was closed in the year 1995 due to high maintenance costs, and replaced with buses.
[9] The Gmunden Tramway, only 2.3 km long, is currently one of the shortest in the world,[citation needed] and with gradients of up to 9.6%,[10] it is also one of the steepest and has become a popular tourist attraction.
Other cities with tram systems are Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň, Olomouc, Most and Litvínov (common network), Liberec (including intercity line to Jablonec).
The last part of the system to be electrified was the spur to Kopli in 1951, which was also converted to double track at the time, and was connected to the rest of the network in 1953.
Many experiments, such as ground level power supply in Bordeaux, avoiding the need for overhead line equipment, or trolleybus-tram-BRT hybrids in Nancy and Caen with Bombardier Guided Light Transit.
Trams were the main mode of mass transportation in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Volos, Kalamata and Piraeus before World War II but were ripped out due to the cars and busses rapidly rising popularity.
They were light vehicles drawn by three horses running on an extensive network throughout the city centre and a line reaching the suburb of Faliro.
After the German occupation, the tramways began to decline, with lines gradually abandoned and replaced by trolleybuses, considered more appropriate and agile for the urban environment at that time.
There are three routes and 24 km of tramlines, running from Syntagma Square to Eden Station, and from Peace & Friendship Stadium in Piraeus to Glyfada along the coast.
[31] A second generation of trams began service in December 2017, along a new route that will, by 2021, run from Luxembourg Airport to the Cloche d'Or business district.
[32] A tram service was inaugurated in Malta on 23 February 1905, linking the capital Valletta with Floriana, Ħamrun, Birkirkara, the Three Cities, Qormi and Żebbuġ.
Trams currently operate in 15 Polish cities/metropolises: Bydgoszcz, Częstochowa, Elbląg, Gdańsk, Gorzów Wielkopolski, Grudziądz, Katowice/Metropolis GZM, Kraków, Łódź, Olsztyn, Poznań, Szczecin, Toruń, Warsaw and Wrocław.
There are currently 10 tram systems in Romania, in Arad, Brăila, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Craiova, Galaţi, Iaşi, Oradea, Ploieşti, Timișoara.
[41] In Spain, modern tram networks have been opened in Alicante, Barcelona (Trambaix and Trambesòs), Bilbao, Madrid, Murcia, Parla, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Seville, Valencia, Vélez-Málaga, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Zaragoza.
Presently Stockholm has four lines on three non-connected systems owned by Storstockholms Lokaltrafik: Spårväg City; Lidingöbanan; Nockebybanan and Tvärbanan.
At a length of 5.5 kilometers, it connects Lund Central Station with the new urban development at Brunnshög and the research facilities MAX IV and ESS.
Geneva lost all but one of its lines, and some cities closed their trams, including Fribourg, Lausanne, Lugano, Biel/Bienne, Luzern, Vevey, Montreux, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen, or Zug.
By the end of 2019, with the opening of line 17, the network had once again extended over the border to the French city of Annemasse, with planned future extensions to over 50 km by 2026.
[45] The first tram line in Istanbul was constructed by Konstantin Karapano Efendi, and started operating on 31 July 1871 between the districts of Azapkapi and Ortaköy.
In Anatolia, there are operating trams in Adana, Antalya, Bursa, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Samsun and İzmir.
These had often been inherited from private sector operators, who had been granted limited-term leases and did not maintain their networks beyond bare necessities as the time for a forced handover approached.
On the Isle of Man, electric tram cars have run almost continuously since the late 19th century (albeit mainly as summer tourist attractions) on the Manx Electric Railway (Douglas to Ramsey) and the Snaefell Mountain Railway (Laxey to Snaefell summit), as well as horse trams along Douglas Promenade.
In many cities of Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan tramways have been facing difficulties since the disintegration of the USSR.
Tramways of Shakhty, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Grozny, Tbilisi, Baku, Yerevan, Almaty, Sumqayit, Gandja and Tashkent have been abandoned.
