Trams in Portugal have generally been traditional electric cars in large cities such as

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

and

Sintra Sintra (, ) is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 377,835, in an area of . Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populated ...

. Portuguese tram routes are typically, but not necessarily, tourist attractions. Tramways are usually embedded in the older parts of Portuguese cities. They are intended primarily for carrying passengers, and as a means of rapid transportation, since the trams usually have priority over the remaining traffic. Trams came to Portugal in the following sequence: Porto (1895), Lisbon (1901), Sintra (1904),

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

(1911) and

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

(1914). The first three of these networks are still in operation; the remaining two have been closed.

Lisbon

The "amarelos da

Carris Carris (''Companhia Carris de Ferro de Lisboa'') (Lisbon Tramways Company) is a public transportation company in Lisbon, Portugal. Carris operates Lisbon's buses, trams, and funiculars. It does not operate the Lisbon Metro. Carris was founded Sep ...

" (English:''Yellows of the Rails'') are a symbol of Lisbon, plying the narrow streets, steep and winding. The Lisbon tramway network is operated by

. It presently comprises 5 lines, and has a total length of in

gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...

, of which is on reserved tracks. Carris employs 165 brakemen ( conductors of trams),

funicular A funicular (, , ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite en ...

s and an

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

(the

Santa Justa lift The Santa Justa Lift ( pt, Elevador de Santa Justa, ), also called Carmo Lift ( pt, Elevador do Carmo, ), is an elevator, or lift, in the civil parish of Santa Justa, in the historic center of Lisbon, Portugal. Situated at the end of ''Rua de S ...

) and a runs a fleet of 57 tram vehicles (39 historical, 10

articulated tram Trams have been used since the 19th century, and since then, there have been various uses and designs for trams around the world. This article covers the many design types, most notably the articulated, double-decker, drop-centre, low-floor, si ...

s and 8 light rail cars), based at a single depot - Santo Amaro.

Porto

The tramway network in the city of Porto is operated by Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto (STCP). There are three different Porto tram routes: *Line 1: Passeio Alegre//Infante *Line 18:

Massarelos Massarelos () is a former civil parish in the municipality of Porto, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Lordelo do Ouro e Massarelos. The population in 2011 was 6,789, in an area of 1.94 km².STCP Tram Museum.

Sintra

The Sintra tramway is a

seasonal A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

interurban tram line. It links the town of

, some north-west of

, with the Atlantic coast at

Praia das Maçãs Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde. The Braga tramway network opened on 5 October 1914, replacing the old Braga

horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...

network. It consisted of two routes: *Line 1: Estação caminho de ferro (English: ''Railway station'') to Elevador do Bom Jesus; *Line 2: Largo do Monte de Arcos to

Parque da Ponte Parque is the Galician, Portuguese and Spanish word for "park", and may refer to: * Parque (TransMilenio), a metro station in Bogotá, Colombia * Parque (Lisbon Metro), in Portugal * Parque (Santurce), a subbarrio in San Juan, Puerto Rico * Jim ...

. The network was finally closed in 1963, and replaced by the Braga trolleybus system. The tracks remained in place until the 1980s.

References

External links

{{Europe in topic, Trams in

Lisbon

Porto

Sintra

See also

References

External links