Trams in Europe

Europe has an extensive number of tramway networks. Some of these networks have been upgraded to light rail standards, called ''Stadtbahn'' in Germany, premetros in Belgium, '' sneltram'' in the Netherlands, '' elétrico'' in Portugal and fast trams in some other countries.

Overview

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. Many early trams were horse-drawn, but electric trams followed. 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. Visitors from the farms, villages and small towns sometimes made a trip on the tram a high priority when they came to the big city. 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).

After World War 2, trams were seen as advantageous in many countries because, unlike buses, they did not use scarce petrol resources. However many tramways closed in the mid 20th century, as they were seen as less effective in terms of costs and use of the roadway than other forms of street transport. However, in recent decades tram networks in many countries in Europe have grown considerably. The Netherlands, which already makes extensive use of trams, has plans to expand tram services to two additional cities.

In Germany, many cities retain their original tram networks. 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. Notable examples are the systems in Cologne and Karlsruhe. In Frankfurt-am-Main, many tram lines were transferred to U-Bahn operation.

In the United Kingdom, investment in public transport in the late 1980s turned to light rail as an alternative to more costly underground railway solutions, with the opening of the Tyne & Wear Metro in Newcastle (1980) and the Docklands Light Railway in London (1987) systems. However, the first British city to reintroduce on-street trams was Manchester, with the opening of its Metrolink network in 1992. Several other UK cities followed with their own modern tram systems, including Sheffield ( Supertram, opened 1994), Birmingham and Wolverhampton (West Midlands Metro, opened 1999), London (Tramlink, opened 2000, albeit in a small part of Greater London), Nottingham (Nottingham Express Transit, opened 2004) and Edinburgh ( Edinburgh Trams, opened 2014). Many of these cities are planning or building network extensions.

Paris reintroduced trams with line T1 in 1992, and many French cities have seen a similar revival, for example the Tramway de Grenoble and the Montpellier trams.

The Czech capital Prague had planned one new line and the extension of eight others between 2007 and 2016, with an official of the Prague Public Transport Company stating that "In Europe in the past 10 years, tram transportation is the preferred way of transit; we can say that tram transportation is going through its renaissance period".

In Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, trams were reintroduced in December 2017, after being replaced by buses in 1964.

All the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, excluding Lithuania, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova and Slovenia, have extensive tram infrastructure. Industrial freight use of city tram lines was a widespread practice until the 1960s but has since mostly disappeared. Another factor is an increasing replacement of trams with trolleybuses as cities face a rapid increase in traffic, and such replacement often allows more of the roadway to be used by cars. 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. Czech ČKD Tatra and the Hungarian Ganz factories were notable manufacturers of trams.

Austria

In Austria, Gmunden, Graz, Innsbruck, Linz and Vienna all have tramway systems. With 173.4 km of track, Vienna's network is one of the largest in the world. The cars have been constantly modernised over the years and many are now ultra low-floored. Many of the Austrian tramlines have been in constant operation since they were first opened. Vienna started with horse trams in 1865 and electrification followed in 1897. Graz had horse trams in 1878 and electric cars in 1898 while Linz goes back to 1880 with electrification in 1897. The Gmunden Tramway, only 2.3 km long, is currently one of the shortest in the world, and with gradients of up to 9.6%,Taplin, Michael; and Russell, Michael (2002). ''Trams in Western Europe'', p. 8. Harrow Weald, Middlesex (UK): Capital Transport Publishing. . it is also one of the steepest and has become a popular tourist attraction. Innsbruck, which traditionally used second-hand trams from other cities, replaced its whole fleet with 32 Bombardier low-floor cars in Summer 2009. The Pöstlingbergbahn, in Linz, an unusual "mountain tramway", has a gradient of 10.6%, which makes it one of the world's steepest gradients on a surviving adhesion-only railway.Buckley, Richard (2000). ''Tramways and Light Railways of Switzerland and Austria'' (2nd edition), p. 129/139. Gloucester, UK: Light Rail Transit Association. . The tramway now reaches the city centre via the tracks of the urban tram system.

Belarus

There are four tram systems in Belarus currently: Minsk, Mazyr, Novopolotsk and Vitebsk.

Belgium

In Belgium an extensive prewar system of tram-like local railways called '' Vicinal or Buurtspoorweg'' lines used to exist, which had a greater total route kilometre length than the main-line railway system. The only survivors of the Vicinal system are the Kusttram, the longest tram line in the world, which almost reaches France at one end of the line and the Netherlands at the other, and two short lines that form part of the Charleroi Pre-metro.

Urban tram networks exist in Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels, and are gradually being extended. In Liège a new tram line is currently under construction.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The electric tram started in Sarajevo in 1895.

Several trams were badly damaged during the Bosnian war. Several European countries donated out of use trams to Sarajevo in the years after the war.

Recently, more modern vehicles have arrived to upgrade and expand the fleet.

Bulgaria

Sofia had its first horse-drawn tram in operation in 1898. On 1 January 1901 the electric tram system was inaugurated and had 25 cars and 10 carriages and the total length of the lines was 25 km. Currently Sofia's extensive tram network consists of 16 routes, 3 of which are operated on standard gauge. Due to the construction of the Sofia Metro there were some closures and retracing, but the system continues to be one of the largest in Europe. According to the official website, as of 2006 there are 308 km of track, with 190 trams in service on any given weekday.

Croatia

Zagreb has had a tram service since 5 September 1891; it is now an extensive tram network with 15 day lines and 4 night lines covering over 116 km (72 mi) of tracks through 255 stations. ZET, the major transit authority in Zagreb, ordered 210 new, 100% low-floor trams from Croatian consortium Crotram. As of 2010, all of these locally produced, low-floor Crotram trams have been delivered, with a mixture of vehicle types in operation, including Czech Tatra Cars and various locally produced trams. Zagreb is one of the few tram networks in the world where most of the operations run at the kerb.

The only other Croatian city with trams still in operation is Osijek. The first tram route commenced in 1884 (connecting the railway station and city square) and trams have been running since. Between 2006 and 2007, the trams were refurbished and modernised. Two lines presently exist, with another two extensions planned, doubling the network length.

Dubrovnik, Opatija, Pula, Rijeka and Velika Gorica previously also operated trams.

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is well known for its extensive tram infrastructure, with trams often being present even in small cities. The largest network is in Prague, with 141 kilometres of track and 35 lines, including 9 night lines. Other cities with tram systems are Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň, Olomouc, Most and Litvínov (common network), Liberec (including intercity line to Jablonec). Tram networks in nine other cities were closed down mainly during the 1960s and replaced with trolleybuses or buses.

Before changes in 1989, ČKD Tatra in Prague was the largest tram producer in the world, mainly exporting its trams to Soviet Bloc countries. Production was definitely stopped in 2001, after ČKD was sold to Siemens AG. The tradition of tram production is continuing with Škoda Transportation, Inekon and PRAGOIMEX.

Denmark

In Aarhus, Denmark the Aarhus Letbane a new tramway is combined with converted local railways, operating since December 2017.

In Odense, Denmark the Odense Letbane a new tramway, operating since 28 May 2022.

In Copenhagen, Denmark construction has started on a new tramway, expected to start operation in 2025.

Estonia

In Estonia, trams are used only in the capital, Tallinn. There has been a growing tram network in Tallinn since 1888, when traffic was started by horse-powered trams. The first line was electrified on 28 October 1925. Estonian-built electric trams were also used, with some gas-powered trams having been used in the 1920s and 1930s. 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.

From 1955 to 1988, German-built trams were used. The first Czechoslovakian-built tram arrived in 1973. In 2007, 56 Tatra KT4SUs, 12 KTNF6s (rebuilt KT4SUs) and 23 second-hand KT4Ds trams were in use. There are four lines, with total length of tramlines 39 km. Plans have been in the works since the late 1970s to open a light rail line from one of the suburbs, Lasnamäe, to the city centre.

In 2017, an extension was opened to Tallinn Airport. This is the first extension to the network since 1955, when the stretch to Ülemiste district was lengthened.

The track and electrical systems have also undergone major work to enable the system to accommodate 20 new vehicles delivered by CAF in 2016.

Finland

In Finland, there have been four cities with trams: Helsinki, Turku, Viipuri and Tampere. Of the three older systems only Helsinki has retained its tram network. The system has operated continuously since 1891 and it was fully electrified by 1901. Currently there are 10 tram lines on 89.5 kilometres of track. Around 200,000 passengers use the tram network each weekday and within the inner city of Helsinki trams have established a position as the main form of public transport. The network is being actively developed, with a new line opened in 2008 and more lines planned to connect new residential areas to be built in 2009–2015. In 2009, the city invited bids for manufacturers to produce 40 new low-floor trams, with an option for further 50 available.

The City of Tampere begun construction of a tram network in early 2017, with phase 1 from the city centre to Hervanta, and the University Hospital. The first phase of the tram system was opened in 2021. Construction of phase 2, from the city centre to Lentävänniemi in the west, begun in 2021 and is expected to be completed in 2024.

The cities of Oulu and Turku have started the planning of tram networks. Turku has accepted The Light Rail Network of Turku's principal plan as obeyed normatively. Even though Oulu's vice mayor rejected the idea, the city included it in The Zoning Scheme of New Oulu as "normative" and "necessary".

France

Despite the closure of most of France's tram systems in previous decades, a rapidly growing number of France's major cities boast new tram networks, including Paris (the largest French network), Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Strasbourg, Grenoble, Montpellier, Saint-Étienne and Besançon. Since the 1990s, tram systems have been introduced, or expanded, in twenty-seven towns and cities. 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. Smaller cities like Avignon are now running tram lines too.

Germany

Tramways in Germany served as the primary means of urban transport until the early 1960s when they were systematically replaced by buses. Tramways begun to reappear in the 1980s, before once again becoming a modern means of public transport in the 1990s. Popular notions of fashion have been used by scholars to explain this cycle of acceptance, rejection and restoration.

Germany (where tramways are called ''Straßenbahn'', meaning ''street railway'') is notable for its large numbers of extensive tram systems, although even in this country many systems were closed after the Second World War, such as the tramway in Hamburg which last ran in 1978. Following the renaissance of trams in France and positive experience with tram-train and similar concepts (e.g. the Karlsruhe model), most German tramways are expanding, including new systems in cities that had previously abandoned them or entirely new systems in cities without any tram history.

Light rail in Germany

''Stadtbahn'', literally ''city railway'' in the German language, is the term for light rail in Germany and is the predecessor of the North American light rail. Most German light rail systems were started in the 1960s and 1970s with the intention of establishing full-scale underground, or U-Bahn (short for Untergrundbahn) systems. By the 1980s virtually all cities had abandoned these plans due to the high costs of converting tramways, and the most common systems are a mixture of tramway-like operations in suburban areas, with U-Bahn style operation, featuring underground stations, in the city centre areas.

Greece

Trams were the main mode of mass transportation in Athens and Thessaloniki before World War II.

The first trams in Athens began operating in 1882. 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. It is frequently mentioned somehow poetically that "The last bell of the Athens Tram rang on the midnight of October 16, 1960". The tram had been a trademark of Athens until that date, and it is still viewed nostalgically. One tram line was left in Perama, which remained in operation until April 1977. A modern tram line was installed for the 2004 Summer Olympics, with vehicles designed by the famous Ferrari designer Sergio Pininfarina