How was the tram network in your city in the past(1880-1965)
-lines
-length
-stations
-wagons
-people working there
-maybe add a plan
-post pics

I make this thread because it makes me very sad that a lot of cities had a big and nice tram network but closed it in the 60´s because of building metro and streets. Today a lot of cities
are starting to build new networks. It was a big fault to close this networks, today we need them! I´m very interested how the tram networks looked like in the past. :)

I start with BERLIN!

Werner von Siemens invented the first electric-tram in the world in 16. Mai 1881 in Berlin!
So, the tram was born in Berlin!

1929

length: 650 km
lines: 93
stations: ?
wagons: 4000

14400 people were working by Berlin Tram!!!!!
Can someone beat this?!

Lisbon metro started only in December 1959...:|

Lisbon metro started only in December 1959...:|

Tram means tramways, not metro...
;)

What is with Warsaw, Moscow, all German cities, all French cities....
Weren´t there bigger networks than today in the past?
@reflex: please only tramway, thank you!

Trams of Wroclaw, Poland (before 1945 Breslau, Germany)

HISTORIA WROCŁAWSKICH
TRAMWAJÓW
Część I. Od początków do 1945 r.

Wrocławskie Towarzystwo Kolei Ulicznej (Breslauer Strassen-Eisenbahn Gesellschaft - BSEG) założono aktem notarialnym 2 września 1876 roku. Pierwszy tramwaj ruszył spod budynku poczty przy ul. Krasińskiego o godzinie 8.00 w dniu 10 lipca 1877 roku. [Horse tram began operation in 1877]

http://www.zdik.wroc.pl/publikacje/autor/msz/images/Image2.jpg
Tramwaj konny na ul. Świdnickiej (rok 1890) [horse tram on Swidnicka street]

Towarzystwo posiadało 18 wozów pasażerskich przewidzianych do zaprzęgów jednokonnych i 49 koni rasy duńskiej. Ponadto dysponowano wagonami służbowymi, tj. wóz do zaprawiania koni (nauka jazdy), odśnieżarko-zamiatarka i platformy do soli. Początkowo wagony tramwajów konnych sprowadzano z Kolonii, gdzie zostały wyprodukowane przez firmę Herbrand, w następnych latach produkowano je we wrocławskiej fabryce wagonów Gebr. Hofman & Co.
[ In the beginning BSEG transportation company owned 18 passenger cars and 49 horses of danish breed, also few technical cars. First passenger cars were produced in Cologne, Germany by Herbrand, later in Breslau by Hofman]


Rok 1884 datuje się dojazdem tramwajem do Dworca Głównego przez ul. Wierzbową i Kołłątaja. Osiem lat później z ul. Wierzbowej przeniesiono trasę na ul. P. Skargi.

W 1885 roku ukończono budowę linii okólnej, która biegła od Dworca Głównego przez ul. Dąbrowskiego, Krasińskiego, Słowackiego, Wyszyńskiego, Sienkiewicza, Matejki, Prusa, Kilińskiego, Drobnera, Dubois, Mieszczańską, Podwale, Legnicką, Nabycińską, Braniborską, Piłsudskiego.
[ In years 1884-85 further development of lines went on, including circular line from main train station through streets mentioned above - Dabrowskiego, Krasinskiego etc]

http://www.zdik.wroc.pl/publikacje/autor/msz/images/Image3.jpg
Wagon silnikowy ESB nr 39 na terenie zajezdni przy ul. Grabiszyńskiej[ESB tram in depot]

W kwietniu 1892 roku powstało drugie przedsiębiorstwo komunikacji tramwajowej - Elektryczne Tramwaje Wrocław (Elektrische Strassenbahn Breslau - ESB), które miało na celu uruchomienie tramwaju elektrycznego. 29 lipca 1892 roku rozpoczęła się realizacja tego przedsięwzięcia.

[In April 1892 ESB - Company of Electric Tram was brought to life. Construction of infrastructure began 29 July 1892]

W tym okresie powstają trzy trasy dwutorowe:
[Three bidirectional routes were built then]
* Cmentarz Grabiszyński - ul. Grabiszyńska - pl. Legionów - ul. Sądowa - Krupnicza -Szajnochy - Gepperta - pl. Solny - Rynek,
* Piaskowa - most Piaskowy - most Młyński - pl. Bema - ul. Sienkiewicza - Sępa-Szarzyńskiego - Benedyktyńska - Grunwaldzka - most Szczytnicki - ul. Różyckiego - Szczytniki,
* Pl. Legionów - ul. Kościuszki - Pułaskiego - pl. Wróblewskiego - ul. Walońska - Na Grobli - Rakowiec.



Konkurowanie tramwajów konnych z elektrycznymi zmusiło BSEG do elektryfikowania swojej trakcji. Do tego celu sprowadza 50 czteroosiowych wagonów typu Maximum oraz 100 wagonów dwuosiowych typu Berolina wyprodukowanych we wrocławskich zakładach Linke & Hofman. Jeden ze składów zachował się do czasów dzisiejszych: wyremontowany w 1974 r. Jaś i Małgosia.

[Competition between horse and electric tram was uneven, so BSEG had to electrify its lines. 50 4-axle Maximum cars and 100 2-axial Berolina cars were bought from Breslau's main rail manufacturer, Linke-Hofman-Werke. One set of Berolinas, known today as Jas i Malgosia (Hansel & Gretchen) was brought back to life in 1974 as touristic attraction]


http://www.zdik.wroc.pl/publikacje/autor/msz/images/Image4.jpg
Tramwaj ESB nr 109 z węglarkami powracający z elektrowni [ESB tram with coal cars coming back from power plant]


W 1902 roku BSEG buduje trasę tramwajową od Dworca Głównego przez ul. Stawową, Glinianą do Kamiennej. W latach 1902 - 1903 powstaje trasa do Cmentarza Osobowickiego. Ciekawostką jest fakt, że na ul. Reymonta i moście Osobowickim tramwaj miał wspólną szynę z koleją wąskotorową (750mm). Ten trzyszynowy dwutorowy odcinek przetrwał do 1952 r. będąc wykorzystywany przez pociągi wąskotorowe do Trzebnicy, jak i tramwaje do Osobowic.
[In years 1902-1903 one of the lines built was route to Osobowice Cemetary. It is interesting because for several hundred meters it had one common rail with narrow gauge train, until 1952]

W międzyczasie władze miasta postanawiają uruchomić własne tramwaje. 14 lipca 1902 roku Miejskie Tramwaje Wrocław (Städtische Strassenbahn Breslau - SSB) otwiera pierwsze dwie linie: z Parku Południowego do Dworca Nadodrze i z ul. Ślężnej do Dworca Nadodrze.
[14 July 1902 City of Breslau decides to launch its own trams, SSB company opens two lines]
30 czerwca 1906 roku tramwaj konny odbywa swój ostatni kurs, jako liniowy na trasie Most Zwierzyniecki - most Szczytnicki przez ul. Parkową. W 1911 roku Wrocławskie Towarzystwo Kolej Ulicznej(BSEG) ulega likwidacji, a jego majątek przejmują Miejskie Tramwaje Wrocław (SSB), stając się tym samym największym przewoźnikiem.
[30 June 1906 last horse tram finishes its service. 1911 BSEG is bought by SSB]


31 marca 1924 roku ulega likwidacji przedsiębiorstwo ESB. Jego majątek również przejmuje miasto i od tego czasu funkcjonuje we Wrocławiu jedno przedsiębiorstwo komunalne komunikacji miejskiej.

[31 March 1924 ESB company is also bought by the city. Since than only one company operates city trams]

Wybuch II wojny światowej powoduje wiele zmian w komunikacji tramwajowej. Linie wyznacza się pod potrzeby wojska. W celu przewożenia większej liczby pasażerów demontuje się siedzenia. Ułatwia to transport towarów oraz rannych do szpitali.
[WWII causes many changes in trams. All the seats are removed to carry more passengers, transport goods and wounded soldiers to hospitals.]
6 maja 1945 roku Festung Breslau kapituluje. W efekcie walk komunikacja tramwajowa zostaje całkowicie zniszczona.
[May 6, 1945 Breslau Fortress surrenders. Destruction of infrastructure is massive: 60% of cars, some 70% of rails, 5 of 7 depots, all power plants and 90% of cables were destroyed. Nevertheless, on July 22, 1945 first line begins operation.]

Część II. Lata powojenne od 1945 r. do dnia dziejszego.




Pierwszy powojenny tramwaj ruszył w dniu 22 lipca na trasie Biskupin - zajezdnia przy ul. Słowiańskiej przez ul. Olszewskiego, Wróblewskiego, pl. Grunwaldzki, ul. Piastowską, Nowowiejską.


6 października zaczyna kursować dwójka (w relacji Karłowice - Dworzec Nadodrze przez ul. Trzebnicką), która od 22 listopada dotarła do Dworca Głównego przez pl. Staszica, ul. Pomorską, most Pomorski, ul. Nowy Świat, Kiełbaśniczą, pl. Solny, ul. Szajnochy, Krupniczą, Sądową, Piłsudskiego. 21 grudnia rusza na trasę trójka między pl. Staszica, a pl. Strzegomskim przez Rynek, ul. Legnicką. Koniec roku 1945 zakończył się odbudowaniem 14 km tras oraz wyremontowaniem 53 wagonów silnikowych oraz 31 doczepnych. Od wyzwolenia do końca roku ZKMW (Zakłady Komunikacyjne Miasta Wrocławia) przewiozły 3,6 miliona pasażerów
[By the end of 1945 53 motor cars and 31 trailers are brought back to service and 14 km of new track is laid. Three lines serve the passengers]

http://www.zdik.wroc.pl/publikacje/autor/msz/images/Image6.jpg
Zniszczona w wyniku działań wojennych ul. Świdnicka od strony ul. Piłsudskiego [Swidnicka street destroyed during the war]

Rok 1946 to dalsza odbudowa trakcji tramwajowej we Wrocławiu.

24 stycznia uruchomiona zostaje linia 4 na trasie Cmentarz Grabiszyński - Rynek przez ul. Grabiszyńską, Sądową, Krupniczą, Szajnochy. Niecały miesiąc później zaczyna jeździć 5 z Rynku przez ul. Wita Stwosza, Słowackiego, Krasińskiego, Traugutta do ul. Krakowskiej. Od 25 lipca pojawia się 6, która kursuje na trasie pl. Kromera - ul. Muzealna przez most Warszawski, ul. Jedności Narodowej, Poniatowskiego, Kilińskiego, Jedności Narodowej, Drobnera, Dubois, Mieszczańską, Jagiełły, Podwale, pl. 1 Maja, Dworzec Świebodzki, ul. Podwale do ul. Muzealnej. 27 września zaczyna kursować 7 w relacji Krzyki - Rynek przez ul. Powstańców Śląskich i Świdnicką. Od 17 lipca Wrocław otrzymał połączenie z Osobowicami dzięki linii 8, która jeździła od pl. Staszica przez ul. Reymonta, most Pomorski i ul. Osobowicką. Natomiast 9 połączyła skrzyżowanie ul. Sienkiewicza i Piastowskiej z Sępolnem przez most Szczytnicki, ul. Różyckiego, Paderewskiego i Mickiewicza. 10 łączy Dworzec Główny z Dworcem Nadodrze przez ul. Piłsudskiego, Sądową, Podwale, Dworzec Świebodzki, pl. 1 Maja, ul. Jagiełły, Mieszczańską, Pomorską, pl. Staszica. 1 grudnia zostaje uruchomiona linia - 11, łącząc pl. Kromera z Kowalami przez ul. Toruńską i Kwidzyńską.

Do końca 1946 roku we Wrocławiu kursuje już 11 linii tramwajowych. Do obsłużenia tych linii wyjeżdżały codziennie 74 wagony silnikowe i 55 doczepnych. Długość wykorzystywanych torów wynosi 45 km (głównie pojedynczych z mijankami). Przewieziono 34 miliony pasażerów - prawie 10 razy więcej, niż w roku poprzednim (Wrocław liczy sobie wówczas około 120 tysięcy mieszkańców).

[By the end of 1946 there are already 11 lines, using 74 motor cars and 55 trailers. Some 34 million passengers are carried]

W 1947 r. wyremontowany zostaje most Grunwaldzki, co pozwala uruchomić linię 12 z Biskupina do Rynku przez ul. Wróblewskiego, M. Skłodowskiej-Curie, most Grunwaldzki, ul. Słowackiego, Wita Stwosza. Była to jedyna linia uruchomiona w tym roku. W czasie odgruzowania zakładu farb i lakierów odnaleziono duże ilości niebieskiej farby, tak więc od listopada tramwaje wrocławskie zostają pomalowane na kolor kremowo-niebieski.

[1947 line 12 is opened. During removing debris from paint factory large amount of blue and cream paints is found, which enables all trams to get new livery, instead of rust and remainders of sand color]

W 1948 roku przybywają nowe linie. 26 maja rozpoczyna kursowanie 14, między Rynkiem, a Grabiszynkiem przez ul. Hallera i Powstańców śląskich. Dzięki Wystawie Ziem Odzyskanych na trasę rusza 15 łącząc ul. Dyrekcyjną z Halą Ludową. W dniu 14 sierpnia na trasie od ul. Kołłątaja do ul. Hubskiej pojawia się 16, której trasa niedługo zostaje wydłużona z jednej strony do ul. Mickiewicza, a z drugiej do Tranogaju.
W grudniu 17 zaczyna jeździć w relacji Rynek - Pafawag (przez ul. Robotniczą, jest to pierwszy oddany do użytku nowy tor tramwajowy). W tym roku rozpoczęto również budowę torowiska tramwajowego do Leśnicy. 17 września zostaje oddany do użytku kolejny odcinek od ul. Krakowskiej do Księża Małego.
[1948 lines 14 - 17 begin operation]

http://www.zdik.wroc.pl/publikacje/autor/msz/images/Image7.jpg
Powitanie pierwszego tramwaju na pętli Pafawag [first tram on the loop at Pafawag Works, formerly Linke-Hofman]

http://www.zdik.wroc.pl/publikacje/autor/msz/images/Image8.jpg
Budowa torowiska tramwajowego do Leśnicy (mijanka) [Construction of new tracks to Lesnica (Lissa)]


Można powiedzieć, że w roku 1949 zakończył się okres odbudowy. Rozpoczął się, o wiele powolniejszy, rozwój. 15 grudnia trójka nową trasą rusza do Leśnicy po odcinku jednotorowym z trzema mijankami. Do końca roku czynnych było 66 km tras tramwajowych, co pozwoliło podwoić liczbę przewiezionych pasażerów do 72 milionów. Tramwaje przejechały 14 mln km. Codziennie na trasy wyjeżdżały 152 wagony silnikowe oraz 146 doczepnych.
[After 1949 rebuilding of network was almost finished and development began. By the end of the year 152 trams with 146 trailers have covered 14 million kilometers on 66 km of tracks, carrying 72 million passengers.]

http://www.zdik.wroc.pl/publikacje/autor/msz/images/Image9.jpg
Pociąg tramwajowy składający się z wagonu silnikowego typu LH oraz doczepy ND [Linke-Hofman tram with ND trailer]

Rok 1951 przynosi zmianę nazwy przewoźnika, odtąd działa we Wrocławiu Miejskie Przedsiębiorstwo Komunikacyjne.

Mimo protestów mieszkańców oraz załogi w roku 1952 tramwaje zaczęły być malowane na barwy kremowo - czerwone.
[1952 the Communist Party ordered to paint all trams red and white]
W 1956 roku na ulice Wrocławia wyjeżdżają pierwsze wagony tramwajowe polskiej produkcji wyprodukowane przez Konstal w Chorzowie. Jeździły bardzo długo. Dopiero w połowie 1969 roku pojawiają się nowe, bardzo pojemne wagony przegubowe. Podobają się mieszkańcom. Niektórzy pasażerowie przepuszczali kilka wozów tylko po to, by przejechać się przegubem. Był to prawdziwy krok naprzód w dziedzinie przewozów tramwajami.
[ 1956 new polish trams from Konstal begin operation. 1969 new type of tram, 102N is introduced]

http://www.zdik.wroc.pl/publikacje/autor/msz/images/Image10.jpg
Wagon przegubowy (typ 102Na) [flexible tram of 102 Na type]

And that's all for desired period. You can find much more information in English, maps, schemes and photos about Breslau/Wroclaw trams (and 50 other tram systems) on
http://arch.p.lodz.pl/personal/jw37/urbtr/trsh-wroclaw.html
to which I've sent some of my photos and comments.
Polish text and photos owned by Maciej Szewczyk. Abbreviated and translated by WotaN.

Thank you, that´s very interesting, a perfect reply!
More please!

Just try that link! You won't leave your computer till tomorrow! :D

Here's Thessaloniki's old tram network...Unfortunately it's operation stopped in 1957 and since then we only have buses :( and waiting for a metro line...

http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/HellenicMacedonia/en/D3.A.html

And here's Moscow's tram :)
http://tram.ruz.net/welcome.htm

(sorry, too busy to post photos)

@Wotan: you were right, I was sitting the whole Sunday at this website!
@kostya: thanks, very interesting links!

Sydney had nearly 300km of tram lines in the 1930's, now there's about 10km.

http://www.railpage.org.au/tram/sydhist.html

@Wotan: you were right, I was sitting the whole Sunday at this website!

:hahaha: Told ya! But seriously, Mr Wesolowski is a tutor at Technical University in Lodz, Cathedral of Transportation, and he knows what is he writing about.

Rome maximum network in 1929 :

length : 400 km
lines : 58
wagons : + 1000


website in English with the history of the trams in Rome :
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/vform/tramroma/sommario_en.htm

some pictures :
http://www.ilmondodeitreni.it/romatram/tramstoria-file/200.JPG

http://www.ilmondodeitreni.it/romatram/goldoni.JPG

http://www.ilmondodeitreni.it/romatram/tramstoria-file/581_3viabertoloni.JPG

http://www.ilmondodeitreni.it/romatram/tramstoria-file/671carso.JPG

http://www.ilmondodeitreni.it/romatram/tramstoria-file/T-2061-VerdeRoma71.JPG

http://www.ilmondodeitreni.it/romatram/tramstoria-file/2001Farini0701.JPG

http://members.surfeu.de/home/tram.muenchenrom/2c65eeb0.jpg


more pics :

http://www.**************/phr0/tram/roma/atac__roma.htm

:)

Brisbane's tram system
Brisbane established its first horse tram in 1885. It's a hilly city, so this must have been tough for horses. Electric operation was introduced in 1897 with some imported trams, but local construction soon began. From 1907, single truck ten-bench trams were introduced, and in 1908, the two bogie dreadnought commenced service.
In 1923 the tramways were brought under one management, the Brisbane Tramways Trust, but two years later, the Brisbane City Council took over. It immediately set about modernising the fleet. The dropcentre tram appeared that year, and in 1938 the new streamlined FM was introduced.

By 1952, the network had expanded to 109 route kilometres (199 km of track). Ten years later, Brisbane trams were still going strong, despite the fact that trams had disappeared from many other Australian cities, and in spite of being under the control of a fiercely anti-tram Lord Mayor. Mayor Clem Jones, a member of the Labor Party, had views on public transport which were directly opposite to most in his party. He was quoted as saying that his ideal was for the working man to be driving his own car, not catching a tram.

But disaster struck. On 28-Sep-1962 Paddington tram depot just happened to catch fire, and burnt to the ground, destroying 65 trams. Old Dreadnought trams were pressed into service, and 8 replacement (Phoenix) trams were built, but Jones began to close lines almost immediately. Final closure came in April 1969.

One of those "Alice Through the Looking Glass" experiences that one often has when looking at Queensland politics has come again. The former National Party (conservative) State Government portrayed itself as pro-public transport, and the (then) opposition Labor Party as anti-PT (a la Clem Jones, 30 years ago), a claim which has a credibility problem anywhere else in the country. It proposed a new tram system for Brisbane, BrizTram, as an election stunt, but few people outside Queensland expected that it would ever be built afterwards (and perhaps few in Queensland either). But that government did not survive the election, and the new Labor Government has killed off the proposal. The Nationals can still claim that they are pro-public transport (since they did not have to follow through), and that Labor is anti- etc. etc. Everyone is happy. But there are no trams.

In that period Antwerp was connected with all the small city's in it's neighbourhood. Only some shorter tram-lines remained, the others were replaced by bus-lines. :ohno: Nowadays they are slowly rebuilding the connections between Antwerp and it's surrounding towns.

If I find some facts, figures or maps, I will post them

Historical trams in India.


Mumbai/Bombay (ran between 1874 and 1965, electrified in 1907, horse-drawn before that)
http://www.tramz.com/tva/in1.jpg


Kolkata/Calcutta (1881 to date, electrified in 1902, horse drawn before that)
http://www.tramz.com/tva/in2.jpg


Chennai/Madras (1895 to 1953, electrified from the outset)
http://www.tramz.com/tva/in5.jpg


Delhi (1908 to 1963, electrified from the outset)
http://www.tramz.com/tva/in4.jpg


Kanpur/Cawnpore (1907 to 1933, electrified from the outset)
http://www.tramz.com/tva/in3.jpg

The source for the above photos and dates is
http://www.tramz.com/tva/tva.html

This is a wonderful site where you will find pictures of historical tramways from around the world.

Also, this
http://www.tramz.com/

London used to have quite a extensive tram system 345 miles, with even a dedicated tram tunnel under the city. But the trams were replaced with trolleybuses (trolleybuses lasted only 10 years :runaway: ) then eventually normal buses. back then it was cheaper to run normal buses than electric powered ones. Now the situation is reversed :)
Also the trams were supposed to cause congestion and getting rid of them would ease congestion :weird:
after London's tram system was closed: Belfast, Birmingham, Blackpool, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Sunderland, and Swansea were the only remaining cities with trams. but most of these are closed
http://img245.echo.cx/img245/4965/ltw19fi.jpg
on the bright side trams are returning though. London has a small tram network in the south and other big cities such as manchester have tram networks
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/gb/trams/Croydon/cr2535-001.jpg

these are all very sad storys, I like the tram a lot more than a bus.
Anyway, thanks for this interesting replys and links!
Of course it is allowed to post more!

Here are 2 maps from Berlin in the year 1913.
The tram network was amazing at this time!

http://img493.imageshack.us/img493/4944/netzgbs1913ost2zx.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img498.imageshack.us/img498/6215/netzgbs1913west2ic.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

As you can see, on the map is not enough place in the city centre. Damned it was so dense! So many tram lines!

Moscow and Piter has lost pretty much. It's only 400km and 700km of networks left in Moscow and Piter from thousands kilometers...

Singapore
Year: 1905 - 1927
Lines: 6 Lines Through Singapore Town
Company: Singapore Electric Tramways Company (London)
Passengers Per Day: 11,000 At Its Peak
Finances: Unprofitable

Sorry but that's all the information I have on this very unknown piece of Singapore's public transportation history.

Bangkok Trams (1894-1968) within 2bangkok.com website (http://2bangkok.com/2bangkok/Tram/index.shtml).

OK, Since I'm half Croatian I'll post information on Zagreb Tram System,

Historic trams (1920's - 1940's)
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/hr/trams/Zagreb/historic/Zagreb88_2.jpg

Old trams - (1950's - 2005)
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/hr/trams/Zagreb/200/zg_tram_200_01.jpg

ZET (Zagreb Electric tram) was established in 1894 and was horse drawn at first. First electric trams started to run on line 1 between western part of the city and main railway station way back in 1898 but fully electrified line wasn't put i to full service before 1907... By 1908 Zagreb had replaced all of its horse drawn trams with Electric powered trams. I don't know how many tram lines there where in 1901 or before that as I can't find out on the net, to give you an idea Zagreb in 1908 had 128 000 Inhabitants and was 4th largest and most important city in Austro-Hungarian Empire.. With in 20 years city's population doubled and by 1951 population census Zagreb had 350 000 Inhabitants... Today Zagreb has 880 000 Inhabitants and 320 000 in Suburbia, 15 tram lines are in operation with about 250-300 trams, future 4-5 tram lines are planed (by 2008) and purchase of 170 new low floor trams has just commenced (10 are already in service).

City has plans to expand network even further including underground tram lines and light metro...

New TMK 2200 5 section low floor tram
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/hr/trams/Zagreb/2200/2200_2_ar.jpg

Older trams - enterd service in 90's
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/hr/trams/Zagreb/2100/2111_1_ar.jpg

Presently Zagreb has only 58km of double tram tracks, line length is about 180km, I understand in 1924 (height of Zagreb Tram, Network) Zagreb had 20 tram lines and almost 60km of tram tracks laid..

New Lines planed 4 so far, will add additional 25km of tram tracks and about 70km of line length...

Presently:

Length of tracks 58.5km
Length of Routes - 180km

ZET Stock

45 German Duwag Trams
90 Tatra T4 Trams (will be retired in late 2006)
50 Tatra T4KY Articulated Trams
17 TMK2100 Koncar Articulated Trams
170 TMK 2200 Cro-Tram low Floor Trams (10 thus far in service)

Moscow and Piter has lost pretty much. It's only 400km and 700km of networks left in Moscow and Piter from thousands kilometers...

It's still one of the largest in the world if it's 400km and 700km. :) Melbourne's 245km of track today already makes it something like the third or fourth largest network in the world.

Melbourne first had electric trams in 1889 although that line was a failure. There was also a large cable tram network at one stage as well as the electric trams, which eventually became a network of only electric trams.

During the 1940s, the tram operator was extremely profitable and had to find extravagant ways to spend its money. By the 50s and 60s when it was popular to tear out trams and replace them with buses, they had every tram line set in concrete to make removing tram lines expensive.

Not much has really happened since then apart from the odd fleet replacements and a few extensions here and there. Right now there's 35 routes, 245km of double track with 500 trams running from 8 depots.

here is what was in Moscow in 1929
http://tram.ruz.net/maps/sh19291000.gif

and here is 2004 - 412km left.
http://tram.ruz.net/maps/sh20041225.png

A great thread. So, so far we have the following identified at their max level...

Moscow: 1000km+ (Coth, do you have exact length of route km?)
Berlin: 650km (1929)
London 555km (192x?)
Rome: 400km (1929)
Sydney: (nearly) 300km (1930)'s (Sirhc8, do you have exact figures for route km?)
Melbourne: 245km (Present)
Brisbane: 109km (1952)

Let's keep adding to this list! I think this will also be one transport thread where North America and in particular, the U.S. will do very well, as the U.S. had some mammoth tram networks in it's day.

It's still one of the largest in the world if it's 400km and 700km. :) Melbourne's 245km of track today already makes it something like the third or fourth largest network in the world.


When looking at single networks, Melbourne currently ranks somewhere between 4th and 6th in the world (route length).

It's main competitors are Vienna and Milan (from memory) which both also have around 245km and depending on which of the three cities (including Melbourne) complete their extensions, they often jump slightly ahead of each other.

When looking at Metropolitan Area's, Melbourne drops to about 8th place, as there are a few metro's in Europe which have several "seperate" networks, i.e. one each of the different centers in the MA that are connected by metro lines or suburban lines. The Rhein Ruhr is one of these.

According to Wikipedia (german) (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stra%C3%9Fenbahn_Hamburg) Hamburg had a horse-tram network from 16th August 1866 until 18th December 1922 and an electric tram network from 5th March 1894 until 30th September 1978. According to this link (also in german) (http://www.stadtbahn-hamburg.de/php/stadtbahn-damals.php) Hamburg's tram network was nearly 250km large shortly before WW1 and in 1956 more than 250 million passengers were transported on 18 lines.

ok, so:

Moscow: 1000km+ (Coth, do you have exact length of route km?)
Berlin: 650km (1929)
London 555km (192x?)
Rome: 400km (1929)
Sydney: 290km (1933)
Hamburg: 250km (191x)
Melbourne: 245km (Present)
Brisbane: 109km (1952)
Lisbon: 76km (1960)

Found the Lisbon info here: http://www.luso.u-net.com/listram2.htm
and Sydney detail from here: http://www.railpage.org.au/tram/sydhist.html

additional: I'm not convinced that St. Petersburg and Moscow were over a thousand km of route rail, this maybe a total track figure, as this link suggests the 700km figure for St. Petersburg was track length http://www.saint-petersburg.com/transport/tram/index.asp

Hamburg: 250km (193x)

shortly before the "Great War", not WW2. Should be 191x then. ;)

shortly before the "Great War", not WW2. Should be 191x then. ;)

Opps, I was thinking pre WWII just automatically, as that's when most tram networks were at their peak. I've corrected it. Thanks.

well, may be i was few wrong on 1000+km for moscow... as i found data for 1909 and 1940.
In 1909 one side track length - 251 versts (268km)
In 1940 one side track length - 540,7km, where 456,8km was used for passenger service.

The history of the Amsterdam tram network (including historical maps) can be found here (www.schomakers.net).

Trams in Prague
1883 - 1885 horse tram network 18.9 km.
http://www.dpp.cz/galerie/hist015.jpg

1891- first electric line
http://www.dpp.cz/galerie/hist033.jpg
historic ticket
http://www.dpp.cz/galerie/hist035.jpg

1897 several independent tram companies were established
http://www.dpp.cz/galerie/hist052.jpg

1905 tram line on Charles Bridge
http://www.dpp.cz/galerie/hist503.jpg

1914-1917 ambulance and funeral trams appeared in Prague
http://www.dpp.cz/galerie/hist116.jpg

1927 the tram network exceeded 100 km.

During the interwar period the rolling stock of trams almost doubled and at the end of 1938 it consisted of 647 motor cars and 748 trailers.

In 1938 tram network covered 132.7 km of tracks with 22 lines of a total length 258.45 km. Almost 282 mil. passengers were carried throughout the year. (Just by comparison - in 1919 over 145 mil. passengers)
http://www.dpp.cz/galerie/hist147.jpg

In 1965 there were 28 lines operating in Prague. The rolling stock consisted of 973 motor cars and 542 trailers, of which 130 T1 cars and 405 T3 cars
http://www.dpp.cz/galerie/hist268.jpg

2003 new line to Barrandov
http://spvd.cz/hertl/praha/ph_barrandov13.jpg
http://158.sk/foto/_pic/barrandov/dscn0858.jpg

Present numbers:
559 km line lenght
270 km of track network
35 lines
928 rolling stock

:cheers1:

^Prase1, Do you mean 270km route length?

hmm here is for piter
http://www.spb-business.ru/show.php?directory=70046

strange on maps old networks look more dense and bigger but on real those was shorter... may be because of new long lines to new disctrict moscow and piter networks now bigger than in old times...

1904 - about 100km
1906 - over 150km
1917 - 200km
1928 - 274km
1940 - 529km
1990 - almot 700km
now as i remember about 682km.

Latest list:

St Petersburg: 700km (1990)
Berlin: 650km (1929)
London 555km (192x?)
Moscow: 457km (1940)
Rome: 400km (1929)
Sydney: 290km (1933)
Prague: 270km (Present)
Hamburg: 250km (191x)
Melbourne: 245km (Present)
Brisbane: 109km (1952)
Lisbon: 76km (1960)

^Prase1, Do you mean 270km route length?

Yeah. 270km is the actual length of track network.
I think some people mistake it for line length.
It's usually much longer because some lines share certain parts of tracks. So that's why I posted both numbers.

Amsterdam in 1931, when the network had the most lines (25, to 17 now):

http://www.schomakers.net/PicturesGVBAmsterdam/Tramnet1931.jpg

resently Zagreb has only 58km of double tram tracks, line length is about 180km, I understand in 1924 (height of Zagreb Tram, Network) Zagreb had 20 tram lines and almost 60km of tram tracks laid..

4 new tram lines are planed, will add additional 25km of tram tracks and about 70km of line length...

Presently:

Length of tracks 58.5km
Length of Routes - 180km

ZET Stock

45 German Duwag Trams - Entered service in 1990's
90 Tatra T4 Trams (will be retired in late 2006) Entered service in 1970's
50 Tatra T4KY Articulated Trams Entered service in 1985
17 TMK2100 Koncar Articulated Trams Entered service in 1990's
170 TMK 2200 Cro-Tram low Floor Trams (10 thus far in service) - new
__________________

^ would you mean more than 60km in 1924, as that sounds a little low?

yeah more than 60km, but I don't know how much, many lines where torn down as city grew... But there are plans few new lines 4 by 2008 and 1 or more after, in all by 2010 Zagreb should have about 88.7kk or tram tracks in service, about 20 tram lines, length of routes well over 200km... But Zagreb has huge plans for metro or underground light rail system, depends on funds and transport study which is being done right now... But in 20's past century Zagreb had extensive tram system, almost every street had a tram and trams even went as far as suburbia.

Vienna in 1943:
732 million passengers per year
18,000 employees
4000 cars

I haven´t found anything about route length in this year, but the network reached its max track length - 292km - between WWI and II.

Map from 1913 (numbers are trains per day):
http://www.tramway.at/plaene/1913-xx-xx_Gesamtnetz_Belastung.gif

Some awesome numbers from berlin:

In the year 1929 berlin had a track-length of ca. 650 km and a line length of 1.686 km with "93" lines!!

There were 4000 trains and 14.400 people worked for it!

nice one

Bangkok Trams (1894-1968) within 2bangkok.com website (http://2bangkok.com/2bangkok/Tram/index.shtml).

Bangkok
The total distance (Lines 1 through 7): 42 km
Pak Nam Railway: 21 km
Total Distance of electric mass transit line: 63 km

A tram car was 2 x 8 meters and driven by 40-60 HP motor. The local made trams were made from teak instead of aluminum as in the imported version. (from Lokbaimai Environmental Monthly Magazine - Vol. 8 No.87, Sept, 1996)

Have a look at the above link for more interesting info

Minneapolis/St. Paul in the U.S. once had 444 miles (720 km) of streetcar lines running through the city.

A map of the line in 1917:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/brianddean/mtm/1917map.htm

The last streetcars operated in 1954. The Hiawatha light rail line, which opened in 2004, marked the return of rail to the Twin Cities, and is about 18 km long.

Minneapolis/St. Paul in the U.S. once had 444 miles (720 km) of streetcar lines running through the city.

A map of the line in 1917:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/brianddean/mtm/1917map.htm

The last streetcars operated in 1954. The Hiawatha light rail line, which opened in 2004, marked the return of rail to the Twin Cities, and is about 18 km long.

That's fantastic. One question though, is it route km of track km that is 720km?

This page on the site you provided suggests it was track milage (see 1916 note). Natually, this makes a big difference when comparing with the route milage used by other forumers on this thread.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/brianddean/mtm/chronol.htm

here is interesting maps of moscow tram network in 1931 and in 1938
almost all city was covered by tram lines, unlike now...
http://tram.ruz.net/maps/sh19311016.gif
http://tram.ruz.net/maps/sh19381200.gif

That's fantastic. One question though, is it route km of track km that is 720km?

This page on the site you provided suggests it was track milage (see 1916 note). Natually, this makes a big difference when comparing with the route milage used by other forumers on this thread.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/brianddean/mtm/chronol.htm

Can you explain the difference to me?

Can you explain the difference to me?

Route or track km:

Say you have 10 km separating point A and B

1) Route length: 10 km


2) Track km:

If double tracked: 20 km

If triple tracked: 30 km.

etc.

Arrival of the tranvia

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e132/restardo/22.jpg
This is a document about a planned project of a construction of railway and ship in Manila and Malabon (1758)

http://www.postcardman.net/37724.jpg
Puente de España, Manila, Filipinas

In 1878, Leon Monssour, an official of the Department of Public Works, submitted a proposal to Madrid for a streetcar system. Apparently inspired by the systems in New York and Paris, Monssour envisioned a five-line network with a central station outside the walls of Intramuros, the fortress-like seat of Spanish power in the Philippines. From Plaza San Gabriel in Binondo, the lines were to run to Intramuros via the Puente de España (today's Jones Bridge), to Malate Church, Malacañang (where the Philippine President now lives and works), and Sampaloc and Tondo, large districts north of the Pasig River today. The proposal found favor with the government, but it had to wait for an entrepreneur's initiative.

http://www.meralco.com.ph/Business/about/images/100_years/caruaje.jpg
Compaña de los Tranvias de Filipinas

That entrepreneur was Jocobo Zobel de Zangroniz. Together with Spanish engineer Luciano M. Bremon and Madrid banker Adolfo Bayo, in 1882, the three formed La Compañia de tranvias de Filipinas to operate the concession awarded by the government. The Malacañang Line was not built and was replaced by the Malabon Line. These five routes became popular with commuters. The Manila-Malabon Line was the first to be finished, opening for business on 20 October 1888. All five were constructed between 1885 and 1889. The first tranvias were horse-drawn omnibuses for 12 seated and 8 standing passengers. The system was 16.3-km long—slightly longer than today's only operating LRT line.

http://www.univie.ac.at/Voelkerkunde/apsis/aufi/pop/pop0041l.jpg
http://www.univie.ac.at/Voelkerkunde/apsis/aufi/pop/pop0044l.jpg
Escolta, Main Buisness Center of Manila: horse-drawn

While four lines were horse-drawn, the Malabon ran on steam. Some 4 years later, the Manila Railroad Company, the country's first long-distance rail line north to Dagupan, 196 km away, started operation. So strictly speaking, the first steam railroad in the islands was a modest streetcar! Malabon's transfer points were Tondo, Maypajo, a working-class neighborhood in the suburb of Caloocan and Dulu, at the north end of that community.

http://content.lib.washington.edu/ic/image/70.jpg
Calle Escolta (1911)

The long communication line between Madrid and Manila, plus much delayed economic reforms, conspired to slow development of the Philippines, particularly Luzon, the archipelago's largest island. While other countries were in the throes of the Industrial Revolution and the wave of mercantilism, Spain lagged behind. As early as 1842, a study mission headed by Don Sinibaldo de Mas came to the Philippines to find the best way to carry out reforms—reforms later promoted by Filipinos like Dr Jose Rizal and his contemporaries, known collectively as the Propagandists.

The 1890s were turbulent years for the Spanish colony. The clamored-for reforms prompted Rizal to pen two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, required reading in schools today. Though fiction, the stories were too close to the truth for the Spanish to tolerate. Eventually, Rizal was charged with sedition and executed in 1896—four years after the Manila-Dagupan railroad was completed. Less than 18 months later, Filipinos declared their independence from Spain. The revolution to assert that claim soon followed.

New Colonizers

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c211/hawayano/Bagumbayanshady.jpg
Paseo de Bagumbayan

Meanwhile, the Americans were also at war with Spain. After winning the conflict and claiming the Philippines under the Treaty of Paris, US forces soon arrived. Early in 1899, war (some called it an insurrection) between the Filipinos and the Americans broke out. The Spanish imprint was already etched indelibly on the Philippine landscape, and by the turn of the century, an air of uncertainty characterized everyday conversation as Filipinos wondered what life would be like under the new colonizers.

Transition for tranvia

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/db/dlmap/SEAiT/htdocs/data/images/lc/large/ph00582l.jpg
Manila streetcar, early 1900s

By 1902, La Compañia had long since stopped expanding or improving its system. An average of only 10 streetcars plied the five lines daily. This was a far cry from the hourly service that provided 14 runs in each direction on the Malabon Line alone.

One year later, Manila city officials blamed slow economic growth and population congestion to ‘the antiquated horse-car system and the poorly constructed, unsatisfactory, and generally undesirable system of public vehicles,’ to quote from their official report. These leaders reasoned that with improved transport, the railroad was specifically named, ‘many of those now paying high rents for small and unhealthy quarters will take advantage of this quick transportation and secure comfortable dwellings in better localities.’

Birth of Electric Streetcar

http://www.meralco.com.ph/Business/about/images/100_years/la_electricista.jpg

http://www.artehistoria.com/historia/jpg/REC12734.jpg
Calle Escolta de Manila

The Philippine Commission on 20 October 1902 passed a law that set into motion franchises to be awarded to bidders for the construction and operation of electric power and transportation networks. Although publicized in newspapers in America and the Philippines as well as in a leading US railway journal, only one bid was submitted. On 24 March 1903, the Municipal Board of Manila passed Ordinance 44, accepting the bid of Charles M. Swift of Detroit. Three days later, a New Jersey company was established which eventually became the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company—better known as Meralco. Today, Meralco is still in the electric power business in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. Later, the Philippine Commission allowed Meralco to take over the properties of La Compañia de tranvias. Meralco paid a small fee for its streetcars to La Compañia's lines.

Swift was now under a deadline. He had 6 months to start building his systems and 20 months to get the job done. Ordinance 44 specified 12 lines. Today's LRT Line 1 closely follows the Meralco route to Pasay south of Manila and the Santa Cruz route . LRT Line 2, now under construction, also adheres fairly well to the original lines Meralco laid down. With the exception of the Binondo and Intramuros areas, the network was double-tracked and powered by an overhead catenary of 500 V maximum. The track was standard gauge.

By 1913, Meralco had completed nine of the 12 lines, still called the tranvia by commuters. Swift under another franchise granted in 1906, was also operating a 9.8-km extension line from Paco to Fort McKinley and Pasig. The operator, the Manila Suburban Railway, later merged in 1919 to form the Manila Electric Company. The extension line was one of the most profitable in the Meralco system.

Meralco's lines crossed the Manila Railroad Company's lines (now the Philippine National Railways (PNR)) at three points. Sometimes, I go to Blumentritt Station on the LRT just to see a PNR commuter train crawl directly under the elevated track as I wait for an LRT train to approach its station of the same name, 5 or so meters above. LRT Line 2 will cross the PNR at Santa Mesa in another repeat of history. The Santa Ana tranvia crossed not far from today's PNR Paco Station, currently under renovation.

Dr Leonardo Q. Liongson, Engineering Professor at the University of the Philippines, and railroad enthusiast, made an astute observation in a paper he presented last January: ‘It is also interesting to note from the 1913 (route) map that the three principal tranvia lines (Santa Cruz, Santa Mesa and Santa Ana) led directly to outlying cockpits in suburban La Loma, San Juan and San Pedro de Macati respectively.’ Cockfighting was and still is a popular form of gambling. He concluded, ‘From the point of view of city-wide commuter service, commerce and cockfighting, the Manila electric tranvia was indeed a complete system serving the city by the end of the first decade of the 20th century.’

As the road network improved, Meralco introduced electric- and gasoline-powered bus services in the 1930s. The company also promoted the use of electric appliances such as radios and refrigerators. The tranvia continued running but stopped expanding.

Photos here: http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr16/pdf/f33_satre.pdf
More in the Philippine archives.

---

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/Circa1900/web1890sgral.gif

In 1905, Manila's first tranvia, or tram, opened in Manila and soon grew to five lines servicing many parts of the city of Manila and its outskirts. At that time, the trams were hailed as an efficient system for the city's 220,000 inhabitants of that time. The trams were operated by the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company (Meralco), which now provides power to the city.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/paulkrps/calmes_trolley.jpg
Pre-war Corregidor

The Philippines once had a tram network in Manila, but it was destroyed during World War II. The system has been replaced with the LRT and MRT.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3e/MetroManilaComplete.JPG/480px-MetroManilaComplete.JPG

The tram was officially opened in Sofia on January 1, 1901. The lines were operated by 25 trams and 10 trailers. There were 6 tram lines of total length of 23 km single track.As of 2002 the tram transport system has been transporting passengers articulated 16 lines with a total length of 221 km of single track railway, and at an average speed of 13.8 km per hour. During the weekdays 190 trams are at work;
http://www.skgt-bg.com/index_en.htm

^^ This is an interesting thread and I would like to see old photos of Tranvias in other countries [por favor]. :okay:

http://www.tramz.com/tva/ph1.jpg
CORREGIDOR is a two-square-mile mountainous island at the entrance to Manila Bay. The site of Fort Hughes, a U.S. Military Defense Unit with extensive tunnels through the mountains, the island was originally fortified by the Spanish in the 18th Century. It became a U.S. military station in 1900 and, after invasion by the Japanese in 1941, was chosen as a major defense position which was the site of a famous battle in 1942. The electric tram system, which opened in 1910, was operated by soldiers of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. Eleven passenger cars ran on a winding network of lines connecting the docks and wharves with the barracks, schools and administrative offices. One line ran through a tunnel. The postcard shows Topside Station.

http://www.tramz.com/tva/ph2.jpg
MANILA is located on the Island of Luzon on the east shore of Manila Bay. It is the principal port and commercial, cultural and industrial center of the Philippines. Founded in 1571, Manila became an important commercial center under Spanish rule and was captured by U.S. forces on Aug. 13, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. A horse tram system was opened in the 1880s and a steam tramway ran north to Malabon. The electric tramway system opened on April 10, 1905, and by the 1920s had 17 routes, 33 miles of track and 110 cars. Thirteen cars served a separate 12-mile interurban line to Pasig. Service ended in 1944 during the Japanese occupation. The postcard shows a tram in the silk-stocking district.

Dayton 1932, tram lines (we call them trolleys) at its greatest extent

http://www.daytontrolleys.net/maps/1932daytontrackmap1.gif

...this system wasnt really a "system" ..the lines where run by about 4 seperate companies, I think....

City Railway
http://www.davesrailpix.com/dayton/jpg/dtn003.jpg

Peoples Railway
http://www.davesrailpix.com/dayton/jpg/dtn021.jpg

Oakwood Railroad
http://www.davesrailpix.com/dayton/jpg/dtn103.jpg

Dayton-Xenia. This is an old "city car"..the D-X ran larger cars for its service out to the town of Xenia
http://www.davesrailpix.com/dayton/jpg/dxen014.jpg

Beyond the "city car" system was the "interurbans" which ran to surrounding towns and cities.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v240/Jeff59c/Misc%20Old%20Graphics/DaytonInterurban.jpg

@@@@@@

The long distance lines where abandoned by WWII. The city trams converted to trollybus operation...

http://www.trolleybuses.net/day/jpg/m_dsrxxx_biltmorehotel_19330422.jpg

http://www.trolleybuses.net/day/jpg/m_dx52_yard_dx62bme_1953_glaze.jpg


@@@@

Dayton continues to operate trolleybuses today...one of the few cities in North America to do so:

http://www.daytontrolleys.net/pictures/eti/vol1/m_9848_rt7_sb_watervliet_99.jpg

The history of that Manila system was quite interesting! Thank you!

A lot of old trams in France (1890-1950):
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_cp/liste_alpha/liste_alpha_tw_cp.htm

Tramways in France in the 50's :
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/liste_alpha/liste_alpha.htm

In Grenoble, from 1894 to 1952 :
1 urban company (SGTE) and 3 suburban companies (VFD, CEN and TGC)
?? lines
length : 175 km (in 1923)
?? stations
89 wagons

A map of the department of Isere which Grenoble is the prefecture (all tracks are shown) :
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rue_du_petit_train/cartes-departementales/Carte38.JPG

Grenoble in the 1900's :
http://1900anosjours.free.fr/photos/grenoble/gare-face-02.jpg
http://1900anosjours.free.fr/photos/grenoble/gare-face-01.jpg
http://1900anosjours.free.fr/photos/grenoble/gare-berriat-02.jpg
http://1900anosjours.free.fr/photos/grenoble/gare-berriat-03.jpg
http://1900anosjours.free.fr/photos/grenoble/st-louis-02.jpg

Societe Grenobloise de Tramways Electriques (SGTE) :
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_sassenage_fontaine.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_pont_du_drac_fontaine.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_sassenage_rambaud_2.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_seyssins_rambaud_1.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_cours_berriat_rambaud_1.jpg


Grenoble - Villard de Lans (GVL) :
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1944_grenoble_rambaud_1.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1944_grenoble_gvl_crs_lafontaine_rambaud_2.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1944_grenoble_seyssins_rambaud_1.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1944_grenoble_gvl_crs_lafontaine_rambaud_1.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_gvl_rue_diderot_rambaud_1.jpg


Voies Ferrees du Dauphine (VFD) :
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_pl_de_verdun_rambaud_1.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_depot_ile_verte_rambaud_1.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_pl_notre_dame_rambaud_1.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1944_grenoble_vizille_chateau_rambaud_2.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1944_grenoble_vizille_chateau_rambaud_1.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_sq_des_postes_rambaud_1.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_sq_des_postes_rambaud_2.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_sq_des_postes_rambaud_3.jpg
http://www.amtuir.org/dossiers/histoire_tw_france_50/reseau_france_50/grenoble/images/1945_grenoble_sq_des_postes_rambaud_4.jpg

Meralco tranvia

http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/381/meralco11jf.jpg

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/4264/meralco25px.jpg

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9389/meralco35qm.jpg

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/6128/meralco41sz.jpg

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/4290/meralco58gy.jpg

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/6110/meralco65te.jpg

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3805/meralco79ej.jpg

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9282/meralco81mr.jpg

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/5918/meralco90et.jpg

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/8771/meralco106ct.jpg

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/8127/ad11hw.jpg

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/4485/ad25ne.jpg

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/106/ad39ia.jpg

http://img467.imageshack.us/img467/3320/ad48fc.jpg

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/1740/ad56lw.jpg

http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/6303/ad62gb.jpg

http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/3423/ad79ln.jpg

http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/2812/ad83pp.jpg

Singapore's old trams and trolley buses

Some very old pics of Singapore's trams and trolley buses, which all had ceased to exist.

Most lines were in the Town area, but some stretched into the sub-rural parts.

Very difficult to find any info on those lines.

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980005846-8106-3181-7830/img0060.jpg

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980005809-8106-3181-7899/img0083.jpg

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980005118-8073-3222-4721/img0049.jpg

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980005493-8073-3222-4698/img0098.jpg

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980005846-8106-3181-7830/img0065.jpg

http://picas.nhb.gov.sg/data/tn_pcd/19980005861-8120-3181-2494/img0029.jpg

Don't remember if I posted this already. Here is photos of Moscow trams from end of 50's made by Ray Degroote, Jim Northcutt, Wolfgang Schreiner, Mike Taplin and G.A.Schacher.

M-38, МTV-82 and RVЗ
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/moskva59mtv.htm

few of them
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/images/m59/206.jpg
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/images/m59/2404.jpg
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/images/m59/1236.jpg


BF, S and KM
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/moskva59f.htm

few of them
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/images/m59/89.jpg
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/images/m59/97.jpg
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/images/m59/808.jpg
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/images/m59/976b.jpg
http://photo.tramvaj.ru/images/m59/2181.jpg

^^ Interesting... :) Does anyone have interior shots too?

Meralco Museum, aside from the Meralco tranvia is marveling at the meticulously crafted scale models of old Manila.

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/2063/scale13ks.jpg

The scale models practically covered the major parts of Manila (Intramuros de Manila, Sta. Cruz, Binondo, Tondo, San Miguel, Malate, and even San Juan).

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/6372/scale29xf.jpg

Mural of Old Manila

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/8869/scale34ui.jpg

San Miguel district (San Sebastian church still looks magnificent even in scale models).

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/263/scale40qz.jpg

Overview of San Sebastian Church.

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/3259/scale51qi.jpg

Malacañang Palace - The Presidential Palace

http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/7104/scale65tp.jpg

Ayala Bridge/ Hospicio de San Jose/ Germinal Cigar Factory

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/5570/scale78gm.jpg

Malate Church

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/6963/scale87ub.jpg

Sta. Ana Church. The street is lined with graceful vacation houses.

http://img110.imageshack.us/img110/4940/scale133yr.jpg

Binondo district (The tracks of the tranvia at Calle Rosario leads all the way to Binondo Church).

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/8701/scale103gf.jpg

Calle Escolta district

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/3563/scale118ru.jpg

Plaza Goiti

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/2185/scale128md.jpg

Monte de Piedad (Sta. Cruz district)

Photos by Wonderboy

Here is a 1903 - 1972 map of Tokyo.
http://homepage1.nifty.com/chi-anzu/toden/line/map_line.html
41 lines, 213 km were operated at their best. Now only one line remains.

From the Sous-série Véhicules de service webpage via the http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/fonds.htm one
in Montreal's STM website:-

February 16th, 1905 -- snow sweeper:
http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/images/S172/S1724_2.jpg


1904 -- another sweeper:
http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/images/S172/S1724_3.jpg


1904 -- snow plough:
http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/images/S172/S1724_1.jpg


February 2nd, 1910 -- another plough (maybe a combo, e.g., with sweeper?):
http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/images/S172/S1724_4.jpg


1907 -- instruction car
http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/images/S172/S1724_5.jpg


June 1905 -- employees in Observation Car No. 1 (a tour car)
http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/images/S175/S1757_4.jpg


1907 -- tram headboards -- there couldn't have been more than 48 routes while the transit corp's webpage is declaring 54:
http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/images/S176/S1768_8.jpg


September 1907 -- E Notre-Dame near formerly 1st Avenue now Viau:
http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/images/S171/S1713_29.jpg


August 26th, 1907 -- W Saint-Jacques by Bonaventure station:
http://www.stm.info/English/en-bref/tramways/images/S171/S1712_14.jpg

@Animo:
Impressive Museum!
:eek::eek:
@Elkram:
Very nice photos!
:)
Thanks!
:okay:

Toronto's streetcars have been around for well over a hundred years and still continue to run and be a very popular mode of transportation, despite being displaced by subways and buses as the most used.

1901, streetcars are visible through the crowds.
http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/8195/1901yongepretoriadaycf3tu5.jpg

1912
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/2028/1912yongeandkingyo7ol4.jpg

1924
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/2663/1924yongelookingnfromkingnoonyr9di6.jpg

1929
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/6834/1929nfromqueenpw6rl7.jpg

Today. these models are starting to show their age but should be replaced in the coming years.
http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/3519/1156556824735b04136bvv0.jpg

@Animo:
Impressive Museum!


Thanks! :) How I wish the war never happened. The country lost so much because of it.

Los Angeles' Pacific Electric Railway was one of, if not THE largest streetcar (tram) system in the world:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v246/elsongs/transit/PE-map-circa1920.jpg

1934 figures:

System miles: 1,103.43 (1,775.8 km)
Total passengers served, 1934: 65,941,023
Passenger cars: 657

http://www.ulwaf.com/Site-Images/PacificElectricRear.jpg

http://www.stubchaer.com/PE_Slide_Show/images/image001.jpg

http://www.stubchaer.com/PE_Slide_Show/images/image009.jpg


The railway was discontinued in 1961.

Here in Turkey, Istanbul and Izmir had tram networks. I don't know how many lines Izmir had but Istanbul tram network had 56 lines! Both networks were dismantled during the "Operation Tram Out, Car In" of the 1950s. Now we have dreadful traffic problems and we wish we hadn't withdrawn the trams.

London used to have quite a extensive tram system 345 miles, with even a dedicated tram tunnel under the city. But the trams were replaced with trolleybuses (trolleybuses lasted only 10 years :runaway: ) then eventually normal buses. back then it was cheaper to run normal buses than electric powered ones. Now the situation is reversed :)
Also the trams were supposed to cause congestion and getting rid of them would ease congestion :weird:
after London's tram system was closed: Belfast, Birmingham, Blackpool, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Sunderland, and Swansea were the only remaining cities with trams. but most of these are closed
http://img245.echo.cx/img245/4965/ltw19fi.jpg
on the bright side trams are returning though. London has a small tram network in the south and other big cities such as manchester have tram networks
http://www.railfaneurope.net/pix/gb/trams/Croydon/cr2535-001.jpg

Are they plannig to bring the trams back to Central London? I wish they would

http://www.dersaadettramvayi.com/

A website about Istanbul's tramways.

You can visit AZAFT's website (http://www.azaft.org/)to know more about the TRAMWAY in ZARAGOZA until 1976, when they were finally withdrawn.

Unfortunately, it is only in Spanish, so.. in order to get the trams, once you are in the homepage, select "Tranvías" from the left side list, and then Zaragoza, where you have description of the 17 lines that existed, the rolling stock, tickets and some trams that are still.... "alive" for museum purposes...

How many tram lines did London have?

Here is a map of Milan Tramway Network, around the year 1955.
The network is, for a big part, still active.

http://www.webalice.it/wronny/Immagini/CartinapiccolaMilano.jpg

Click here for a bigger size:
http://www.webalice.it/wronny/Immagini/Cartina%20di%20Milano.jpg

And here you can see some pics of today:

http://www.miol.it/stagniweb/foto7/atm_0235.jpg

http://www.miol.it/stagniweb/foto7/atm_3161.jpg

http://www.miol.it/stagniweb/foto8/atm_0825.jpg

http://www.miol.it/stagniweb/foto7/atm_0543.jpg

http://www.miol.it/stagniweb/foto7/1723oref.jpg

http://www.anticacredenzasantambrogiomilano.org/trasporti/immagini2/609%20inside.jpg

http://www.anticacredenzasantambrogiomilano.org/trasporti/immagini2/609%20front2.jpg

http://www.milanotram.com/Foto/711_17.jpg

And an actual pic of an Interurban tramway:

http://www.miol.it/stagniweb/foto8/atmi0299.jpg

Maps from Hungary:

Budapest in 1930:
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/628/terkep193018985435qd7.jpg

and in 2007:
http://villamosok.hu/kepek/terkep/terkep2007-szab-hid.gif

Szeged has 4 lines on about 20 km,which is the largest outside Budapest,and probably the least demolished. Then comes Miskolc(2) with 10km and Debrecen(1) with about 7km.

In the past,Pécs,Sopron,Szombathely and Nyíregyháza had tramlines.
http://villamosok.hu/videk/index.html
Every system,apart from the one that was in Sopron was decommissioned by the commies to favour "more advanced and better" bus transport.

3 lines were planned in Kecskemét,but WWI came...Extensions are planned next year in Szeged,Miskolc and Debrecen,in fact,works started in Szeged. All projects will probably be co-financed by the EU. Győr is rumoured to be planning an extensive commuter-rail network.

Does anybody know of an interurban system that went inland from either the north or west coast of the Iberian peninsula (I don't know if it was Malaga, Spain, or south of Porto, Portugal). They were way cool, loved riding them as a kid, I did.

... and a beautiful Milan pic at the beginning of last century:

http://www.storiadimilano.it/citta/carosello.jpg

Malmö's tram network with some 10 lines was discontinued in 1973. The city is currently planning a LRT system to be up and running some time around 2020 again.

South St. anno 1913
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Sodergatan-1913.jpg

Bergsgatan anno 1913
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Bergsgatan-1913.jpg

Gustav Adolf's Sq. anno 1923
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Gat-1923.jpg

... and a beautiful Milan pic at the beginning of last century:

http://www.storiadimilano.it/citta/carosello.jpg

Milan still has trams I suppose. This thread is about tram networks that have completely disappeared like London's trams.

I found this on Chicago from the historical society:

Horses pulled the first streetcars, but soon San Francisco pioneered a new system, with cars hooked to a moving cable underneath the street. Chicago's lines were steadily rebuilt in the 1880s until the city had the world's largest cable-car system.

In the meantime, Eastern cities were experimenting with electric streetcars that drew their power from a wire strung over the tracks, a method imitated in Chicago beginning in the 1890s.

By World War I, the city's trolleys held all the records: The street railroads had more miles of track, had the longest one-fare ride, the longest average ride, operated over more routes and kept more electric cars running than any other city in the world. In 1929, when the fare was 7 cents, Chicago's streetcars carried nearly 900 million passengers.

It had thousands of carriages, and employed over 16,000 people in Chicago.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/mmmm/1.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/mmmm/2.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/mmmm/3.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/mmmm/4.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f385/Candrson/mmmm/5.jpg

Amsterdam

In 1875 the horsecar was introduced in Amsterdam. In 1900 there were 15 lines and 242 tramcars.

Around 1900 on the Dam:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Paleis_op_de_dam_1900.jpg

Between 1900 and 1906 virtually all were lines were replaced by electric cars.

The network expanded to 25 lines in 1930, had 445 trams (+350 additional wagons). Virtually every area in Amsterdam was covered by the tram.

From 1932 some lines were replaced by more flexible busses.

The Second World War had a big impact, because many trams went to Germany, and there was a short of supply on anything in the winter of 1944 (coal to run the cars and wood to support the rails were used by people itself). Also worth mentioning is 'The Strike of February 1941' were members of the local tram networks quickly joined a general strike in Amsterdam against the razzias held (against Jews). There were suddenly no trams around, so people knew that something happened. Tram line 8 was used to transport Jews and other people to concertration camps, after the war this number has never been used again.

After the war there were less trams and many former lines were replaced by busses. But certain streets were very narrow to run busses in and this kept the tramnetwork alive in Amsterdam. From 1955 there was a new period for the tram in Amsterdam. Many old lines were re-used again or expanded.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3224/2333015624_450ec45534.jpg

Although a nice plan for a serious subway system in 1968, only a small part has been build until now. In the past not because they had to destroy a lot of old buildings (many people were against it), later not because the ground is very difficult.

Today there are 16 tram lines, 246 trams (mostly Combino's with a capacity of 180).

One of the more difficult streets in Amsterdam (Leidsestraat):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/195/440061282_cebd7b3726_b.jpg

Tram in the Zuidas area:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2362/2386570013_7f03df40e5_o.jpg

I really don't like the look of the Combino for some reason. Especially the front looks like someone patched together a bunch of plywood pieces or something. :)

Does anyone has pictures and information about trams of NYC?

Does anyone has pictures and information about trams of NYC?

Sorry, not a pic, but here's a video I like of trolleys in Brooklyn:

0Gmxm_xboqk

Even older footage:

mH8Cp6s_DbI

A bit of history:

6NoQ1u0rPKM

I really don't like the look of the Combino for some reason. Especially the front looks like someone patched together a bunch of plywood pieces or something. :)

I share your opinion, but with most of the tram design in hands of Germans there's little chance for a progressive design. Something really modern. Something that would make you go "wow" after it served for 50 years. Like the PCC.

No, that won't happen. :ohno:

Thanks to Edward N. Kuijper and Evert Huisinkveld I can show you images of (the last years of) an important part of SNCV's tram network, the lines around Brussels and Brabant, Belgium. Most images were shot in the early 1960s to early 1970s. The network was almost 5000 kms in 1945, but quickly declined between 1950 and 1970. The last SNCV line in Brabant and Brussels (line G) was closed in the summer of 1978.

Very rare colour images of line W:
http://www.drehscheibe-foren.de/foren/read.php?17,4408542

http://home.planet.nl/~kuijp086/deel1En.html
http://home.planet.nl/~kuijp086/deel2En.html
http://home.planet.nl/~kuijp086/deel3En.html
http://home.planet.nl/~kuijp086/deel3IEn.html
http://home.planet.nl/~kuijp086/deel3JEn.html

More on http://home.planet.nl/~kuijp086/

And to finish, two beautiful colour images from SSC member focus1965:

A type 'S' tram in Lasne, Brabant Wallon, on the line running from Brussels, place Rouppe to Waterloo and Wavre.
http://i27.tinypic.com/2e4cmm9.jpg

Another type 'S' in Waterloo (which is pretty obvious to tourists who have visited the site of the battle)
http://i29.tinypic.com/28isp47.jpg

cheers
JJN

Toronto's streetcars have been around for well over a hundred years and still continue to run and be a very popular mode of transportation, despite being displaced by subways and buses as the most used.

1924
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/2663/1924yongelookingnfromkingnoonyr9di6.jpg

1929
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/6834/1929nfromqueenpw6rl7.jpg


I only wished the TTC saved more Peter Witt cars (both the large witts and small witts), as they were probably one of the nicest streetcars around during their era.

Milan still has trams I suppose. This thread is about tram networks that have completely disappeared like London's trams.

Yes, Milano has still 18 tramway lines.

That picture is particular because describes the so-called "carosello" in piazza del Duomo disappered during the early last century.

There are no tramway lines in piazza del Duomo anymore.

Milan still has trams I suppose. This thread is about tram networks that have completely disappeared like London's trams.

Current network (still one of the largest in the world) only partly is what once was Milan's tram network
Over all in city centre the network was way larger and pratically every street got a tramway track: I don't know how many kms of old tracks were dismissed in past decades but they are for sure many-many-many dozens. In many streets they left dismissed rails which can show how massive was the network also in the past

Czech republic

Lost tram networks
- Bohumín (1902-1973)
- České Budějovice (1909-1950, electric public transport replaced by trolley-buses, 1991-today)
- Jablonec (1900-1965, one line until today as an outskirt one of Liberec tram network, towns' trams managed by common company)
- Jihlava (1909-1948, electric public transport replaced by trolley-buses, 1948-today)
- Mariánské lázně (1902-1952, electric public transport replaced by trolley-buses, 1953-today; supposed to be the world smallest town with its own trolley-bus network, pop 14 k)
- Opava (1905-1956, electric public transport replaced by trolley-buses, 1952-today)
- Teplice (1895-1959, electric public transport replaced by trolley-buses, 1952-today)
- Ústí nad Labem (1899-1970, electric public transport replaced by trolley-buses, 1984-today)
- Těšín/Cieszyn (1911-1921)

Existing tram networks
Except Prague, where several tram routes had been removed in 1970's and 1980's because of metro expandation, other Czech cities with existing tram work hadn't experienced mass removing. Their current tram network is usually the densiest ever. I cannot find exact data for Prague before 1974 (first metro line). Just have a map with 35 day tram lines from 1969, so of nine more then today, 26.
There are 7 Czech towns and cities with tram network today:
- Prague
- Brno
- Ostrava
- Plzeň
- Liberec (Jablonec incl.)
- Olomouc
- Most (Litvínov incl.)

A couple of sites with pics of Sunderlands old trams. The network closed in 1954 and I don't have a clue how long or how many lines there were.

http://www.picturesofgateshead.co.uk/postcards_trams2/index.html

http://dewi.ca/trains/sunderla/index.html

You can still travel on a renovated Sunderland tram at Beamish Museum about 11 miles west of Sunderland.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.burchell/Beamish/16.html

A great thread. So, so far we have the following identified at their max level...

Moscow: 1000km+ (Coth, do you have exact length of route km?)
Berlin: 650km (1929)
London 555km (192x?)
Rome: 400km (1929)
Sydney: (nearly) 300km (1930)'s (Sirhc8, do you have exact figures for route km?)
Melbourne: 245km (Present)
Brisbane: 109km (1952)

Let's keep adding to this list! I think this will also be one transport thread where North America and in particular, the U.S. will do very well, as the U.S. had some mammoth tram networks in it's day.


Porto has the top extension in the tram network in 1950 with 150km.

The network started in 1872 and nowadays has 4 lines, were are used old trams in the older parts of the city and in the river front (a beautiful ride , i can said)

Here is the link to the wikipedia page about the trams (eléctricos) in Porto.

Or this simple web site(very simple) with the history and some interesting data about the Porto tram.
http://tram-porto.ernstkers.nl/index.htm

I didn´t found yet the map of the network in full scale but i promisse to post it:)

I always liked mass transit systems, and when i found out Baton Rouge, La (my hometown) used to have streetcars, it made me sad because to would have been cool for BR to have one.

Anyway, New Orleans, La, still has streetcars, so here are some pictures.

http://topherlytle.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/new_orleans_streetcar.jpg
http://www.cenlamedia.com/alb/images/newsarticles/New_Orleans_LA-Canal_Street_Streetcar.jpg
http://www.greatrealtyusa.com/content/photo/2845-15.jpg

San Miguel de Tucumán (Argentina) had horse tramways by 1882-1910; electric tramways 1909-1965; and a "suburban" steam tramway route to Yerba Buena by 1916-1929.
The electric system had 6-7 routes served by some 24 motor cars built in Europe (Belgium may be); 7 trailers and more motor cars were added later. Also there was a 3 route trolleybus network by 1955-1962; today there are only diesel buses.

Heidelberg, Germany:

- 1885: horse tram network started
- 1886: horse tram network extended to 3.7 km
- 1890: OEG rail line to Weinheim, 16 km, steam trains, partially roadbound
- 1891: OEG rail line to Mannheim, 26 km, steam trains, partially roadbound
- 1901: first overland tram line to Wiesloch, 13 km, electric
- 1902-1904: horse tram network replaced by electric trams, extended throughout city
- 1910: 3 km branch line from the Wiesloch line to Kirchheim built
- 1910-1914: electric tram line to neighboring Neckargemünd
- 1914-1918: electric tram line to neighboring Eppelheim
- 1923-1925: network shut down due to economic crisis
- 1926: tram line to Wieblingen in direct competition to OEG
- 1927: tram line to Eppelheim extended to Schwetzingen
- 1929: integration of tram and OEG lines in city, both using each others tracks
- 1945: tram network shut down for 6 months
- 1955: Heidelberg Central Station moved 2 km west
- 1956: new tram lines to new Central Station built
- 1962: tram line to Neckargemünd cut to east end of Heidelberg Old Town
- 1966: tram line to Wieblingen shut down
- 1972: tram line between Rohrbach and Kirchheim shut down
- 1973: tram line to Schwetzingen cut back to Eppelheim
- 1976: tram line through Heidelberg Old Town shut down
- 1986-1995: short extensions in New University area
- 2006: new 4.6 km tram line to Kirchheim built

Minor "corrections" not named.

Current network length within city limits: ~30 km (without OEG light rail lines) (ca 2009)
Maximum network length within city limits: ~35 km (without OEG light rail lines) (ca 1960)

Current tram network outside city limits: ~ 4 km (without OEG light rail lines) (ca 2009)
Maximum tram network outside city limits: ~20 km (without OEG light rail lines) (ca 1960)

Rough map (OEG lines cut at city limits):

http://www.abload.de/img/hdnfbb.jpg

Color code:

Yellow - built before WW2, active
Green - built before WW2, shut down

Light Orange - built after WW2, 1950s
Dark Orange - built after WW2, 1980s to current

http://hla.buxcom.net/langhorne_trolley.htm

- A

In Africa, Trams were in past at Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, & Mozambique. Egypt is running tram continuously. Later Tunisia returned tram & Algeria is thinking about return it. South Africa has a heritage tram. Mozambique has closed tram forever.

In Africa, Trams were in past at Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, & Mozambique. Egypt is running tram continuously. Later Tunisia returned tram & Algeria is thinking about return it. South Africa has a heritage tram. Mozambique has closed tram forever.
Algeria is more than thinking about tram. Algiers is about to open its first line. Until 1962 Algiers had France's most advanced trams with articulated vehicles.
Have a look on the SSC forum: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=634507
http://www.amtuir.org/05_htu_tw_france_50/liste_alpha_tw_50/alger/images/fm_alger_1959_002.jpg

The photo of Previous tram is very good.

In Oceania, trams were in past at Newzealand & Australia. Australia is running tram continuously. Newzealand has a heritage tram.

http://staribeograd.zxq.net/Stari%20Beograd%20slike/Beogradski%20letnji%20tramvaj%201905%20-%202.jpg
BELGRADE special summer tram,year of 1905.

http://www.gsp.rs/fotografije/slike155/8090centrala.jpghttp://www.gsp.rs/fotografije/012.jpghttp://www.gsp.rs/fotografije/Scan53.jpghttp://www.gsp.rs/fotografije/slike155/5060tmk.jpghttp://lh3.ggpht.com/_-wN2yxmoslg/SM1MbwlSpaI/AAAAAAAAAH0/z35jx7mL_Bw/Dvadesete%20godine.jpg

http://www.siemens.rs/portal/onama/istorija/tramvaji_t.jpg
First,Belgrade electric tramway from SIEMENS year of 1922.

http://i33.tinypic.com/rqx3d1.jpghttp://i33.tinypic.com/k1axab.jpg
And Latest ,ordered new 30 by CAF.

Could you please recommend me some websites or literature containing informations about the tramway tracks and the history of the tram track structure ?

There a lot of sites showing photos of trams, but there are none or probably very less, providing knowledge about tramway tracks and rails, and the tram infrastructure overall.

The Beirut Tramway
Beirut's public tramway lines were first developed in 1908 while under Ottoman rule, and would remain in operation until they were eliminated in the 1960s to allow automobiles greater freedom of movement. As seen in the last picture, some of the tram's became cafes that operated from the 60's until the mid 80's.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/7420/assour1926.jpg
http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/9952/3165782.jpg
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/3755/19655ep6.jpg
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/6333/beirut19542.jpg
http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/3379/secretagentfireballbeir.png
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9738/19653cj9.jpg
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/6913/jpeg0006gx6.jpg

In the last picture here, are these preserved tram cars ,displaying somewhere at seaside in Beirut ?

Here is a map of the Auckland tram system, the last service closed in 1956. The network had 72km of track and 18 routes.

http://www.tundria.com/trams/NZL/Auckland.gif

Rio de Janeiro used to have one of the largests trams networks in the world. Nowadays, however, there's almost nothing left. Only a single line, mainly touristic, connecting Downtown to Santa Teresa Neighborhood. The last tram operation in South America. It's path also includes an old aqueduct, converted to a tram viaduct in 1896.

And below you can see the old network, 430km long in 1946:

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7153/riomapab.jpg


http://images.nycsubway.org/logo/title-stteresa.jpg

http://images.nycsubway.org/i39000/img_39268.jpg


More info:
http://world.nycsubway.org/world/br/santateresa.html

São Paulo also had a huge tram network, with some 60 lines spanning around 500 km by 1950. It was completely destroyed in the 1960's.

http://www.respirasaopaulo.com.br/sao-joa-bonde-antigo-b%201.jpg

http://www.respirasaopaulo.com.br/Rua%20Santo%20Antonio%201958.JPG

http://www.estacoesferroviarias.com.br/bondes_sp/fotos/bondesp9.jpg

http://www.respirasaopaulo.com.br/Bonde%20n.%BA%20289%20-%20Linha%2035%20-%20Avenida%20S%E3o%20Jo%E3o%20-%20S%E3o%20Paulo%20-%201963.JPG

http://www.respirasaopaulo.com.br/1735%20-%20Bonde%20Camar%E3o%20-%20Av.%20Celso%20Garcia%20-%20S%E3o%20Paulo%20-%20c.%201966.JPG

Chart with the size of the São Paulo tram fleet over time:

http://www.respirasaopaulo.com.br/FROTA%20BONDES.GIF

It hit a peak around 1940.

At least 30 other Brazilan cities had their electric tram networks until the 60's, including my city, Santos, which today runs a small heritage tram line through the city center:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_wgwTMtQmRtY/RpTZTKlGHmI/AAAAAAAAADA/8MNN5rj03Jw/Bondinho.jpg

Former electric tram networks in Argentina were at the cities of Buenos Aires, Concordia, Córdoba, Corrientes, La Plata, Mendoza, Paraná, Rosario, Salta, San Miguel de Tucumán, and Santa Fe.

The city where I live (Tucumán) had a small net of 6 to 7 lines with some 20 kms of track and an initial fleet of 24 motor cars in 1909; the tram was over by 1965. The city also had horse and steam trams, and trolleybuses.

The Buenos Aires electric tram started in 1897. It was run by several companies, but by the end all the routes were in the hands of TBA, a national state company. The biggest private company was the Compañía Tranvía Anglo-Argentino, which by 1909 had 658 kms of track, 1.782 motor cars, 934 trailers, 19 stations, a staff of 11.433 and carried 498 MM passengers yearly. Apart from the AA there were 3 other companies operating more lines in the city, carrying some 120 MM passengers. In the ´20s the whole network reached 845 kms. The system ceased in 1961. By 1980 a historic line opened, followed by the E-2 "premetro" later in the ´80s, and recently a short line at Puerto Madero area.

Sydney:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Trams

http://www.railpage.org.au/tram/images/ft_macq.jpg

Brussels/Belgian interurban system: 5000km (1945)
Los Angeles, USA: 1775km+ (1920s)
Moscow, Russia: 1000km+ ()
Paris, France: 1000km (1920)
Buenos Aires, Argentina: 845km (1950)
Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA: 720km (1919)
Berlin, Germany: 650km (1929)
London, England: 555km (192x?)
Sao Paulo, Brazil: 500km
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 430km (1945)
Rome, Italy: 400km (1929)
Sydney, Australia: (nearly) 300km (1930)'s
Vienna, Austria: 292km (inter-war)
Manchester, England. 262km (1930)
Melbourne, Australia: 245km (Present)
Tokyo, Japan: 213km (1913)
Glasgow, Scotland: 200km (inter-war)
Grenoble, France: 175km (1923)
Brisbane, Australia: 109km (1952)
Porto, Portugal: 150km (1950)
Birmingham, England: 130km (1920s)
Zagreb; 58km (1924)
Auckland, NZ: 72km

Please add to list keeping to format:
City/Country/double-track route length in km/peak year.


Figures in italics need verification as to if that means double track or total track mileage!

Chicago, USA: 1,706km (1929, +900 million rides per year)



530 miles route / 1060 miles double track = 852 km's / 1,706km km's

Today - 0 km's

----------------------

Chicagos streetcar/tram system is claimed to have been the largest in the world at one point at least.


http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/unknown-chicago/2009/10/chicagos-first-trolley-10-2-1890.html

The various local street railway companies were eventually unified. During the 1920s Chicago operated a fleet of over 3,000 cars on 172 routes over 1,060 miles of track. With 3.6 million fares each day, it was the largest city transit system on earth.................



via shore-line.org
http://www.shore-line.org/images/CSL_map.jpg

http://www.shore-line.org/CSL.html
Chicago streetcars were known as the Chicago Surface Lines, "the largest street railway system in the the world." Populated areas within the city were gridded with car lines a mile, half-mile or quarter-mile apart. In 1914-47 CSL was a single system as to management; but until public ownership in 1947, the property was still owned by separate companies in various portions of the city..............
Population (city limits, 1930): 3,376,438

Miles of line (1935): 529

Number of streetcar routes (1935): 97

Number of cars (1935):

3,742 passenger
423 other
Revenue passengers (streetcars, 1929): 896,576,586

Number of employees (1942): 16,142

Principal companies in system:

Founded 1859: Chicago City Railway Co.
1899: Chicago Consolidated Traction Co.
1899: Chicago Union Traction Co.
1902: The Southern Street Railway Co.
1903: Chicago Railways Co.
1908: Calumet & South Chicago Railway Co.
1914: Chicago Surface Lines (operator)
1945: Chicago Transit Authority (which also operates rapid transit lines)



A map circa 1948 (thanks to Mr.Downtown over at SSP)

http://i41.tinypic.com/301242h.jpg


http://www.davesrailpix.com/cta/jpg/cta1345.jpg
[Joe Testagrose collection

chicagobus.org
http://media.chicagobus.org/photos_buses/historic/3142.jpg

Trams in Prague
1883 - 1885 horse tram network 18.9 km.
1891- first electric line
1897 several independent tram companies were established
1905 tram line on Charles Bridge
1914-1917 ambulance and funeral trams appeared in Prague
1927 the tram network exceeded 100 km.
During the interwar period the rolling stock of trams almost doubled and at the end of 1938 it consisted of 647 motor cars and 748 trailers.
In 1938 tram network covered 132.7 km of tracks with 22 lines of a total length 258.45 km. Almost 282 mil. passengers were carried throughout the year. (Just by comparison - in 1919 over 145 mil. passengers)
In 1965 there were 28 lines operating in Prague. The rolling stock consisted of 973 motor cars and 542 trailers, of which 130 T1 cars and 405 T3 cars


Present numbers:
559 km line lenght
270 km of track network
35 lines
928 rolling stock


^^ present numbers are wrong
Current state:
34 tram lines
540,6 km total length of routes
141 km of tracks
357 mio passenegrs per year
~934 rolling stock
till 2015 up to 32 kms of new tracks is planned

peak year was 1959: 159 kms of tracks

1914-1917 ambulance and funeral trams appeared in Prague
This sounds very interesting ;)
Don't you have any pics?

1914-1917 ambulance and funeral trams appeared in Prague
This sounds very interesting ;)
Don't you have any pics?

This sounds very interesting ;)
Don't you have any pics?

medical trams operated during WW1 between main railway station and military hospitals, it is said they carried 750 ths soldiers in total.
http://i.idnes.cz/08/031/maxi/RJA219683_tram_sanitni.jpg

funeral tram was manufactured in 1917 for military funerals (could carry up to 8 coffins)...
http://i.idnes.cz/08/031/maxi/RJA219680_1917_Pohrebni_tramvaj.jpg

medical trams operated during WW1 between main railway station and military hospitals, it is said they carried 750 ths soldiers in total.

funeral tram was manufactured in 1917 for military funerals (could carry up to 8 coffins)...

Saying with gallows humour: It doesn't matter what is passenger's destination;it's still mass public transport :nuts:
Thanks for photos ;)

Brussels/Belgian interurban system: 5000km (1945)
Los Angeles, USA: 1775km+ (1920s)
Moscow, Russia: 1000km+ ()
Paris, France: 1000km (1920)
Buenos Aires, Argentina: 845km (1950)
Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA: 720km (1919)
Berlin, Germany: 650km (1929)
London, England: 555km (192x?)
Sao Paulo, Brazil: 500km
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 430km (1945)
Rome, Italy: 400km (1929)
Sydney, Australia: (nearly) 300km (1930)'s
Vienna, Austria: 292km (inter-war)
Manchester, England. 262km (1930)
Melbourne, Australia: 245km (Present)
Tokyo, Japan: 213km (1913)
Glasgow, Scotland: 200km (inter-war)
Grenoble, France: 175km (1923)
Brisbane, Australia: 109km (1952)
Porto, Portugal: 150km (1950)
Birmingham, England: 130km (1920s)
Zagreb; 58km (1924)
Auckland, NZ: 72km
San Miguel de Tucumán, AR; 25 km (1920s) Steam tram not accounted.

^^
Good list but you should review previous posts as I think you've left some out (Prague for example).

^^
Good list but you should review previous posts as I think you've left some out (Prague for example).

and Chicago

Tranway in valencia - venezuela in 1920-30s

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6739/va066777809ep0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/801/va046808914wv4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/1575/va087055049hi4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7537/vallll122dy1.jpg

http://www.fotothing.com/photos/130/130c120d1c6af4dd7f66c60e51021e03.jpg
The last ride of Kadikoy-Kisikli tram in 1965.
http://www.fotothing.com/photos/cdb/cdb1579b042d42b93bc90230ae1b8033.jpg
Atikali-Bahcekapi Second class car in green colour and wooden seats inside.
-first class cars were red colour and they had nice leather cowered seats-

A streetcar scene with ticketless passengers on board from 1956.
The former tram system in European side was abandoned in 1960 and these cars removed to Asian side and used untill 1965.

Manchester had a historic tramway system which peaked in 1928 with 163 route miles. The map below shows the densest segment of the network in central and south Manchester, but the system actually reached many of Manchester's nearby towns. Most of the area on this map is served by buses alone to this day.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r185/Deptfordflaneur/Manchester_Corporation_Tram_map.jpg

The system was fully closed in 1949 and no trams ran in Manchester until the street running Metrolink Light Rail system opened in 1992.

Australia had a number of tramway systems; mostly now deceased:

The state capitals:


Sydney (now has a Light Rail running along a former heavy goods line)
Melbourne (whose system has survived)
Hobart
Adelaide (the one surviving line has since been extended)
Brisbane
Perth


Regional Cities:


Launceston, Tasmania
Geelong, Victoria
Ballarat, Victoria (travelled on these many times: a short section remains as a tourist track)
Bendigo Victoria (a rather longer section remains: and they are trying to get commuters back on the line again)
Newcastle, NSW
Maitland, NSW
Rockhampton, Queensland
Fremantle, Western Australia


There were- and are- other lines or networks. Someone will remind me that the Gold Coast is building a new light rail; someone else that Victor Harbour South Australia has probably the oldest or longest horse-drawn tramway on Earth. Some other "tramways" were, if you ask me, just very lightly-built railways.

To pick this up again:

Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg, Germany: ~260 km (1938)

Note: Nearly 100 km of above run with steam engines at the time - including them as these were road-bound steam trams in an interurban network travelling through towns like trams. 200 km still in the network today - several interurban lines to suburbs truncated, some already in the late 30s. More density added in the core area. Plans for interurban connections forming a network of about 325 km (by linking up to the existing 40 km length network in Darmstadt further north) also existed in the interwar era.

if ya want to know my city - Adelaide, Australia at its heyday in the 1950s

about 128km long comprising 99kms of double track and 29.9kms of single track.

There was also a independent system through the Port Adelaide area which was about 10-12km long that lasted up until 1940s I think

Budapest as of 2008

Number of routes: 27
Network length: 153,8 km
Vehicles: 607

World's longest single space articulated lowfloor tram
Siemens Combino Supra NF12B

Image (http://hu.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=F%C3%A1jl:Combino_Supra_2036_in_Budapest.JPG&filetimestamp=20080825170437)

Busiest tram-line of Europe

Tramline 4 and 6 (running same route along Grand Boulevard except of last 2 stops): daily performace > 200 000 passangers

Trams follow in peaktime each 60 seconds

In Australia, the following cities all had (or still have) tram networks:

Sydney - 1861 - 1961. At it's peak it had 291km of track, and 405 million passengers a year. One modern light rail line opened in 1997.

Melbourne - 1885 - present. Has 245km of track (largest in the world) and 180 million passengers a year.

Adelaide - 1909 - present. Has 15km of track and 2 million passengers a year. Was once much larger.

Bendigo - 1885 - 1972. Still operates a heritage service, trials are underway for public transport service.

Perth - 1899 - 1958. Still operates a heritage service.

Yass - 1892 - 1958.

Hobart - 1893 - 1968. Proposal for new light rail system.

Brisbane - 1885 - 1969.

Cairns - 1897 - 1912.

Maitland - 1909 - 1926

Newcastle - 1887 - 1950

Rockhampton - 1909 - 1939. Still runs as heritage service.

Launceston - 1911 - 1952

Ballarat - 1887 - 1972

Fremantle - 1905 - 1952

Canberra - 1912 - 1923

Broken Hill - 1887 - 1961

Kalgoorlie - 1906 - 1952

Leonora - 1902 - 1922

Arrival of the tranvia

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e132/restardo/22.jpg
This is a document about a planned project of a construction of railway and ship in Manila and Malabon (1758)

http://www.postcardman.net/37724.jpg
Puente de España, Manila, Filipinas

In 1878, Leon Monssour, an official of the Department of Public Works, submitted a proposal to Madrid for a streetcar system. Apparently inspired by the systems in New York and Paris, Monssour envisioned a five-line network with a central station outside the walls of Intramuros, the fortress-like seat of Spanish power in the Philippines. From Plaza San Gabriel in Binondo, the lines were to run to Intramuros via the Puente de España (today's Jones Bridge), to Malate Church, Malacañang (where the Philippine President now lives and works), and Sampaloc and Tondo, large districts north of the Pasig River today. The proposal found favor with the government, but it had to wait for an entrepreneur's initiative.

http://www.meralco.com.ph/Business/about/images/100_years/caruaje.jpg
Compaña de los Tranvias de Filipinas

That entrepreneur was Jocobo Zobel de Zangroniz. Together with Spanish engineer Luciano M. Bremon and Madrid banker Adolfo Bayo, in 1882, the three formed La Compañia de tranvias de Filipinas to operate the concession awarded by the government. The Malacañang Line was not built and was replaced by the Malabon Line. These five routes became popular with commuters. The Manila-Malabon Line was the first to be finished, opening for business on 20 October 1888. All five were constructed between 1885 and 1889. The first tranvias were horse-drawn omnibuses for 12 seated and 8 standing passengers. The system was 16.3-km long—slightly longer than today's only operating LRT line.

http://www.univie.ac.at/Voelkerkunde/apsis/aufi/pop/pop0041l.jpg
http://www.univie.ac.at/Voelkerkunde/apsis/aufi/pop/pop0044l.jpg
Escolta, Main Buisness Center of Manila: horse-drawn

While four lines were horse-drawn, the Malabon ran on steam. Some 4 years later, the Manila Railroad Company, the country's first long-distance rail line north to Dagupan, 196 km away, started operation. So strictly speaking, the first steam railroad in the islands was a modest streetcar! Malabon's transfer points were Tondo, Maypajo, a working-class neighborhood in the suburb of Caloocan and Dulu, at the north end of that community.

http://content.lib.washington.edu/ic/image/70.jpg
Calle Escolta (1911)

The long communication line between Madrid and Manila, plus much delayed economic reforms, conspired to slow development of the Philippines, particularly Luzon, the archipelago's largest island. While other countries were in the throes of the Industrial Revolution and the wave of mercantilism, Spain lagged behind. As early as 1842, a study mission headed by Don Sinibaldo de Mas came to the Philippines to find the best way to carry out reforms—reforms later promoted by Filipinos like Dr Jose Rizal and his contemporaries, known collectively as the Propagandists.

The 1890s were turbulent years for the Spanish colony. The clamored-for reforms prompted Rizal to pen two novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, required reading in schools today. Though fiction, the stories were too close to the truth for the Spanish to tolerate. Eventually, Rizal was charged with sedition and executed in 1896—four years after the Manila-Dagupan railroad was completed. Less than 18 months later, Filipinos declared their independence from Spain. The revolution to assert that claim soon followed.

New Colonizers

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c211/hawayano/Bagumbayanshady.jpg
Paseo de Bagumbayan

Meanwhile, the Americans were also at war with Spain. After winning the conflict and claiming the Philippines under the Treaty of Paris, US forces soon arrived. Early in 1899, war (some called it an insurrection) between the Filipinos and the Americans broke out. The Spanish imprint was already etched indelibly on the Philippine landscape, and by the turn of the century, an air of uncertainty characterized everyday conversation as Filipinos wondered what life would be like under the new colonizers.

Transition for tranvia

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/db/dlmap/SEAiT/htdocs/data/images/lc/large/ph00582l.jpg
Manila streetcar, early 1900s

By 1902, La Compañia had long since stopped expanding or improving its system. An average of only 10 streetcars plied the five lines daily. This was a far cry from the hourly service that provided 14 runs in each direction on the Malabon Line alone.

One year later, Manila city officials blamed slow economic growth and population congestion to ‘the antiquated horse-car system and the poorly constructed, unsatisfactory, and generally undesirable system of public vehicles,’ to quote from their official report. These leaders reasoned that with improved transport, the railroad was specifically named, ‘many of those now paying high rents for small and unhealthy quarters will take advantage of this quick transportation and secure comfortable dwellings in better localities.’

Birth of Electric Streetcar

http://www.meralco.com.ph/Business/about/images/100_years/la_electricista.jpg

http://www.artehistoria.com/historia/jpg/REC12734.jpg
Calle Escolta de Manila

The Philippine Commission on 20 October 1902 passed a law that set into motion franchises to be awarded to bidders for the construction and operation of electric power and transportation networks. Although publicized in newspapers in America and the Philippines as well as in a leading US railway journal, only one bid was submitted. On 24 March 1903, the Municipal Board of Manila passed Ordinance 44, accepting the bid of Charles M. Swift of Detroit. Three days later, a New Jersey company was established which eventually became the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company—better known as Meralco. Today, Meralco is still in the electric power business in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces. Later, the Philippine Commission allowed Meralco to take over the properties of La Compañia de tranvias. Meralco paid a small fee for its streetcars to La Compañia's lines.

Swift was now under a deadline. He had 6 months to start building his systems and 20 months to get the job done. Ordinance 44 specified 12 lines. Today's LRT Line 1 closely follows the Meralco route to Pasay south of Manila and the Santa Cruz route . LRT Line 2, now under construction, also adheres fairly well to the original lines Meralco laid down. With the exception of the Binondo and Intramuros areas, the network was double-tracked and powered by an overhead catenary of 500 V maximum. The track was standard gauge.

By 1913, Meralco had completed nine of the 12 lines, still called the tranvia by commuters. Swift under another franchise granted in 1906, was also operating a 9.8-km extension line from Paco to Fort McKinley and Pasig. The operator, the Manila Suburban Railway, later merged in 1919 to form the Manila Electric Company. The extension line was one of the most profitable in the Meralco system.

Meralco's lines crossed the Manila Railroad Company's lines (now the Philippine National Railways (PNR)) at three points. Sometimes, I go to Blumentritt Station on the LRT just to see a PNR commuter train crawl directly under the elevated track as I wait for an LRT train to approach its station of the same name, 5 or so meters above. LRT Line 2 will cross the PNR at Santa Mesa in another repeat of history. The Santa Ana tranvia crossed not far from today's PNR Paco Station, currently under renovation.

Dr Leonardo Q. Liongson, Engineering Professor at the University of the Philippines, and railroad enthusiast, made an astute observation in a paper he presented last January: ‘It is also interesting to note from the 1913 (route) map that the three principal tranvia lines (Santa Cruz, Santa Mesa and Santa Ana) led directly to outlying cockpits in suburban La Loma, San Juan and San Pedro de Macati respectively.’ Cockfighting was and still is a popular form of gambling. He concluded, ‘From the point of view of city-wide commuter service, commerce and cockfighting, the Manila electric tranvia was indeed a complete system serving the city by the end of the first decade of the 20th century.’

As the road network improved, Meralco introduced electric- and gasoline-powered bus services in the 1930s. The company also promoted the use of electric appliances such as radios and refrigerators. The tranvia continued running but stopped expanding.

Photos here: http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr16/pdf/f33_satre.pdf
More in the Philippine archives.

---

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y180/Circa1900/web1890sgral.gif

In 1905, Manila's first tranvia, or tram, opened in Manila and soon grew to five lines servicing many parts of the city of Manila and its outskirts. At that time, the trams were hailed as an efficient system for the city's 220,000 inhabitants of that time. The trams were operated by the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company (Meralco), which now provides power to the city.

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b74/paulkrps/calmes_trolley.jpg
Pre-war Corregidor

The Philippines once had a tram network in Manila, but it was destroyed during World War II. The system has been replaced with the LRT and MRT.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3e/MetroManilaComplete.JPG/480px-MetroManilaComplete.JPG
re post

How many tram lines did London have?

Bump ;)

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y68/El_Greco/6a00d8341c565553ef0133ee6a4e74970b.jpg

FaYGmohPByg
^^ http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif
;)

Xfv7xdQdbUY
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

Trams in Madras. Shut in late 50s...

Not sure if these have been posted here before


Mount Road
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/8194/1565e.jpg

Trams in Chennai
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/5558/amp00184.jpg



Tram to Custom House
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2574/traminmadras1.jpg

I think some people gets confusion.

What is the subject of this thread?

1) Cities which once had tram, but now completely closed? or
2) Cities which once closed their tram, but now returned/plan of return tram?
3) Cities which has closed some tram routes, but some/most routes remained.

Please clear the confusion.

I interpret the title of this thread signifying tram networks in the past, be they abolished, expanded, or shrunken. To some, five years might suffice as past; others, at least 50 years ago :dunno:

here's the santiago de chile's tramway network, that stopped its service in 1959.. I ignore when this map was made
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTIfc1imsI/AAAAAAAAIiY/j7DG4WpvStg/s1600/mapatranvias.jpg
1932
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTEZJXpsGI/AAAAAAAAIf4/hv8t6mud3To/s400/choquecarmenago12_1932.jpg
1927
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTJPOFouwI/AAAAAAAAIjA/A-80iBa-dFE/s400/pla-armas_15jul_1927_2.jpg
1927
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTBoV1gSMI/AAAAAAAAIew/pI2BU_Ab_84/s400/alam_sndiego_u_23mar1927.jpg
1920
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTKADABpaI/AAAAAAAAIjY/uAwX87B0yLY/s400/prat-tarapaca_4mayo_1920.jpg
1928
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTIcyZ_4AI/AAAAAAAAIh4/C0TwicTg_5A/s400/ind_artes_1928.jpg
pictures are from this website: http://urbatorium.blogspot.com/2010/01/recorridos-de-los-antiguos-tranvias-de_25.html

Ok, I'll then include all three types noted above

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

9A9A5Ed-x4E

Excellent find.

Living in Glasgow, the trams are still quite well known. Our old Museum of Transport had quite a few of them (and the new one does too). As a child, I loved looking at the old trams.

Glasgow's tram system was very impressive. 141 route miles. It was up there with London in terms of size. They often ran at intervals of 30 seconds through central Glasgow!
http://www.theglasgowstory.com/images/TGSE00122_m.jpg

Glaswegians loved their trams, and we didn't call them 'trams', like everywhere else, oh no, to the Glaswegian, the were 'caurs'.

http://album.atomic-systems.com/showPic.php/46744/Tram-Glasgow-trams-Central-Stn.jpg
http://www.qpcc.org.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/g-lumb-glasgow-trams-024.jpg
http://www.myrenfrew.com/images/trams.jpg
http://carnwadric.eveningtimes.co.uk/files/photo/max-343261.jpg

Unfortunately, like it's counterparts in other parts of the UK, the system was seen as old fashioned, a relic of the 1800s (trams ran in Glasgow from 1872), and eventually, in 1962, the last tram ran through the streets, it was the last of the great city tramways of the UK to close. The system was torn up and replaced for a short while by electric trolley buses, and eventually, the diesel buses took over.

The final day of the caurs in Glasgow:
http://www.glasgowhistory.co.uk/images/BridgetonBookPhotos/118a-LastTram.JPG

Today, it is recognised by the Scottish Government that light rail, a more Manchester Metrolink type system, would bring massive benefits to Glasgow, but at the moment, there is no will, or money to implement such a system. So we'll have to wait.

Great photos :)

The Blue tram was an interurban tram network between the Dutch cities of The Hague, Leiden, Haarlem & Amsterdam that was in service from the late 19th century until 1961.

Several video's in color about these lines in the last years of service can be found on YouTube.

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http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

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Looks good, must watch later

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

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Looks good, must watch later

I'll need to give that a wee watch too. I don't know much about Edinburgh's trams.

Some more of Glasgow. The second video is fantastic, in many ways, the tramway was a reflection of Glasgow. We're a very proud city.

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^^ Superb finds http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif especially the latter. Having seen mighty crowds paying tribute to last day of tram operations in a few cities, I suppose a lot of patrons must've been peeved by the cessations.

The following seems to be the only reel featuring Montreal's:

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:lol:

Montréal :
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Although few and far between, some quality archive footage featuring Montreal's trams:
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The sad thing is that today after all these years people understand that the dismantling of the extensive tram networks was a mistake, but now its to expensive to put them back, so we are left with roads dominated by car...

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

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:)

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

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:)

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

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Horse tram still in operation as well as mercury arc rectifier

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

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http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

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There was once a diesel powered trolley or railbus between the towns of Bryan and College-Station,TX. This was before WW2. I don't think it could be reinstated, the tracks it used are now used by freight trains and while the College Station end would be logical as it's by the university, the downtown Bryan end wouldn't see much traffic. There isn't even a similar bus route anymore.

The sad thing is that today after all these years people understand that the dismantling of the extensive tram networks was a mistake, but now its to expensive to put them back, so we are left with roads dominated by car...

Hopefully, some of them are returning tram, although comparing much smaller network than before, and some of them are planning of returning it.

I DREAM ONE DAY TRAM WILL REIGN THE WORLD AGAIN

By Jeff Seal

One of my dad’s earliest, most exciting memories was taking the Los Angeles Railway Yellow Car (LARY, or LA Yellow Car) with his mother from their house on 53rd Street in South Central to downtown LA. There they’d eat at Clifton’s Cafeteria (home to the world’s longest continuously lit neon light). So when the LA Yellow Cars made their final run on Sunday, March 31st 1963, a 16-year old Jim Seal grabbed his Argus camera and took the following photos.

LA’s streetcars clearly captured my dad’s imagination at an impressionable age. Now an independent transportation consultant for private rail and bus operators nationwide, he says he was “enthralled by the architecture of LA’s narrow gauge streetcar network and extensive infrastructure”.

Whether you’re passionate about light rail or not, it’s hard to look at these photos and not curse the Great American Street Car Scandal that helped dismantle the most extensive interurban rail system in the world at the time. Many of these trains, made in the Los Angeles Railway’s own shops in south LA, ended up stacked on top of each other on Terminal Island, in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, or – strangely enough – in Egypt and Chile. The Cairo Transport Authority bought over 133 Yellow Cars in 1965 and used them until 1984 while the Chile Mining Company bought 25 of the cars to be used for transporting miners.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8195/8365744896_5d1f4b2f78.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365744896/)
20121230054420_00005 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365744896/) by JeffOSeal (http://www.flickr.com/people/90858769@N07/), on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8231/8365768282_727c298481.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365768282/)
20121230053327_00005 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365768282/) by JeffOSeal (http://www.flickr.com/people/90858769@N07/), on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8466/8365762862_6b7ed8f5ce.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365762862/)
20121230053327_00009 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365762862/) by JeffOSeal (http://www.flickr.com/people/90858769@N07/), on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8231/8365743710_7b4b09d589.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365743710/)
20121230054420_00006 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365743710/) by JeffOSeal (http://www.flickr.com/people/90858769@N07/), on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8214/8365773792_6975b5e864.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365773792/)
20121230053327_00001 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/90858769@N07/8365773792/) by JeffOSeal (http://www.flickr.com/people/90858769@N07/), on Flickr

After their final run, the Yellow Cars are being put into dead storage in the Vernon Yard never to operate again on LA’s streets.

From Untapped Cities (http://untappedcities.com/2013/02/04/la-yellow-car-vintage-photos/#.URM_oZggSxN.tumblr)

here's the santiago de chile's tramway network, that stopped its service in 1959.. I ignore when this map was made
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTIfc1imsI/AAAAAAAAIiY/j7DG4WpvStg/s1600/mapatranvias.jpg
1932
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTEZJXpsGI/AAAAAAAAIf4/hv8t6mud3To/s400/choquecarmenago12_1932.jpg
1927
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTJPOFouwI/AAAAAAAAIjA/A-80iBa-dFE/s400/pla-armas_15jul_1927_2.jpg
1927
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTBoV1gSMI/AAAAAAAAIew/pI2BU_Ab_84/s400/alam_sndiego_u_23mar1927.jpg
1920
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTKADABpaI/AAAAAAAAIjY/uAwX87B0yLY/s400/prat-tarapaca_4mayo_1920.jpg
1928
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_p-z3N6p79aw/SwTIcyZ_4AI/AAAAAAAAIh4/C0TwicTg_5A/s400/ind_artes_1928.jpg
pictures are from this website: http://urbatorium.blogspot.com/2010/01/recorridos-de-los-antiguos-tranvias-de_25.html

This would have to be one of the most remarkable multi-gauged systems in the world. Are there any books published on this?

My book, if you can find it. A Spanish translation was published in Chile. I drew the map above for this book:

http://www.tramz.com/cl/tto/a.html

My book, if you can find it. A Spanish translation was published in Chile. I drew the map above for this book:

http://www.tramz.com/cl/tto/a.html

Thank-you for you efforts here. Very generous.

Kolkata trams in 1948; the tram network has redeveloped over the years-

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9_P2uoAsShQ/T7I-4nj1_6I/AAAAAAAACAk/e_r0295vdHA/s1600/14june+1948+kolkata+tramgumti+theke+tram+charlo.jpg
source (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9_P2uoAsShQ/T7I-4nj1_6I/AAAAAAAACAk/e_r0295vdHA/s1600/14june+1948+kolkata+tramgumti+theke+tram+charlo.jpg)

NO N20, This tram terminus has declined very much year by year, ant some tram tracks have closed.