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A tram, tramcar, trolley, streetcar, or street railway is a railbornevehicle, lighter than a train, designed for the transport of passengers (and/or, very occasionally, freight) within, close to, or between villages, towns and/or cities. Trams are distinguishable from other forms of rail-borne vehicles in that they travel wholly or partly along tracks laid down in streets, usually on track reserved for the tram system. Also, most tram systems lack platforms; riders simply step off the car. This feature of trams enables virtually complete integration with other forms of transport and pedestrians making simultaneous use of the streets.
Tram systems were common throughout the industrialized world in the early 20th century. Although they disappeared from many cities for many years in mid-century, in recent years they have made a comeback. Many newer light rail systems share features with trams, although a distinction is usually drawn between them, especially if the line has significant off-street running. An example is Portland, Oregon, where MAX light rail operates together with the Portland Streetcar.
Etymology
The terms "tram" and "tramway" were originally Scots and Northern English words for the type of container used in coal mines and the tracks on which these container ran — probably derived from a North Sea Germanic word of unknown origin meaning the "beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge", also "a barrow" or container body.
Although "tram" and "tramway" have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English, with North American use generally preferring "trolley" or "streetcar". The sense of "streetcar" is first recorded in 1860, and is a North American usage, as is "trolley," which derives from the trolley pole that collects live power from an overhead wire or cable, sometimes simply strung, sometimes as catenary. The trolley pole in turn derived its name from the "trolley wheel" that was formerly the chief means of contact between car and wire as the wheel "trolled" behind the moving car. Modern trolleys often do not use a trolley wheel (using a metal shoe with a carbon insert instead) or even a trolley pole, a pantograph being the preferred means of contact. Other streetcars are sometimes called trolleys, even though this may be technically incorrect, as for a cable car or a conduit car that drew power from an underground power supply.
Touristbuses made to look like a streetcar are also sometimes called trolleys; see tourist trolley. Likewise, open, low-speed segmented vehicles on rubber tires, generally used to ferry tourists short distances, can be called trams, particularly in the U.S.; a famous example is the tram on the Universal Studios tour.
Electric buses, which still overwhelmingly use twin trolley poles (one for live current, one for return) are called trolleybuses, trackless trolleys (particularly in the U.S.), or sometimes also trolleys.
These trams were an animal railway, usually using horses and sometimes mules to haul the cars, usually two as a team. Rarely other animals were tried, including humans in emergencies.
An historic German tram
One of the advantages over earlier forms of transit was the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on steel rails, allowing the animals to haul a greater load for a given effort. Problems included the fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for day in and day out, and produced prodigious amounts of manure, which the streetcar company was charged with disposing of. Since a typical horse pulled a car for perhaps a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. New York City had the last regular horsecar lines in the U.S., closing in 1914. A mule-powered line in Celaya, Mexico operated until 1956. Horse-drawn trams still operate in Douglas, Isle of Man.
The tram developed after that in numerous cities of Europe (London, Berlin, Paris, etc.). Faster and more comfortable than the omnibus, trams had a high cost of operation because they were pulled by horses. That is why mechanical drives were rapidly developed, with steam power in 1873, and electrical after 1881, when Siemens AG presented the electric drive at the International Electricity Exhibition in Paris.
The convenience and economy of electricity resulted in its rapid adoption once the technical problems of production and transmission of electricity were solved.
The first prototype of the electric tram was developed by Russian engineer Fyodor Pirotsky. He modified a Horse tramway car to be powered by electricity instead of horses. The invention was tested in 1880 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The first form of mechanical trams were operated using mobile steam engines. Generally, there were two types of steam trams. The first and most common had a small steam locomotive at the head of a line of one or more carriages, similar to a small train. Systems with such steam trams included Christchurch, New Zealand, Sydney, Australia and other provincial city systems in new South Wales.
The other style of steam tram had the steam engine mounted in the body of the tram. The most notable system to adopt such trams was in Paris. French designed steam trams also operated in Rockhampton, in the Australian state of Queensland between 1909 and 1939. A major drawback on this style of tram was the limited space for the engine, meaning these trams were usually underpowered.
The next type of tram was the cable car, which sought to reduce labor costs and the hardship on animals. Cable cars are pulled along a rail track by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed on which individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required. The power to move the cable is provided at a site away from the actual operation. The first cable car line in the United States was tested in San Francisco, California in 1873. The second city to operate cable trams was Dunedin in New Zealand in 1881. Dunedin's cable trams ceased operation in 1957.
Cable cars suffered from high infrastructure costs, since a vast and expensive system of cables, pulleys, stationary engines and vault structures between the rails had to be provided. They also require strength and skill to operate, to avoid obstructions and other cable cars. The cable had to be dropped at particular locations and the cars coast, for example when crossing another cable line. After the development of electrically-powered trams, the more costly cable car systems declined rapidly.
Cable cars were especially useful in hilly cities, partially explaining their survival in San Francisco, though the most extensive cable system in the U.S. was in Chicago, Illinois, a much flatter city. The largest cable system in the world which operated in the flat city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia had, at its peak, 592 trams running on 74 kilometres of track.
The San Francisco cable cars, though significantly reduced in number, continue to perform a regular transportation function, in addition to being a tourist attraction.
Other power sources
In some parts of the United Kingdom, other forms of power were used to power the tram. Hastings and some other small tramways used Petrol driven trams and Lytham St Annes used gas powered trams. Paris successfully operated trams that were powered by compressed air.
Electric-powered trams (trolley cars, so called for the trolley pole used to gather power from an unshielded overhead wire), were first successfully tested in service in Richmond, Virginia in 1888, in an installation by Frank J. Sprague. There were earlier commercial installations of electric streetcars, including one in Berlin, as early as 1881 by Werner von Siemens and the company that still bears his name, and also one in Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fiodor A. Pirotskiy in 1880. Another was by John Joseph Wright, brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright, in Toronto in 1883. The earlier installations, however, proved difficult and/or unreliable. Siemens' line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train setup, limiting the voltage that could be used, and providing unwanted excitement to people and animals crossing the tracks. Siemens later designed his own method of current collection, this time from an overhead wire, called the bow collector. Once this had been developed his cars became equal to, if not better than, any of Sprague's cars. The first electric interurban line connecting St. Catharines and Thorold, Ontario was deployed in 1887, and was considered quite successful at the time. While this line proved quite versatile as one of the earliest fully functional electric streetcar installations, it still required horse-drawn support while climbing the Niagara Escarpment and for two months of the winter when hydroelectricity was not available. This line continued service in its original form well into the 1960s.
Since Sprague's installation was the first to prove successful in all conditions, he is credited with being the inventor of the trolley car.
A 1925 vintage British tram, a common sight until the 1950s
A very famous Welsh example of a tram system was usually known as the Mumbles Train, or more formally as the Swansea and Mumbles Railway. Originally built as the Oystermouth Railway in 1804, on March 251807 it became the first passenger-carrying railway in the world. Converted to an overhead cable-supplied system it operated electric cars from March 2, 1929 until its closure on January 5, 1960. These were the largest tram cars built for use in Britain and could each seat 106 passengers.
Golden Age
Trams experienced a rapid expansion at the start of the 20th century until the period between the two world wars. There was a rapid increase in the number of lines and increase in the number of riders: indeed, it became the primary mode of urban transportation. Horse-drawn transport virtually disappeared in all European, American and Indian cities by 1910. Buses were still in a development phase at this time, gaining in mechanical reliability, but remaining behind compared to the benefits offered by trams; the automobile was still reserved for the well-to-do.
The advent of personal motor vehicles and the improvements in motorized buses caused the rapid disappearance of the tram from most western and Asian countries by the end of the 1950s. Continuing technical improvements in buses made them more reliable, and a serious competitor to trams because they did not require the construction of costly infrastructure.
In many cases postwar buses also provided a smoother ride and a faster journey than the older, pre-war trams. For example, the tram network survived in Budapest but for a considerable period of time bus fares were higher to recognise the superior quality of the buses.
Governments thus put investment principally into bus networks. Indeed, infrastructure for roads and highways meant for the automobile were perceived as a mark of progress. The priority given to roads is illustrated in the proposal of French president Georges Pompidou who declared in 1971 that "the city must adapt to the car".
Tram networks were no longer maintained or modernized, a state of affairs that served to discredit them in the eyes of the public. Old lines, considered archaic, were then bit by bit replaced by buses.
The priority given to personal vehicles and notably to the automobile led to a loss in quality of life, particularly in large cities where smog, traffic congestion, sound pollution and parking became problematic. Acknowledging this, some authorities saw fit to redefine their transport policies. The bus had shown its limits on account of its low capacity and its difficult coexistence with automobile traffic, which made it slow both on the road and commercially. Subways required a heavy investment and presented problems in terms of subterranean spaces that required constant security. For subways, the investment was mainly in underground construction, which made it impossible in some cities (with underground water reserves, archaeological remains, etc.). Subway construction thus was not a universal panacea.
The advantages of the tram thus became more visible. At the end of the 1970s, some governments studied, and then built new tram lines. In France, Nantes and Grenoble lead the way in terms of the modern tram, and new systems were inaugurated in 1985 and 1988. In 1994 Strasbourg opened a system with novel British-built trams, specified by the city, with the goal of breaking with the archaic conceptual image that was held by the public.
The public, who realized with each installation of tram lines their benefits in urban flexibility and redistribution and the reduction in downtown automobile traffic, encouraged numerous city governments to so equip their streets. Many cities already equipped with trams have extended their lines and built new ones.
A great example of this shift in ideology is the city of Munich, which began replacing its tram network with a rapid transit a few years before the 1972 Summer Olympics. When the metro network was finished in the 1990s the city began to tear out the tram network (which had become rather old and decrepit), but now faced opposition from many citizens who enjoyed the enhanced mobility of the mixed network - the metro lines deviate from the tram lines to a significant degree. New rolling stock was purchased and the system was modernized, and a new line was proposed in 2003.
Later, cable cars were attached to a moving cable underneath the road. The cable would be pulled by a steam engine at a powerhouse. The Monongahela and Duquesne Inclines in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, have some of the appearance of trams, but are more accurately funiculars. Modern trams generally use overhead electric cables, from which they draw current through a pantograph, a bow collector (less commonly) or the now-rare trolley pole (the former is most common and used on most new tram designs). The first operational electric street railway was started in Scranton, Pennsylvania, but the first large-scale electric street railway system was built in Richmond, Virginia in January 1888. By 1890 over 100 such systems had been begun or were planned.
There are other methods of powering electric trams, sometimes preferred for aesthetic reasons since poles and overhead wires are not required. The old tram systems in London, Manhattan (New York City), and Washington D.C. used live rails, like those on third-rail electrified railways, but in a conduit underneath the road, from which they drew power through a plough. It was called Conduit current collection. Washington's was the last of these to close, in 1962. Today, no commercial tramway uses this system. More recently, a modern equivalent to the old stud systems has been developed which allows for the safe installation of a third rail on city streets, which is known as surface current collection or ground-level power supply; the main example of this is the new tramway in Bordeaux.
In narrow situations double-track tram lines sometimes reduce to single track, or, to avoid switches, have the tracks interlaced, e.g. in the Leidsestraat in Amsterdam on three short stretches (see map detail); this is known as interlaced or gauntlet track.
Traditionally trams had high floors, requiring passengers to climb several steps in order to board, but since the 1990s this design has been largely replaced by low-floor trams, or occasionally by high-floor trams with level boarding platforms, as in Manchester's Metrolink and some parts of Cologne's network, which allow passengers in wheelchairs or with perambulators to access vehicles more easily. In some jurisdictions this has even been made mandatory since the 1990s, for example by the HMRI in Britain and the Disability discrimination act in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
Tram-train operation uses vehicles such as the Flexity Link and Regio-Citadis which are suited for use on urban tram lines, but also meet the necessary indication, power, and resistance requirements to be certified for operation on main line railways. This allows passengers to travel from suburban areas into city-centre destinations without having to change from a train to a tram when they arrive at the central station.
It has been primarily developed in Germanic countries, in particular Germany and Switzerland. Karlsruhe is a notable pioneer of the tram-train. This system should be brought into service in the Paris area in 2005.
Cargo trams
Goods have been carried on rail vehicles through the streets, particularly near docks and steelworks, since the 19th century, and some Belgian vicinale routes were use to haul timber. At the turn of the 21st century, a new interest has arisen in using urban tramway systems to transport goods. The motivation now is to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion and damage to road surfaces in city centres. Dresden has a regular CarGoTram service, run by the world's longest tram trainsets (59.4 m), carrying car parts across the city centre to its Volkswagen factory. Vienna and Zürich use trams as mobile recycling depots. Amsterdam commissioned a feasibility study into goods trams in November 2005. Kislovodsk had a freight-only tram system comprising one line which was used exclusively to deliver bottled Narzan mineral water to the railway station.
Pros and cons of tram systems
Tram tracks can be hazardous to cyclists
Advantages
All transit service involves a tradeoff between speed and frequency of stops. Services that stop frequently have lower overall speed, and are therefore less attractive for longer trips. Metros, light rail, monorail, and Bus Rapid Transit are all forms of rapid transit -- which generally signifies high speed and widely-spaced stops. Trams are a form of local transit, making frequent stops. Thus, the most meaningful comparison of advantages and disadvantages is with other forms of local transit, primarily the local bus.
The greatest advantage of modern trams is social rather than technical. In most countries, trams don't suffer from the image problem that plagues buses. On the contrary — most people associate trams with a positive image. Unlike buses, trams tend to be popular with a wider spectrum of the public, including better-off people who often shun buses. This high level of customer acceptance means higher ridership and bigger public support for investment in new tram infrastructure.
Tram lines can go underground, like metro lines, if there is a need. Above-ground metro lines, on the other hand, are more expensive, especially if they use third rails for power supply.
Trams can adapt to the number of passengers by adding additional cars during rush hour (as well as removing excess cars during off-peak hours). No additional driver is then required for the trip in comparison to buses.
In general, trams provide a higher capacity service than buses.
Unlike buses, but like trolleybuses, (electric) trams give off no exhaust emissions at point of use. Compared to motorbuses the noise pollution emitted by trams is generally perceived to be less disturbing.
Rights-of-way for trams are narrower than for buses. This saves valuable space in cities with high population densities and/or narrow streets.
Because they are rail-bound, trams command more respect from other road users than buses do, when operating on-road. In heavy traffic conditions, rogue drivers are less likely to hold up trams, for example by blocking intersections or parking on the road. This often leads to fewer delays. As a rule, especially in European cities, trams always have priority.
Passenger comfort is normally superior to buses because of controlled acceleration and braking and curve easement. Rail transport such as used by trams provides a smoother ride than road use by buses.
The initial cost is higher than for buses, hence the usual preference for the latter in smaller cities
When operated in mixed traffic, trams are more likely to be delayed by disruptions in their lane. Buses, by contrast, can easily maneuver around obstacles. Opinions differ about whether deference that drivers show to trams -- a cultural issue that varies by country -- is sufficient to counteract this disadvantage.
Tram tracks can be dangerous for cyclists. This and problems with parked cars are avoided by building tracks and platforms in the middle of the road. Cyclists can avoid this by always riding across and never along tramways, as bikes particularly those with narrow tyres may get their wheels caught in the track grooves. It is also possible to close the grooves of the tracks on critical sections by rubber profiles. Those profiles are pressed down by the wheelflanges of the passing tram but cannot by lowered by the weight of a cyclist.
Tram infrastructure occupies urban space above ground and requires modifications to traffic flow.
Steel wheel trams can be more noisy than rubber-wheeled trolleybuses, especially when cornering.
The German-speaking countries, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (where the word for tramway is "Straßenbahn", although "Tram" is also used) are notable for their large numbers of extensive tram systems, although even in these countries, many systems were closed after the Second World War, such as the West Berlin tramway. One of the notable modern day tram systems in Germany is the Berlin Straßenbahn, as well as the Gothenburg tram in Sweden.
A rapidly growing number of France's major cities boast new tram or light rail networks, including Paris, Lyon, Marseille and Nantes. Recently the tram has seen a huge revival in France.
In the UK, tram systems were widely dismantled in the 1950s, only Blackpool's survived (see Blackpool tramway). However in recent years new light rail lines have been opened (for example the Croydon Tramlink, Manchester Metrolink and Sheffield Supertram), with several others under consideration and extensions planned for many existing systems.
The most extensive network in Northern Europe has Gothenburg in Sweden (190 km on a total track length of 80 km; see Gothenburg tram), followed by the Norwegian capital Oslo. Within the inner city of Helsinki in Finland, trams have established a position as the main form of public transport.
All countries of the former Soviet Bloc, excluding Lithuania and Moldova, have extensive tram infrastructure. Czech ČKD Tatra and the Hungarian Ganz factories were notable manufacturers of trams.
The busiest traditional city tram line in the world is in Budapest, Hungary, where 50-meter long trains run at 60 to 90 second intervals at peak time and are usually packed with people. A part of this route is the same as where electric trams made their world first run in 1887.
Note that in North America, especially the United States, trams are generally known as streetcars or trolleys, while the term tram is more likely to be understood as a tourist trolley, an aerial tramway or a people-mover.
Seoul, Korea had trams up into the 1960s. Some of their cars were acquired second-hand from the Los Angeles system.
In Vietnam, tram networks was once running in Hanoi and Saigon until 1954. Bangkok trams were also dismantled after WW2.
The only cities in mainland China with a tram network are the seaside resort of Dalian in Liaoning, which as of 2003 had three working lines, Anshan in Liaoning and Changchun in Jilin. The last trams ran in Shanghai in the mid-1960s.
Australasia
In Australasia, trams are used extensively only in Melbourne, and to a lesser extent, Christchurch, all other major cities having largely dismantled their networks by the mid 20th century.
A distinctive feature of many Australasian trams was the early use of a lowered central section between bogies (wheel-sets). This was intended to make passenger access easier, by reducing the number of steps required to reach the inside of the vehicle. It is believed that the design first originated in Christchurch, as early as the first decade of the 20th century. Cars with this design feature were frequently referred to as "drop-centres".
Brief historical overview
In the 19th Century numerous horse drawn systems were established, with Adelaide and Brisbane establishing reasonably large systems (for their day) and retaining their horse drawn trams when other systems had adopted steam or cable traction. Victor Harbor and Gawler in South Australia are examples of small, single line horse drawn systems which survived until 1953 and 1931 respectively.
Following a short lived experiment with a privately run horse tram line in Pitt Street in the 1860s, Sydney adopted steam trams, which were operated by the state government. By comparison, Melbourne adopted cable trams, which were owned and operated by the local government. Melbourne's cable tram network became the largest in the world in the late 19th century, with some cable lines retained until 1940. Sydney operated only two cable tram lines (in North Sydney and along South Head Road) and eschewed the high capital outlay required for cable traction, preferring instead to retain their steam trams, until most of the system was converted to electric operation between 1898 and 1910.
Gold mining towns, with their rapid growth and wealth soon adopted trams, with Bendigo and Ballarat in Victoria and Kalgoorlie and Leonora in Western Australia all adopting electric tram systems. Bendigo had trialled a battery operated tram, but this was unsuccessful. The Victorian systems survived until 1972 following their takeover by the state government, whereas the West Australian examples ceased operations in the 1930s as a result of the economic decline of those towns at the time.
Electrification was quickly adopted in Australian systems, with Hobart and Brisbane the first systems to be electrified in 1893 and 1897 respectively. Hobart thus was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere to operate a successful electric tramway system. It was also the only Australian city to use the European-style 'bow collector', instead of Frank Sprague's trolley pole system. Another first for Hobart was its use of electric double-decker trams, the first city outside Europe to do so. The Hobart system retained a distinctly "English" appearance throughout its existence.
Adelaide was the last major city to convert its trams to electric operation, in 1908.
Melbourne has the third largest tram system in the world and its trams have become part of the city's culture and identity due to their long history.
In Melbourne, in addition to newer types of trams in use such as the Citadis and the Combino and the middle-aged A, B and Z class trams, older W-class trams (of the dropcentre design referred to above) remain in service and are a popular tourist attraction. W-class trams are used on the free City Circle tram route in addition to several other routes. A total of 53 W-class trams remain in regular service, with the oldest in service tram dating from 1939.
Other cities with trams
Amongst other Australian cities, the once-extensive Sydney tram system finally closed its last lines in 1961, but more recently has opened a new light rail line. Trams last graced Adelaide's streets in 1958, although one tramline, which links the city centre with the seaside suburb of Glenelg and operates substantially along its own right of way has been retained. In 2005 there are plans to extend the line northwards to the main railway station.
The smaller cities of Bendigo and Ballarat, both in Victoria, have retained small parts of their tramway operations. These have become major tourist attractions. The horse tram line at Victor Harbor in South Australia has been re-opened using replicas of the original cars as a tourist attraction. Christchurch in New Zealand has recently constructed a new city-centre heritage line, using restored historic cars from New Zealand and Australia.
Perth and Brisbane both have proposals to implement light rails systems in their respective CBDs. In Brisbane's case, several proposals have been made and each has been knocked back, but with the recent introduction of integrated ticketing under the TransLink scheme and expansive Queensland Government transport infrastructure plans, the most recent proposal may go ahead. Calls also are in place for the Gold Coast, just south of Brisbane, to solve their major traffic problems. Proposals also exist to extend the Sydney and Adelaide systems beyond one line each.
Africa
Tram systems were and are less prevalent in Africa.
Egypt
Former Copenhagen articulated car in service on Alexandria's urban tramwayA tram from Heliopolis terminates at Cairo's Ramses Station
However, in Egypt both Cairo and Alexandria have historic and still existant tram systems. Tunis has a modern tram system.
In Cairo, the urban tramway network is now defunct, but the express tramway linking it with Heliopolis is still in operation, as is the relatively new tram system in the satellite town of Helwan 25km to the south.
In Alexandria, both the urban tramway network and the express tramway system serving the eastern suburbs are still in operation. The urban system operates yellow cars, included some acquired second-hand from Copenhagen, on largely street track. The express tramway operates 3-car trains of blue cars, including some double-deck cars, on largely reserved track. There are also trams that serve on the urban tram lines and the express tram lines at the same time.
South Africa
Public transport in South Africa commenced for the first time in Cape Town in May 1801 when a weekly wagon service from Cape Town to Simon's Town was announced. Round about 1838 the Cape's first horse-drawn omnibus, based on George Shilbeer's omnibus, was introduced. In September 1862 the Cape Town and Green Point Tramway Company was formed and on 1 April 1863 it began operating.
Both single-deck and double-deck horse drawn trams were used. In 1896 the power station at Toll GateCape Town, with two stacks supplied by Milliken Brothers of New York, was completed and the old horse sheds were remodelled. Cape Town's electric tram system initially consisted of ten cars made in Philadelphia, USA. On 6 August 1986 Lady Sivewright, wife of Sir James Sivewright opened the new system. At Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897 there were thirty-two electric trams on Cape Town's roads serving the city and its suburbs over about twenty-three miles of track. The new power station at Toll Gate was proving inadequate to meet demands and additions were called for.
In South Africa tram services existed in cities like Johannesburg (where the suburban railway to Boksburg, opened in 1890, was also called the Rand Tram) and Pretoria but were replaced by petrol and electric bus systems after the Second World War.
Streetcars in North America
History
In Canada, most cities once had a streetcar system, but today Toronto's TTC is the only traditional operator of streetcars, and maintains the most extensive system in The Americas (in terms of total track length, number of cars, and ridership). New light rail systems have been built in Edmonton, Alberta and Calgary, Alberta.
The first lines built in the U.S. (and indeed the world) were in 1832 from downtown New York City to Harlem by the New York and Harlem Railroad, and in 1834 in New Orleans.
Most U.S. streetcar systems were removed by the 1950s as a result of the popularity of the automobile and government policies in favor of it.
Surviving systems
Not all streetcars systems were removed; the San Francisco cable cars and New Orleans' streetcars are the most famous examples in the United States. More conventional streetcar operations survived complete abandonment in Boston, Newark, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco in the U.S., together with Toronto in Canada. All of these systems have received new equipment. Some of these cities have also rehabilitated lines, and Newark, New Orleans, and San Francisco have added trackage in recent years. In Toronto, the city has added two new lines in recent years, and is activly upgrading its other lines. Further expansion is planned in combination with the city's plans for the rejuvenation of its waterfront.
More recently a number of cities in North America have built new light rail systems which operate partially in the right-of-way of city streets. These systems could be called trams by Europeans and Australians but are generally not known by that name within the US, where the term light rail is generally applied. However, in New Orleans and San Francisco, the term "streetcar" is the only name used by the residents there. Edmonton, Alberta was the location of one of the earliest of these new systems, which substantially utilised European technology, and was soon followed by similar installations in San Diego, California and Calgary, Alberta(see Edmonton Transit System, San Diego Trolley, and C-Train).
In 2000, Kenosha, Wisconsin became the first city in North America to open a modern streetcar system since the heyday of the PCC streetcar, followed in 2001 by Portland, Oregon. The Kenosha system is a downtown circulator also serving government offices, the upscale HarborPark recreational/cultural/residential district, and public bus and Metra rail service, and the Portland Streetcar serves as a downtown circulator between the central city core, the trendy Pearl District and Northwest Portland, Portland State University, and a new mixed-use development along the Willamette River shoreline.
Heritage streetcar systems are used in public transit service, combining light rail efficiency with America's nostalgia interests. Proponents claim that using a simple, reliable form of transit from 50 or 100 years ago can bring history to life for 21st century Americans. Systems are operating successfully in over 20 U.S. cities, and are in planning or construction stages in 40 more. Heritage systems currently operate in Little Rock, Arkansas, Memphis, Tennessee, Dallas, Texas, Tampa, Florida, Kenosha, Wisconsin, and New Orleans are among the larger. Vancouver, Canada also has a heritage streetcar system that will be expanded to cover the south downtown area.
Over 50 years after the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire opened on Broadway, the revival of streetcar operations in New Orleans is credited by many to the worldwide fame gained by the streetcars made by the Perley A. Thomas Car Works. These cars were operating on the system's Desire route in the 1947 play and later movie of the same name. Some of the original cars have been carefully restored locally and continue to operate in 2004.
Model Trams
German models of trams (Düwag and Siemens) and a bus in HO scaleModels of trams are popular in HO scale and sometimes in 1:50 scale. They typically are powered and will accept plastic figures inside. Common manufacturers are Roco and Lima with many custom models being made as well.
A number of OO scale tram models, especially kits, are made in the UK.
There are some Russian tram models available in 1:48 scale
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