Tram

Tramvia Blau No. 5 at Plaça Kennedy and Avinguda del Tibidabo. This weekend, 7 and 8 November, Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) and Barcelona’s Sarrià - Sant Gervasi district celebrate the 125th anniversary of Tramvia Blau. It has been closed for repairs and modernisation since 2018, with little sign of going into passenger service anytime soon. Since then, trams 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 129 have been declared cultural heritage items (Bé Cultural d’Interès Nacional) on 23 May 2023 and is the oldest tramway in Barcelona. Read more...

Most trams you’ll encounter today run on electricity using an overhead contact system, or OCS for short. This usually includes one wire, called the contact wire, powered by feeder stations providing DC voltage, which is “collected” by a pantograph connected to the roof of a tram. This provides power to the tram while it’s moving or standing still. A GVB 15G tram (CAF Urbos 100) at Amsterdam Zuid. Development of the overhead contact system first began towards the end of the 19th century as operators switched from horse-power (literally) or steam to electricity. OCS eventually made its way into mainline rail systems, thus transporting passengers and freight longer distances. If this topic is something you’re interested in reading more about, I’d recommend Garry Keenor’s book, Overhead Line Electrification for Railways. Read more...

Like many cities, Barcelona started with a horse-drawn tram network, which then grew and was electrified before being decommissioned in favour of buses, private vehicles and the metro. Having not turned out so great, Barcelona then returned to the tram. I wrote about this same pattern in Luxembourg and Berlin, now it’s time for Barcelona. The first tram network The horse-drawn tram A monument to Christopher Columbus was constructed in 1888 near the Drassanes shipyards. Read more...

On 5 September 1964, the last tram ran in the city of Luxembourg from the district of Beggen. First introduced in 1875 in the form of horse-drawn carriages on rails, trams helped transport passengers to and from the central train station in the country’s capital to the north of the city. The construction was funded by the city and the company SATL, Société Anonyme du Tramway Luxembourgeois, was created to operate the trams. Read more...

After almost a year Tram 12 is back at Amstelstation after being stopped by the renovation of the Berlagebrug. The over 90-year old bridge was due for maintenance after a few inspections and was closed for all traffic on 24 July 2023. This meant that Tram 12 which runs from Amsterdam Centraal Station to Amstelstation through Leidseplein and De Pijp had to stop one stop short at Amsteldijk during the renovations. The bridge re-opened for pedestrians, vehicles and ships, essentially all traffic except trams, on 10 November 2023. An issue with the rails meant further work needed to be done before trams were allowed on. Read more...

This Christmas my wife and I booked a semi-spontaneous trip to Berlin, Germany for a few days. Our trip included visiting the typical Christmas markets, restaurants, East Side Gallery, and Museum Island. Most of our traveling around the city was done through the public tram network, with the occasional use of the U or S-Bahn. A line from Vladimir Nabokov’s 1925 short story, A Guide to Berlin, comes to mind. Read more...

The contents of this post were originally toots on Mastodon, you can find the original thread there. @PeskyPotato 5 March 2023 11:39 Here's Lisbon's very popular #Tram 28E at Praça Martim Moniz. Carris operates 6 tram routes, 5 of which are served by these classic refurbished trams, and one by articulated trams built by Siemens/CAF and Siemens/Sorefame. Replies: 1 Boosts: 0 Favourites: 0 | Source @PeskyPotato 5 March 2023 11:42 p.s. locals frequently use the trams the move around the city, with a lot of tourists lines can get long. So if you are a tourist consider using the red tram which also goes along route 28. Read more...