(Redirected from Street car)
A 'tram', 'tramcar', 'trolley', 'trolley car', or 'streetcar' is a
railborne vehicle, 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, primarily on streets.
Tram systems (or "tramways" or "street railways") were common throughout the industrialized world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but they disappeared from many cities in the mid-20th 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 the two, especially if the line has significant off-street running.
Use of the term
A CLRV Streetcar in the City of
Toronto. Toronto's
TTC maintains the most extensive system in The Americas (in terms of total track length, number of cars, and ridership).
The terms "tram" and "tramway" were originally
Scots and
Northern English words for the type of truck used in
coal mines and the tracks on which they 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, North Americans preferring "trolley", "trolley car" or "streetcar". The term "streetcar" is first recorded in 1860, and is a North American usage, as is "trolley," which is believed to derive from the "troller," a four wheeled device that was dragged along dual overhead wires by a cable that connected the troller to the top of the car and collected electrical power from the
overhead wire, sometimes simply strung, sometimes on a
catenary. The trolley pole, which supplanted the troller early-on, is fitted to the top of the car and is spring-loaded in order to keep the trolley wheel, at the upper of the pole, firmly in contact with the overhead wire. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller.
[1]
Modern trolleys often do not use a trolley wheel: either they have a metal shoe with a carbon insert or they dispense with the trolley pole completely and have instead a
pantograph. Other streetcars are sometimes called trolleys, even though strictly this may be incorrect: cable cars, for example, or
conduit cars that draw power from an underground supply.
Tourist buses made to look like streetcars 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'.
History
A historic German tram
The very first tram (streetcar) was the Mumbles Railway (Swansea to Mumbles, Wales, UK) it was horse drawn at first and later by steam power and then electric. The Mumbles Railway Act 1804 was passed by the British Parliament, and the first passenger railway (which acted like streetcars did in the US some 30 years later) started operating in 1807.
The first streetcars, also known as
horsecars in North America, were built in the
United States and developed from city
stagecoach lines and
omnibus lines that picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route and without the need to be pre-hired. 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. The first streetcar - the
New York and Harlem Railroad's
Fourth Avenue Line - ran along
the Bowery and
Fourth Avenue in
New York City, and began service in the year 1832. It was followed in 1835 by
New Orleans, Louisiana, which is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world, according to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
[2] At first the
rails protruded above street level, causing accidents and major trouble for pedestrians. They were supplanted in 1852 by
grooved rails or
girder rails, invented by
Alphonse Loubat. The first tram in France was inaugurated in 1853 for the upcoming
World's Fair, where a test line was presented along the
Cours de la Reine, in the
8th arrondissement.
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. Electric trams largely replaced animal power in the late 19th and early 20th century. New York City had closed its last horsecar line in
1917. The last regular mule drawn streetcar in the U.S.A., in
Sulphur Rock, Arkansas, closed in 1926. However during
World War II some old horse cars were temporarily returned to service to help conserve fuel. A mule-powered line in
Celaya,
Mexico, operated until 1956. Horse-drawn trams still operate in
Douglas,
Isle of Man. There is also a small line operated on Main Street at DisneyWorld, outside of Orlando Florida. A small horse-drawn service operates every 40 minutes at Victor Harbour, South Australia, daily with 20 minute services during tourist seasons. This service runs between the mainland and Granite Island across a causeway.
[1]
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 world's first electric tram line opened in Lichterfelde near
Berlin,
Germany, in
1881. It was built by
Werner von Siemens. (see
Berlin Straßenbahn).
History of the different types of tram
Horse-drawn trams
Horse drawn trams in Calcutta (now
Kolkata),
India - Life size model at City Centre arcade
In the nineteenth century Calcutta (now
Kolkata) was developing fast as a British trading and business centre. Transport was mainly by palanquins carried on men's shoulders, phaetons pulled by horses, etc. In 1867, The Calcutta Corporation, with financial assistance from the Government of Bengal developed mass transport. The first tramcar rolled out on on the streets of Calcutta on February 24, 1873, with horse drawn coaches running on steel rails between
Sealdah and Armenian Ghat via
Bowbazar and Dalhousie Square, (now
B. B. D. Bagh). The Corporation entered into an agreement on February 10, 1879 with three English industrial magnates: Robinson Soutter, Alfred Parrish and Dilwyn Parrish. Registered in London, the Calcutta Tramways Company came into existence in 1880 after the sanction of The Calcutta Tramways Act, 1880.
By 1902 Messrs Kilburn & Co completed the electrification of the Calcutta tramways and the first electric tramcar was introduced in the Kidderpore section.
Calcutta remains the only Indian city which has maintained tramway system. As of now, it remains an unreliable but very comfortable and eco-friendly transport.
Steam trams
Main articles: steam dummy
The first mechanical trams were operated using mobile steam engines. Generally, there were two types of steam tram. The first and most common had a small steam locomotive (called a
tram engine in the
UK) 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.
Stockholm,
Sweden, also had a steam tramline at the island of
Södermalm between
1887 and
1901. A major drawback of this style of tram was the limited space for the engine, so that these trams were usually underpowered.
Cable pulled cars
Main articles: Cable car (railway)
Tram in The Hague
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. Breaks and frays in the cable, which occurred frequently, required the complete cessation of services over a cable route, while the cable was repaired. 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, 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. Single lines also survive on hilly parts of
Wellington, New Zealand (rebuilt in
1979 to a
funicular system but still called the '
Wellington Cable Car') and Hong Kong.
Other power sources
In some parts of the
United Kingdom, other forms of power were used to power the tram.
Hastings and some other tramways, for example
Stockholms Spårvägar in
Sweden, used
petrol driven trams and
Lytham St Annes used
gas powered trams.
Paris successfully operated trams that were powered by
compressed air using the
Mekarski system. In
New York City, some minor lines used
storage batteries rather than installing an expensive
conduit current collection system in the street.
Electric trams (trolley cars)
A historic postcard showing electric-powered trolley streetcars in
Richmond, Virginia, where
Frank J. Sprague successfully demonstrated his new system on the hills in 1888
Multiple functioning experimental electric trams were exhibited at the 1884
World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in
New Orleans, Louisiana; however they were deemed as not yet adequately perfected to replace the
Lamm fireless engines then propelling the
St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city.
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 the
Richmond Union Passenger Railway built 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
Fyodor Pirotsky 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.
[3] 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 operated 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 1950s.
Since Sprague's installation was the first to prove successful in all conditions, he is credited with being the
inventor of the trolley car. He later developed
Multiple unit control, first demonstrated in Chicago in 1897, allowing multiple cars to be coupled together and operated by a single motorman. This gave birth to the modern subway train.
A 1925
vintage British tram, a common sight until the 1950s
Two rare but significant alternatives were
conduit current collection, which was widely used in
London,
Washington, D.C. and
New York, and the
Surface Contact Collection method, used in
Wolverhampton (The Lorain System) and
Hastings (The Dolter Stud System), UK.
Attempts to use on-board batteries as a source of electrical power were made in the
1880s and
1890s, with unsuccessful trials conducted in (among other places)
Bendigo and
Adelaide in
Australia.
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 25 1807 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.
Another early tram system operated from 1886 until 1930 in
Appleton, Wisconsin, and is notable for being powered by the world's first
hydroelectric power station, which began operating on September 30, 1882 as the
Appleton Edison Electric Company.
Low floor
''and
Ultra Low Floor''
A Bulgarian built T8M-900 tram with low floor middle section in
Sofia.
The latest generation of LRVs has the advantage of partial or fully low-floor design, with the floor of the vehicles only 300 to 360 mm (12-14 inches) above top of rail, a capability not found in either rapid rail transit vehicles or streetcars. This allows them to load passengers, including ones in
wheelchairs, directly from low-rise platforms that are not much more than raised sidewalks. This satisfies requirements to provide access to disabled passengers without using expensive
wheelchair lifts, while at the same time making boarding faster and easier for other passengers as well. The City Class LRV (Citytram) is one example of a low floored vehicle, 300 mm above rail height, with 70% of the 29 m long and 75% of the 38 m long versions low floor.
City Class TRAM at Pacific Rd Birkenhead
The low floor extends across the articulation. The City Class has been designed to operate around 15 m curves and climb 10% gradients, and therefore allow new systems to be built in existing urban streets without the need to demolish buildings.
Articulated
'Articulated trams' are tram cars that consist of several sections held together by flexible
joints and a round platform. Like
articulated buses, they have an increased passenger capacity. These trams can be up to forty metres in length, while a regular tram has to be much shorter. With this type, a
Jacobs bogie supports the articulation between the two or more carbody sections. An articulated tram may be
low floor variety or high (regular) floor variety. Since 1981 onwards, nearly 150 articulated LRV-trams of the last kind are e.g. to be found in The Hague Netherlands.
Ref.: HTM LRV GTL8 / D.A. Borgdorff / The Hague - 2000 / ISBN 9090139354
Tram-train
Main articles: Tram-train
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.
Cargo trams
Goods have been carried on rail vehicles through the streets, particularly near docks and steelworks, since the 19th century (most evident in
Weymouth), and some Belgian ''vicinale'' routes were used 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.
Kislovodsk had a freight-only tram system comprising one line which was used exclusively to deliver bottled Narzan mineral water to the railway station.
As of 7th March 2007,
Amsterdam is piloting a cargo tram operation, which could reduce
particulate pollution by 20% by halving the number of
lorries – currently 5,000 - unloading in the
inner city during the permitted ‘window’ from 07:00 till 10:30.
The pilot, operated by
City Cargo Amsterdam, involves two cargo trams, operating from a distribution centre at Lutkemeerpolder, on the A10 ring
motorway near the Osdorp
terminus of tram no. 1. Each cargo tram can transport the load of 4 lorries (roughly 100 tonnes) to a ‘hub’ at Frederiksplein, where electric trucks deliver to the final destination.
If the trial is successful an investment of 100 million euro would see a
fleet of 52 cargo trams distributing from four peripheral ‘cross docks’ to 15 inner-city hubs by 2012. These specially-built vehicles would be 30 metres long with 12
axles and a
payload of 30 tonnes.
(Source: ''Samenwest'' 5 Dec 06, NOS3 television news 7 Mar 07)
Model trams
Models of trams are popular in
HO scale and sometimes in . They typically are powered and will accept plastic figures inside. Common manufacturers are
Roco and
Lima (models) with many custom models being made as well. The German firm
Hödl and the Austrian
Halling specialize in trams in 1:87 scale.
A number of 1:76.2 scale tram models, especially kits, are made in the UK. Many of these run on 16.5mm gauge track, which is incorrect for the representation of standard (4ft 8½ins) gauge, as it represents 4ft 1½ins in 4mm (1:76.2) scale. This scale/gauge hybrid is called OO scale.
There are some Russian tram models available in
Pros and cons of tram systems
Tram tracks can be hazardous to cyclists
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.
Advantages
★ Multiple entrances allow trams to load faster than suburban coaches, which tend to have a single entrance. This, combined with swifter acceleration and braking, lets trams maintain higher overall speeds than buses, if congestion allows.
★ 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 of 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 and Melbourne, 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.
★ 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 public support for investment in new tram infrastructure.
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.
Disadvantages
★ 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 be lowered by the weight of a cyclist.
★ Tram infrastructure occupies urban space above ground and requires modifications to traffic flow.
★ Steel wheel trams are noisier than rubber-wheeled trolleybuses when cornering.
★ Tram drivers can control the switches ahead of them. This caused a major derailment in
Geneva,
Switzerland.
★ In urban areas where stops are close together, trams tend to coast between stops potentially being slower than heavy rail which would have stops further apart, although this can be alleviated by not placing stops so tightly together.
★ Light rail vehicles are often heavier per passenger carried than heavy rail and
monorail cars.
★ The opening of new tram and light rail systems has sometimes been accompanied by a marked increase in
car accidents, as a result of drivers' unfamiliarity with the physics and geometry of trolleys.
[4] Though such increases may be temporary, long-term conflicts between motorists and light rail operations can be alleviated by segregating their respective rights-of-way and installing appropriate signage and warning systems.
[5]
★ Rail transport can expose neighboring populations to moderate levels of low-frequency noise. However, transportation planners use
noise mitigation strategies to minimize these effects.
[6] Most of all, the potential for decreased private motor vehicle operations along the trolley's service line due to the service provision could result in lower ambient noise levels than without.
On Balance
Many of the pros and cons depend on the system design itself. A tram system with little distance between stops that has single unit vehicles which run in mixed traffic will see far less of an advantage over other transit alternatives then a tram system with a greater distance between stops, runs in multiple units, and runs in a dedicated right of way. Overall trams have a greater versatility in design, however as shown above, whether that is a pro or a con is debatable.
Regional variations
Europe
Main articles: Trams in Europe
In many European cities, as in other parts of the world, tramway infrastructure was lost in the mid-20th century, though not always on the same scale as in other cities (in America, for example). Much of Eastern Europe lost less tramway infrastructure but some cities are now reconsidering their transport priorities, while some Western European cities are rehabilitating, upgrading and even reconstructing their old tramway lines.
North America
Main articles: Streetcars in North America
''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.''
'Streetcar's were largely torn down in the mid-20th century with exception including
New Orleans' streetcars,
Newark,
Philadelphia (with a much smaller network than once had existed), and
San Francisco which still have them.
Pittsburgh kept the majority of its streetcar system serving the city and many suburbs until January, 27th 1967, making it the large network US streetcar system that lasted the longest.
Toronto has the largest streetcar system in the Americas. In the later 20th century, several
light rail systems have been installed in cities in North America, in part along the same corridor as the old streetcars. Some have even restored their old streetcars and run them as a heritage line for tourists like the
Vancouver Downtown Historic Railway.
South America
Argentina
Buenos Aires Vintage Subte line A.
The 'Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company' opened Latin America's first "'underground tramway'" system, (Subte line A) in 1913. The original route was partially underground and on street level until 1926, for this reason these "pantograph" cars built by La Brugeoise in Belgium had both low doors at the ends for boarding from the street and high doors in the middle for loading from platforms in the tunnel, therefore, "Subte" line A might also be considered one of the continent's first light rail trams.
These vintage carriages (sans end doors) are still in operation.
The '
Buenos Aires' street tramway network was once one of the most extensive in the world with over 857 km (535 mi) of track, most of it dismantled during the 1960s in favor of bus transportation.
In 2006, a 2-km experimental
Puerto Madero Tramway was inaugurated recently with extensions to
Retiro Rail Terminal Station and
La Boca neighborhood being talked about; these are ultra-modern
Citadis 302 cars from France. There are also talks about a “heritage tram” to be put in service in colonial San Telmo.
A proposed ''Ferro Tranvía Urbano'' (Urban Tramway) in the city of '
Mendoza' is to be inaugurated in two years.
Asia
A broken-down tram may result in serious traffic congestion
Tramway Systems where well established in the Asian region at the start of the 20th century but strated to decline in use in the 1930s and began to be dismantled by the time it was the 1960s the majority of systems had been closed down. Extensive tramways still exist in Japan and Hong Kong. Recently more modern Systems have been built in Korea and the Philippines.
Australasia
A heritage H-Class model (foreground) and modern Flexity tram (background) in Glenelg, Adelaide
In
Australasia, trams are used extensively only in
Melbourne, and to a lesser extent,
Adelaide, all other major cities having largely dismantled their networks by the 1970s.
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 in the first decade of the 20th century. Cars with this design feature were frequently referred to as "drop-centres".
The trams made by Boon & Co of Christchurch, New Zealand in 1906-07 for use in Christchurch may have been the first with this feature; they were referred to as ''drop-centres'' or ''Boon cars''. Trams for Christchurch and Wellington built in the 1920s with an enclosed section at each end and an open-sided middle section were also known as ''Boon cars'', but did not have the drop-centre.
Africa
Former Copenhagen articulated car in service on
Alexandria's urban tramway
A tram from Heliopolis terminates at
Cairo's Ramses Station
Africa has tramway systems at present in Egypt and Tunisia.
Egypt
In
Egypt, both Cairo and Alexandria have historic systems that still exist.
In Greater
Cairo, the once-extensive Cairo urban system is now all but defunct.
The express tramway system to and within the suburb of Masr el-Djedida, or
Heliopolis, is still in operation, as one of the world's oldest examples of
Light Rail.
So is the small 1970s system in the satellite town of
Helwan, 25km to the south.
In
Alexandria, both the urban system and the express routes to eastern suburbs are still in operation. The urban system operates yellow cars, including some acquired second-hand from
Copenhagen, on largely street track. The express tramway (Ramleh routes) operates 3-car trains of blue cars, including some double-deck cars, on largely reserved track. There are also some dual-system routes.
Tunisia
Tunis had traditional trams up to about 1960. In 1985, a new
Light Rail line began operation and has since been followed by more.
South Africa
Public transport in South Africa commenced in Cape Town in May
1801, when a weekly coach service from
Cape Town to
Simon's Town was announced. Around
1838, the Cape's first horse-drawn
omnibus was introduced, based on
George Shilbeer's model. In September
1862 the
Cape Town and Green Point Tramway Company was formed, and began operations on 1 April
1863.
Both single- and double-deck horse-drawn trams were used. In
1896, the power station at
Toll Gate,
Cape 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 had ten cars, built in
Philadelphia,
USA. On 6 August
1896 Lady Sivewright, wife of Sir
James Sivewright, opened the new system. At Queen Victoria's Jubilee in
1897, Cape Town and suburbs had thirty-two electric trams running on about twenty-three miles of track. The new power station was proving inadequate and had to be enlarged.
Tram services also existed in
Johannesburg (where the suburban railway to Boksburg, opened in 1890, was also called the
Rand Tram),
Pretoria, and
Durban, but were all replaced by petrol, diesel and trolley bus systems by the early 1960s.
Trams in literature
One of the earliest literary references to trams occurs on the second page of
Henry James's novel '''
The Europeans''':
:''From time to time a strange vehicle drew near to the place where they stood - such a vehicle as the lady at the window, in spite of a considerable acquaintance with human inventions, had never seen before: a huge, low, omnibus, painted in brilliant colours, and decorated apparently with jingling bells, attached to a species of
groove in the
pavement, through which it was dragged, with a great deal of rumbling, bouncing, and scratching, by a couple of remarkably small
horses.''
Published in 1878, the novel is set in the 1840s, though horse trams were not in fact introduced in
Boston till the 1850s. Note how the tram's efficiency surprises the "European" visitor; how two "remarkably small" horses sufficed to draw the "huge" tramcar.
Gdansk trams figure extensively in the early stages of
Günter Grass's '''Die Blechtrommel''' (
The Tin Drum). Then in its last chapter, the novel's hero
Oskar Matzerath, along with his friend Gottfried von Vittlar, steal a tram late at night from outside the Unterrath depot on the northern edge of
Düsseldorf.
It is a
surreal journey. Gottfried von Vittlar drives the tram through the night, south to Flingern and Haniel and then east to the suburb of
Gerresheim. Meanwhile, inside, Oskar tries to rescue the half-blind Victor Weluhn (a character who had escaped from the
siege of the
Polish post office in Danzig at the beginning of the book and of the war) from his two green-hatted would-be
executioners. Oskar deposits his
briefcase, which contains Sister Dorotea's severed
ring finger in a
preserving jar, on the dashboard "where professional motorman put their
lunchboxes". They leave the tram at the
terminus, and the executioners tie Weluhn to a tree in Vittlar's mother's garden and prepare to
machine-gun him. But Oskar drums, Victor sings, and together they conjure up the Polish
cavalry, who spirit both victim and executioners away. Oskar asks Vittlar to take his briefcase in the tram to the police HQ in the Fürstenwall, which he does.
The latter part of this route is today served by tram no. 703 terminating at Gerresheim
Stadtbahn station ("by the glassworks" as Grass notes, referring to the famous glass factory in Gerresheim).
[Reference: The chapter ''Die letzte Straßenbahn oder Anbetung eines Weckglases'' (The last tram or Adoration of a Preserving Jar). See page 584 of the 1959 Büchergilde Gutenberg German edition and page 571 of the 1961 Secker & Warburg edition, translated into English by Ralph Manheim]
Notes
1. Trolleys or streetcars are electrified through a single trolley wheel and pole and were grounded through the wheels and rails. The motorizing circuit must be designed to allow electrical current to flow through the undercarriage. Electrified buses with their rubber tires require dual trolleys for positive and negative anodes.
2. History of Streetcars and Cable Cars
3. Nashville now and then: From here to there
4. Charles S. McCaleb, ''Rails, Roads & Runways: The 20-Year Saga of Santa Clara County's Transportation Agency,'' (San Jose: Santa Clara County Transportation Agency, 1994), 67. Besides recounting statistics and anecdotes, this source also reprints a ''San Jose Mercury News'' cartoon of one such accident, in which a bemused tow truck driver quips, "Dang! Rod Diridon was right! The trolley does reduce the number of vehicles on the road!"
5. ''Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 69: Light Rail Service: Pedestrian and Vehicular Safety'', Transportation Research Board http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=2536
6. ''Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 23: Wheel/Rail Noise Control Manual'', Transportation Research Board, http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=2593
Trams in popular culture
★ The
Rev W. Awdry made a small
LNER J70 tram called
Toby the Tram Engine which starred in a series of books called
The Railway Series along with his faithful coach,
Henrietta.
★
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
★
A Streetcar Named Desire (film)
★ The film
The Italian Job features
Benny Hill lewdly assisting a woman into a
Turin tram
★ The central plot of the film
Who Framed Roger Rabbit involves the Judge Doom, the villain, dismantling the streetcars of Los Angeles.
★ "The Trolley Song" in
Meet Me in St. Louis (film) received an Academy Award.
★ The
1944 World Series was also known as the "Streetcar Series".
★
Malcolm (film) - an Australian film about a tram enthusiast who uses his inventions to pull off a bank heist.
★ In
Akira Kurosawa's film
Dodesukaden a mentally ill boy pretends to be a tram conductor.
★ The predominace of trams (trolleys) gave rise to the disparaging term
trolley dodger for residents of the borough of
Brooklyn in
New York City. That term, shortened to "Dodger" became the nickname for the
Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angles Dodgers).
★ In the "Bourne Supremacy", Bourne kidnaps a woman and takes her onto a Berlin Tram.
See also
Types of trams
References
1. Trolleys or streetcars are electrified through a single trolley wheel and pole and were grounded through the wheels and rails. The motorizing circuit must be designed to allow electrical current to flow through the undercarriage. Electrified buses with their rubber tires require dual trolleys for positive and negative anodes.
2. History of Streetcars and Cable Cars
3. Nashville now and then: From here to there
4. Charles S. McCaleb, ''Rails, Roads & Runways: The 20-Year Saga of Santa Clara County's Transportation Agency,'' (San Jose: Santa Clara County Transportation Agency, 1994), 67. Besides recounting statistics and anecdotes, this source also reprints a ''San Jose Mercury News'' cartoon of one such accident, in which a bemused tow truck driver quips, "Dang! Rod Diridon was right! The trolley does reduce the number of vehicles on the road!"
5. ''Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 69: Light Rail Service: Pedestrian and Vehicular Safety'', Transportation Research Board http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=2536
6. ''Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 23: Wheel/Rail Noise Control Manual'', Transportation Research Board, http://trb.org/news/blurb_detail.asp?id=2593
External links
★
Hastings Tramways Club (GB)
★
Light Rail Transit Association (GB)
★
Light Rail Central (US/CA)
★
Light Rail Now advocacy (US)
★
Light Rail Netherlands (NL)
★
The Cable Building Broadway
★
Calcutta Tramways Company Calcutta (IND)
★
[2] (AU)
Cable car line (US/NY)
★
Museum of Transport and Technology Auckland (NZ)
★
Market Street Railway (US/CA)
★
"Tramway" article of 1911 Britannica
★
British National Tramway Museum(GB)
★
Tramway Information Including TLRS and Festival of Model Tramways
★
Compressed Air Trams
★
What is a streetcar? at American Public Transit Association
★
Council of Tramway Museums Australasia
★
Trams in Cieszyn (Poland) 1911-1921
★
Tramway Museum Porto (Portugal)
★
Pictures about trams in Hungary, Slovakia, Germany and Czech Republic
★
Pictures about trams in Europe
★
Images from the Historic Niagara Digital Collections
★
Industrial Trolleys for Carrying Lifting Machinery
★
Ballarat Tramway Museum - Victoria, Australia
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