List of largest tram and light rail transit systems ever

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This is a list of the largest town tramway systems that have ever operated. Town tramway systems include all light rail, tram, interurban, streetcar, or other comparable modes of public transport which uses rails while mainly traveling among other traffic. All figures reflect the system at its height. To keep the list manageable, only systems with over 90km of track are included.

Contents

List

SystemCountryLength (km)NotesClosed
Vicinal tramway Belgium4,095 [1] Networks between towns ceased in the 1970s, but one line (the Coast Tram) remains in operation.
Streetcars in Montreal Canada500Network dismantled in 1959 in favour of buses.1959
Streetcars in Toronto Canada405+most dismantled throughout the opening and extension of the subway system. 83km as of 2025
Streetcars in Los Angeles USA1,770+ [2] Composed of Los Angeles Railway and Pacific Electric.1963 [2]
Chicago Surface Lines 1,600+ [3] 1958 [3]
Trams in Paris France1,111 [4] Original network stopped service in 1938. Since then, a new 196.6 km network has been built. [5]
Trams in Buenos Aires Argentina875 [6] [7] Still operating some lines.
Trams in Saint Petersburg Russia700+ [8] 205 km of lines remain.
Detroit United Railway USA6401956
Trams in Berlin Germany624 [9] 194 km of lines remain.
Tram in Moscow Russia560 [10] 208 [Note 1]
Trams in London UK523 [11] All trams removed by 1952, but a much smaller modern tramway network, London Tram, reintroduced in 2000.1952
SFMTA USA489 [12] Length in 1921.
Manchester Corporation Tramways UK470 [13] Length could relate to all track in current Greater Manchester including neighbouring operators (but with much inter-running/shared routes). [14] Others suggest about 470 km. [15] All trams removed by 1950s, but modern light rail, Manchester Metrolink introduced 1992.1949
Market Street Railway USA457 [16] 1944
Trams in Rio de Janeiro Brazil433 [17]
Streetcars in Washington, D.C. USA320 [18] 1962 [18]
Trams in Vienna Austria318 [19] Today 172 km remain. [20]
Sacramento Northern USA2951941
Trams in Sydney Australia291 [21] 1961 [21]
San Diego Electric Railway USA2661949
Trams in Melbourne Australia256Current largest tram system by route length.
Glasgow Corporation Tramways UK227.511962
Trams in Oslo Norway200+Today 94 km remain, several lines have been ripped out and high frequency buses are run on the lines instead and five lines have had their rights of way used for the current metrosystem.
Trams in Brisbane Australia1991969
Cologne Stadtbahn Germany194.8
Trams in Milan Italy181.8 [22] Data as of 2017. The network was longer in the past.
Silesian Tramways Poland178
Tidewater Southern Railway USA137
Trams in Geneva Switzerland170 [23] The network was reduced to only one surviving line in the 1960s. It has been re-expanding since then, back to over 40 km.
Trams in Budapest Hungary158
Trams in Sofia Bulgaria154
Trams in Leipzig Germany148
Peninsular Railway USA146.6
Trams in Prague Czech Rep.145,7As of 2019, the Prague tram network operates 882 tram vehicles.
Trams in Bucharest Romania144
Liverpool Corporation Tramways UK1401957
Trams in Kyiv Ukraine139.9
Trams in Brussels Belgium139
Trams in Dresden Germany134.3
Trams in Munich Germany134
Trams in Warsaw Poland132
Trams in Stuttgart Germany131
Trams in Hanover 127
Birmingham Corporation Tramways UK129.6 [24] 1953
Central California Traction Company USA126 [25]
Trams in Lodz Poland124.1
Tram in Zürich Switzerland122
Trams in Greater Cairo Egypt120 [26] 2019 [27]
Trams in Zagreb Croatia116
Trams in Adelaide Australia113 [28] As of 2024, only 15 km remain.
Visalia Electric Railroad USA109
Key System 1061959
Dublin tramways Ireland97No original tramways still exist, but modern light rail, the Luas, was introduced in 2004 and operates 42 km of track.1959
Trams in Gothenburg Sweden95
Trams in Kraków Poland97
Trams in Christchurch New Zealand86.1A new heritage loop was built totalling 3.9 km.1954
  1. ↑ This reference ( "Евгений Михайлов: Обособление трамвайных путей положительно сказывается на регулярности движения наземного городского транспорта" [Yevgeny Mikhailov: The separation of tramways' positive impact on the reliability of urban transport traffic] (in Russian). Мосгортранс [Mosgortrans]. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2015.) quotes the 2014 single track length of Moscow's tram network to be 416 kilometres (258 mi) – for the purposes of this table, the double track system length of Moscow's tram network is assumed to be roughly half that figure, or approximately 208 kilometres (129 mi).

See also

References

  1. ↑ Instappen a.u.b.! Honderd jaar buurtspoorwegen in België. NMVB. 1985.
  2. 1 2 "From the Archives: Did Auto, Oil Conspiracy Put the Brakes on Trolleys?". Los Angeles Times. 23 March 2003. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  3. 1 2 "Ask Geoffrey: A Look Back at Chicago's Streetcar Era". WTTW News. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  4. ↑ KONOPACKI-MACIUK, ZBIGNIEW (2014). "TRAMS AS TOOLS OF URBAN TRANSFORMATION IN FRENCH CITIES". Technical Transactions Architecture. 10: 63.
  5. ↑ "ratp.fr - Le réseau Tramway RATP en Île-de-France". 26 April 2014. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  6. ↑ Historia del tranvía en Buenos Aires Archived 2015-04-10 at archive.today - Revista Digital ead
  7. ↑ Un viaje por la historia de la ciudad en el viejo Tramway - ElDiario.es, 21 March 2015.
  8. ↑ "Monument to the Blockade Tram MC-29". www.visit-petersburg.ru. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  9. ↑ "150 years of trams in Berlin – International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility" . Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  10. ↑ "Konka horse-drawn trams, Lunar Rovers and electric buses: three centuries' history of Moscow transport". moscowseasons.com. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  11. ↑ "London 1934". www.tundria.com. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  12. ↑ O'Shaughnessy, M.M. (1921). The municipal railway of San Francisco, 1912–1921. San Francisco, California: J.A. Prudhomme Composition Co. p. 5. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  13. ↑ Transport Department, Manchester Corporation (1949). A History of Manchester's Tramways : a Souvenir brochure on the occasion of the abandonment of the last tram service in Manchester on the 10th January 1949. Manchester: Manchester Corporation.
  14. ↑ Yearsley, Ian. (1962) The Manchester Tram. Huddersfield: The Advertiser Press. p.21.
  15. ↑ Bett, Wingate H; Gillham, John C, The Tramways of South-East Lancashire (1972). London: Light Railway Transport League.
  16. ↑ Vielbaum, Walt; Hoffman, Philip; Ute, Grant; Townley, Robert (2005). San Francisco's Market Street Railway. Arcadia Publishing. p. 4. ISBN   9780738529677.
  17. ↑ "Rio de Janeiro 1958". www.tundria.com. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  18. 1 2 "History". DC Streetcar. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  19. ↑ Czeike, Felix. (1997). Historisches Lexikon Wien : in 5 Bänden. Wien: Kremayr & Scheriau. p. 362. ISBN   3-218-00543-4. OCLC   27458914.
  20. ↑ "Zahlen Daten Fakten" (PDF). Retrieved 28 December 2022.
  21. 1 2 "The map which shows how Sydney is going backwards". NewsComAu. 12 April 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  22. ↑ "Carta della mobilità ATM 2017" [ATM Mobility Charter 2017](PDF) (in Italian). Azienda Trasporti Milanesi S.p.A. 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  23. ↑ "Le tram 12, un vénérable genevois". Le Temps (in French). 9 August 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  24. ↑ Birmingham City Transport, Malcolm, etc. Keeley, Transport Pub. Co 1978 ISBN   0-903839-18-0
  25. ↑ Demoro, Harre W. (1986). California's Electric Railways. Glendale, California: Interurban Press. p. 202. ISBN   0-916374-74-2.
  26. ↑ "Cairobserver — On Cairo's dying trams". cairobserver.com. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  27. ↑ EJOLT. "Heliopolis Municipality Completely Removes Tram Line, Egypt | EJAtlas". Environmental Justice Atlas . Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  28. ↑ "Adelaide's electric tram system builds on horse-drawn network as most complete of any city in southern hemisphere". Adelaide AZ. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
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