This is a list of cities that have, or once had, town tramway (urban tramway, or streetcar) systems as part of their public transport system. Due to excessive size, the original list has been divided into separate articles, based on geographical locations.
This page also provides references and links for all parts of the list.
A "town tramway service" is defined as:
Determining which towns "had trams" (or "streetcars") requires subjective judgment to some degree.
No "universal" distinctions can be made between "town tramways" and other light railways because "tramway" and "railway" practices (and laws) varied considerably between countries. For example, the prevailing European standard to distinguish between "steam tramways" and "light railways, worked by steam traction" is based on rolling stock type. Lines worked by enclosed "tramway type" locomotives are classified as "steam tramways," and those worked by unenclosed locomotives are classified as "light railways." By this standard, virtually all Japanese examples of "steam tramways" would be classified as "light railways," because none (based on the photographic record) used European-type enclosed locomotives. Also in Japan, many of today's suburban electric railways were built under "tramway" concessions ("licenses") and were eventually changed to "railway" concessions. These lines had many "tramway" characteristics as built but few today.
Some town tramway systems had lines or groups of lines that were geographically isolated from the "main" system. Long-lived examples (i.e. excepting those during formative or closing years) are tabulated if known. Examples include Volgograd, Russia and New York City, US.
"Opening date" is that upon which public passenger service was first offered. Test runs and inaugural ceremonies often occurred before this "opening date."
"Closing date" is the last "full" day on which passenger service was offered to the public. Service often extended into the small hours (i.e. past midnight) of the next day. Closure ceremonies and farewell excursions were sometimes held following the end of public service. Some lines were closed following damage suffered as the result of storms, earthquakes or war. In some such cases, closure was not made permanent for some time following the actual last day of public service. Again, the actual "last day of operation" is tabulated.
Operation of some systems was interrupted for prolonged periods (one year or longer) for various reasons, including natural- or man-made catastrophe, financial difficulty or conflict between tramway undertakings and local authorities. These are tabulated if known. Other systems (virtually all of them "small") operated only on a seasonal basis. Again, these facts are tabulated if known.
In some cases, goods (freight) service continued following closure of passenger operation. These have not been tabulated because of incomplete information. Goods service over town tramway systems is a potential category for a separate list.
Many town tramway networks extended across municipal boundaries. "Suburban" municipalities have, in general, not been tabulated separately except in cases of dedicated "local" or "town" services. Examples include Footscray, Australia. A general exception to this principle is the UK, where tramways operated as separate municipal undertakings by adjacent towns are tabulated (and grouped by region). Examples include Glasgow and environs.
"Suburban" extensions of town tramway networks are tabulated where known. Lines having a "rural" or "interurban" character are generally not tabulated.
Many suburban, rural and intercity light railway undertakings operated dedicated "local" or "town" service within on-line towns. These are tabulated if known.
Many suburban, rural and intercity (interurban) light railway services carried "local" passengers within various towns. Such towns are not tabulated.
The rural tramway networks of Belgium, France and The Netherlands, and US "interurban" and "rural trolley" lines (the latter found mostly in New England states) have generally not been tabulated. These categories fully deserve their own lists.
Many towns planned tramways that were not built. So-called "paper tramways" are beyond the scope of this list. However, in a small number of cases, construction of a town tramway system was started (and, in a very few cases, completed) but the system did not open for public service. These are tabulated if known. Examples include Ajaccio (Corsica), France and Ulricehamn, Sweden.
Specific to the US, it is not unknown to find examples of tramways, listed in historic documents among operating systems, that did not in fact exist. It is also not uncommon to find picture postcards, dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, showing tramcars operating in towns where tramways did not exist. (Similar circumstances are likely to exist for other countries.) Certain examples are tabulated, primarily because they appear in well-known historic records and tabulations.
It is believed to be very likely that the historic record does not include "all" public town tramways that ever existed. Town tramways that escaped notice by historians (and regulatory authorities) are thought to have been 1.) located away from Europe, and 2.) worked by some form of traction other than electricity (e.g. horse, steam). Likely countries include Brazil (because of geographic size and incomplete records related to tramways), Mexico (because of its large number of horse- and mule-worked tramways) and the US (because of geographic size and lack of centralized records related to tramways). It is believed to be unlikely, but possible, that the historic record does not include all electric town tramways that ever existed.
A tram is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are called tramways or simply trams/streetcars. Many recently built tramways use the contemporary term light rail. The vehicles are called streetcars or trolleys in North America and trams or tramcars elsewhere. The first two terms are often used interchangeably in the United States, with trolley being the preferred term in the eastern US and streetcar in the western US. Streetcar or tramway are preferred in Canada. In parts of the United States, internally powered buses made to resemble a streetcar are often referred to as "trolleys". To avoid further confusion with trolley buses, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) refers to them as "trolley-replica buses". In the United States, the term tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains, which are unrelated to other kinds of trams.
The Interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for passenger travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. The concept spread to countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Poland. Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, their cars that ran on the rails, and their service. In the United States, the early 1900s interurban was a valuable economic institution. Most roads between towns and many town streets were unpaved. Transportation and haulage was by horse-drawn carriages and carts. The interurban provided reliable transportation, particularly in winter weather, between the town and countryside. In 1915, 15,500 miles (24,900 km) of interurban railways were operating in the United States and, for a few years, interurban railways, including the numerous manufacturers of cars and equipment, were the fifth-largest industry in the country. By 1930, most interurbans in North America were gone with a few surviving into the 1950s.
The PCC is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the world where PCC based cars were made. The PCC car has proved to be a long-lasting icon of streetcar design, and many remain in service around the world.
Conservation and restoration of rail vehicles aims to preserve historic rail vehicles.
A Birney or Birney Safety Car is a type of streetcar that was manufactured in the United States in the 1910s and 1920s. The design was small and light and was intended to be an economical means of providing frequent service at a lower infrastructure and labor cost than conventional streetcars. Production of Birney cars lasted from 1915 until 1930, and more than 6,000 of the original, single-truck version were built. Several different manufacturers built Birney cars. The design was "the first mass-produced standard streetcar " in North America.
A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered tram or streetcar.
Urban rail transit is an all-encompassing term for various types of local rail systems providing passenger service within and around urban or suburban areas. The set of urban rail systems can be roughly subdivided into the following categories, which sometimes overlap because some systems or lines have aspects of multiple types.
Various terms are used for passenger railway lines and equipment; the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas:
The Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, also known as the North Shore Line, was an interurban railroad that operated passenger and freight service over an 88.9-mile (143.1 km) route between the Chicago Loop and downtown Milwaukee, as well as an 8.6-mile (13.8 km) branch line between the villages of Lake Bluff and Mundelein, Illinois. The North Shore Line also provided streetcar, city bus and motor coach services along its interurban route.
The Indiana Railroad (IR) was the last of the typical Midwestern United States interurban lines. It was formed in 1930–31 by combining the operations of the five major interurban systems in central Indiana into one entity. The predecessor companies came under the control of Midland Utilities, owned by Samuel Insull. His plan was to modernize the profitable routes and abandon the unprofitable ones. With the onset of the Great Depression, the Insull empire collapsed and the Indiana Railroad was left with a decaying infrastructure and little hope of overcoming the growing competition of the automobile for passenger business and the truck for freight business. The IR faced bankruptcy in 1933, and Bowman Elder was designated as the receiver to run the company. Payments on bonded debt were suspended. Elder was able to keep the system virtually intact for four years, and IR operated about 600 miles (970 km) of interurban lines throughout Indiana during this period. During the late 1930s, the routes were abandoned one by one until a 1941 wreck with fatalities south of Indianapolis put an abrupt end to the Indiana Railroad's last passenger operations.
Streetcars or trolley(car)s were once the chief mode of public transit in hundreds of North American cities and towns. Most of the original urban streetcar systems were either dismantled in the mid-20th century or converted to other modes of operation, such as light rail. Today, only Toronto still operates a streetcar network essentially unchanged in layout and mode of operation.
The Terre Haute, Indianapolis and Eastern Traction Company, or THI&E, was the second largest interurban in the U.S. state of Indiana at the 1920s height of the "interurban era." This system included over 400 miles (640 km) of track, with lines radiating from Indianapolis to the east, northwest, west and southwest as well as streetcar lines in several major cities. The THI&E was formed in 1907 by the Schoepf-McGowan Syndicate as a combination of several predecessor interurban and street car companies and was operated independently until incorporation into the Indiana Railroad in 1931. The THI&E served a wide range of territory, including farmlands in central Indiana, the mining region around Brazil, and numerous urban centers. Eventually, it slowly succumbed like all of the other central Indiana interurban lines, to competition from automobiles, trucks, and improved paralleling highways.
Although tram systems date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many old systems were closed during the mid-20th century because of the advent of automobile travel. This was especially the case in North America, but postwar reductions and shutdowns also occurred on British, French and other Western European urban rail networks. However, traditional tramway systems survived, and eventually even began to thrive from the late 20th century onward, some eventually operating as much as when they were first built over a century ago. Their numbers have been augmented by modern tramway or light rail systems in cities which had discarded this form of transport.
Tramways & Urban Transit(TAUT or T&UT), also known as Modern Tramway, is a British monthly magazine about tramways and light rail transport, published continuously since 1938. Its content is orientated both to tramway enthusiasts and to persons working in the tram transport field or studying tramways. It has been issued monthly from the beginning. Although published in Britain, the magazine's coverage is international, and its regular "World News" column includes detailed news on electric trams and light rail worldwide.
The Milwaukee & Suburban Transport Corporation, commonly known as the Transport Company, was a public transport company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.