Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 15, 1896 Operations began for a tram line in the town (now city) of Douglas on the Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea. (Douglas has been the capital of the Isle of Man since 1869.) The tram line in Douglas was among the first cable-powered systems of its kind... Continue Reading →
August 4, 1911 Operations began for a tram system in the city of Launceston in Australia’s state of Tasmania. “The three tram cars in commission commenced to earn something towards their upkeep today,” reported the Tasmania-based North West Post. “It is estimated that between 3000 and 4000 passengers were carried.” A dozen days later, the... Continue Reading →
May 29, 1884 Europe’s first cable-operated tramway was introduced to the public in north London. This .7-mile (1.1-kilometer)-long tramway ran on Highgate Hill in an area encompassing parts of both the Highgate and Archway sections of England’s capital city. While most of the line was double-tracked, about 1,000 feet (304.8 meters) of it was single-tracked. The... Continue Reading →
October 23, 2015 A much anticipated Friday morning event in the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca occurred when a low-floor tram (railcar) was taken out for its first test run. This vehicle was the first of several railcars to be built by Alstom, a French rolling stock manufacturer, for an electric tram line coursing through both... Continue Reading →
July 25, 2017 A public transit system in the city of Sidi Bel Abbès in northwestern Algeria was inaugurated by Abdelghani Zaalane, the country’s minister of transport and public works. Construction on the Sidi Bel Abbès Tramway had begun on June 22, 2013. Another milestone for this project took place on April 8, 2016, when... Continue Reading →
October 20, 2015 After more than a half-century without any tram (streetcar) service in Medellín, the transit system known as the Ayacucho Tram was formally launched in that major Colombian city. The Ayacucho Tram, which is operated by the rapid transit network Medellín Metro, is currently the only tram service in all of Colombia. For... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 