Category Archives: Trams

Crossing over on the Charleroi Metro

The Belgium city of Charleroi is home to the Charleroi Metro – a curious light rail system, with 33-kilometres of track circling the city centre in an underground tunnel, and forming three above ground branches to the surrounding suburbs, along […]

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A trolleybus turntable in Germany

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Zigzagging trams for Zürich’s underground tunnel

I’ve been looking at the “left-hand to right-hand running railways” theme for some months now, and I’m still finding more examples – this time it’s the tramway network of Zürich, Switzerland. Photo by Kurt Rasmussen, via Wikimedia Commons The switacharoo […]

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Switcharoo on the Stockholm light rail

I’ve looked at many examples around Europe at trams tracks that switch from left-hand to right-hand running, and I’ve found yet another – on the Nockebybanan light rail line in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Photo by kaffeeeinstein from Berlin, […]

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Slow boat from Germany – delivering Adelaide’s trams

A long time ago I wrote about Adelaide’s Flexity trams and their Germany connection – well this is the story of how they got to Australia. The trams were built at the Bombardier factory in Bautzen, Germany. Government of South […]

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Customer service counters onboard Amsterdam trams

Onboard the trams of Amsterdam is a strange sight – customer service counters! Photo by Rob Dammers, via Wikimedia Commons The customer service counters are located onboard 151 Combino trams operated by GVB. GVB photo And replaced an enclosed conductor […]

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Mobile traction substations for powering trains and trams

The power for an electric railway has to come from somewhere – and that place is a traction substation, a facility that convert hogh voltage electricity from the power grid to the voltage and frequency that trains or trams use. […]

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Turning trams on a turntable in Kiev

Unidirectional trams are common across Eastern Europe and the former USSR, with reversing loops provided so trams can turn around for their reverse journeys. But the Ukrainian capital of Kiev once turned trams a different way – on a turntable. […]

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Another tram bent like a banana

A few years ago I found an articulated tram bent like a banana following a collision with a road vehicle, and now I’ve found another – this time in the Dutch city of Utrecht. Donald Ikkersheim photo via ad.nl Koen […]

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Switching from right to left on the Wiener Straßenbahn

Trams on the Wiener Straßenbahn run on the right hand side just like every other road vehicle in Austria, but there is one exception – the elevated tracks of line 26. Opened in 2013, the 4.7 kilometre long extension of […]

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