Renaissance der Straßenbahn (German Edition)

Having achieved ubiquity in almost every urban centre in Britain by the end of Victorian age, the electric tram was killed off by the rise of the automobile in the middle decades of the 20th century. Over the past 25 years, however, the tram has undergone a stuttering, half-hearted revival.

Trams in Freiburg im Breisgau - Wikipedia

Since the launch of the Manchester Metrolink in , a handful of British cities have opted for electric tram systems, which offer quiet, reliable and pollution-free transport in dense urban areas. But across Europe there are examples of existing tram networks being used to attract businesses to use the network for freight transport. Could this extension help make a success of trams in the UK in the years ahead?

In France there are dozens of tram and light-rail passenger systems following major investment in the s. And having large, well-run tramways in place for passengers has allowed businesses to come in and make the network even more productive. Since its launch in June, the once-daily TramFret has been delivering water, soft drinks, snacks and canned goods to supermarket stores owned by Casino.

The transport operators also like the idea of reusing the older stock, rather than letting it go to waste. So there is also the benefit in helping create a circular economy. In the German city of Dresden, Volkswagen has been doing something similar since the turn of the century. Since then, Bordeaux, Clermont-Ferrand, Marseille and even the southern part of Paris have also welcomed back urban rail lines. Throughout France, the network of tracks is set to grow to kilometers miles by On May 1, , the last tram in Strasbourg, a city near Mulhouse that is home to the European Parliament, was retired to the depot with great fanfare.

Trams had been part of the city's urban landscape since , where they were originally merely carriages set on tracks and pulled by strong, snorting horses.

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In , "the electric," as it was called, operated on kilometers of track, and its lines extended far into the city's rural surroundings, allowing working-class families to get away on the weekend to somewhere green for the first time. After World War II, though, the era of the tram ended. The rattling, unheated railcars with their wooden seats were considered shabby.

Postwar reconstruction and the years of the "economic miracle" turned having your own car into a status symbol. Throughout France, cities built ring roads, connecting streets, tunnels and highways, and buses and subways replaced trams. In Paris, the romantic quays along the Seine disappeared beneath multi-lane highways. President Georges Pompidou himself called for this conversion and, in , declared "the city's necessary adaptation to the car. Then city planners began to ponder solutions to the problem. In , Catherine Trautmann campaigned as the Socialist candidate for mayor under the slogan, "I'll make the tram happen" -- and won.

Five years later, the first tramline was inaugurated.

It was the beginning of a success story for the new tram, which glides so silently through Strasbourg's old town that its warning bell is often the first thing that shoos pedestrians from the tracks. The drafty wooden wagons of the past have become elegant trains with glass-enclosed driver cabins, while inside there are colorful designs, bucket seats, benches and panorama windows. This new focus on rail-borne mass transit signals a paradigm change for many cities in terms of local transportation policy.

Trams in Freiburg im Breisgau

For politicians, architects and city planners, it has to do with "opening the enclaves" -- that is, connecting isolated, often run-down neighborhoods and creating an environment that French urban planner David Mangin describes as " ville passante ," or busy city. Mangin envisions an urban landscape "in which people no longer depend on cars to go about their daily business. But can a tram build social connections?

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In some cities, it would appear that the tram really has transcended its status as just a means of transportation. In Mulhouse and Montpellier, for example, the tram has connected neighborhoods that were once isolated -- both geographically and socially -- from the cities' centers. In Strasbourg, all of a sudden residents of so-called "difficult neighborhoods" have enjoyed access to the city's downtown, where they can hang out, work or go to the movies. And in Bordeaux, a literal and metaphorical bridging of the Garonne River has provided a connection to the city's long-neglected La Bastide district.

When tracks were being laid, the conservative politician took advantage of the opportunity to have the city's whole downtown overhauled. The government restructured traffic routing, replaced street furniture, created pedestrian zones and renovated building facades. Doing so stopped the city's deterioration.

Its population is now growing, and downtown property values are rising. The city owes it all to the tram, which is serving a double function as both a means of transportation and a remedy for urban decay. Nantes, Nancy, Nice and Strasbourg have experienced the same phenomenon. At first, the enthusiasm for Strasbourg's plan was limited, and the chaos experienced over the many years of planning and construction almost resulted in collective trauma.

Businesspeople were afraid that thousands of shops would close. Sometimes it was about increased traffic density, and at other times it was about noise. Known around city hall as "Monsieur Tram," von der Mark persevered.