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Gallery 888: Around the World in Trams Special - Lisbon Trams 2015

Lisbon is another of those tramways that anyone with even just a passing interest of trams will be aware of its existence, especially helped by the number of tramcars from the Portuguese city which have ended up in the UK. The Campanhia Carris de Ferro de Lisboa (often referred to as Carris) opened their first line back on November 1883 when horses provided the traction. These initial horse lines were standard gauge but when electrification came on 31st August 1901 the chance was taken to amend the network to 900mm. The final lines weren't converted to overhead electric until 1926 when a former cable tramway was the last to receive the update. At its peak the tramway would reach 76 route kilometres with 405 motors and 100 trailers running on 38 routes. Whilst plans were announced in 1972 to convert all lines to bus operation within five years this never occured with expatriats returning to the city requiring increasing transport infrastructure. 1982 saw Carris announce the retention of the hiller tram routes - 12, 18, 25 and 28 - and route 15 was also retained with the eventual introduction of more modern articulated trams.

The photos in this gallery were taken during a two hour period in 2015 when the photographer had a short period of time in Lisbon during a Mediterranean cruise. The chance was taken to take part in a tour of the city by tram and the majority of images were taken of the trams which undertook this tour and those which it came across as it travelled around Lisbon. Three types of tram are seen: "Tourist", "Remodelado" and "Articulados" - the first two types are recognisable as the traditional Lisbon tramcar with the latter the more modern trams now introduced.

Photographer: Edward M. Koehler Jr.
All Photographs taken on Wednesday 26th August 2015

Funicular

Tracks

Lisbon 5

Lisbon 7

Lisbon 503

Museum of Electricity

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This page was last updated on Sunday 16th August 2020

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