The next stop on our world tour is Strasbourg in France – a city with three main classes of tram still operating.
The current tramway in Strasbourg started operating in 1994, although the city did have a tramway in the first phase of tramway history. The first tramway ran from 1878 (horse), with electric trams starting in 1894, but started to decline from the 1930s and finally closed in 1960. But just 34 years later (and in a strange parallel a century after electric tramways originally ran) two new lines opened and further lines have followed in 2000, 2007 and 2010. The system is one of the few in the world to cross international borders with part of the network crossing into Germany. Running on standard gauge the system is currently just over 40 miles in length.
There are now three distinct classes of tram which make up the tram fleet. The first of these were built in the UK at Derby – the Eurotram, of which the majority remain in service. They have been followed in more recent years by two varieties of the Alstom Citadis model of trams, the most recent of which only entered service in 2022.
This first photo below shows one of the first batch of Alstom Citadis trams, no. 2036. This is a Citadis 403 which was built in 2005/6 and is seen here running in service in the standard fleet livery. Note that the first set of doors have a bicycle on the door signifying this is where any cyclists should board.
Photograph by Peter Watts, 19th December 2022