Heritage streetcar

Heritage streetcars or heritage trams are a part of the efforts to preserve rail transit heritage. In addition to preserving street-running rail vehicles, heritage streetcar operations can include upkeep of historic rail infrastructure. Working heritage streetcars are closely related to the growing global heritage railway movement and form a part of the living history of rail transport.
The vehicles are called streetcars or trolleys in North America and trams or tramcars elsewhere. The first two terms are often used interchangeably in the United States, with trolley being preferred in the eastern US and streetcar in Canada and the western US. In parts of the United States, internally powered buses made to resemble a streetcar are often referred to as "trolleys". To avoid further confusion with trolley buses, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) refers to them as "trolley-replica buses".
Museums, heritage tram line operators, and amateur enthusiasts can preserve original vintage vehicles or create replicas of historic vehicles to re-create or preserve streetcar technology of the past. Heritage vehicles that are kept fully functional can be used on heritage tramlines or for charter traffic.
The Remise Museum (Depot Museum, or Carbarn Museum) in Vienna, opened in 2014, covers the history of public transport in the city of Vienna and offers an extensive tram collection to visitors. The Styrian municipality centre Graz has a tram museum since 1971 located in the depot of Mariatrost. Another heritage tramway operates in Styria between the railway station of Mariazell and the nearby Erlaufsee, mainly using ex-Vienna streetcars. This line was recently electrified on longer sections and also extended towards the city center. In Innsbruck, a collection of the city's historic trams is preserved and renovated – together with other Tyrolean railway vehicles – by the association Tiroler MuseumsBahnen, which has its museum in the old station of the Stubaitalbahn.
In Belgium, there are three tram museums, one in Brussels – organizing several weekend rides to Tervueren and around the city – and other in Antwerp. The 70-kilometre long (43 mi) Kusttram (the coastal line between Knokke and De Panne via Ostend) features also some vehicles of the once-extensive interurban network, housed in the depots at De Panne and Knokke.
ASVi run a museum in Thuin and an 8 km (5 mi) line with electric and diesel cars on a part of the once SNCV line 92 and on a part on the once SNCB line 109 after regauging to 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge.
In Sofia, there are operating heritage trams.
In Prague, the Prague Integrated Transport operates Historical Tram Line No. 41 at weekends using historical tram vehicles and a week-long operating Nostalgic Tram Line No. 23 using old PCC-based ČKD Tatra T3 tram vehicles.
Historical trams are also seasonally operated on the Brno tram system.
In Ringsted, the museum opened on land which belongs to Skjoldenæsholm Castle on 26 May 1978. the Danish Tramway Museum, is an open-air museum dedicated to vintage trams.
In Tallinn, renovated heritage trams have been in public use since 2017.
In Helsinki, Oy Stadin Ratikat Ab offers charter (private-hire) tram rides with vintage cars and in summer months operates an in-street heritage tram line on the Helsinki tram network.
In France, the Deûle Valley tramway near Lille which runs along a 3 km (1.9 mi) track from Marquette-lez-Lille to Wambrechies features several tram vehicles dating back to the beginning of the 20th century.
Woltersdorf Tramway located in Woltersdorf, Brandenburg, near Berlin, Germany. The line opened in 1913. In the 21st century, it is one of the smallest surviving town tram operators in Germany. The Naumburg tramway, opened in 1907, closed as a regular public transport service in 1991 but reopened in 1995 as a heritage tramway with limited operation over a short section of the former route.
In Hungary all of the four tram systems (Budapest, Debrecen, Miskolc, Szeged) have operating heritage trams.
In Budapest, heritage trams first operated in 1987. Its fleet contains quite a few preserved public transport vehicles (trams, buses, trolleybuses, even metro cars) spanning from the late 19th century until recent years, and there are more waiting to be repaired. Heritage services are mainly operated from April/May to September/October on weekends. There are both heritage and retro lines. The retro lines can be used with normal (seasonal) tickets, however, on heritage lines other, heritage (seasonal) tickets are needed. In 2019 there are two heritage tram lines; one retro tram line, one heritage bus line and one retro bus line operated regularly. Occasionally there are other lines in operation. There is also one vintage tram line - tram line 1956 - operating once-a-year in late October as a memorial to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; it can be used with normal (seasonal) tickets.
In Debrecen, there are also a few vintage trams. They are operated less regularly, mostly on certain occasions.
In Miskolc, there are also a few vintage trams and buses. They are operated less regularly, mostly on certain occasions.
In Szeged, there are also a few vintage trams, buses and trolleybuses. Trams are in service on certain summer weekends. Otherwise, they are operated less regularly, mostly on certain occasions.
For about a one-month period near Christmas, each city operates lighted trams (trams that are decorated with LED strips and/or Christmas decoration). These trams operate on various lines around the cities in the late afternoons, evenings, and can be used by normal (seasonal) tickets usually. At the same time each of these cities, except Miskolc, light trolleybuses are operated in the same way as trams.
Turin operates the historical route 7, a two-way circular route around the town centre. Turin was the first town in Italy with tram lines served solely by historical trams. The inauguration of the heritage tramway took place during the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of national unity, in March 2011.
In the nearby metropolis of Milan, the continued, extensive use of the "Series 1500 tram" (Peter Witt streetcar) dating from 1928 to 1930 is an example of a heritage tram use that is so widespread across the system and blends into everyday urban life in the city to such an extent that it is not regarded as historic or heritage operation.
In Amsterdam the Electrisch Museumtramlijn operates historic trams over a 7 km (4.3 mi) length of former railway line. The tram networks of The Hague and Rotterdam have also their tram museums. The association Tramweg Stichting maintains and operates in every three cities its own vehicles, partly as collection of these museums.
In Bergen the Bergens Elektriske Sporvei has operated a short heritage tramway since 1993.
In Oslo, the Tramway Museum operates veteran trams on the tram network of Oslo on the first Sunday of every month.
Heritage trams provide all of the service on some of routes of the Lisbon tramway network, and in Porto a long-closed section of tramway in the historic Batalha section of the town center was reopened in 2007 for use by historic trams. There are now three such heritage routes in Porto, as well as a tram museum. In Sintra, there is a seasonally operated heritage tramway.
STB in Bucharest maintains an extensive fleet of heritage trams on its tram system.
In Saint Petersburg, on Vasilyevsky Island the former Vasileostrovsky tram depot, which closed in the 1990s after the city's extensive tram network was curtailed amid increasing automobile traffic, was converted into the Museum of Electrical Transport. Apart from operating excursions, the museum organizes museum-fleet rides along downtown tracks (including some sections no longer in use for regular tram service) during a number of public festivals and on some summer weekends. A heritage tram of the type that used to run from the inner city nearly to the nearby front line during the World War II siege of the city is installed as a war and tram memorial, not far from Avtovo metro station. A modern replica of a late-19th-century horsecar stands in front of Vasileostrovskaya metro station.
In Spain, a new heritage tramway was opened in A Coruña (La Coruña) in 1997. However, it has not operated since 2011. Tramvia Blau in Barcelona, also known as the Tibidabo tramway, has been in operation since 1904 but still uses trams built in 1904–15, and thus has become a heritage line; however, the line has been closed temporarily for reconstruction since 2018. Similarly, the tramway connecting Sóller with Puerto de Sóller, on the island of Mallorca, has been in operation since 1913 but still uses tramcars from the 1910s and 1920s. Therefore, it is a heritage line.
In Malmö, a technical museum operates an in-street heritage tram line in the summer months. In Stockholm, a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) section of former route 7 was reopened in 1991 as a heritage tramway, using vintage cars.
There is another tram museum in Malmköping. Museispårvägen Malmköping runs along a short stretch of the former m|s|j between Malmköping and Hosjö.
In Gothenburg, a heritage line is operated by the local tram association, Ringlinjen. The line is known as Lisebergs linjen. It runs alongside the regular trams between the central station and Liseberg amusement park. All trams on the line are vintage trams from the city. Ringlinjen also operates a tram museum in an old depot.
Historic trams operate at the Blonay–Chamby Museum Railway.
Two separate heritage tramways operate in Istanbul; T2 on the European side of the Bosporus and T3 on the Asian side. The former opened in 1990 between Tünel (funicular station) and Taksim metro station, and the latter in 2003 in the suburb of Kadıköy.
A heritage tram line opened in 2003 in the city of Antalya, serving the Antalya Museum, the historic city centre, Hadrian's Gate, and ending at the eastern end of Işıklar Road. Another one opened in 2011 in the city of Bursa.
In the United Kingdom the majority of tram lines were closed before the heritage movement began to flourish, the tracks and trams scrapped. Although trams have returned to several British cities since the 1990s, they are modern transportation systems (also known as light rail), not heritage operations. There are, however, three notable heritage tram operations in the UK and Crown dependencies.
(There is also a modern heritage tramway in Birkenhead, Merseyside.)
The San Francisco Municipal Railway, or Muni, runs exclusively historic trolleys on its heavily used F Market & Wharves line. The line serves Market Street and the tourist areas along the Embarcadero, including Fisherman's Wharf.
Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority runs exclusively PCC streetcars on its Mattapan Line, part of that authority's Red Line. The historic rolling stock is retained because doing so cost less than would a full rebuild of the line to accommodate either a heavy rail line (like the rest of the Red Line or the Blue or Orange Lines) or a modern light rail line (like the Green Line). It is also unique in that it used almost exclusively by commuters and is not particularly popular with tourists (and thus may not really be a true heritage system, despite the historic rolling stock).
Dallas has the M-Line Trolley along McKinnney Avenue and other streets near downtown. Denver has the Platte Valley Trolley, a heritage line recalling the open-sided streetcars of the early 20th century. The VTA in San Jose, California, also maintains a heritage trolley fleet for occasional use on the downtown portion of a new light rail system opened in 1988. The MATA Trolley system in Memphis, Tennessee, opened in 1993 and is served exclusively by vintage and replica-vintage streetcars. Similar operations include the Metro Streetcar (opened in 2004) in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the TECO Line Streetcar (opened 2002) in Tampa, Florida – although these two are served entirely or almost entirely by replicas of vintage streetcars. Other cities with heritage streetcar lines include Galveston, Texas; Kenosha, Wisconsin; and El Paso, Texas. The National Park Service operates a system in Lowell, Massachusetts.
In San Francisco, parts of the cable car and Muni streetcar system (specifically the above-mentioned F Market & Wharves line) are heritage lines, although they are also functioning parts of the city's transit system. The cable cars are a U.S. National Historic Landmark and are rare examples of vehicles with this distinction. Located east of San Francisco is one of several museums in the U.S. that restore and operate vintage streetcars and interurbans, the Western Railway Museum.
The Fort Collins Municipal Railway operates Birney Safety Cars on a restored track that runs from City Park to Old Town in Fort Collins, Colorado. In Arkansas, in addition to the service in Little Rock, the Fort Smith Trolley Museum operates restored trams from the former streetcar systems of Fort Smith and Hot Springs, Arkansas, on an approximately three-quarters-mile-long (1.2 km) line, year-round. One of the Birney cars in Fort Collins (No. 21) and the similar Birney car operating in Fort Smith (No. 224) are listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
In Buenos Aires, a heritage tram line was inaugurated in 1980 in the Caballito neighbourhood on existing vintage street tracks.
Buenos Aires also hosts the La Brugeoise cars, the Buenos Aires Metro (Subte) Line A rolling stock, since its inauguration in 1913. They were built by Belgian railway rolling stock manufacturer La Brugeoise, et Nicaise, et Delcuve between 1911 and 1919 for the Anglo-Argentine Tramways Company's (Compañía de Tranvías Anglo-Argentina, CTAA in Spanish) first metro line. They were originally designed to run both as metro and tramway cars, but they were refurbished in 1927 for underground use only. They are the oldest metro rolling stock in commercial service in the world as well as a tourist attraction and part of Buenos Aires cultural heritage. The A line also contains a vintage station, Perú. They have been in continuous use for a whole century from 1913 to January 2013 when they were replaced by new coaches, with an average of about 300,000 daily passengers, up from the 170,000 who traveled on them on their first day. Some of the coaches had already been preserved for touristic purposes, and now the rest of the fleet is under careful restoration and is intended to render service on weekends and holidays.
Santos: After briefly operating a short heritage line along Embaré Beach in the mid-1980s, the city of Santos in 2000 opened a new heritage tramway in the historic Valongo district, using a car built in 1911 and retaining the former city system's peculiar rail gauge of 1,350 mm (4 ft 5+5⁄32 in). The line is being extended, and additional trams have been added.
Belém: A heritage tramway was opened in the city of Belém in 2005.
Campinas: A heritage tramway has been in operation at Campinas's Parque Portugal since 1972.
Rio de Janeiro: The Santa Teresa Tramway, which has operated in the Santa Teresa district of Rio de Janeiro since the 19th century, is not primarily a tourist line but can be considered a heritage tramway because of its continued use of vintage or, since 2015, faux-vintage tramcars.
A heritage tramway was opened in Iquique in 2004.
A short heritage tramway was opened in Lima in 1997.
The first heritage tramway in Latin America opened in Montevideo in 1967, using a restored vintage tram on a reopened section of former tram line. It closed in 1974.
Heritage trams operate in Changchun, Jilin and Dalian, Liaoning.
The Hong Kong Tramways and Peak Tram on Hong Kong Island are considered part of the heritage of Hong Kong.
The Nagasaki Electric Tramway and Hiroshima Electric Railway both regularly operate vintage trams alongside modern rolling stock. Additionally, the Hakodate City Tram operates vintage trams for use on tourist runs during the summer.
There have been heritage trams in Kimberley, Northern Cape, since 1985.
The most significant heritage line operates in Melbourne, the City Circle tram, using historic Melbourne tramcars, which shares its route with other regular tram lines. Heritage lines also exist in Ballarat, Bendigo, Sydney and Brisbane.
Museums with operating heritage trams can also be found in Perth, Adelaide, and Launceston.
A new city-center heritage tramway was opened in Christchurch in 1995. Auckland also has a short heritage line loop in the Wynyard Quarter District called the Dockline Tram, which opened in 2011, closed several times due major roadworks, and reopened in 2021. It is operated on behalf of the Auckland Council's Development arm by the Museum of Transport & Technology.