page_title: Transport in Paris
section_title: The Tramway
hierarchical_section_title: Transport in Paris / History / The Tramway
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Autobus de la Compagnie générale des omnibus, ligne Avenue de Clichy - Odéon, sur la place du Carrousel à Paris en 1910.
context_page_description: Paris is the centre of a national, and with air travel, international, complex transport system. The modern system has been superimposed on a complex map of streets and wide boulevards that were set in their current routes in the 19th century. On a national level, it is the centre of a web of road and railway, and at a more local level, it is covered with a dense mesh of bus, tram and metro service networks. In 2016, the broader mass transit system of Paris has been ranked as the best public transport system in the world by the ITDP with all Parisians having an easy access to rapid transport, ahead of 26 other international cities, including London and New York City.
context_section_description: Beginning in 1852, the omnibus faced competition from the horse-drawn tramway, which ran on a track. The first tramway line ran from the Place de la Concorde to Passy, and, since it was modeled after the tramway system of New York, it was known as the chemin de fer Americain, or American railway. Additional lines were built between 1855 and 1857 between Rueil and Port-Marly and between Sèvres and Versailles. The first steam-driven trams were tried from 1876, but they were too costly and were not a success. The first electric tramway line was opened in April 1892 between Saint-Denis and the Madeleine; but in 1900 most public transport was still horse-drawn; on the 89 omnibus lines and 34 tramway lines in 1900, there were 1,256 horse-drawn vehicles, and just 490 electric trams.
  By 1914, the however, the situation had changed dramatically; all of the tramway cars were electric, and the network of tramway lines covered the entire city, except for the Champs-Élysées, the avenue de l'Opera, and the Grands Boulevards. Soon afterwards, however, the tramways faced growing competition from automobiles, and the trams were blamed for slowing down traffic. In 1929, the Municipal Council decided to replace the trams with motorbuses. On 15 May 1937, the last tram ran between porte de Vincennes and the Porte de Saint-Cloud. 
  Trams made a comeback beginning in 1990s, when the city decided to encourage more clean-energy modes of transport, and opened nine new Paris-suburb tram lines.
caption: Motorized Omnibus on Place du Carrousel (1910)
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