Tramway

A Tramway is a light rail system that can be found in some (predominantly urban) areas where rail vehicles run along roads via dedicated tracks. These may be mixed with road vehicles or inside pedestrianised areas.

Modern tramways systems can be found in:

• Blackpool (in continuous operation since 1885)
• Manchester and Salford
• Sheffield
• Edinburgh
• Croydon
• Nottingham
• Dublin
• Midland Metro between Wolverhampton and Birmingham.

All the above run on 1435mm Standard Gauge tracks (although in Ireland normal railway gauge is 1600mm). Most of these are only partially street-running, for example, the Midland Metro is only street-running during the approaches to Wolverhampton city centre, and within Birmingham city centre at either end of the line; between the two cities it runs along the former GWR mainline trackbed.

Preserved Tramways

Preserved tramway systems exist in:

• Seaton Tramway, Devon
• Crich (tram museum)
• Beamish (Open air Museum)
• Heaton Park Tramway, Manchester
• Llandudno - Great Orme
• Wirral Tramway & Transport Museum, Birkenhead
• Black Country Living Museum, Dudley

The track gauge used for these systems varies depending on local preference.

Historic Tramways

Historically many British and Irish towns and cities operated local tramway systems, often alongside trolleybus and conventional motor bus systems. These included all of the major cities:

• London
• Birmingham
• Leeds
• Manchester
• Liverpool
• Newcastle Upon Tyne
• Glasgow
• Edinburgh
• Cardiff
• Belfast
• Dublin

Trams services were also provided in most smaller cities and many provincial towns. A full list can be found here: List of British and Irish Tramway Systems

There was no coordination of track gauges between systems, and sometimes even neighbouring towns had incompatible gauges, and hence through running would be impossible. All of these systems had been run down and closed by the early 1960s, and their routes taken over, often first by trolleybuses, then later by motor buses.

Placeholder page - we've currently not got anything I can find on tramways, their history, decline, preservation, and new tramway systems of the 21st Century.

Use in Europe continued...

• Clifftop lifts either using pulleys or toothed rail, e.g. those found at beach resorts, but also running as trams in places like Lisbon