European Trams

Strasbourg, France

The Strasbourg tramway (French: Tramway de Strasbourg, German: Straßenbahn Straßburg), run by the CTS, is a network of six tramlines, A, B, C, D, E and F that operate in the city of Strasbourg in Alsace, France, and Kehl in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The first tramline in Strasbourg, which was originally horse-drawn, opened in 1878. After 1894, when an electric powered tram system was introduced, a widespread network of tramways was built, including several longer distance lines on both sides of the Rhine. The decline of the tramways system began in the 1930s, and ended with the retirement of the service in 1960 in parallel to the closure of many such systems in France and the rest of the Western world. However, a strategic reconsideration of the city's public transport requirements led to the reconstruction of the system, a development whose success led to other large French cities reopening their tramways, such as Montpellier and Nice. Lines A and D were opened in 1994, lines B and C were opened in 2000, line E was opened in 2007 and line F was opened in 2010. It is regarded as a remarkable example of the tramway's rebirth in the 1990s. Together with the success seen in Nantes since 1985, the Strasbourg experiment resulted in the construction of tramways in multiple other French urban areas, and the expansion of tramway systems remains an ongoing project in Strasbourg and throughout France.


2019

Unidentified Eurotram in city centre Eurotram 2003 in city centre
Eurotram 2016 in city centre Eurotram 2016 by the river

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