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Tram facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
LM-2008 5904+5903 in Moscow
A tram in Moscow, which has one of the largest tram networks in the world.
CLRVs 4049 and 4090 Eastbound on King
Streetcars in Toronto. This city has the largest streetcar system in North America.
Tram in hanwell boston road
A double-deck tram in London, 1910. Double-decker trams were common in Great Britain and Dublin before they were removed in the 1950s and 1960s.
Pesa 120N 3113, tram line 9, Warsaw, 2009
A PESA 120N light rail vehicle in Warsaw.
HKtram-crossing
A double-decker tram in Hong Kong.

A tram (also called a tramcar, trolley, or streetcar) is a passenger vehicle. It is like a light train that carries people around a city. Trams can carry many people at once. Riding a tram instead of driving a car helps reduce pollution and makes the roads less busy.

The word tram is mostly used outside North America. In North America, these vehicles are called streetcars or trolleys. This is because they usually run on city streets.

Newer and larger trams made since the 1970s are often called light rail vehicles. The tram in the second picture from Warsaw is an example. These vehicles are bigger because they often have two or more parts. They have a bendy section in the middle, like a human joint. In railway language, these are called "articulated" vehicles. Light rail vehicles sometimes have their own special tracks, not on the street. Their stops are also usually farther apart, so they can travel faster.

In San Francisco, old streetcars from the 1910s to the 1940s are a popular tourist attraction. They are called "historic streetcars" and run on the F Market line. Another city famous for its trams is Hong Kong. Trams there have two floors, which is very rare around the world. Tourists love riding them.

The biggest tram networks in the world are in: Melbourne, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam, Berlin, Moscow, and Vienna.

History of Trams

World Tram Systems
Tram networks around the world:      Countries with tram networks      Countries without tram networks

Trams first started being used in the 1890s. They took the place of "horsecars," which were streetcars pulled by horses.

From the 1910s to the 1930s, some metropolitan areas in North America had special, longer streetcars. These traveled long distances to far-off suburbs on lines called interurban lines. These streetcar lines sometimes had their own special tracks and made fewer stops. This helped them travel faster.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, in the United States, some large companies worked together. These included an oil company, a car company, and a tire company. They bought many streetcar systems. Then, they removed the tracks and replaced the trams with buses in many cities across North America. They did this to earn more money by selling more oil, buses, cars, and rubber tires.

Because of this, cities had to spend a lot of money in the 1980s and 1990s. They rebuilt the streetcar systems as light rail systems, using modern light rail vehicles.

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Tranvía para niños

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