Is a tram a type of train?

Fundamentally a train and a tram are pretty much the same thing: A vehicle that runs on rails to transport goods and people efficiently across distance. Their differences come from their size and how they interact with the people and vehicles around them.



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If you've been on a streetcar in San Francisco or a trolley in Philadelphia, you've ridden a tram. The word tram was originally a Scottish term for the wagons that are used in coal mines, stemming from a Middle Flemish word meaning rung or handle of a barrow.

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Train tracks are laid a few inches above the ground while tram tracks are laid at road level to enable cars and other vehicles to drive over them. Trains consist of a series of vehicles or coaches which are coupled together and drawn by a locomotive.

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Tram — a light train for passengers capable of being used extensively on street level. Metro — a grade separated train for passengers (on bridges, tunnels and stuff that prevents it from crossing street levels) separate from the standard railways in the area within an urban area that runs on high frequencies.

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Trains are used for intercity or long distance commuting. Metro are a mass rapid transit system inside a city. It can be underground, elevated or at grade, so don't get fooled by an elevated metro, like in Bangkok, Chicago… Or at grade like in London suburb.

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I think the main difference between a tram and a train is that a train (heavy rail) has a dedicated locomotive that carries no passengers or freight (besides the operator) but tows unpowered passenger or freight cars, while a tram has just one or two powered passenger cars with an operator's cabin at each end.

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British. a streetcar. a tramway; tramroad.

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British English: tram /træm/ NOUN. A tram is a public transport vehicle, usually powered by electricity, which travels along rails laid in the surface of a street.

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Streetcars (trolleys/trams) Streetcars also run on steel rails, but with no slot between the tracks, and no underground cable. Unlike the mechanical cable cars, streetcars are propelled by onboard electric motors and require a trolley pole to draw power from an overhead wire.

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The advent of personal motor vehicles and the improvements in motorized buses caused the rapid disappearance of the tram from most western and Asian countries by the end of the 1950s (for example the first major UK city to completely abandon its trams was Manchester by January 1949).

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The advent of personal motor vehicles and the improvements in motorized buses caused the rapid disappearance of the tram from most western and Asian countries by the end of the 1950s (for example the first major UK city to completely abandon its trams was Manchester by January 1949).

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An extensive tram network covered large parts of London for several decades during the first half of the twentieth century. By the 1950s, however, trams were seen as old fashioned and were gradually phased out to create more room for buses and cars.

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  • Edinburgh Trams. Find out more.
  • LUAS Dublin. Find out more.
  • London Tramlink. Find out more.
  • West Midlands Metro. Find out more.
  • Sheffield Supertram. Find out more.
  • Manchester Metrolink. Find out more.
  • Docklands Light Railway (DLR) Find out more.
  • Tyne and Wear Metro. Find out more.


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