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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A tram is a trolley or a streetcar—it's a vehicle that transports people using electricity from overhead cables while running on tracks that are set into the street. In the U.S., you might also call a tram a cable car or light rail.
The world's first passenger tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, in Wales, UK. The Mumbles Railway Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1804, and this first horse-drawn passenger tramway started operating in 1807.
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.
The world's very first tram system was actually a horse train called the Oystermouth Railway, a commercial service which began operation in 1804, in order to transport limestone between the south Wales areas of Mumbles and Swansea.
The world's first experimental electric tramway was built by Ukrainian inventor Fyodor Pirotsky near St Petersburg, Russian Empire, in 1875. The first commercially successful electric tram line operated in Lichterfelde near Berlin, Germany, in 1881. It was built by Werner von Siemens (see Berlin Straßenbahn).
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.
A tram stop, tram station, streetcar stop, or light rail station is a place designated for a tram, streetcar, or light rail vehicle to stop so passengers can board or alight it.
In Germany it is very common to get from one place to another by Straßenbahn (tram). In many towns and cities all over the country, it is a popular form of public transport.
Edinburgh Trams is a tramway in Edinburgh, Scotland, operated by Edinburgh Trams Ltd. It is a 18.5-kilometre (11.5 mi) line between Newhaven in Leith and Edinburgh Airport, with 23 stops.
A motorman is a person who operates a tram (streetcar), light rail, or rapid transit train. A motorman is in charge of operating their train, applying power to traction motors, in the same sense as a railroad engineer is in charge of the engine. Hat pin from motorman on the Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee railroad.