Trams in Istanbul
| Tramways of İstanbul | |||
 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| A tram on the T2 line at Sirkeci. | |||
| Operation | |||
| Locale | İstanbul, Turkey | ||
| Open | 1990 | ||
| Status | Operating | ||
| Routes | 4 | ||
| Owner(s) | İETT | ||
| Operator(s) | İstanbul Ulaşım A.Ş. | ||
| Infrastructure | |||
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge | ||
| Propulsion system(s) | Electric | ||
| Depot(s) | Taksim, Zeytinburnu,Şehremini, Kadıköy | ||
| Stock | Flexity Swift LRVs Stadbahn-B (ex Cologne) Citadis X-04 | ||
| |||
Istanbul, the former capital of the Ottoman Empire has three separate tramway systems. The Asian side has a heritage tram system, whereas the European side has both heritage tram and modern tram system.
Istanbul once had a large tramway network on both Asia and Europe. It first started as horse tram, & gradually changed to electric tram. The tram service was completely stopped in 1966. Trams returned in Istanbul in 1990.
History
Istanbul inaugurated horse trams in 1872 and these served the people of Istanbul until 1912. Following this date, electric trams were put in place and they were the main means for urban public transport until 1966. Many routes were built step by step, and it reached their most widespread network in 1956 with 108 million passengers in 270 shuttles in 56 lines. But starting from the mid-1950s, traffic congestion increased rapidly. Bus and taxi services grew very rapidly. The number of private cars also increased gtreatly, and many narrow streets, which were ideal for trams, now started filling up with motor vehicles. Tramcars were not modernized for many decades, and some of the 1911 electric cars were still running in the 1960s. At that time modern buses provided faster and smoother journeys, whereas the trams were still slower, narrow, single coach and had many out dated features like bow collectors. Poor maintenance of tracks caused some derailments and bumpy rides. Due to the city's rapid growth, reconstruction of Istanbul's infrastructure became urgent, and many streets were widened. The transport authority thought that a slow tram transport with fast bus transport on middle of a wide road would cause many problems for smoother city transportation. The tramway had little comfort and was slow because it was caught in the traffic jam caused by the cars. The tracks were also outdated, noisy and in the middle of the street. Cars had to pass the tramway on the right, causing danger for the pedestrians boarding and alighting the tramway. Side by side, trolleybuses proved a good alternative of tram in many countries. Trolleybuses are like ordinary rubber tired buses, but runs with electricity drawn from overhead wire via trolley poles like tram. By justifying all ways, transport department decide to replace trams by trolleybuses.
Trolleybuses started service very well, but due to continuous high investment and maintenance, it was not affordable by transport authority, and it survived only 23 years.
After closing tram network in mid-1960s, people of Istanbul thought the only old-fashioned obstacle to smooth city traveling has removed, and the city can move faster than before, but it proved false some years later. Uncontrolled increasing of petrol vehicles like bus, taxi, and private car started choking the streets of Istanbul. For situating mostly in Asia, Turkey suffered by many problems of developing countries, including pollution, traffic jam, illegal migration, low literacy and high increasing of population etc. Increasing population started increasing urbanization of Istanbul, and it started increasing motor vehicles, which started increasing air and noise pollution, traffic jam & smog. The city even became slower than pre-tram closure era. From starting '70, all this problems started and by the mid-1980s, Istanbulians realized that non-controlling of motor vehicles & closure of tram was a great mistake. Many cities around the world like Tunis, Buenos Aires etc. also understood that error, and like them, Istanbul also planned for return of tram.
As an experiment, Istanbul first opened a heritage tram at European side in 1990. Due to increasing popularity, they opened a modern tram in 1992, also at European side. They opened another heritage tram in 2003, but now at Asian side.
Past in a nutshell
- 1860 - The operation a (horse) tram system proposed in Istanbul.
- 1863 - The first bid came for running tram through Istanbul's main arteries in the suburbs, came from a person named Huchiadson.
- 1864 - The second proposal in 1864 in Istanbul and the Galata Besiktas' privilege to operate a tram. Three routes were planned- 1) Eminönü - Divanyolu - Beyazid - Aksaray - Yedikule or Topkapi, 2) Eminönü - Ayvansaray - Eyüp 3) Galata - Karaköy - Tophane - Besiktas - Ortaköy - Arnavutköy
- 1871 - The operation of the first horse driven tramcar has started in 4 lines.
- 1872 - Increased passenger demand because of the early 1890 s the first route with the "imperial" has been started, called the use of two-storey tram.
- 1912 - Horse tram operation stopped.
- 1914 - Electric tram started running from 25 January at European side. The route was from Karaköy to reach Eminönü. It was also the first tramcar to pass over Galata Bridge, as the passing of horse-driven trams was not permitted from that bridge.
- 1923 - Tram service expanded in 12 routes.
- 1928 - Electric tram started running from 8 June at Asian side.
- 1939 - The tramcar, Tünel, bus and electricity establishments, which were being operated by various foreign companies, were nationalised, and the new company 'Istanbul Electrik, Tramway ve Tünel IsletmeIeri (IETT)' took over both European and Asian networks.
- 1950 - Tram service expanded in 37 routes. All the lines were crossing the Golden Horn on the famous Galata Bridge, which was acting as the central connection point. This was the peak year of Istanbul tram.
- 1956 - Bad patch started. The Tünel-Maçka line (route 14) in the European part and from Topkapı-Çapa line in the in-town walls region, routes were closed. Topkapı - Anchor - Aksaray route was also closed for redevelopment of Aksaray Square.
- 1961 - The last tram ran at the European side on 12 January. Topkapi-Eminönü line was replace by trolleybuses in 27 May. Six trams were transferred to the Asian side network.
- 1966 - The last tram ran at the Asian side on 3 October from Kadıköy to Kızıltoprak. Remaining trams were transferred to the transport museum.
- 1984 - Trolleybus service stopped on 16 July.
- 1990 - İstiklal Caddesi (Independence Avenue) was closed to traffic. Tram returned as heritage system between Taksim and Tünel. Rolling stocks were same as pre 1966 tram, added name to this service as nostalgic tram.
- 1992 - By opening a completely separate tram system, tram returned as modern system. It started on the same alignment where tram last ran in 1956.
- 2003 - Tram returned in Asian side, following closed route 20 as a circular tramway. Rolling stocks were imported from Gotha
- 2005 - On 30 January, Tram returned nearly 40 years after on Galata Bridge.
Tram routes
There were many tram routes; the European side had more routes than the Asian side. The main routes were as follows -
- 1 - Kadiköy - Kısıklı
- 4 - Kadiköy - Bostanci
- 6 - Kadiköy - Fenerbahçe
- 8 - Kadiköy - Hasanpasa
- 10 - Şişli - Tünel
- 11 - Şişli - Beyazıt
- 11 - Üsküdar - Kısıklı
- 12 - Harbiye - Fatih
- 12 - Kadiköy - Üsküdar
- 14 - Maçka - Tünel
- 15 - Maçka - Sirkeci
- 16 - Maçka - Beyazıt
- 17 - Mecidiyeköy - Şişli - Sirkeci
- 19 - Kurtuluş- Aksaray
- 20 - Kadıköy - Moda (This route has been partly replicated by the Asian side heritage tram from 2003)
- 22 - Bebek - Eminönü
- 23 - Ortaköy - Aksaray
- 32 - Topkapı - Bahçekapı
- 33 - Yedikule - Bahçekapı
- 34 - Beşiktaş - Fatih
- 37 - Edirnekapı - Bahçekapı
Beside these, there were some short routes, which were truncated versions of full routes.
Route numbers were also displayed by color combinations, mainly for the illiterate. The colors reflected the termini as follows:
- Red : Aksaray, Mecidiyeköy, Şişli, Topkapı, Tünel
- Blue : Beyazıt, Maçka
- Green : Edirnekapı, Fatih, Harbiye
- Yellow : Arnavutköy, Bebek, Beşiktaş, Kurtuluş, Ortaköy
- White : Bahçekapı, Eminönü, Sirkeci, Taksim, Yedikule
The colors of both termini were used in left and right of destination board. (Note: service 22 had all-yellow as color despite serving Eminönü)
On the Asian side, services had solid colors:
- Red : 4, 11
- Blue : 1
- Green : 6
- Yellow : 20
- White : 12
- Brown : 8
Fleet
The rolling stock was identical with Istanbul's current European-side heritage tramway. However, the tram was infrequently upgraded, and the 1911 electric cars were still running in the 1960s. These vehicles looked outdated compared to the new cars and buses that were now on the streets, contributing to the tramway's closure. Rolling stocks were different between the European and Asian sides, but after the European network closed, its trams were transferred to the Asian side, where they served along with former trams until the final closure in 1966.
Depots & termini
The following termini were - Kadiköy, Kısıklı, Bostancı, Fenerbahçe, Tünel, Beyazit, Harbiye, Fatih, Maçka, Sirkeci, Kurtuluş, Moda, Bebek, Eminönü, Ortaköy, Topkapi, Bahçekapı, Yedikule, & Edirnekapı, Kabatas.
The following depots were - Bağlarbaşı, Hasanpaşa, Aksaray, Beşiktaş, & Şişli
Tünel, Moda & Kadiköy are the three places where both past system's & today's nostalgic system's termini are present. Although there are no stretch of previous termini, and the current termini were built after complete redesignment of Tünel, Moda & Kadiköy area.
Alignment
All tram routes were on unreserved tracks and middle of the roads. Some routes were on narrow streets, some were on broad avenues. Tramcars were caught in the traffic jam caused by the cars. The tracks were also outdated, noisy and in the middle of the street. Cars had to pass the tramway on the right, causing danger for the pedestrians boarding and alighting the tramway. Those were one of the strong reasons of closure of the system.
There are some common alignments with past & present tramway system-
- The heritage tram of European side from Taksim to Tunel has laid following the previous systems - route 10, 11, 15, 17, but now as a single track with crossing.
- The heritage tram of Asian side from Kadiköy to Moda has laid following the previous systems route 20, but as a circular tramway.
- The modern tram from Kabatas to Zeytinburnu has laid following the previous systems alignment, as Kabataş - Karaköy - Sirkeci - Beyazıt - Aksaray - Topkapı route, with crossing on Galata Bridge.
See also
- Antalya tram
- Eskisehir tram
- Istanbul nostalgic tram - The two separate heritage tramways of Istanbul
- Istanbul modern tram - Separate state-of-the-art tramway of Istanbul
- Istanbul Metro
- Istanbul suburban train
- Kayseri tram
- Konya tram
- Samsun Tram
External links
- Official History of Istanbul Tram with old photos
- More Details History of Istanbul tramway with nice photos
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.png){kind=spacer}
| ||||||||||||||||
