Trams in Istanbul

This article is about the first-generation historical tram system in Istanbul. For Istanbul's modern tramways, see Istanbul modern tramways. For Istanbul's modern "heritage" tramlines, see Istanbul nostalgic tramways.
Trams in Istanbul
Operation
Locale İstanbul, Turkey
Status Closed (first generation)
Operational (modern system)
Horsecar era: 1860–1912
Status Converted to electricity
Propulsion system(s) Horses
Electric tram era: 1912–1966
Status Closed
Modern & Heritage tram era: 1992 & 1990
Status Operational
Lines 2 (modern tramlines)
2 (heritage tramlimes)
Owner(s) İETT
Operator(s) İstanbul Ulaşım A.Ş.
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
Overview

The former capital of the Ottoman Empire was once served, on both its Asian and European sides, by a large network of trams in Istanbul. Its first-generation tram network first operated as a horse tram system, and was eventually converted to electric trams in the early twentieth century. The original tram network finally closed in 1966.

Trams returned in 1990, and a second generation of modern tram service began service in 1992. In this modern era, Istanbul is served by three separate tramway systems. The Asian side has a heritage tramline, whereas the European side has both a heritage tramline and a modern tram system.

History

Trams on the new Galata Bridge (c.1912).

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 additional tramlines were added over time, and the system reached its greatest extent in 1956 with 108 million passengers carried by 270 tram-cars on 56 tram lines. But starting from the mid-1950s, automobile traffic congestion in Istanbul increased rapidly. Bus and taxi services grew rapidly over the same period of time. The number of private cars also increased greatly, 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buses provided faster and smoother journeys, whereas the trams were slower, narrow single-coach cars and had many outdated features like bow collectors. Poor maintenance of tracks caused 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 slow tram transport sharing road space with fast bus transport would cause many problems in trying to guarantee smoother city transportation. In sum, the tramway had little comfort and was slow because it was caught in the traffic jam caused by the cars, and 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. Comparatively, electric trolleybuses had proved to be a good alternative to trams in many countries. Due to all of these factors, the transport department decide to replace trams with trolleybuses in Istanbul.

Trolleybuses service started well, but due to their needed continuous high investment and maintenance, they were not affordable to transport authority either, and trolleybus service survived only 23 years.

After closing the tram network in mid-1960s, it was believed that by removing the old-fashioned obstacle to smooth city traveling, the city would be able to move faster than before, but this belief was proven to be false in the following years. The uncontrolled increase in petrol-based vehicles like buses, taxis, and private cars began to choke the streets of Istanbul. For being situated mostly in Asia, Turkey suffered by many problems common to developing countries, including pollution, traffic jams, illegal migration, low literacy and increasing population, etc. Increasing population led to the increasing urbanization of Istanbul, which spawned increasing motor vehicles, increasing air and noise pollution, and increasing traffic jams and smog. The city eventually became slower than pre-tram closure era. From 1970 onwards, all this problems grew rapidly, and by the mid-1980s Istanbulians realized that the failure to control motor vehicles, and the closure of tram network, was a great mistake. Many cities around the world like Tunis, Buenos Aires, etc., also realized this error and, like them, Istanbul also planned for the return of the tram.

As an experiment, Istanbul first opened a heritage tramline at European side in 1990. Due to its increasing popularity, a modern tramline was opened in 1992, also at European side. Another heritage tramline opened in 2003, but this time on the Asian side, and another modern tramline opened in 2007.

Past in a nutshell

Heritage tram in Asian side
Modern tram in Istanbul

Tramlines

Historic tram routes

There were many tram routes; the European side had more routes than the Asian side. The main routes were as follows:

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:

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:

Alignments

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:

Rolling Stock

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.

See also

External links