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hidden europe 51

Taking the Tram

by hidden europe

Picture above: Strasbourg's trams are going international: from April 2017 one of the city's tram lines is being extended across the border into Germany (photo © Sergij Kolesnyk / dreamstime.com).

Summary

With the success of the Schengen region, local transport links are being extended over international borders. In the coming months, new international tram routes from France to both Germany and Switzerland are due to open.
hidden europe 51 / Snippet  / By hidden europe

Trams are a quintessentially local form of transport. One makes a short hop on a tram, not a major journey, and certainly not an international trip. Or so one might assume. There are actually some longish tram routes. In hidden europe 25, we described the surreal delights of the world’s longest tram line, the 68-km long Kusttram which runs almost the entire length of the Belgian coastline. Of course, even a short tram ride is a chance to sit back and relax, and it was not so long ago that some German trams had an onboard bistro. On the 50-minute run from Krefeld to Düsseldorf, passengers could partake of beer and sausages.

This is just an excerpt. The full text of this article is not yet available to members with online access to hidden europe. Of course you can read the full article in the print edition of hidden europe 51.
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