Tramway Renaissance In Western Europe

Dejan Petkov explores the tramway renaissance in Western Europe from a socio-technical standpoint and focuses on the development in Germany, France, and England. A multiple case analysis reveals the drivers, impact forces, actors and interest constellations behind the tramway renaissance in these countries and demonstrates the large variations in local systems and their style. A key finding is that there can be quite different paths to the success of tramway systems, but this success usually comes at a cost and can have a comprehensive character only if the systems are considered an integral part of the overarching strategies and concepts for urban and regional development.

The history of Europe in the 20th century is closely tied to the history of urban planning. Social and economic progress but also the brute treatment of people and nature throughout Europe were possible due to the use of urban planning and the other levels of spatial planning. Thereby, planning has constituted itself in Europe as an international subject. Since its emergence, through intense exchange but also competition, despite country differences, planning has developed as a European field of practice and scientific discipline. Planning is here much more than the addition of individual histories; however, historiography has treated this history very selective regarding geography and content. This book searches for an understanding of the historiography of planning in a European dimension. Scholars from Eastern and Western, Southern and Northern Europe address the issues of the public led production of city and the social functions of urban planning in capitalist and state-socialist countries. The examined examples include Poland and USSR, Czech Republic and Slovakia, UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Portugal and Spain, Italy, and Sweden. The book will be of interest to students and scholars for Urbanism, Urban/Town Planning, Spatial Planning, Spatial Politics, Urban Development, Urban Policies, Planning History and European History of the 20th Century. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

113 systems are represented, 13 are new since Light Rail in Europe was published in 1995. The aim is to give a brief description of each system, with basic tabulated rolling stock details, and appropriate illustrations to give the reader a feel for the town or city.

From the horse-drawn trams of the nineteenth century to the larger electric models of the early twentieth, this reliable form of public transport revolutionised town travel by making it affordable enough for working people to use. From the 1930s, the rise of the trolleybus, which also picked up power from overhead cables but ran without expensive tracks, looked set to supersede the tram – but ultimately, by the 1950s, both fell victim to motor buses and private cars. However, since the 1980s the environmental benefits of light rail have encouraged a growing comeback for trams on our crowded and polluted city streets. Using beautiful contemporary photographs, this is the fascinating story of the rise, fall and revival of this everyday, yet sometimes controversial, mode of urban transport.

This book looks at the effect of railways on London, Paris, Brussels, and Berlin, focusing on each city as a case study for one aspect of implantation.