Trams in Zurich

Trams make an important contribution to public transport in the city of Zurich in Switzerland. The tram network serves most city neighbourhoods, and is the backbone of public transport within the city, albeit supplemented by the inner sections of the Zurich S-Bahn, along with urban trolleybus and bus lines, as well as two funicular railways, one rack railway and passenger boat lines on the river and on the lake. The trams and other city transport modes operate within a fare regime provided by the cantonal public transport authority Zürcher Verkehrsverbund, which also covers regional rail and bus services.
The city's trams are operated by the Verkehrsbetriebe Zürich, which also manages the tramway infrastructure within the city, but the city's tram tracks are also used by three other operations. The Glattalbahn tram services to the Glattal area to the north of the city interwork with the city tram services and are also operated by the VBZ, although in this case it does so as a sub-contractor to the Verkehrsbetriebe Glattal. Trains of the independent Forchbahn light railway also use the city's tram lines to reach their city centre terminus. In 2022, the Limmattalbahn began using part of line 20.
Trams have been a consistent part of Zurich's streetscape since the 1880s, when the first horse tram ran. Electrified from the 1890s, they have seen off challenges including proposals to replace them by trolleybuses and by a metro or U-Bahn. With a relatively static city network from the 1930s to the late 1970s, the city's trams have been expanding again since then. Recent expansions have taken the network into the suburbs beyond the city boundary, covering areas it retreated from in the first part of the 20th century. Further extensions have been approved, both to the city tram network itself, and by the introduction of a new light rail system in the Limmat Valley that will interwork with the city trams.

History

Beginnings

Various projects to introduce trams to Zurich were proposed from the 1860s onwards. It was not until 1882, however, that the first tram operated in the city. These initial trams were operated by the , a private company, and were of standard gauge and horse-drawn.
By 1888 the first electric tramway in Switzerland had opened, and, in 1894, another private company, the , started operating metre gauge electric trams in Zurich. The EStZ only survived for two years before it was taken over by the City of Zurich, who renamed it the Städtische Strassenbahn Zürich. The following year, the horse trams of the ZStG were acquired.
Further tramway companies were founded, some operating entirely within the city, some connecting the city with its nearer suburbs, and some running in rural areas entirely beyond the city, but still linked by connections with other lines to the city. Like the EStZ, all these lines were electrified and were built to the metre gauge. The StStZ gradually took over those companies that had significant city operations, usually closing any cross-boundary lines, whilst leaving those lines entirely beyond the city to their own devices.

Heyday of the StStZ

By the mid-1930s, the StStZ had acquired all the companies that had operated tramways within the city boundaries, with the single exception of the Dolderbahn, which had closed its short tramway in 1930. The standard gauge horse tram lines had all been converted to metre gauge and electrified. The StStZ had also built many tram extensions, resulting in a dense network of tramlines serving most city neighbourhoods.
However, in 1927, the StStZ had introduced its first motor bus line, and this was to be followed in 1939 by the first of the city's trolleybus lines. Initially these modes complemented the trams, but at various times they have threatened to replace parts of the tram system, and sometimes succeeded in doing so.
In 1940, the StStZ started a modernisation of its trams, introducing the first prototypes of the. Despite Switzerland's neutrality, the economic effects of the Second World War slowed down the program, but by 1953 the VBZ, as the StStZ had become in 1950, had taken delivery of 177 such trams.

Lines closed

While the tram network within the city of Zurich has seen relatively few line closures, the same cannot be said for the lines beyond the city limits. The StStZ routinely closed any out-of-city lines belonging to the companies it took over. In other cases, private sector operated lines succumbed without StStZ involvement. Out of town closures included:

The Schlieren to Dietikon and Schlieren to Weinigen lines of the LSB company, closed in 1928 and 1931 respectively.
The Oerlikon to Schwamendingen and Seebach to Glattbrugg lines of the ZOS company, closed in 1931.
The Uster to Langholz line of the UOeB company, closed in 1949.
The Wetzikon to Meilen line of the WMB company, closed in 1950.

In the city, the initial threat to the tram came from its perceived inflexibility and susceptibility to the growing traffic congestion in the city streets. One proposed solution was the conversion of the less busy tram lines to trolleybus lines, and the first step in this direction was the conversion of tram line 1, from Burgwies to Hardplatz. This was followed by the Farbhof to Schlieren section of line 2 which became a westward extension of the same trolleybus line. In practice, the trolleybus service struggled to cope with peak loadings and punctuality did not improve. No further conversions of tram lines to trolleybuses have taken place.

Underground proposals

In the 1950s, as well as proposing the conversion of less busy lines to trolleybus, plans were also made to place the busier lines in tunnels, in a form called the Tiefbahn. The recently delivered Swiss Standard trams were not seen as suitable for this, because they had doors on their tapered car ends that would not have aligned with the proposed underground station platforms. In order to overcome this limitation, several new designs of tram were introduced. The first design, known as the P16 or Karpfen, could not run on some existing routes, and only one batch of 15 motor tram and trailer pairs was built. A later design, which used articulation to avoid the problems of the P16, was eventually more successful and 126 vehicles were delivered by 1969. Instead of a Jacobs bogie it was designed with a four-wheeled centre section. This car became popularly known as the Mirage.
Despite the planning and new rolling stock, a referendum in 1962 rejected the Tiefbahn. Instead, the proponents of going underground instead proposed a full scale metro, the Zurich U-Bahn system. This would have been standard gauge and electrified using a third rail, and hence incompatible with the tram network. The lines would have extended further into the suburbs and provided faster transit times than the tramways, which would have been curtailed so as not to compete with the U-Bahn. However this would have been at the expense of a coarser grained network, with much longer distances between U-Bahn stations than between the tram stops they replaced.
In 1973, the U-Bahn proposal too was rejected in a referendum, but not before several stretches of U-Bahn tunnel had been built. One section of the putative U-Bahn has since been adapted, as described below, for use by trams, whilst another now forms the terminus of the Uetliberg and Sihltal railway lines under the Hauptbahnhof.

Extensions and a new model

In 1976, the first tram extension since 1954 took place, with the extension of line 4 from Hardturm to Werdhölzli. Unlike the older lines, this extension was built mostly on reserved track, a precedent to be followed by most subsequent extensions.
The Werdhölzli extension was followed in 1986 by the extension of lines 7 and 9 into new residential areas to the north-east of Zurich. This used one of the stretches of tunnel that had been built for the rejected U-Bahn, between Milchbuck and Schwamendingen. The tram route was extended through the tunnel before splitting at Schwamendingen to serve the area beyond, using new surface track. Because the tunnels and stations had been built with island platforms, whilst Zurich trams only have doors on their nearside, the section through the tunnel uses left-hand running.
From 1976 onwards, the VBZ tram fleet was further updated, with the introduction of Zurich's variant of the Tram 2000 design used by several Swiss tram networks. Several sub-classes of the Tram 2000 were purchased, including articulated and non-articulated variants, and some without drivers cabs that could only operate in multiple with other cars. Eventually 171 of these vehicles were delivered, with the last of the class delivered in 1992.
From the 1980s onwards, the system was increasingly acclaimed for its success in maintaining a high share of the modal split, and the Zurich model of transport provision was named after it. Beyond the tramway, the Zurich S-Bahn rail network was introduced to serve the region beyond the city boundaries, taking on some of the role that was originally planned for the U-Bahn. In 1990, the city's urban and regional transport were integrated by the introduction of the ZVV and its zone-based common fare structure.

Low floor trams, the Glattalbahn, and the ''Tram Zürich West''

In 2001, the VBZ took delivery of the first prototypes of a brand-new low-floor design of tram, known as the Bombardier Cobra. Despite many teething problems with the prototypes, which were eventually extensively rebuilt, there are now 88 of these trams in service, with the last delivered in 2010. In order to increase the number of low-floor trams in service, 23 trams from the otherwise high-floor Tram 2000 fleet were rebuilt between 2001 and 2005 with the addition of a low-floor centre section.
The Glattalbahn, constructed by the responsible transport authority became a new light rail system as a response to urban growth. From the 1950s onwards, the Glattal region to the north of Zurich experienced a rapid boom as population and industry spilled over from nearby Zurich, partly driven by the presence of Zurich Airport. Whilst the airport is served by the city's S-Bahn rail network, the economic growth and resulting congestion led to a need for a finer-grained form of public transport. The Glattalbahn was built to be compatible with Zurich's tram network, with which it connects at several points on the city boundary. The system opened in stages between 2006 and 2010. The VBG contracted the VBZ to operate the network, and several tram lines now operate across both networks.
The arrival of new trams between 2001 and 2010 led to the retirement of older vehicles. The Karpfen last ran in regular service in 2006, and the Mirage in 2010. Many members of both classes have been transferred to Vinnytsia in Ukraine.
Tram Zürich West, an extension from Escher-Wyss-Platz to Bahnhof Altstetten Nord, in the city of Zurich, opened in December 2011. The resulting reorganisation of lines included a new line 17 from Hauptbahnhof to Werdhölzli via Escher-Wyss-Platz, and the diversion of line 4, which had previously served Werdhölzli, to Altstetten.