Figuring Out Public Transportation: Trams

We’ve talked about riding the subway and learned how to ride the bus in a foreign country, and now we come to the third and final installment in this series on taking public transportation abroad: riding the tram.

I saved trams for last because they are not as common as subways and buses – fewer cities have them. And also, usually once you know know how to ride the metro and can handle taking a foreign bus, you are then more or less equipped to ride the tram. But there are still some considerations.

Trams are especially popular forms of public transportation in Europe, where the small winding city streets are not conducive to big buses, and where eco-friendly attitudes prevail in getting stinky bus exhaust away from the city center. Trams, which run on tracks and are powered by electrical wires that hang above the street, are easier on the environment and generally friendlier and safer than buses.

Tickets:
Although not all do, most cities that have street trams also have an underground metro in operation. In the best cases, ticketing is integrated, meaning that a ticket or fare card can be used on a tram, bus or subway and that you can transfer between them fluidly.

As with buses, ticketing for individual trams can be done one of three ways: via an external ticket machine, where the ticket needs to be validated by a stamp machine on board; via an on-board ticket agent who collects fares and issues tickets; or via payment to the driver (though this is the least likely of the three scenarios). Most European trams utilize the ticket validation system.

Getting on and off:
Trams are kind of like a mix between buses and subway trains. Generally, trams stop at every station/stop and don’t require you to signal for a stop like buses do (though this isn’t always the case, so check to be sure). Some trams require that you press a button in order to get the doors open (just like in the subway), while others are operated by the driver and open at every stop.

Many of the more modern trams also have LED displays showing the current/next and upcoming stops, while older trams rely solely on automated voice announcements and paper maps to point the way.

As with any form of public transportation, when riding a tram in a foreign country, you need to do a little research beforehand to learn the system and, of course, study the map so that you know where you’re going and the names of the stops that you need!