Running the horsecars on rails allowed for a much smoother ride. Street railways developed in America before Europe, largely due to the poor paving of the streets in American cities which made them unsuitable for horsebuses, which were then common on the well-paved streets of European cities. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was something of a one-off however, and no street tramway would appear in Britain until 1860 when one was built in Birkenhead by the American George Francis Train. It was worked by steam from 1877, and then, from 1929, by very large (106-seater) electric tramcars, until closure in 1961. The service closed in 1827, but was restarted in 1860, again using horses. The Mumbles Railway Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1804, and horse-drawn service started in 1807. The world's first passenger train or tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, in Wales, UK. Established in 1804, the railway service was the world's first. Ī horse-drawn tram operated by Swansea and Mumbles Railway, 1870.

In 2014, the Aubagne tramway in Southern France became the first tram system in the world not to charge fares. However, trams have seen resurgence in recent years. Improvements in other vehicles such as buses led to decline of trams in the mid 20th century. Electric trams largely replaced animal power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Problems included the high total cost of ownership of horses. One of the advantages over earlier forms of transit was the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on steel rails, allowing the trams to haul a greater load for a given effort. Thus installation costs may be lower than traditional trains and trams. hydrogen, biomethane, battery, may mean reduced/eliminated OHL. They offer all the advantages of traditional trams but their lower weight, prefabricated beam type tracks offer the possibility of avoiding costly services diversions, lightweight OHL Over Head Lines and/or onboard power options e.g. They may be normal trams, rail motor sized and/or smaller modular units capable of platooning. Coventry Very Light Rail, ULR Partners future-light-rail or lower use branch train lines. Ultra Light Rail ULR trains are trams are a developing light weight rail type, around <5T/axle (empty), for use in smaller cities and towns to replace main bus routes e.g. The differences between these modes of rail transport are often indistinct and a given system may combine multiple features. Some trams, known as tram-trains, may have segments that run on mainline railway tracks, similar to interurban systems. Trams are now commonly included in the wider term ' light rail', which also includes grade-separated systems. If necessary, they may have dual power systems-electricity in city streets and diesel in more rural environments. In some cases, a contact shoe on a third rail is used. Today, most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph sliding on an overhead line older systems may use a trolley pole or a bow collector. Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than main line and rapid transit trains. In the United States, the term tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains, which are unrelated to other kinds of trams.

To avoid further confusion with trolley buses, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) refers to them as ' trolley-replica buses'.

In parts of the United States, internally powered buses made to resemble a streetcar are often referred to as 'trolleys'. Streetcar or tramway are preferred in Canada. The first two terms are often used interchangeably in the United States, with trolley being the preferred term in the eastern US and streetcar in the western US. The vehicles are called streetcars or trolleys (not to be confused with trolleybus) in North America and trams or tramcars elsewhere. Many recently built tramways use the contemporary term light rail.

The lines or networks operated by tramcars as public transport are called tramways or simply tram/streetcar. A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a railway vehicle that runs on a tramway track on public urban streets some include segments on segregated right-of-way.

Remote control 2 seater ride on