Tram transport in France

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 40. Chapters: Old Rouen tramway, Bordeaux Tramway Line A, List of town tramway systems in France, Trams in France, Lyon tramway, Bordeaux Tramway Line B, Nantes Tramway, Belleville funicular tramway, Bordeaux Tramway Line C, Montpellier tramway, Strasbourg tramway, Marseille tramway, Tramways in Paris, Reims tramway, Saint-Étienne tramway, Tramway Français Standard, Valenciennes tramway, Angers tramway, Tramway de Cannes, Funiculars of Lyon, Tramway de Versailles, Nice tramway, Lille tramway, Grenoble tramway, Tramway du Havre, Tramway de Fontainebleau, Tramway de Nice et du Littoral, Funiculaire du Havre, Orléans tramway, Nancy Guided Light Transit, Tramway de Caen, Le Mans tramway, Mulhouse tramway, Tramway de Saint-Romain-de-Colbosc, Tramway de Deauville. Excerpt: The Old Rouen Tramway was a tramway built in Rouen, Normandy, northern France, after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 ¿ 1871. It started service in 1877 and closed in 1953. Horse-drawn carriages and omnibuses had started at the end of the 18th century and progressively improved, but were no longer enough to provide urban services in an age of industrial and demographic growth. Local officials therefore adopted a new mode of transportation: the tramway. At first horse-drawn and then steam-powered, the tramway was electrified in 1896. The network quickly spread through various city-centre districts on the right bank of the Seine, reached the municipalities of the northern plateau, the heights of Bonsecours in the east, skirted the textile valley of the River Cailly in the west, crossed the river and served, to the south, the suburbs and industrial districts of the left bank. At its largest it covered 70 kilometres (43 mi) of route, the longest network in France during the Belle Époque, and contributed to the success of events in the town's history, such as the Colonial Exhibition of 1896 and the Norman Millennium Festival of 1911. Although the 1920s saw a slight growth in traffic, the network grew no more. Private motoring had arrived to put an end to its monopoly. The rising power of buses and trolleybuses, the Great Depression in France, and above all the Second World War that ravaged Rouen and Normandy, condemned the tramway to death. The last trams stopped running in 1953, after seventy-six years of service. However in 1994, a new Rouen tramway came to the Norman capital. A horse-drawn tram on the Rue Jeanne-d'ArcRouen was integrated into the French Kingdom after Philip II of France annexed Normandy in 1204, and it continued as one of the largest cities in the kingdom under the Ancien Régime. It prospered during the 19th century, with the traditional trades of textiles and Rouen manufactory (faïence) alongside the newer chemical and papermaking industries. The navi