Worldwide Tram Tier List

Ever since some geniuses decided to put omnibuses on steel rails in 1807, in the town of Swansea, United Kingdom, we’ve had trams. Although most of us could instantly recognize a tram when we see one, the vehicles themselves, and the systems they run in vary dramatically across the world.
In this video, I'd like to take one tram system from every continent, and rank them in a tier list style fashion.

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0:00 Intro
0:35 Europe
3:33 America
6:18 Asia
8:19 Australia
9:45 Africa
11:17 Antarctica
11:59 Bloopers

#tram #tierlist #publictransport

[Taitset]

Great job!

Btw the fares in Melbourne aren't per trip, they're for blocks of time with unlimited trips within that time.

[OhTheUrbanity]

Cool video. You’re going to confuse Canadians by calling them “American” though.

[tdb]

At 10:21, you can see that Addis Ababa has a station named "Coca cola" - was not expecting that.

One of the main issues with Melbourne's network (my hometown) is just how many stops there are. Sometimes stops will be within 100 metres of each other. Work is being done to remove unnecessary stops, but the system is so big that it will take a long time.

[jackalcrackle]

Few notes for Melbourne: the $5.30 is per 2 hour block, in which you can travel as much as you want anywhere across the network (bus, train, tram). Also within the CBD (where most of the tram traffic occurs) tram travel is entirely free all day every day, due to a free tram zone. Additionally, whilst there is no grade-separation trams almost always have right of way, which is usually indicated on roads by a solid white/yellow line or dashed white/yellow line. Alas they still get stuck in traffic as cars back up and clog the tracks, and some routes are not separated by these road line markings.

[alexj]

Great video! Have you considered starting a second channel in Czech for the Czech audience? Quite a few of your videos are Prague or Czechia-centric and I think Czech folk would definitely find them interesting. For example ur recent video about Prague’s unfinished ring roads or prague’s messed up housing market just to name a few of ur recent great vids as an example.
You might experience a similar effect to what happened with Janek Rubeš’ channels when their later started Kluci z prahy channel really blew up here and is performing much better in viewership than his older original Honest guide channel. You already have ur very well written and researched scripts in english and you’d only have to do the Czech voice over on top, which doesn’t seem like that much extra effort for ur short form video content compared to the potential viewership it could bring you.

[radio_marco]

I only know the swiss tramsystems, and rode in Zurich, Basel, Geneva and Bern, which I ride almost every weekday.

For the pricing: Bern has a Zone based system. If you pay for the Zone 100 + 101 you can basically ride through the entire city. This would cost 5.20 CHF = 5.38€ and is one hour valid and a day pass for 10.40 CHF = 10.76 € There is also a short distance card for a few stops at 3.00 CHF = 3.10 € . Also to mention is the "Halbtax" where for like 300 CHF a year you can travel every where in Switzerland at a reduced fare. Libero has also a monthly and yearly card which cost 82.00 CHF/mt.= 84.82 € or 738.00 CHF/year = 763.43 €

[MattsModellingMemories]

A really interesting video, thank you. I grew up in Melbourne and it was a great tram system to ride as a teenaged tram fan in the 1980s. As much as I love the Melbourne tram system, my two weeks in Budapest in 2018 showed me a tram network done right!

[trainspotter_sk]

Great video! I think the Prague Tram system is really amazing and the wheelchair issue isn't that bad. On most lines (for example 9 or 22), every second tram is operated by a low floor one. One T3, 5 mins later a 15t, another 5 mins later a T3 again etc... I think that's a perfect concept, saves money so the city doesn't have to buy hundreds of new trams and also keeps some nostalgicness to the tram system. Thanks to the high frequency wheelchair users might have to wait only an additional 5 mins for a low floor one which isn't that bad and in the app it shows which trams are wheelchair accessible and which not.

[tressteleg]

Melbourne’s major shortcoming is the total lack of traffic light priority. This is a bit surprising as the new tramways in Gold Coast, Sydney and Canberra have good priority. Also not mentioned is that there is a maximum daily fare of around $10.00, no matter how many rides are taken. For retired people and children, about $5.

[kos-mos]

2:00 that's a funny comparison because in helsinki a yearly pass is 666€ (not kidding😈) and the average citizen definitely spends more money on alcohol

[trainsandtrams]

I liked your in-depth review and analysis of the Prague tram system, plus your ratings metric. Have subscribes to your channel.

[RileyAK]

This video is very good! Just a few small things for Toronto though: we are getting 2 new light rail (basically streetcar) lines, which are both in the suburbs. These are both separated from traffic and could have been a thing to mention with Toronto. Toronto is also trying to separate the trams slowly, such as on King street, where they recently got rid of most car traffic for streetcar right of way.

[trainsandmore]

I have to inform that Kolkata in India has a much larger system than Hiroshima, but then it would've been highly likely that you would just put it somewhere between the C, C-, and D tiers as a result of the Kolkata tram network experiencing severe mismanagement from the city's local government. Deferred maintenance has led to much of the system's lines being shut down for an indefinite period.

[gabrielebianchi]

Great video, as always.
Every time I see trams with the open sidings in old pictures and videos I always wonder which were the fare evasion rates at the time.
Sometimes I wonder how really developed the fare ticket costs of trams and railways over time with respect to the average salary.
A curious aspect would be also which ticket to pick for the comparison as cities tend to grow and the working class gets progressively pushed out in the suburbs.
I’m not sure also the logical calculation would be on the ticket that crosses more fare areas as politicians tend blatantly to ignore entire neighborhoods until someone else later tackles the transportation gap issue.

[KyrilPG]

It would be interesting to do several of these for different types of trams.
As this video did not include any of what's called the "modern French tram" type (street running, yet mostly separated with green tracks, low floor trams, and full stoplight priority).

There are many networks of this type to choose from in various countries.
Right now, the busiest is the one in Paris, which has over 400 million rides annually on 14 lines.
Some lines like T3a & T3b have very high ridership similar to a busy metro, with well over 600k daily rides. They are circular lines, so that's expected.

[BrotherhoodOfHam]

I lived in swansea for a while and never knew it had the first tram. Too bad it doesn't exist anymore it would probably get a lot of ridership! Especially for the university. Most cities in the UK decided to remove their trams unfortunately

[billsandford]

Toronto as of the first of April has gone to a single fare system for all of the greater Toronto area. You didn’t mention that Toronto has a full subway, and that by the end of this year. As I often see the map for the streetcars ends at the Humber loop, but that streetcar goes to the Long branch loop. Toronto has local buses, bus rapid transit, a S barn, U barn, and numerous suburban transit systems feeding into the city. And now all for single fare.

[RDL-]

Why didn't you put Antarctica in the S tier?

[animefreak]

For Hiroshima, there are no yearly passes, but there are six month passes that cost 44930 yen (about €261.00), so you can double that for a yearly price. There's also a month pass for 8320 yen (€48.33) and a three month pass for 23720 yen (€137.80). These are all prices for adult workers.

[f.g.]

Cool video, although the choices seem very random. Addis Ababa Light Rail has the infrastructure of a (light) metro with grade separation, it doesn't make sense to choose it when you decided against Guadalajara. Alexandria or Tunis would seem more obvious choices, or even Algiers or Casablanca. But you got here a lot of room for exploration, next it could be a video for each continent comparing different systems.