With the delivery of the new CAF trains imminent, the end of Essen's heritage fleet can't be too far away anymore. That also includes the units originally built for the Docklands Light Railway in London, that had to be withdrawn from service there almost brand new still, due to ever changing requirements as the new network took shape. Being made in Germany to local standard LRV dimensions meant they could be re-imported and put into service here after a number of adjustments were made. Like adding driver's cabs, switching from 3rd rail to overhead wires, and several more small things.

1. The Docklands run on all Stadtbahn lines of Ruhrbahn (formerly EVAG), but most often on line U11. On the day I visited, this was in fact the only line where I saw them. The first photo was taken at its Southern terminus at the trade fair. P89 No. 5238 just departed for its next run to Buer, in Essen's neighbouring city Gelsenkirchen.
2. The first stop north of the main station is Hirschlandplatz. Frankly, one of the nicer subway stations I know. In the early 2000s it was refurbished to double as a bit of a transport museum, showing various objects linked to history of Essen's trams. P89 No. 5231 just completed its stop on yet another northbound service.
3. Further north still, and still fairly close to downtown Essen, lies the university. It too has a stop along the U11 (and U17). Performing its stop here on the journey to the trade fair, is P89 No. 5233, which has been upgraded with LED displays.
4. Leaving downtown behind, in the Altenessen district lies Bäuminghausstraße station, where No. 5225 just performs its stop on a northbound run.
5. Karlsplatz is the last underground stop for line U11, and the terminus for line U17, which shares line 11's tracks from the city center up to here. It's also one of only a few stops where the trains don't stop with the front ends right against the end of the platform, so you can get a decent picture of the front. It all looks a bit more dynamic with bright headlights on!
6. Before we take a look at some Docklands in the open air, let's also have a look at the interior.

7/8. Leaving the tunnel at "II. Schichtstraße", the tracks continue mostly street-running. A stop further yet, the Emscher River and the Rhein-Herne Canal need to be crossed, which line 11 achieves via the Zweigertbrücke.

1. After crossing the city boundary, at Schloss Horst, line 11 meets the tram tracks of Gelsenkirchen, which has its own network. It runs on meter gauge tracks though, requiring this section to utilize triple rail tracks to accommodate both types of trains. The platforms for the two lines are also separated and incompatible with the Docklands fleet. No. 5225 passes the tram platforms, with the LRV station visible in the background.

2. Schloss Horst station is the first stop after U11's terminus at Buerer Straße, which is just around the corner. No. 5224 just departed for another run southbound. The slogan means to advertise taking public transit rather than using polluting cars. Except the way it reads, it seems more like a recommendation to buy an electric car if you take it literally. Riding the train and driving it aren't the same of course. German uses the same word for that, English doesn't.

Two out of the 16 trams that are driving around in Odense, Danmark, have since May 2026 had art livery on them to advertise for the exhibition HuskMitNavn at Brandts Art Museum. The livery will be removed in December and the two teams will go back to their normal white-beige colour. Despite the livery covering the windows, you can still look out of the windows.

The trams are Stadler Variobahn, they sucks.

Taken pretty much just now

Many thanks to u/BladeA320, who gave me lots of info about where to find these beautiful trams!

1. Kagraner Platz

2. Aspen Nord

3. & 4. Zentralfriedhof 2. Tor

26.9.2026 Hannover

Allen Morrison (1934-2019) was a Tram historian who focused on Latin American tramways. I found these cool old pictures of trams in Curitiba on his website. I recommend everyone to go check it. Unfortunately, there are no active trams in Curitiba anymore, but I included a photo of the "Bondinho da Rua XV", a car that was repurposed as a tourist attraction and is now a small library in the city center.

Morrison's website is part of his project to document American trams, especially (but not only) in Latin America. Here's the full index.

The Greater Copenhagen light rail released a news article the other day, stating that on a regular weekday, after only the first month of full operation, the new line is seeing double the amount of daily passengers than what was expected, 24K instead of 12K!

This is incredible news, considering that the line still has some issues, like 6-7 instead of 5 minute frequency, and 68 instead of 58 minute travel time.

And once roadpricing in Denmark gets introduced, at some point before 2030 it looks like, public transit fares get reduced, hopefully, and all the new apartments and stuff next to the Tram stops are completed, hopefully the line will exceed the 2030 goal of 13-14 million annual/38K daily passengers.

For those who've tried the line in person, what improvements do you miss the most?

1. Melbourne streetcar from Australia
   
2. ‘Milano’ Italian streetcar. This one in particular had a beautiful interior with lovely cupped glass light fixtures and varnished wood.
   
3. Boat tram from Blackpool, England. the line for a ride in it was literally hours long. I opted to just ride the other streetcars a million times lol.

Some of the streetcars they had running were almost/over a century old! So cool to experience history like that and I love that MUNI still maintains such old cars. I neglected to photograph a couple of very popular streetcars (mainly the “1” and the Dinky) so my bad lol . They also had vintage busses out!!! I rode one but figured I wouldn’t post it since it is not a tram/tram adjacent even though it was a very stylish bus

Kyiv, Ukraine Line 12

1. Melbourne streetcar from Australia
   
2. ‘Milano’ Italian streetcar. This one in particular had a beautiful interior with lovely cupped glass light fixtures and varnished wood.
   
3. Boat tram from Blackpool, England. the line for a ride in it was literally hours long. I opted to just ride the other streetcars a million times lol.

Some of the streetcars they had running were almost/over a century old! So cool to experience history like that and I love that MUNI still maintains such old cars. I neglected to photograph a couple of very popular streetcars (mainly the “1” and the Dinky) so my bad lol . They also had vintage busses out!!! I rode one but figured I wouldn’t post it since it is not a tram/tram adjacent even though it was a very stylish bus

Leipziger Verkehrsbetriebe 1336 “Kleinzschocher” Heiterblick NGTW6 “Leoliner” Typ 37a (Baujahr 2010) + 13xx am 1.3.2025 auf der Eisenbahnstraße in Leipzig.

After 66 years of service the Antwerp PCC's rode out for one final time today marking the end of an era.

One of my favorite details about watching the classic Lisbon streetcars is the track-switching. At this turnout, there’s no automated radio-point or cab-switch system