Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau - Tram

Tram

Kyoto Municipal Transportation Bureau operated the Kyoto City Tram (京都市電, Kyōto Shiden?) until 1978.

Kyoto Electric Railway (1,067 mm narrow gauge) opened in 1895 as the first electric streetcar in Japan in commercial operation. The city government launched separate network of streetcars (1,435 mm standard gauge) in 1912, which absorbed the lines of Kyoto Electric Railway in 1918. Subsequently the narrow gauge lines were closed, rebuilt in standard gauge, or remained as is (Kitano Line).

In its peak of 1960s, the network was as follows:

• Loop line
  • Gaishū Line (Loop on Higashiyama, Kujō, Nishiōji, Kitaōji streets)
• East-West lines
  • Imadegawa Line
  • Marutamachi Line
  • Shijō Line
  • Shichijō Line
• North-South lines
  • Senbon Line
  • Karasuma Line
  • Kawaramachi Line
  • Shirakawa Line
  • Fushimi Line
  • Kitano Line (narrow gauge, closed in 1961)

Because of increasing congestion of road traffic, the tram was abolished in 1978. Part of disused cars were sold to other cities in Japan. As of 2010, Hiroshima Electric Railway and Iyo Railway still operate ex-Kyoto tram cars. One of the cars transferred to Hankai Tramway is now preserved at Old Pueblo Trolley in Tucson, Arizona.