Editing Transport in Germany (section)

===Trams (Straßenbahn)===
{{See also|Trams in Germany}}

Germany was among the first countries to have electric streetcars, and Berlin has one of the longest tram networks in the world. Many West German cities abandoned their previous tram systems in the 1960s and 1970s while others upgraded them to "[[Stadtbahn]]" (~light rail) standard, often including underground sections. In the East, most cities retained or even expanded their tram systems and since reunification a trend towards new tram construction can be observed in most of the country. Today the only major German city without a tram or light rail system is Hamburg. [[Tram-train]] systems like the [[Karlsruhe model]] first came to prominence in Germany in the early 1990s and are implemented or discussed in several cities, providing coverage far into the rural areas surrounding cities. Trams exist in all but two of the [[states of Germany]] (Hamburg and Schleswig Holstein being the exception) and in 13 of the 16 state capitals ([[Wiesbaden]] being the capital outside the aforementioned states without a tram system). While there have been attempts to (re)-establish tram systems in many cities that formerly had them (for example [[Aachen]], [[Kiel]], [[Hamburg]]) as well as in some cities that never had them, but are comparatively close to a city that does (for example [[Erlangen]], [[Wolfsburg]]), only a handful of such proposals have come to fruition since World War II - the [[Saarbahn]] (trams defunct in 1965; Saarbahn established in 1997) in Saarbrücken, [[Heilbronn Stadtbahn]] (defunct in 1955, re-established as an extension of [[Stadtbahn Karlsruhe]] in 1998) and a few extensions across the border - the [[Strasbourg tramway]] to [[Kehl]] and the [[Trams in Basel]] to [[Weil am Rhein]].