Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 20, 2020

The Nantes tramway (Tramway de Nantes) is a tramway system operating in the city of Nantes in Pays de la Loire, France. The first tramway in Nantes opened in 1879 and closed in 1958 due to bombing damage during World War II, while the present tramway was re-introduced to the city in 1985. The first tramway in Nantes was notable for its use of compressed air propulsion pioneering this technology. In the 1980s, Nantes became the first city in Europe to re-introduce the present tramway which was the first modern 'new generation' tramway to be built, reversing the trend of tramway closures that had been going on since the middle of the 20th century and becoming the first in a wave of tramways built from scratch in France and the rest of Europe. The current Nantes tramway network consists of three lines, is 43 km long and serves 83 stations. It is operated by Semitan (commercially known as TAN), the operator of Nantes public transport network.