Trams in Munich

The Munich tramway (German: Straßenbahn München ^[de]) is the tramway network for the city of Munich in Germany. Today it is operated by the municipally owned Münchner Verkehrsgesellschaft (the Munich Transport Company, or MVG) and is known officially and colloquially as the Tram. Previous operators have included Société Anonyme des Tramways de Munich, the Münchner Trambahn-Aktiengesellschaft, the Städtische Straßenbahnen and the Straßenbahn München.

The tram network interconnects with the MVG's bus network, the Munich U-Bahn and the Munich S-Bahn, all of which use a common tariff as part of the Münchner Verkehrs- und Tarifverbund (Munich Transport and Tariff Association, or MVV) transit area.

As of 2012, the daytime tram network comprises 13 lines and is 79 kilometres (49 mi) long with 165 stops. There is also a night tram service with four routes. The network is operated by 106 trams (as of 2012), and transported 98 million people in 2010 and 104 million people in 2012.

The tramway started in 1876, with a horsecar service. The first tramways extended from Karlsplatz (Stachus), which remains one of central nodes of Munich's tram network. Two years later, the Société Anonyme des Tramways de Munich was founded. In 1882, the Münchner Trambahn-Aktiengesellschaft (MTAG) was founded.

Electric trams were introduced by Union-Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft in 1895. In 1900, the last horsecar was taken out of service. In 1907, MTAG was taken over by the city, and changed its name to Städtische Straßenbahnen. In 1919, the municipal agency Münchner Straßenbahnen was established. After World War II ended in 1945, only twenty tram lines remained; of 444 trams, only 168 were in operational condition. In 1956, the first new tram line after the war was opened.

The 1972 Munich Olympic Games presaged a major expansion of public transport in the city. In 1965, construction of the Munich U-Bahn, the city's rapid transit system, was started. It opened in 1971, the same year as the transit authority MVV was founded. In 1972 a new S-Bahn network opened that, like the U-Bahn, was carried in new tunnels under the city centre. As these networks grew, they seemed to threaten the tram network, with extensive line closures in favour of the new modes.

Such closures continued into the 1990s, but in 1991 the city council passed a plan to upgrade and modernize the tramway, as the trams were seen to be a better fit to expected passenger flows on many routes. Three years later, Class R2 low-floor trams were introduced, along with a night network. These were followed, in 1999, by the larger Class R3 trams. In 2001, the voltage on which the trams operate was increased from 600 to 750 V. The following year the MVG was formed.

In 2009 the brand new route 23 was opened. This route acts as a feeder route for U-Bahn lines U3 and U6, to which it connects in an elaborate terminus above Münchner Freiheit U-Bahn station. The line has no interchanges with other tram routes, but is linked to the rest of the tram network by a connecting track that has carried no public service until 2025, when route 12 was prolonged. At the same time, February 2009, class S trams, built to the Stadler Variobahn design, were introduced.