SIEMIATYCKI, M (2006)

Return to the Rails: The Motivations for Building a Modern Tramway in Bilbao Spain.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY: GEOGRAPHY RESEARCH PAPER SERIES.

ABSTRACT: Relegated from the streets of many major cities by the 1960s as an anachronism of an old urban order, the modern tramway has resurfaced as today’s miracle cure to urban transport problems such as road congestion, air pollution and uneven access to transit. So why is there renewed interest in tramways? Using the recent development of a tramway network in Bilbao, Spain as a case study, this paper explores public transit projects for their potential to achieve both a tangible set of objectives and an intangible symbolic meaning that presents transit investment as being about more than just moving people.