Photographs taken on 13th May in 2006 exclusively for www.draemmli.info by © Samuel Maurer.

Tramways in Mulhouse were replaced by trolleybuses and buses. Since 2006 trams are back in action in the city of Mulhouse. Mulhouse is the largest city in Haut-Rhin, and the second largest in Alsace after Strasbourg. Its designated local development area consists of 16 communes, but its conurbation is substantially larger than that. Mulhouse was once a city of the Swiss confederation and is 26 km away from Basel in Switzerland.

Back to the future by tram
The new urban tram network of the Mulhouse district is composed of 2 tramway lines (20 km and 38 stops) which will go through 5 municipalities around 2012. The SITRAM - Syndicat Intercommunal des Transports de l'Agglomération Mulhousienne (Intercommunal Transport Association for the Mulhouse District) is the organizing authority for its implementation. The first phase of 12 kilometres of this network has been brought into service since May 2006. It is now fully operational. On time, fast, frequent, comfortable, modern and available to all, the TramTrain develops a more regular use of public transport. It limits nuisance, reduces transit automobile traffic in the city centre, thus creating a more efficient traffic : residents access, access to parking lots and to shops and services. Those are two of the main aims of the urban revalorisation approach adopted by the SITRAM for the Mulhouse district.

From Mulhouse to Buenos Aires
On December 26th 2007, two CITADIS tramway cars from Mulhouse were shipped from Bilbao Port (Spain) to Buenos Aires, Argentina. These cars serve the experimental project of the Puerto Madero Tramway. The prototype line will run 2 km, between the Córdoba and Independencia avenues and will allow Buenos Aires’ people to discover the new Alstom tramways’ technology. For Alstom, the objective is to present to both authorities and potential passengers the tramway as a solution to address the urban transport problem in Argentina and show that it responds to a modern transport policy. If satisfactory, the experimental project will allow Alstom to position itself as a natural partner for the development of permanent tramway lines in the country’s capital, as well as in other Argentinean cities.