Opening and Closing Dates
"Opening date" is that upon which public passenger service was first offered. Test runs and inaugural ceremonies often occurred before this "opening date."
"Closing date" is the last "full" day on which passenger service was offered to the public. Service often extended into the small hours (i.e. past midnight) of the next day. Closure ceremonies and farewell excursions were sometimes held following the end of public service. Some lines were closed following damage suffered as the result of storms, earthquakes or war. In some such cases, closure was not made permanent for some time following the actual last day of public service. Again, the actual "last day of operation" is tabulated.
Operation of some systems was interrupted for prolonged periods (one year or longer) for various reasons, including natural- or man-made catastrophe, financial difficulty or conflict between tramway undertakings and local authorities. These are tabulated if known. Other systems (virtually all of them "small") operated only on a seasonal basis. Again, these facts are tabulated if known.
In some cases, goods (freight) service continued following closure of passenger operation. These have not been tabulated because of incomplete information. Goods service over town tramway systems is a potential category for a separate list.
Read more about this topic: List Of Town Tramway Systems
Famous quotes containing the words opening and closing, opening and, opening, closing and/or dates:
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—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Of the crow-blue mussel shells, one keeps
adjusting the ash heaps;
opening and shutting itself like
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injured fan.”
—Marianne Moore (1887–1972)
“Haven’t you heard, though,
About the ships where war has found them out
At sea, about the towns where war has come
Through opening clouds at night with droning speed
Further o’erhead than all but stars and angels
And children in the ships and in the towns?”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“It is closing time in the gardens of the West and from now on an artist will be judged only by the resonance of his solitude or the quality of his despair.”
—Cyril Connolly (1903–1974)
“Dates are stupidly annoying—what we want is not dates but taste;Myet we are uncomfortable without them.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)