Three categories of tram systems were studied:
- recent tram systems in large cities with more than 500,000 residents,
- recent tram systems in mid-sized cities or serving neighbourhoods of large cities with under 500,000 residents,
- historic tram systems that have never been retired, such as those in Vienna, Zürich, Melbourne and Berlin.
The performance criteria used for the study included
multimodal integration, speed, pricing, reliability and ridership.
Lyon, Dijon and Zurich head up the comparative study
In large cities, the Lyon, Paris and Bordeaux networks top the ranking.
The Lyon tram network scores highly in terms of the high level of multimodal integration that it enjoys with bus routes, the metro, stations and soft transport modes as well as the tram corridor potential with three of the network's five lines carrying more than 100,000 passengers every day.
In mid-sized cities, Dijon and Tours in France and Bergen in Norway are distinguished. According to the study,
the Dijon tram network scores above average in several criteria, notably its ticketing system where Open Payment has been introduced so passengers can now use their contactless bank cards instead of tickets. The tram's introduction in 2012 gave a major boost to public transport usage in the city with the numbers of people using it increasing by 40% in three years.
Among historic tram systems,
Zürich is distinguished in the top spot, performing well in terms of ridership as well as making good use of resources and enjoying a high level of multimodal integration. Thanks to regular investments designed to modernise the network and enhance its longevity,
the Zürich tram is delivering a performance comparable to those of younger systems.