Trams completely died out in the UK through the 60s. Just one town, Blackpool, kept them. This was around the time Beeching was making devastating cuts to the

Trams completely died out in the UK through the 60s. Just one town, Blackpool, kept them. This was around the time Beeching was making devastating cuts to the UK rail network. The belief seemed to be that cars would be the answer to everything making rail and trams go the same way as canals. Until only a few years ago the trams in Blackpool were running on rolling stock mainly from the 30s and 40s, with just a few bus-bodies from the 90s. They ended up being a living museum and they even bought up old trams from other regions. A few years ago they rebuilt the entire network with new modern stock and track, with new disabled friendly stops. It's sort-of a success. They halved the number of stops (due to needing platforms for disabled access), so it's less convenient. They increased the prices, making it more expensive than the bus following the same route. Many other UK cities have brought back modern tram networks, with mostly great success. It's often proved horribly expensive to do - Edinburgh being the example of how not to buy a tramway. The UK is also bringing back some of the axed rail networks as roads become increasingly gridlocked. Of course this is expensive to do, especially as sections of many lines have now been built on. Other parts of Europe, though not all, seem to make consistently more intelligent transport choices, and have long provided more integrated transport solutions.