List of Cities, With Populations Under 100,000 Operating Trams Or Light Rail
Zwei often hears the tired old saw that “we don’t have the population for light rail or the alternative, light rail does not have the capacity to deal with traffic flows that SkyTrain can.
The “Good Burghers” in Bath England are countering this debate by actually listing 40 cities that have populations of 100,000 (with a 10% margin for error) that operate stand alone tram systems.
The below list is by no means exhaustive – as in the Belgian Coastal Tram example above, many outlying towns are connected to trams but are not listed here as it is mainly the central city listed.
Ranked by population:
| Town/City | Country | Length of system, or to nearest large tram town, km | Population | |
| 1 | Molochne | Ukraine | 1.8 | 1,000 |
| 2 | Bad Schandau | Germany | 7.9 | 4,022 |
| 3 | Trenčianske Teplice | Slovakia | 5.9 | 4,197 |
| 4 | New Addington | UK | 8 | 10,000 |
| 5 | Bex–Villars–Bretaye railway | Switzerland | 17.1 | 12,000 |
| 6 | Beckenham | uk | 10 | 45,000 |
| 7 | Gmunden | Austria | 2.3 | 13,086 |
| 8 | Sóller, Mallorca | Spain | 4.9 | 13,882 |
| 9 | Blankenberge | Belgium | 67 | 19,897 |
| 11 | Strausberg | Germany | 6.2 | 25,591 |
| 12 | Sintra | Portugal | 12.7 | 25,630 |
| 13 | Avdiivka | Ukraine | 12 | 33,311 |
| 14 | Neuchâtel | Switzerland | 8.85 | 33,565 |
| 15 | Knokke | Belgium | 67 | 34,063 |
| 16 | Volchansk | Russia | 7.6 | 36,000 |
| 17 | Valenciennes | France | 18.3 | 44,043 |
| 18 | Gotha | Germany | 25 | 44,322 |
| 19 | Poprad-Štrbské pleso & Starý Smokovec-Tatranská Lomnica | Slovakia | 35 | 52,862 |
| 20 | Frankfurt (Oder) | Germany | 19.5 | 55,400 |
| 21 | Druzhkivka | Ukraine | 9.8 | 57,517 |
| 22 | Stourbridge | UK | 1.3 | 63,000 |
| 23 | Plauen | Germany | 30.1 | 64,468 |
| 24 | Liepaja | Latvia | 6.9 | 69,180 |
| 25 | Ostende | Belgium | 67 | 70,994 |
| 26 | Kostiantynivka | Ukraine | 25.4 | 71,853 |
| 27 | Konotop | Ukraine | 13.9 | 87,099 |
| 28 | Mestre | Italy | 6.3 | 89,373 |
| 29 | Schwerin | Germany | 21 | 91,293 |
| 30 | Zwickau | Germany | 18.5 | 93,081 |
| 31 | Daugavpils | Latvia | 25 | 93,312 |
| 32 | Norrköping | Sweden | 21 | 96,658 |
| 33 | Grudziądz | Poland | 9 | 98,726 |
| 34 | Olomouc | Czech Republic | 13.6 | 100,494 |
| 35 | BATH | UK | 29 | 100,000 |
| 36 | Cottbus | Germany | 20.1 | 103,300 |
| 37 | Liberec | Czech Republic | 21.5 | 103,979 |
| 38 | Nancy | France | 11.1 | 105,162 |
| 39 | Jena | Germany | 23.7 | 105,800 |
| 40 | Caen | France | 15.7 | 106,260 |
TramTrain, which is a tram, reminiscent of the interurban, so designed that it can operate on the mainline line railway, in mixed traffic, can also servcie small town on the mainline railway portion of its route very cheaply.
It is important to consider that the Vancouver metro region cannot afford to expand the SkyTrain light-metro system which base cost has now surpassed $400 million per km to build (over $700 million per km for subway construction). TramTrain and light rail can be expanded much more cheaply from costs ranging from $10 million/km to $50 million/km, depending on the quality of Right-of-Way used from track sharing with the mainline railway to operating on a dedicated R-o-W.
As a reminder, extensive viaduct or subway construction, drives up the cost and takes the “light” (light in cost) out of light rail!
Those who support continued SkyTrain expansion, must also accept a limited light metro network, ill equipped to deal with future expansion needs.
