A Community for the interessting world of Trams, Trolleys and Streetcars!
Stayed just for a dozen hours or so this time so didn't really need to hop in considering the centre is pretty walkable.
The green one seems to have driver’s controls at the rear end, which seems unusual. IIRC, Basel trams (and possibly trams in most of Switzerland) are single-headed, often towing a lighter drogue carriage, as the lines end in turning loops.
There are tons of low-floor dual cabin trams like Stadler Tango and Bombardier city runner and flexcity across the country.
The older trams are generally one way so they are often coupled with a second one in reverse position, for capacity and turning over, or they are limited to racket type U turn lines only, so they are slowly getting replaced.
Newer lines don’t have loops and sometimes have stops on either side of the tracks (because of urbanization I guess), so older trams can’t use them as they have doors only to the right side of the vehicle.
I believe they will disappear in the next decade, kept only for occasional celebrations (like this one in Geneva
This is not true. It depends on the city. Geneva and Lausanne are building without loops, as well as Lugano. Otherwise, Bern extension will have a loop, like Basel, Zurich, Glattalbahn. Bern ordered trams with one cab at each end to be more flexible during construction work and to replace the old RBS trams on line 6. But, they will receive Tramlinks with just one cab very soon. Limattalbahn is a specific case. It will extend to Baden and is a suburban dual voltage tram.
You're right in that they're made to run in one direction only. The controls in the back are for shunting.