Until 2021, Helsinki was Finland's only remaining city with tram traffic. Two other cities—Turku (see Trams in Turku (1908–1972)) and Vyborg (, , ; now part of Russia)—have had tram systems. Vyborg abandoned its trams in 1957 after it was ceded to the Soviet Union after the end of World War II. Turku withdrew its trams in 1972.
In August 2021 Tampere became the fourth city in Finland with a tram system and the second one to still have trams in service through the opening of the Tampere light rail system.
1890–1900: Horse-drawn single-track lines The first proposals for the construction of a tram system in Helsinki were made in the 1870s, but were unsuccessful.Hanna Sirkiä Public transport in Helsinki was initiated in 1888 by Helsingin omnibussiosakeyhtiö, using horse-drawn omnibuses.Antero Alku, pp. 20-21Timo Herranen, pp. 29-31 In 1889 Helsingin Omnibussiosakeyhtiö acquired the right to construct tram lines. The next year, the company changed its name in Helsingin raitiotie- ja omnibussiosakeyhtiö (abbreviated HRO). Electric traction was considered as a power source for the new system, but due to lack of funds, and the city council's negative attitude towards electric trams, the decision was made to use horse-drawn trams instead.Timo Herranen, pp. 37-45 The new system was built to a track gauge of . Test traffic started in December 1890, but the network wasn't officially opened until June 1891. The capacity of the horse tram system soon proved insufficient, but the conversion to electrified trams was postponed until the price of electrification of the network reached lower levels. The network was 8.5 kilometres in length.
The slow pace of the electrification process was a source of conflict within the HRO. In the latter half of the 1890s, Julius Tallberg acquired the right to construct an orbital tram system around the city that would have linked the existing HRO lines and parts of the city not covered by the HRO lines. After negotiations, Tallberg and his associates transferred the construction permit of the orbital line to the HRO in return for a large number of HRO stock shares.
1900–1908: Electric single-track lines
In 1897 HRO received the right to construct an electrified tramway into Helsinki. A call for bids was sent out the following year, and the contract was awarded to the Germany-based O.L. Kummer. By terms on the agreement Kummer had to construct and electrify the new tram system as well as construct the trams used on it, and the company would be responsible for trafficking the new system for up to three years in order to ensure good quality of construction. Electrification of the network was mostly completed in 1900,Timo Herranen, pp. 46-49 with one short horse-drawn line lingering until 1901.Finnish Tramway Society Kummer had made notable profits from operating the new electrified system, and already in 1901 HRO assumed responsibility for operating the tram network. Following the electrification the number of lines grew into four, but all lines remained single-track. At the same time colours were taken into use as line identifiers.Finnish Tramway Society
Within a few years the single-track lines proved insufficient to meet the passenger demand, but the majority of stock owners were unwilling to fund the conversion into double track, while Julius Tallberg and his associates were strongly for the conversion. In 1906 Tallberg and his supporters acquired a stock majority in the HRO, and during the same year the company applied for and received a permission to convert their track network into double track. The contract also specified certain lines that HRO had to operate, as well as certain extensions that had to be built.Timo Herranen, pp. 50-54
1908–1945 The contract for converting the tram network into double track was awarded to the Swedish ASEA. Conversion work begun in 1908 and was completed in 1910. From 1908 until 1919 ASEA also supplied the HRO with a total of 78 trams and 70 trailers. In 1909 Brändö Villastad Ab, a company constructing a garden city in the island of Kulosaari (then a part of Helsingin maalaiskunta), and HRO reached an agreement for linking Kulosaari into the Helsinki tram network. The track onwards from the existing HRO line in Sörnäinen was built by Brändö Villastad Ab, who was also responsible for the upkeep of the track, as well as the tram ferry required to cross the Kuorekarinsalmi sea area between Sörnäinen and Kulosaari. Traffic on the new connection was operated by HRO, and service begun in 1910 using existing HRO trams.Finnish Tramway Society, p. 1 In 1916 Brändö Spårvägsaktiebolag, which had been created as a separate company to take care of the Kulosaari tram tracks, ordered two new trams of its own. Due to World War I these were not delivered until 1919, and even after they had been delivered HRO remained in charge of trafficking the line. In 1919 a bridge between Kulosaari and the mainland was also completed.Finnish Tramway Society, p. 3
In 1913 the HRO begun expanding its tram network for the first time since 1901, when the tracks were expanded from Hakaniemi to Alppila. During the same year the City of Helsinki acquired the stock majority of HRO, but HRO remained an independent company.Finnish Tramway Society The following year the network was also expanded into Taka-Töölö and Hermanni. After this, World War I made it impossible to acquire electric wires and points required for construction.
The construction of non-HRO owned tram lines continued when in 1914 new tram tracks owned by Aktiebolaget M.G. Stenius were opened to traffic, linking the existing HRO tracks in Töölö to Munkkiniemi and Haaga. As with the Kulosaari tramline, HRO was responsible for trafficking on these lines.www.kaupunkiliikenne.netFinnish Tramway Society In 1926 HRO acquired Aktiebolaget M.G. Stenius and two years later Brändö Spårvägsaktiebolag also passed under HRO ownership. As a result, HRO again became the sole owner and operator of trams in Helsinki. During the same year line numbers and letters were taken into use as line identifiers alongside colours.Finnish Tramway Society Lines serving the city were identified with numbers, while suburban lines were identified with letters.
The tram network reached its apex in 1930, when the network covered a larger area than ever before or after (as of 2008), and there were 14 lines in operation. By 1939 61 million tram journeys were being made annually.
1945–1975 In the end of 1944 the City of Helsinki had acquired the entirety of HRO, which now became a municipal transport authority under the name Helsingin Kaupungin Liikennelaitos (HKL).Finnish Tramway Society This had little to no effect in tram operations. In 1950 secondary line identifier letters were taken into use to distinguish rush hour services from the standard routes (for example 1A, KA. The second letter was a capital letter but in a smaller size from the first). In 1953 the usage of letters as the primary line identifier ended, and the following year line colours were also abandoned.
Trams remained the main public transport system until the 1950s and 1960s, when the city rapidly sprawled and private cars became increasingly common; the new suburbs came to be served mainly by buses and commuter trains. During the 1940s and 1950s plans were drawn for a large light rail network incorporating into the tram system, which would have served major suburban centers; in preparation for this the new Kulosaari bridge (built 1956) featured a reserved space for tram tracks, while the new tram depot was built in Koskela next to a planned northeast light rail line – new tracks had to be built linking the depot to the existing network. As of August 2008, this track along Kustaa Vaasan tie has never been used in normal passenger traffic. During the 1950s a total of 105 Finnish-built double-bogie trams (Karia types HM IV and HM V, Valmet types RM 1 and RM 3) were delivered to the HKL.
During the 1960s all plans for expanding the tram network were put on hold while resources were concentrated on the planning of the metro and additional bus connections. At the same time plans were drawn for the termination of the tram network by the year 2000. In 1969 Helsinki city council made the decision that in the future tramlines would be confined to the inner city, while the metro would serve the suburban areas; the tram system would be terminated, at earliest in the year 2000. This decision required the acquisition of new trams to replace the last two-axle trams, the oldest of which dated from the 1920s. Originally the plan was to acquire fairly new second-hand articulated Duewag GT6 trams from Copenhagen, but the deal fell through and in the end new articulated trams were acquired from Valmet (type Nr I) in 1973–1975. These trams were planned to be the last trams to be acquired for traffic in Helsinki. In a break from tradition the Nr I trams were originally painted in an orange/grey colours scheme instead of the traditional green/yellow, integrating their visual appearance with the Dm 8 and Dm 9 express DMUs of the Finnish State Railways,Markku Nummelin, pp. 64–74 as well as the Helsinki metro, which was in testing phase at the time.Finnish Tramway SocietyFinnish Tramway Society
1976–1998
During the early 1970s the decision to terminate the tram system was reconsidered and eventually reversed. In 1976, the tram network was expanded for the first time since 1955, when the new connection into Itä-Pasila was opened (then line 2, present line 7). Another expansion was opened in 1980, when tracks in Katajanokka were expanded eastward to a new residential area (then line 5, present line 4). In 1981 another group of articulated trams, based on the Nr I type, were ordered from Valmet. Classified as Nr II, these trams were delivered between 1983 and 1987, allowing the withdrawal of the majority of the 1950s-built trams (types HM IV and RM 1 in their entirety), as well as withdrawal of all trailers. In 1985 the tram network was extended to West Pasila (line 7). In the mid-1980s the tram lines were radically reorganised: line 5 was closed down and the routes of lines 2, 3B, 3T, 4, 7A, 7B, 8 and 10 altered to a smaller or larger degree.
The next expansion of the network occurred in 1991, when the connection from Ruskeasuo to Pikku Huopalahti was opened (line 10). In the 1990s wide-ranging plans were made for expansion and improvement of the tram system. These included the Jokeri orbital light rail line connecting Itäkeskus to Leppävaara, extensions of the system to Munkkivuori, Koskela, Viikki, Malmi, Arabianranta and to the harbour areas Jätkäsaari, Munkkisaari and Kalasatama, which were to be freed from shipping activities and to become brownfield sites for residential and office development. In addition to the extensions, the plans included a partially tunneled light rail line linking Erottaja to Pasila via Töölö.
1999 onwards Starting in 1999, HKL received deliveries a fleet of low-floor Variotram trams from Adtranz (Bombardier Transportation since 2001). The new generation trams suffered from persistent technical difficulties and frequent break-downs, the entire batch needing to be refitted by the manufacturer in Germany.Helsingin Sanomat To cover for the missing trams, the city bought ten second-hand trams from Mannheim, Germany. To help pay for the second-hand trams, HKL was allowed to cover six of the extra trams completely in advertising, a sight rarely seen before on the streets of Helsinki.Helsingin Sanomat The purchase of the Bombardier trams was never completed due to the reliability problems. Instead, a deal was reached that required Bombardier to keep a certain minimum number of trams in operation. Bombardier opened its own depot in Helsinki for this purpose in mid-2008.Finnish Tramway Society