Hannover's trams go underground too

To Germany now, for a look at Hannover's Stadtbahn system. Until the mid-1970s, this regional capital of half a million people was served by a fairly comprehensive network of ageing yellow trams, some of which dated back to the 1920s. The city centre was a jumble of tracks, with routes converging in front of the central station and at the major intersections of Steintor, Kropcke and Aegidientorplatz. But in 1975 the first line was taken partially underground and rebranded "Stadtbahn" or "City Train", and an entirely new fleet of bright green metro-trams was brought into service to run on the upgraded network. The new trams were able to continue running at street level, as here next to Dohrener Turm in the south of the city...

... but were also fully adapted to the requirements of the new underground lines and their metro-style stations. Here a route 7 Stadtbahn stops at Kropcke in the city centre in September 2009:

At the time of writing, just two wholly street-level tram lines remain in Hannover (routes 10 and 17), and these are now also served by 1970s Stadtbahn rolling stock, as the last traditional trams were taken out of service in the 1990s. Below is a two-carriage Stadtbahn on Ernst-August-Platz in August 2009 - with the rear carriage rather tastelessly dominated by lurid pink advertising. Not something to be encouraged, in this blogger's view. 

To mark the advent of Hannover hosting Expo 2000, a new series of Stadtbahn vehicles were developed in the late 1990s - these are now gradually replacing the lime-green 1970s stock. Visually they are very appealing, in their silver livery with a discreet green stripe at platform level; they are also better streamlined, and the interiors are brighter and less cluttered than their predecessors. Seating is generally sideways-facing, recorded announcements are crisp and clear, and TV monitors provide a news and information feed for passengers. There was even a short-lived experiment with refreshments trolleys - not entirely necessary, as the longest Stadtbahn journey only takes an hour or so from start to finish. Here is a route 11 Stadtbahn at the Zoo terminus in September 2010: