Timeline

• 1860 – The operation of a (horse) tram system proposed in Istanbul.
• 1863 – The first bid came for running tram through Istanbul's main arteries in the suburbs, came from a person named Huchiadson.
• 1864 – The second proposal in 1864 in Istanbul and the Galata Beşiktaş' privilege to operate a tram. Three routes were planned- 1) Eminönü – Divanyolu – Beyazıt – Aksaray – Yedikule or Topkapı, 2) Eminönü – Ayvansaray – Eyüp 3) Galata – Karaköy – Tophane – Beşiktaş – Ortaköy – Arnavutköy
• 1871 – The operation of the first horse driven tramcar has started in 4 lines.
• 1872 – Increased passenger demand because of the early 1890s the first route with the "imperial" has been started, called the use of two-story tram.
• 1912 – Horse tram operation stopped.
• 1914 – Electric tram started running from 25 January at European side. The route was from Karaköy to reach Eminönü. It was also the first tramcar to pass over Galata Bridge, as the passing of horse-driven trams was not permitted from that bridge.
• 1923 – Tram service expanded in 12 routes.
• 1928 – Electric tram started running from 8 June at Asian side.
• 1939 – The tramcar, Tünel, bus and electricity systems, which were being operated by various foreign companies, were nationalized, and a new company called the 'İstanbul Elektrik, Tramway ve Tünel İşletmeleri (İETT)' took over both European and Asian networks.
• 1950 – Tram service expanded in 37 routes. All the lines were crossing the Golden Horn on the famous Galata Bridge, which was acting as the central connection point. This was the peak year of Istanbul tram.
• 1956 – The Tünel-Maçka line (route 14) in the European part and from Topkapı-Çapa line in the in-town walls region, routes were closed. Topkapı – Çapa – Aksaray route was also closed for redevelopment of Aksaray Square.
• 1961 – The last tram ran on the European side of Istanbul on 12 June 1961 Line 17 Şişli - Karaköy . The Topkapı-Eminönü line was replaced by trolleybuses on 27 May 1961. Six trams were transferred to the tram network on the Asian side.
• 1966 – The last tram ran on the Asian side of Istanbul on 14 November 1966, between Line 12 Kadıköy and Üsküdar. The remaining trams were transferred to the transport museum.
• 1984 – Trolleybus service stopped on 16 July 1984. At this time, all electricity-driven city transport in Istanbul completely ended.
• 1990 – İstiklal Caddesi (Independence Avenue) was closed to traffic. Trams returned to the European side of Istanbul as a heritage tram line, the Taksim-Tünel Nostalgia Tramway, operating on İstiklal Caddesi between Taksim and Tünel. Rolling stocks were same as the pre-1966 trams.
• 1992 – Opening of a completely separate and tramline: trams returned to the European side of Istanbul as modern system, built by Yapı Merkezi. The line, now called the T1 line, operates on the same alignment where trams last ran in 1956.
• 2003 – Trams returned to the Asian side of Istanbul as heritage tramway, operating a circular tramway on the old closed Route 20 tramway. The rolling stock was imported from Gotha, Germany. This line is now known as the T3 tramline (or the Kadıköy-Moda Nostalgia Tramway).
• 2007 – A second modern tramline, called T4, opened on the European side on 12 September 2007.

Historic tram routes

There were many tram routes; the European side had more routes than the Asian side. The main routes were as follows:

• 1 – Kadıköy – Kısıklı
• 4 – Kadıköy – Bostancı
• 6 – Kadıköy – Fenerbahçe
• 8 – Kadıköy – Hasanpaşa
• 10 – Şişli – Tünel
• 11 – Şişli – Beyazıt (European Side)
• 11 – Üsküdar – Kısıklı (Asian Side)
• 12 – Harbiye – Fatih (European Side)
• 12 – Kadıköy – Üsküdar (Asian Side)
• 14 – Maçka – Tünel
• 15 – Maçka – Sirkeci
• 16 – Maçka – Beyazıt
• 17 – Mecidiyeköy – Şişli – Sirkeci (Mid - 1955 Last Stop Karaköy)
• 19 – Kurtuluş- Aksaray
• 20 – Kadıköy – Moda (This route has been partly replicated by the Asian side heritage tram from 2003)(Going the same way)
• 22 – Bebek – Eminönü
• 23 – Ortaköy – Aksaray
• 32 – Topkapı – Bahçekapı
• 33 – Yedikule – Bahçekapı
• 34 – Beşiktaş – Fatih
• 37 – Edirnekapı – Bahçekapı

Beside these, there were some short routes, which were truncated versions of full routes.

Route numbers were also displayed by color combinations, mainly for the illiterate. The colors reflected the termini as follows:

• Red  : Aksaray, Mecidiyeköy, Şişli, Topkapı, Tünel
• Blue  : Beyazıt, Maçka
• Green  : Edirnekapı, Fatih, Harbiye
• Yellow : Arnavutköy, Bebek, Beşiktaş, Kurtuluş, Ortaköy
• White  : Bahçekapı, Eminönü, Sirkeci, Taksim, Yedikule

The colors of both termini were used in left and right of destination board. (Note: service 22 had all-yellow as color despite serving Eminönü)

On the Asian side, services had solid colors:

• Red  : 4, 11
• Blue  : 1
• Green  : 6
• Yellow : 20
• White  : 12
• Brown  : 8

Alignments

All tram routes were on unreserved tracks and middle of the roads. Some routes were on narrow streets, some were on broad avenues. Tramcars were caught in the traffic jam caused by the cars. The tracks were also outdated, noisy and in the middle of the street. Cars had to pass the tramway on the right, causing danger for the pedestrians boarding and alighting the tramway. Those were one of the strong reasons of closure of the system.

There are some common alignments with past & present tramway system:

• The heritage tram of European side from Taksim to Tünel has laid following the previous systems – route 10, 11, 15, 17, but now as a single track with crossing.
• The heritage tram of Asian side from Kadıköy to Moda has laid following the previous systems route 20, but as a circular tramway.
• The modern tram from Kabataş to Zeytinburnu has laid following the previous systems alignment, as Kabataş – Karaköy – Sirkeci – Beyazıt – Aksaray – Topkapı route, with crossing on Galata Bridge.