The network opened on 12 May 1880: It was a horsecar system owned by the society Reymer & Masch, named Potsdamer Straßenbahn-Gesellschaft and consisted of a pair of lines.[2] 1907 saw the introduction of electric trams which ran on a new line of 8 km (5.0 mi).[3] In 1908 the network consisted of 4 lines (named from A to D) and in 1949 of 5 lines (named from 1 to 5).
In the 1980s, a pair of new routes were built: in 1984 through the new residential center in Babelsberg and in 1988 from Am Stern stop to the new south-eastern residential area in Drewitz.[2] The Czech trams Tatra KT4 were introduced in 1993, and the modern Combino and Variotram in the 2000s. Some of the Tatra KT4D were given to Ploiești, a industrial city in Romania.[5]
Network
Line network, 2022Track plan, 2014KT4Dm-cars 153/253 at Nauener Tor
The Potsdam route network is a standard-gauge railway. It is 28.9 kilometres (18.0 mi) long and has 63 stops. The track length is 59.6 kilometres (37.0 mi).[6] It is served by five main and two amplifier lines. It is almost continuously double tracked, only the Nauener Tor is crossed by means of a gauntlet track.
The network consists, as of June 2022, of 7 lines:[7]
Babelsberg, Fontanestraße ↔ S Hauptbahnhof (↔ Schlaatz, Bisamkiez) from Bisamkiez only in the morning, to Bisamkiez only in the evening
The tram lines 91 to 96 operate on all days according to a uniform timetable scheme. The basic scheme of the tram lines is a 20-minute-cyclic schedule. The timetable of the tram lines are coordinated at the interchange points Potsdam Hauptbahnhof and Babelsberg station with the Berlin S-Bahn.
Lines 98 is a peak-only line, which operates on school days. On Line 92, extra rides are offered throughout the route in the rush hour. As a result, lines 92 (with 2 courses) and 96 (with one course) run at 6/7/7-minute intervals, which in turn means that line 91 and 92 as well as 96 and 93 serve the transit network at intervals shorter than 10 minutes.
Bauer, Gerhard; Kuschinski, Norbert (1995). Die Straßenbahnen in Ostdeutschland [The Tramways in East Germany]. Vol. Band 3: Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern [Volume 3: Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern]. Aachen, Germany: Schweers + Wall. ISBN3921679818. (in German)
Schwandl, Robert (2012). Schwandl's Tram Atlas Deutschland (in German and English) (3rd ed.). Berlin: Robert Schwandl Verlag. pp. 116–117. ISBN9783936573336.