It was good while it lasted. Or maybe it wasn’t, since so few people bothered to buy a ticket.
Yangon’s fancy new electric tram stopped service today after only six months of running along Strand Road from Linsadaung to Wardan Street.
It was a short route of only a few miles but was supposed to help ease congestion on Strand Road.
Trams ran along Strand Road in colonial times and the project, a $3 million deal between Myanma Railways and Japan’s West Corporation, was aimed at reviving the alternative transportation as Yangon’s streets brim with taxis and buses.
But it didn’t catch on.
Myanmar Railways general manager Tun Aung Thin told Global New Light of Myanmar that a few days ago only 10 people took the tram, and without going into specifics, he said accidents would sometimes occur in crowded areas.
He also told the Voice that, instead of relieving congestion, the tram sometimes added to it because of all the container trucks plying the route right next to the tracks running along Strand Road.
The carriages will be kept near Wardan Street to use in special cases, such as if there are emergencies.
Well, RIP Yangon’s electric tram. We’d like to say it was nice having you around, but you were here for such a short time we never got to know you.
