A commuter, a group of giggling schoolgirls, an elderly man asking – again – for his change. It’s a typical Saturday morning on Route 25, the busy tramway line from Gariahat to Esplanade in India’s eastern city of Kolkata.
As the tram rattles through busy junctions and narrow lanes, the familiar ‘ting-ting’ of the bell signals passengers hopping on and off. Watching this seamless journey, it’s hard to understand why the West Bengal state government wants to phase out trams and reduce them to ‘heritage’ rides, claiming they are slow and add to traffic jams.
