It is often said that the train is the iconic European mode of transport, but really it is the tram. Across Europe are many of the oldest and largest tramway networks in the world, which have endured when in much of the new world the trams were ripped out of cities.
Indeed they are loved. Trams have become iconic symbols of cities as diverse as Lisbon, Vienna, Milan and Prague.
Aller, retour
Iconic too in Strasbourg, the seat of the Council of Europe. The local Compagnie des transports strasbourgeois (CTS) was founded in 1877 as the Strassburger Pferde-Eisenbahn Gesellschaft (“the Strasbourg Horse-drawn Rail Company”). Despite crises including two world wars and the loss of its light-rail network in 1960, it endured. In 1994 trams once again glided through Strasbourg’s cobbled streets and pleasant suburbs.
Some readers visiting the Christmas market will perhaps have noticed the tram decked out in the colours of Moldova and wondered why? The answer: the rotating six-month presidency of the Committee of Ministers, the decision-making body of the Council of Europe. Often the CTS decorates one tram car with the livery of the country that holds the presidency. On 14 November 2025 Malta passed the baton to Moldova, hence the shiny new trainset for Christmas.
Next stop: Europe
The history of this goes back some way. In 2012 the CTS launched three trams decorated with the yellow stars on blue background motif accompanied by words for “welcome” in various European languages. For many this was a very fitting symbol for the capital of Europe, and they still circulate today.
In 2015 another tram was decorated specifically for the anniversary of the European flag, which is of course a creation of the Council of Europe.
All change, please
The first tram for a presidency in fact came in 2011, when the United Kingdom’s was feted following Ukraine’s handover. Since then it has almost become obligatory for a tram to be paired up with a country in this way. The style of decoration has changed from state to state, from merely the presidency logo, to images of the country covering the whole length of the tram. (You can find a selection of presidency trams in the gallery below this article.) It is a positive marker of that country’s leadership of this Europe-wide organisation, and yet a local reminder of the intimate links with the host city.
The Council of Europe remains the manifestation of the shared European will to secure peace, democracy and human rights on our continent, but the Strasbourg tram network itself is a physical symbol of what is possible with peace. Its D line crosses the border into Kehl in Germany, a border that was until recently militarised and the scene of so much strife and division across centuries of European history.
So, getting the tram is more than just getting from a to b. It’s metaphysical. As Turkish playwright Mehmet Murat İldan, who has himself lived in Strasbourg, put it, “The tram is the literary and magical version of the train.”
Moldova’s Presidency of the Committee of Ministers
Moldovan residents in France talk about their country’s taking on the Presidency of the Council of Europe
How do they put the national colours on trams?
