China - Visit Reports

Changchun Trams 13 February 2025

Information from a UK traveller. Changchun has one of only 3 original tram systems in China still working. There are 2 routes, G54 which operates from Honqi Street (at Jiangong South Road) a distance of 7km north to the terminus at Chuncheng Street, passing the depot at 4.5km. Line G55 (the western 5km tram route for G55 is a 2014 build, according to Wiki) runs from the same start point on Hongqi Street but after 4km branches west for another 5km along Nanyang Road to Changchun-Xi (West) CNR station. Trams are single bogie cars operating on the 600v dc system. Track is standard gauge. Lines 54 and G55 operate frequently, with as little as 5 minutes between trams on the shared section. These are operated by the 2000’s era ‘modern’ cars, and tickets are 2 Yuan (25p) per journey with the on-board machine accepting local smart cards or 2x 1-Yuan notes. Tickets are not issued. The track quality was poor, and speed seemed to be a maximum of 40km/h. The pointwork was interesting, with one rail having a moveable switch, and the other an open frog. The drivers negotiated these with extreme caution! ‘Tourist’ round-trip services operate hourly over the G54 route starting from the Honqi Street terminus at xx.00, starting from 10.00, and use the old 1941 era cars. These have been refurbished and the one I travelled on was very luxurious and the 88-Yuan (£10) round-trip price included a latte coffee, a souvenir goodie-bag and a card-stamp set. The on board hostess did a running commentary, all in Chinese, but she did show me an English translation of her script. The individual trams are difficult to identify, it took me a while to spot the ID system, it is part of a sticker in small typeface low on the car body. This can be verified by looking at the drivers’ on-board computer which has the same number in one of the data fields. Example – tram 902 has data field entry 7902. Despite having the one depot and common route trackage, tram cars are permanently stickered and liveried either for route G54 or route G55. The system is well worth a visit if you happen to be in that part of the world.