Tag Archives: Siemens Combino

Rail Photo of the Month: October 2025

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Siemens Combino 2111

Location: Dam Square, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Operator of Vehicle: Gemeentelijk Vervoerbedrijf (GVB)
Date of Photo: May 31, 2016

In August, the city of Amsterdam celebrated 125 years of operating its tram system by wrapping one of its Siemens Combino trams (like the one seen here) in five liveries previously used by GVB.  For the last quarter of the 19th century, the trams were horse drawn, but some of the routes in use today still follow the routes of the original horse drawn trams.  Electric trams were introduced in 1900 and have remained in service continuously since then.  As the city grew, so did the tram network.  Although there was a period in the 1950s when many lines were replaced by buses, trams made a revival not long afterwards due to their utility in the center of the city where buses could not serve the narrow streets.  The system has been expanded further since its revival and its future is undoubtedly secure.  

Amsterdam also has a tram museum called the Electrische Museumtramlijn Amsterdam (EMA) that just celebrated its 50th anniversary by operating several of the trams in the museum fleet in service on Line 16 at the end of last month.

For more photos of Amsterdam’s Siemens Combino trams, please click here.  

Blurred Lines No More

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Siemens Combino 2077 on Rozengracht at Prinsengracht, Amsterdam, NL, May 30, 2016

A few weeks ago, I posted a blurry photo to Facebook that would be a part of the recent website update as a tease, asking if anyone could identify where the photo was from despite the blurry image.  Here is the image in its original form.  The photo is of a Siemens Combino tram in Amsterdam.  The trams form the backbone of the city’s transportation system and are found on many major thoroughfares in the city center.  These streets wind quite a bit due to the city’s layout, which means there are ample opportunities to get photos of the trams with the iconic row-houses as a backdrop giving the photo a sense of place.  I also like the GVB tram livery.  It might be a bit plain (you can think of the NYCTA’s simple blue stripe on a white vehicle as an example of a comparable paint scheme in the US), but I think it looks crisp and sharp, makes the trams easily identifiable on the street, and makes them stand out in photos.  In addition, I really like the way the vertical lines of the tram’s window frames and articulated joints and the row houses are so distinct, while the trees create a break up these otherwise rigid boundaries and the many straight lines in this photo.

Now that the location of this photo has been shared, expect to see some more “Viewfinder” posts with photos from my recent trip to Amsterdam as well as other places I’ve visited in the past few months in the days and weeks to come.