Route no.25

 

Often, I return to my city –

And get to meet old friends,

But to meet my own self,

I don’t go to shiny malls or multiplexes

I take a ride on Route # 25 –

Gariahat to Esplanade

 

A broken tram chugs along

Once upon a time,

It had an extravagant past –

Reflections of London and Lisbon

Right here in Calcutta

But today, who has time

 

For a rickety tram from a sepia past

It is no alternative to the snazzy metro

Or Gen Z’s Uber

Or even an electric auto

But it still makes its daily trips

Like it has for 150 years

 

Yet, stuck between a shiny past

And a lost future,

It still wakes up, keeps hope

It chugs along in No Man’s Land

Trying hard to not think

Of Calcutta from the colonial days

 

A few passengers still frequent –

Either they have a lot of time

Or a lot of melancholy,

The window outside

Seems like a time machine

We are all travellers from the past

 

And I see myself,

Sitting in the adjacent wooden seat

A cool river breeze sails at night;

I wonder what is more real

These thoughts from the past

Or me as a vision from the future

 

Tethered to the boy on the seat

Dreaming, hoping, chugging along;

Ting-ting-ting, the tram bell rings

The reverie breaks,

Outside, the city seems to have changed

The silent tram chugs along…

 

21^st June 2026

 

As Asia’s oldest operating tramway, the Kolkata tram network holds a storied legacy that dates back to its horse-drawn inception in 1873. Following its transition to standard gauge and landmark electrification in 1902—which made Calcutta the first city in Asia to run electric trams—the network entered its most prosperous golden era. By the mid-20th century, it served as the bustling civic lifeline of the metropolis, boasting a robust fleet of over 340 trams spanning across 37 extensive routes. However, the late 20th and early 21st centuries marked a sharp decline; the expansion of the Kolkata Metro, the construction of road flyovers, severe traffic congestion, and years of inadequate maintenance systematically marginalized the slow-moving streetcars. This prolonged neglect caused the network to severely contract, reducing active operations to just two remaining routes. While recent years saw the threat of complete closure sparking intense public protests and legal battles by heritage advocates, there is a fresh glimmer of hope as transport authorities have initiated a shift away from discontinuation, unveiling early-stage plans to revitalize the iconic system with modern, lightweight, and energy-efficient coaches inspired by global models.