Antwerp will bid a final farewell to the PCC tram on Saturday after 66 years of service, completing a transition to an entirely low-floor fleet.
The replacement of the high-floor trams began more than 25 years ago, when De Lijn introduced the first Hermelijn tram in Antwerp in 1999 and ended the PCC’s long-standing monopoly.
In the years that followed, the arrival of the Albatros and Stadslijner tram models gradually pushed more of the ageing vehicles out of regular service.
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The last non-couplable PCC trams made their final journeys on line 11 in March 2023. The remaining vehicles then ran their last regular services on 30 April this year.
On Saturday, several PCC trams will return for one final run between 10:00 and 18:00 on a hop-on, hop-off circuit stopping at various locations across the city.
De Lijn will also hand over one tram to the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum, run by the heritage organisation META. The tram museum at Groenenhoek in Berchem will be open free of charge for the occasion.
PCC stands for Presidents’ Conference Committee. The tram was developed in the United States in the late 1920s, when transport operators were looking for a modern and comfortable vehicle capable of competing with the rapidly growing popularity of cars and buses.
The technology later spread around the world and reached Belgium after the Second World War. Antwerp went on to become one of the cities where the tram type remained part of the streetscape for the longest.
Between 1960 and 1975, the city received a total of 166 PCC trams, with a handful remaining in service until this year.
