Tram systems in Switzerland
Switzerland is officially called the Swiss Confederation, and is located in the Alpine region of central Europe. The country is bordered by France to the west, Germany to the north, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east and Italy to the south. Switzerland is the 132nd largest country in the world, with an area of 41,285km2 and the 100th most populous, with a population of 8,508,898 (2018 (estimated)). The country is split into 26 cantons and while it does not have an official capital city, Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country has four main linguistic regions: German, French, Italian and Romansh (a Romance language that has evolved from Vulgar Latin).
Switzerland has a long history of tram systems that stretches back to the 1860s. There are now only 6 cities with tram systems, Basel, Bern, Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Zürich, but in the past there were 28 town and cities that had tram systems. Many of the previous systems were light railways that connected towns and villages, which closed in the 1950s and 1960s, when they were replaced with bus lines.