HIROSHIMA -- Hiroshima Electric Railway Co. has terminated routine runs of its familiar retro-looking streetcars, mainly due to the inconvenience for customers who want to use service-related contactless transport cards.
The Taisho and German Hannover cars can be seen again at future railway events.
The Taisho car was re-created based on the original streetcar that ran when the railway opened in 1912. It was converted from an ordinary streetcar into an antique-looking one as part of an event to boost Hiroshima Prefecture's tourism in 1984, with a safety net and manually powered brake handle designed to replicate the equipment back then.
Meanwhile, the Hannover car was donated in 1989 by Hiroshima's sister city, Hannover, Germany, and has a slim body and large windows, which were remnants of European streetcars back then.
Since 2009, the railway company, based in Naka Ward, Hiroshima, has introduced contactless transport card Paspy, which is available for use on buses and ships on all its lines.
As the area for passengers to step onto both the Taisho and Hannover cars is too narrow to set up a card-reading machine, the company has received complaints from passengers.
The Taisho car will be on display at an annual streetcar festival in June, while the Hannover car will be decorated with LED lights and wreathes to run during an annual event in December.
"We want to find ways to utilize the streetcars, other than just for events," a Hiroshima Electric Railway spokesperson said.
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