INSPIRATIONS – TRAM RAIL GREEN TRANSPORT: THE GRASS TRAMWAY OF KAGOSHIMA

This series of images shows the increasing trend toward grassed tram tracks in contemporary urban design. The practice isn’t exactly new, first used in Liverpool in But as grass tram routes have become more prevalent over the past 10 years throughout Europe and in this case, the city of Kagoshima in Japan. While grassy routes make tramways more aesthetically pleasing and naturally compliment the urban landscape, there are considerable environmental benefits to sinking tracks into turf lawns. As inhabitat states: “Much like green roofs, these swaths of green provide a host of benefits to any urban area, like reducing urban heat island effect, providing a permeable surface for storm water to infiltrate, and reducing pollution. ”

Strange as it sounds, it’s even been suggested that trams might be fitted with large grass-cutting apparatus to mow the lawns as they rattle along. And it’s not only trams that are going green. At next pictures tram of the Chicago TransitSystem that became a green mobile park for five hours.

The installation, designed by Joe Baldwin, was part of the 2011 Art on Track festival, and sadly wasn’t permanent. With native plants covering the seats, windows and floors of the subway car, the mobile garden brought a welcome splash of colour to the urban transit system.

The rail transport oddity ran for five hours around Chicago’s downtown loop. Meanwhile, Joe Baldwin, a UIC Art and Design graduate, continued to seek funding for his open-air public transitgarden.

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