year, and many being gradually extended. Some of these systems date from the late 19th or early 20th centuries. In the past 20 years their numbers have been augmented by modern tramway or light rail systems in cities that had discarded this form of transport. There have also been some new tram systems in cities that never previously had them. Tramways with tramcars (British English) or street railways with streetcars (North American English) were common throughout the industrialised world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but they had disappeared from most British, Canadian, French and US cities by the mid-20th century. By contrast, trams in parts of continental Europe continued to be used by many cities, although there were contractions in some countries, including the Netherlands. Since 1980 trams have returned to favour in many places, partly because their tendency to dominate the roadway, formerly seen as a disadvantage, is now considered to be a merit since it raises the visibility of public transport (encouraging car users to change their mode of travel), and enables streets to be reconfigured to give more space to pedestrians, making cites more pleasant places to live. New systems have been built in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, France, Australia and many other countries. In Milan, Italy, the old "Ventotto" trams are considered by its inhabitants a "symbol" of the city. The same can be said of trams in Melbourne in general, but particularly the iconic W class. The Toronto streetcar system had similarly become an iconic symbol of the city, operating the largest network in the Americas as well as the only large-scale tram system in Canada (not including light rail systems, or heritage lines). Major tram and light rail systems Current systems The largest tram (classic tram, streetcar, straßenbahn) and fast tram (light rail, stadtbahn) networks in the world by route length (as of 2016) are: Melbourne () Saint Petersburg () Cologne () Berlin () Moscow () Milan () Budapest () Katowice agglomeration () Vienna (). Other large transit networks that operate streetcar and light rail systems include: Dallas Light Rail, modern streetcar and heritage streetcar () Sofia () Warsaw () Leipzig () Brussels () Łódź () Bucharest () Prague () Dresden () Los Angeles () Statistics Tram and light rail systems operate in 388 cities across the world, 206 of which are in Europe; The longest single tram