A Zurich Tram for SF

A special ceremony took place on Saturday, 4 June 2005, when Zurich Mayor Elmar Ledergerber and his San Franciscan counterpart Gavin Newsom inaugurated the Zurich tram in San Francisco. Among those present were the Co-Chairman of the San Francisco-Zurich Initiative J Richard Fredericks, former US Ambassador to Switzerland, and Walter Anderau, Chairman of the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue. From the outside, the blue and white tram, complete with its Zurich crest, looked just like a real Zurich tram - despite hailing originally from Brussels. Inside, the pictures and slogans drew attention to the multifaceted qualities that Zurich has to offer - as a business metropolis, tourist destination and place to enjoy a high quality of life. Zurich put itself across to the public in San Francisco as being a young and liberal city with a long tradition as an innovative centre of knowledge and business that quite justifiably repeatedly makes a name for itself as the city offering the highest quality of life in the world.