Stayed just for a dozen hours or so this time so didn’t really need to hop in considering the centre is pretty walkable.
The green one seems to have driver’s controls at the rear end, which seems unusual. IIRC, Basel trams (and possibly trams in most of Switzerland) are single-headed, often towing a lighter drogue carriage, as the lines end in turning loops.
You’re right in that they’re made to run in one direction only. The controls in the back are for shunting.
There are tons of low-floor dual cabin trams like Stadler Tango and Bombardier city runner and flexcity across the country.
The older trams are generally one way so they are often coupled with a second one in reverse position, for capacity and turning over, or they are limited to racket type U turn lines only, so they are slowly getting replaced.
Newer lines don’t have loops and sometimes have stops on either side of the tracks (because of urbanization I guess), so older trams can’t use them as they have doors only to the right side of the vehicle.
I believe they will disappear in the next decade, kept only for occasional celebrations (like this one in Geneva
![[OC] Looking at old photos I found these cool Basel trams](https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/03894b65-692d-4037-aa0f-2c8b91684ebc.jpeg){kind=link}