Tracks of time: How trams became India’s OG billboards

Ask a five-year-old what AQI means and chances are, they’ll tell you. Pollution isn’t a lesson for them anymore, it’s vocabulary. Part of daily life.

I start here for a reason. Today is World Sustainable Transport Day, created to remind us that cleaner, fairer transport can’t be less important. And sometimes, the smartest solution is the one we’ve forgotten.

The quiet hero that was in our streets: the humble tram.

Trams: India’s original OOH disruptors

In 1902, Calcutta ran Asia’s first electric tram. For cities like Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, the tram wasn’t just transport, it was the city’s pulse. Steady. Democratic. Always there.

And for advertisers, it was magic. The first moving billboard, long before anyone coined ‘OOH.’ Wood, steel and a slow rumble carrying messages through the heart of the city.

What made it powerful is exactly what brands chase today: reach, time, context, and relevance.

Trams moved slowly, giving people almost two full minutes with an idea. And their long frames became giant hand-painted canvases, shaping a bold school of Indian commercial art in the 40s and 50s. A medium that didn’t shout. It simply rolled by and stayed with you.

A ride down memory lane

Every tram that rolled through a street also rolled through time. Early-century India saw advertisements for patent medicines - Gripe Water, tonics, miracle cures, catching the curiosity of a country with limited access to healthcare.

By the 1920s-40s, textiles, tea and homegrown brands turned the tram into a ribbon of pride, weaving commerce with the emotions of a rising India.

In the 50s-70s, cinema took over. Hand-painted heroes and heroines stretched across the metal, larger than life, impossible to miss. And the story didn’t stop.

Sunsilk wrapped a tram in flowing hair. Asian Paints turned one into a Pujo installation. Kurkure turned another into a karaoke adda.

A tram that didn’t just move people, but moved joy. Decade after decade, the tram was never just transport. It was an idea the city kept believing in.

Rolling heritage. Moving futures

Last year, we celebrated the tram’s two lives, its heritage and its future, through Rolling Heritage, Moving Futures. Not a campaign to sell. A campaign to remind the city of what it already has.

At Response India, we’ve always believed good marketing isn’t about pushing harder; it’s about telling the truth simply. So we brought back the tram’s memories in hand-drawn watercolours: childhood glances, first romances, the quiet dignity of the conductor and the driver. Small moments that belong only to Kolkata.

A reminder that sustainable mobility doesn’t always need reinvention. Sometimes, it just needs us to notice what’s been waiting on the tracks all along.

The road ahead

The tram teaches a lesson brands often forget: The medium is the message.

Advertising on a tram today isn’t retro, it’s a statement. It says: We stand for heritage. We stand for sustainability. We stand for the city.

With metros, EVs and intermodal mobility expanding, trams can evolve into hybrid experiences. QR-led journeys, festival stories, climate-literacy classrooms, and even moving cultural installations that blend physical presence with digital depth.

The tram can still lead, if we let it.

Let the tracks lead forward

Satyajit Ray opened Mahanagar with a tram sequence because it wasn’t just transport, it was the heartbeat of the city. That heartbeat still matters.

Let’s allow it to guide us again, into a cleaner, more thoughtful future. Whether on the tram lines or in our imagination.

This article is penned by Rashi Ray, Director, Response India.

Disclaimer: The article features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the stance of the publication.