HTM Avenio (Siemens)

Updated: August 2026 – The Hague runs one of the most distinctive tram landscapes in the Netherlands, and the modern low-floor generation within it carries a Siemens name: Avenio. This page explains what’s behind the family name, how to assign the vehicle to the right city and the right operator, and what matters when photographing it in urban space.

What is the HTM Avenio?

The Avenio is a multi-section low-floor tram from the Siemens vehicle family of the same name. In The Hague it’s operated by HTM – Haagsche Tramweg Maatschappij, the city’s transport operator. The name is thus one of the few Dutch local-transport abbreviations that describes not the vehicle but the company.

That makes the system fundamentally different from the railway. The NS names its multiple units after the vehicle concept: SLT for Sprinter Lighttrain, SGM for Stadsgewestelijk Materieel, VIRM for Verlengd InterRegio Materieel. Municipal transport operators have nothing comparable. There, the rule is: manufacturer family plus operator plus car number – and these three together give the unambiguous identity.

Manufacturer family isn’t the same as a class

How to narrow down an unfamiliar vehicle step by step is described in the guide to identifying locomotive classes – the approach is identical for trams, only the result is called something else.

Comparing the Dutch tram networks

Three large networks shape the picture, and each has procured its own modern vehicle family. For spotters, this assignment is the quickest frame of reference. Alongside them, the country’s older tram tradition is kept running by the Museumstoomtram Hoorn-Medemblik.

City	Operator	Modern vehicle family	What shapes the network
The Hague	HTM	Siemens Avenio	Mix of tram and light-rail-like sections
Amsterdam	GVB	CAF Urbos	Dense city-centre network, operator also runs metro and ferries
Rotterdam	RET	Alstom Citadis	Tram and metro under one roof
Germany for comparison	municipal operators	Flexity, Avenio, Tramino and others	Also car numbers instead of classes

The direct comparison is worthwhile: in Amsterdam, GVB’s CAF Urbos runs a different manufacturer family, in Rotterdam RET’s Citadis. Once you’ve seen the three design languages side by side, you can usually place a Dutch tram photo correctly without a location caption. In Germany, the same principle works with classes such as the NGT8G.

Photo tips for The Hague’s network

What applies legally in public space and where the limits lie is set out by the article Are you allowed to photograph trams? – the assessment always remains a matter of the individual case. The technique for moving subjects is explained in the guide Photographing a moving tram, and how to report your finds so others get something out of them is in the guide to reporting sightings.

Collecting car numbers: keeping the collection usable

With railway vehicles, it’s simple: the twelve-digit UIC number is unambiguous across Europe, with the country code already built in. With trams, there’s nothing comparable. Every transport operator assigns its own car numbers, and the same number can denote three completely different vehicles in The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

To keep your collection usable regardless, every tram sighting needs four pieces of information:

• City and operator. Without this assignment, the car number is worthless. It’s the actual key.
• Car number. Marked on the vehicle, usually at the front and at the vehicle ends.
• Vehicle family. Avenio, Urbos, Citadis or an older generation – that classifies the car technically.
• Date and line. The line doesn’t identify a vehicle, but documents the diagram and makes later analysis possible.

Consistently separating type from appearance is especially helpful. A car with full advertising wrap is still the same car; a new branding concept changes the colours, not the technology. Whoever records both separately can later see how a fleet has changed visually, without losing the vehicle assignment.

One last point concerns completeness. Tram fleets are manageable in size – often just a few dozen to a few hundred vehicles per city. That makes something possible which is hardly achievable with the railway: documenting a complete fleet. That’s exactly what makes tram spotting so appealing for many. But the way there only works through cleanly noted numbers, not through pretty pictures alone – and through an archive in which you can still find a shot years later.

Common mix-ups

Verdict

The Avenio in The Hague is a good example of how local-transport vehicles work outside any national class system. The manufacturer name describes the platform, the operator the context, the car number the individual vehicle. Whoever separates these three levels cleanly arrives quickly at a reliable identification in any European tram network – and documents their sightings so they’re still traceable years later.