The tram to La Marsa

Almost everyone I met in Tunis, locals included, called it the tram, so I did too for the first week, right up until a fellow passenger corrected me: it’s the TGM, a proper train, not a tram at all, dating back to 1872 and electrified in the 1930s. The name is beside the point for most visitors, but the mislabel says something true about how the line feels — slow, local, stopping every couple of minutes, closer in spirit to a tram than to an intercity train, even if the tracks and the history say otherwise.

Starting point: Tunis Marine

Tunis Marine station sits a five-minute walk from Place de la République, right at the point where Avenue Habib Bourguiba meets the harbour side of the city, and it’s an unglamorous starting point for a ride that ends up somewhere considerably prettier. I bought a paper ticket at the window — no machines, no app, no possibility of a contactless tap — for a little over a dinar, and waited on a platform that felt more like a provincial branch line than the transport spine of a capital city.

Where	Tunis Marine to La Marsa, along the Lake of Tunis and the Mediterranean shore
Cost	Roughly 0.7 to 1.2 TND (about €0.20–0.35) depending on distance travelled
Time needed	30–35 minutes end to end; most people ride shorter segments
Getting there	Tunis Marine station, a 5-minute walk from Place de la République
Best time	Mid-morning to early afternoon, avoiding the 7–9am and 4–7pm commuter rush

What the ride actually looks like

The first stretch, past La Goulette, runs close enough to the Lake of Tunis that the water is visible in flashes between buildings, and the carriage fills quickly with commuters who clearly ride this line daily and pay it no attention whatsoever. That contrast — a visitor pressed to the window watching the coast slide by, locals scrolling through their phones or reading a newspaper folded into quarters — was, more than any single view, what made the ride memorable. Nobody else on the train was having the experience I was having, and that gap felt worth noticing rather than closing.

The Carthage stretch is where the line earns its reputation among visitors, five separate stations — Salammbô, Byrsa, Dermech, Hannibal, Présidence — each dropping passengers within walking distance of a different fragment of the ancient site, more spread out than the name “Carthage” suggests until you’ve actually ridden through it station by station. I didn’t get off for any of them on this particular ride, saving Carthage for another day, but watching the platform signs cycle past gave me a clearer sense of how scattered the archaeological zone actually is than any map had managed.

Station	What’s nearby	Did I get off?
La Goulette Vieille/Neuve	Port town, grilled fish restaurants	No, saved for another trip
Carthage-Byrsa / Hannibal	Byrsa hill, national museum	No, saved for a dedicated Carthage day
Carthage-Dermech / Présidence	Antonine baths	No
Sidi Bou Said	Blue and white village, steep climb up	Briefly, to look up at the hill from the platform
La Marsa	Terminus, corniche, market	Yes — end of the line

Sidi Bou Said from the platform, without climbing up

I didn’t leave the train at Sidi Bou Said on this ride, partly out of stubbornness about finishing the full line in one go, but the platform itself gives a decent preview: the steep hill rising directly above the station, whitewashed buildings just visible near the top, a handful of passengers disembarking with the unmistakable posture of people about to climb.

It’s a genuinely steep ten-minute walk from this stop up into the village proper, which the Sidi Bou Said complete guide and the Sidi Bou Said destination page cover if you’re planning that leg separately, as I did a few days later. The Carthage destination page covers the stations further back down the line for anyone planning that stop instead.

La Marsa: where the line, and the ordinary city, ends

La Marsa arrives with less ceremony than Sidi Bou Said — no dramatic hill, no blue and white houses stacked photogenically above the platform, just a wider, calmer residential suburb that clearly isn’t performing for visitors the way its more famous neighbour one stop back does. I walked the corniche for the better part of an hour, past joggers and families rather than tour groups, then found a café in the Sidi Dhrif area that served coffee to a mix of what looked like regulars and almost nobody else. It’s the version of the Tunis coast where people who live here actually spend their weekends, and it felt like a genuinely different register from the rest of the ride.

The market near the centre of La Marsa, running most mornings, was winding down by the time I arrived early afternoon, but the produce stalls that remained — olives, citrus, dried fruit stacked in small mountains — gave a sense of what a proper morning visit would offer. If I did the ride again, I’d go earlier specifically for the market, and treat the corniche walk as the afternoon activity rather than the other way round. The La Marsa destination page has a fuller rundown of the corniche, the market and the Sidi Dhrif café strip.

Getting the timing right

The whole ride, done properly with stops, easily fills half a day, and the timing matters more than I initially gave it credit for. Riding during the 7–9am or 4–7pm windows means a genuinely packed carriage, standing room only on some segments, which isn’t unpleasant exactly but does change the experience from “watching the coast go by” to “holding a rail and trying not to elbow anyone.” Mid-morning to early afternoon rides were considerably more comfortable on every leg I took, and gave enough daylight afterward for a proper wander at whichever stop I’d chosen.

For the fuller station-by-station breakdown and current fare structure, the TGM guide is worth reading before you go, since fares are calculated by zone and it’s easy to buy the wrong ticket for a longer ride than you’d planned.

A different coastline, further south

Riding a slow coastal line end to end turned out to be something I looked for again later in the trip, on a very different stretch of coast — the Sahel, well south of Tunis, where Mahdia sits on its own narrow peninsula with a working port and a much smaller, quieter old town than anything on the TGM line.

A Mahdia city tour by bike or e-scooter covers similar ground to a slow train ride in spirit — unhurried, close to the water, more about noticing the town than ticking off sights — and a Mahdia like a local outing goes further into the same idea, built specifically around how residents use the town rather than a fixed sightseeing checklist.

For a longer day that strings Mahdia together with its Sahel neighbours, Monastir and Sousse: the two jewels of the Tunisian Sahel from Mahdia extends the same instinct — favouring the coast itself over a single headline site — across three towns in one day.

Frequently asked questions about riding the TGM to La Marsa

Is the TGM actually a tram, or is that just a nickname?

It’s a train, technically, dating to 1872 and electrified in the 1930s. “Tram” is the common informal name most locals and visitors use, even though it doesn’t run on street-level tram tracks.

How much does the full ride from Tunis Marine to La Marsa cost?

Around 1.2 TND (about €0.35) for the full distance, with shorter segments costing less, since fares are calculated by zone.

Do I need to book tickets in advance?

No — tickets are bought at station windows just before boarding, and there’s no reservation system for this kind of commuter service.

What’s the best single stop to get off at if I only have time for one?

Sidi Bou Said, if you want the classic postcard village; La Marsa, if you’d rather see how residents actually use this stretch of coast day to day.

How long does the full ride take?

Around 30 to 35 minutes end to end without stops, though most visitors ride it in stages across a full day, getting off at two or three stations. See getting around Tunis for how the TGM fits alongside taxis, buses and the metro léger.

Is the TGM crowded, and when should I avoid riding it?

It gets genuinely packed during the 7–9am and 4–7pm commuter windows. Outside those hours it’s comfortable, with seats generally available.

Does the TGM connect to Carthage’s archaeological sites directly?

Yes — five stations serve different parts of the scattered Carthage site, detailed station by station in the TGM guide and the Carthage archaeological sites guide.

Is La Marsa worth visiting if I’ve already seen Sidi Bou Said?

Yes, precisely because it offers a contrasting, more residential experience of the same coastline rather than repeating what Sidi Bou Said already delivers.

Are there other slow, scenic train or coastal rides worth doing elsewhere in Tunisia?

Not on the same commuter-train model, but the Sahel coast further south, around Mahdia, Monastir and Sousse, offers a comparably unhurried, water-adjacent way to spend a day, usually by bike, scooter or a coastal tour rather than by rail.