1896 – 1912 The town gets its main street, and it is a railwayMesto dostane hlavnú ulicu — a je to železnica

A rack railway opened from Štrba up to Štrbské Pleso in July 1896. On 20 December 1908 the narrow-gauge electric railway reached Starý Smokovec from Poprad, thirteen and a half kilometres of 1,000 mm track originally worked at 550 volts, and the next day the funicular from Starý Smokovec to Hrebienok began running — 2,019 metres of track and 254 metres of climb. The branch to Tatranská Polianka followed on 16 December 1911 and the section on to Štrbské Pleso on 13 August 1912. The settlements were laid out around the railway rather than the other way round, which is why a town twenty kilometres long has one main street and it runs on rails.V júli 1896 sa zo Štrby na Štrbské Pleso rozbehla ozubnicová železnica. 20. decembra 1908 dorazila z Popradu do Starého Smokovca úzkorozchodná elektrická železnica — trinásť a pol kilometra trate s rozchodom 1 000 mm, pôvodne na 550 voltoch — a hneď na druhý deň sa pohla pozemná lanovka zo Starého Smokovca na Hrebienok: 2 019 metrov trate a 254 výškových metrov. Odbočka do Tatranskej Polianky pribudla 16. decembra 1911 a úsek na Štrbské Pleso 13. augusta 1912. Osady sa rozvrhli okolo železnice, nie naopak — a preto má mesto dlhé dvadsať kilometrov jedinú hlavnú ulicu a tá vedie po koľajniciach.