Light rail
Encyclopedia
Urban rail transit
Urban rail transit is an all-encompassing term for various types of local rail systems providing passenger service within and around urban or suburban areas...
public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
systems. The term is typically used to refer to rail systems with rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
-style features that usually use electric rail cars
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
operating mostly in private rights-of-way separated from other traffic but sometimes, if necessary, mixed with other traffic in city streets. If this is the case, then under the law of many countries such systems are legally tramways, although the vehicles which run on them are sometimes designated "supertrams". Modern light rail technology is flexible and adaptable, and whether any given system is considered a true rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
system or not depends on its characteristics.
Definition of light rail
The term light rail was devised in 1972 by the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany the term StadtbahnStadtbahn
A ' is a tramway or light railway that includes segments built to rapid transit standards, usually as part of a process of conversion to a metro railway, mainly by the building of tunnels in the central city area....
(to be distinguished from S-Bahn
S-Bahn
S-Bahn refers to an often combined city center and suburban railway system metro in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark...
, which stands for Stadtschnellbahn) was used to describe the concept, and many in the UMTA (now called the Federal Transit Administration
Federal Transit Administration
The Federal Transit Administration is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administrations within the DOT...
) wanted to adopt the direct translation, which is city rail (the Norwegian term, bybane, means the same). However, the UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead. Light in this context is used in the sense of "intended for light loads and fast movement", rather than referring to physical weight. The investment in infrastructure is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system.
Transportation Research Board
Transportation Research Board
The Transportation Research Board is a division of the National Research Council, which serves as an independent adviser to the President, the Congress and federal agencies on scientific and technical questions of national importance...
(Transportation Systems Center) defined "light rail" in 1977 as: “a mode of urban transportation utilizing predominantly reserved but not necessarily grade-separated rights-of-way. Electrically propelled rail vehicles operate singly or in trains. LRT provides a wide range of passenger capabilities and performance characteristics at moderate costs.”
The American Public Transportation Association
American Public Transportation Association
The American Public Transportation Association is a non-profit organization which serves as an advocate for the advancement of public transportation programs and initiatives in the United States. Since its founding in 1882, APTA has educated the public about the benefits of public transportation...
(APTA) in its Glossary of Transit Terminology defines light rail as: "An electric railway with a 'light volume' traffic capacity compared to heavy rail. Light rail may use shared or exclusive rights-of-way, high or low platform loading and multi-car trains or single cars." However, some diesel powered transit calls itself light rail, such as the O-Train in Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and River Line in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, which use diesel multiple unit
Diesel multiple unit
A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country.-Design:...
cars.
Light rail is similar to the British English
British English
British English, or English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
term light railway
Light railway
Light railway refers to a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail". This usually means the railway uses lighter weight track, and is more steeply graded and tightly curved to avoid civil engineering costs...
, long used to distinguish railway operations carried out under a less rigorous set of regulation using lighter equipment at lower speeds from mainline railways. Light rail is a generic international English
International English
International English is the concept of the English language as a global means of communication in numerous dialects, and also the movement towards an international standard for the language...
phrase for these types of rail systems, which means more or less the same thing throughout the Anglosphere
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
.
The use of the generic term light rail avoids some serious incompatibilities in British and American English. The word tram, for instance, is generally understood in the UK and many former British colonies as a synonym for streetcar, but in North America it can instead refer to an aerial tramway
Aerial tramway
An aerial tramway , cable car , ropeway or aerial tram is a type of aerial lift which uses one or two stationary ropes for support while a third moving rope provides propulsion...
. (The usual British term for an aerial tramway is cable car, which in the U.S. usually refers to a ground-level car pulled along by subterranean cables
Cable car (railway)
A cable car or cable railway is a mass transit system using rail cars that are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required...
.) The word trolley
Trolley (disambiguation)
Used in isolation, trolley may refer to:* a gurney, a form of wheeled stretcher* a flatbed trolley* a hand-truck* a shopping cart* a tram, cable car, or streetcar * a trolleybus, an electric bus...
is often used as a synonym for streetcar in the United States, but is usually taken to mean a cart, particularly a shopping cart, in the UK and elsewhere. Many North American transportation planner
Professional Transportation Planner
A professional transportation planner is a personal certification recognized within the USA, sponsored by the Transportation Professional Certification Board, Inc. and promulgated by the Institute of Transportation Engineers...
s reserve streetcar for traditional vehicles that operate exclusively in mixed traffic on city streets, while they use light rail to refer to more modern vehicles operating mostly in exclusive rights of way, since they may operate both side-by-side targeted at different passenger groups.
The difference between British English and American English terminology arose in the late nineteenth century when Americans adopted the term "street railway", rather than "tramway", with the vehicles being streetcars rather than trams. Some have suggested that the Americans' preference for the term "street railway" at that time was influenced by German emigrants to the United States (who were more numerous than British immigrants in the industrialized Northeast), as it is the same as the German term for the mode, Straßenbahn (meaning "street railway"). A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams except Blackpool
Blackpool tramway
The Blackpool tramway runs from Blackpool to Fleetwood on the Fylde Coast in Lancashire, England, and is the only surviving first-generation tramway in the United Kingdom. The tramway dates back to 1885 and is one of the oldest electric tramways in the world. It is run by Blackpool Transport as...
after World War II, seven major North American cities (Toronto
Toronto streetcar system
The Toronto streetcar system comprises eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission , and is the largest such system in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, and track length. The network is concentrated primarily in downtown and in...
, Boston
Boston-area streetcar lines
As with many large cities, a large number of Boston-area streetcar lines once existed. However, only a few remain, namely the four branches of the Green Line and the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line, with only one running regular service on an undivided street.The Massachusetts Bay Transportation...
, Philadelphia
SEPTA Subway-Surface Trolley Lines
The Subway–Surface Trolley Lines or Green Lines are five SEPTA trolley lines that operate on street-level tracks in West Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and in a shared subway with rapid transit trains in Philadelphia's Center City....
, San Francisco
San Francisco Municipal Railway
The San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served with an operating budget of about $700 million...
, Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Light Rail
The Pittsburgh Light Rail is a light rail system in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it functions as a subway in Downtown Pittsburgh and largely as an at-grade light rail service in the suburbs. The system is owned and operated by the Port Authority of Allegheny County...
, Newark
Newark Light Rail
The Newark Light Rail is a light rail system under New Jersey Transit Bus Operations serving Newark, New Jersey. The service consists of two segments, the original Newark City Subway, and the extension to Broad Street station...
, and New Orleans
Streetcars in New Orleans
Streetcars in New Orleans have been an integral part of the city's public transportation network since the first half of the 19th century. The longest of New Orleans' streetcar lines, the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar, is the oldest continuously operating street railway system in the world,...
) continued to operate large streetcar systems. When these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both the old and new systems. Since the 1980s, Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
has built all three types of system: a high capacity light rail system in dedicated lanes and rights-of-way, a low capacity streetcar system
Portland Streetcar
The Portland Streetcar is a streetcar system in Portland, Oregon, that opened in 2001 and serves areas surrounding downtown Portland. It is currently a single line that is almost long and serves some 12,000 daily riders, but a second line is expected to open in 2012.As with the heavier-duty MAX...
integrated with street traffic, and an aerial tram system
Portland Aerial Tram
The Portland Aerial Tram is an aerial tramway in Portland, Oregon, carrying commuters between the city's South Waterfront district and the main Oregon Health & Science University campus, located in the Marquam Hill neighborhood. It is the second commuter aerial tramway in the United States...
.
The opposite phrase heavy rail, used for higher capacity, higher speed systems also avoids some incompatibilities in terminology between British and American English, as for instance in comparing the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
to the New York Subway. Conventional rail technologies including high-speed
High-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...
, freight, commuter/regional
Regional rail
Commuter rail, also called suburban rail, is a passenger rail transport service that primarily operates between a city center, and the middle to outer suburbs beyond 15km and commuter towns or other locations that draw large numbers of commuters—people who travel on a daily basis...
, and metro/subway/elevated
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
urban transit systems are considered to be "heavy rail". People mover
People mover
A people mover or automated people mover is a fully automated, grade-separated mass transit system.The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks, but is sometimes applied to considerably more complex automated...
s and personal rapid transit
Personal rapid transit
Personal rapid transit , also called podcar, is a public transportation mode featuring small automated vehicles operating on a network of specially built guide ways...
are even "lighter," at least in terms of capacity. Monorail
Monorail
A monorail is a rail-based transportation system based on a single rail, which acts as its sole support and its guideway. The term is also used variously to describe the beam of the system, or the vehicles traveling on such a beam or track...
is a separate technology that has been more successful in specialized services than in a commuter transit role.
Categories of light rail
The most difficult distinction to draw is that between light rail and streetcar or tram systems. There is a significant amount of overlap between the technologies, many of the same vehicles can be used for either, and it is common to classify streetcars/trams as a subtype of light rail rather than as a distinct type of transportation. The two general versions are:- The traditional type, where the tracks and trains run along the streets and share space with road traffic. Stops tend to be very frequent, but little effort is made to set up special stations. Because space is shared, the tracks are usually visually unobtrusive.
- A more modern variation, where the trains tend to run along their own right-of-wayRight-of-way (railroad)A right-of-way is a strip of land that is granted, through an easement or other mechanism, for transportation purposes, such as for a trail, driveway, rail line or highway. A right-of-way is reserved for the purposes of maintenance or expansion of existing services with the right-of-way...
and are often separated from road traffic. Stops are generally less frequent, and the vehicles are often boarded from a platform. Tracks are highly visible, and in some cases significant effort is expended to keep traffic away through the use of special signaling, level crossingLevel crossingA level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
s with gate arms or even a complete separation with non-level crossings. At the highest degree of separation, it can be difficult to draw the line between light rail and metroRapid transitA rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
s, as in the case of WuppertalWuppertalWuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the Wupper river valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf and south of the Ruhr area. With a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land...
's SchwebebahnSchwebebahn Wuppertal- Current modernisation :The Wuppertal Schwebebahn nowadays carries up to 82,000 passengers a day through the city. Since 1997, the supporting frame has been largely modernised, and a lot of stations have been reconstructed and brought technically up to date...
hanging rail system or LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Docklands Light RailwayDocklands Light RailwayThe Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
, which would likely not be considered "light" were it not for the contrast between it and the London UndergroundLondon UndergroundThe London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
; many consider these not to be "light rail" lines but light metrosMedium-capacity rail transport systemIn rail transport, a medium-capacity system is a non-universal term coined to differentiate an intermediate system between light rail and heavy rail. The concept is similar to Light Metro, seen in European countries...
. However, in Europe, the term light rail is increasingly being used to describe any rapid transit system with a fairly lower frequency or shorter trains compared to heavier mass rapid systems such as the London UndergroundLondon UndergroundThe London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
or the Mass Rapid TransitMass Rapid Transit (Singapore)The Mass Rapid Transit or MRT is a rapid transit system that forms the backbone of the railway system in Singapore, spanning the entire city-state. The initial section of the MRT, between Yio Chu Kang Station and Toa Payoh Station, opened in 1987 establishing itself as the second-oldest metro...
in SingaporeSingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. For instance, the Putra LRT and Star LRT in Kuala LumpurKuala LumpurKuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
are often referred to as "light rail", despite being fully segregated mostly-elevated railways. In North America, such systems are not considered to be light rail.
Many light rail systems—even fairly old ones—have a combination of the two, with both on-road and off-road sections. In some countries (esp. in Europe), only the latter is described as light rail. In those places, trams running on mixed right-of-way are not regarded as light rail, but considered distinctly as streetcars or trams. However, the requirement for saying that a rail line is "separated" can be quite low—sometimes just with concrete "buttons" to discourage automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
drivers from getting onto the tracks.
There is a significant difference in cost between these different classes of light rail transit. The traditional style is often less expensive by a factor of two or more. Despite the increased cost, the more modern variation (which can be considered as "heavier" than old streetcar systems, even though it is called "light rail") is the dominant form of urban rail development in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Some systems, such as the AirTrain JFK
AirTrain JFK
AirTrain JFK is a 3-line, -long people mover system and elevated railway in New York City providing service to John F. Kennedy International Airport...
in New York City and DLR
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
in London and Kelana Jaya Line
Kelana Jaya Line
The Kelana Jaya Line is a medium-capacity rail transport system and one of the three rail transit lines in the Kuala Lumpur Rail Transit System operated by RapidKL Rail network...
in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, Malaysia have dispensed with the need for an operator. The Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
SkyTrain
SkyTrain (Vancouver)
SkyTrain is a light rapid transit system in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. SkyTrain has of track and uses fully automated trains on grade-separated tracks, running mostly on elevated guideways, which helps SkyTrain to hold consistently high on-time reliability...
was an early adopter of driverless vehicles, while the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
Scarborough rapid transit operates the same trains as Vancouver, but uses drivers. In most discussions and comparisons, these specialized systems are not considered to be light rail.
History
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
increased. Britain abandoned its last tram system, except for Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
, by 1962. Although some traditional trolley or tram systems still exist to this day, the term "light rail" has come to mean a different type of rail system. Modern light rail technology has primarily German origins, since an attempt by Boeing Vertol to introduce a new American light rail vehicle was a technical failure. After World War II, the Germans retained their streetcar networks and evolved them into model light rail systems (Stadtbahnen). Except for Hamburg, all large and most medium-sized German cities maintain light rail networks.
The basic concepts of light rail were put forward by H. Dean Quinby in 1962 in an article in Traffic Quarterly called "Major Urban Corridor Facilities: A New Concept". Quinby distinguished this new concept in rail transportation from historic streetcar/tram systems as:
- Having the capacity to carry more passengers
- Appearing like a train, with more than one car connected together
- Having more doors to facilitate full utilization of the space
- Faster and quieter in operation
The term light rail transit (LRT) was introduced in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in 1972 to describe this new concept of rail transportation.
The first of the new light rail systems in North America began operation in 1978 when the Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta adopted the German Siemens-Duewag U2
Siemens-Duewag U2
The Siemens-Duewag U2 is a type of light-rail vehicle . The cars were built by consortium of Siemens, Wegmann & Co. and Duewag. The U2 design was built on the Siemens U1 prototype tram built in 1965 ....
system, followed three years later by Calgary, Alberta and San Diego, California
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
. The concept proved popular, and although Canada has few cities big enough for light rail, there are now at least 30 light rail systems in the United States.
Tyne and Wear Metro
The Tyne and Wear Metro, also known as the Metro, is a light rail system in North East England, serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside, North Tyneside and Sunderland. It opened in 1980 and in 2007–2008 provided 40 million public journeys on its network of nearly...
and followed by the Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
(DLR) in London. The historic term light railway
Light railway
Light railway refers to a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail". This usually means the railway uses lighter weight track, and is more steeply graded and tightly curved to avoid civil engineering costs...
was used because it dated from the British Light Railways Act 1896
Light Railways Act 1896
The Light Railways Act 1896 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . Before the Act each new railway line built in the country required a specific Act of Parliament to be obtained by the company that wished to construct it, which greatly added to the cost...
, although the technology used in the DLR system was at the high end of what Americans considered to be light rail. The trend to light rail in the United Kingdom was firmly established with the success of the Manchester Metrolink
Manchester Metrolink
Metrolink is a light rail system in Greater Manchester, England. It consists of four lines which converge in Manchester city centre and terminate in Bury, Altrincham, Eccles and Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The system is owned by Transport for Greater Manchester and operated under contract by RATP Group...
system in 1992.
Historically, the rail gauge
Rail gauge
Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...
has had considerable variations, with narrow gauge common in many early systems. However, most light rail systems are now standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
. Older standard gauge vehicles could not negotiate sharp turns as easily as narrow gauge ones, but modern light rail systems achieve tighter turning radii by using articulated car
Articulated car
Articulated cars are rail vehicles which are consist of a number of smaller, lighter cars which are semi-permanently attached to each other and which share common trucks. They are much longer than single passenger cars, and on the TGV Réseau, for example, 8 cars are joined this way...
s. An important advantage of standard gauge is that standard railway maintenance equipment can be used on it, rather than custom-built machinery. Using standard gauge also allows light rail vehicles to be moved around conveniently using the same tracks as freight railways. Another factor favoring standard gauge is that accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
laws are making low-floor tram
Low-floor tram
A low-floor tram is a tram that has no stair steps between one or more entrances and part or all of the passenger cabin. The low-floor design improves the accessibility of the tram for the public, and also may provide larger windows and more airspace....
s mandatory, and there is generally insufficient space for wheelchairs to move between the wheels in a narrow gauge layout.
Comparison to other rail transit modes
With its mix of right-of-way types and train control technologies, LRT offers the widest range of latitude of any rail system in the design, engineering, and operating practices. The challenge in designing light rail systems is to realize the potential of LRT to provide fast, comfortable service while avoiding the tendency to overdesign that results in excessive capital costs beyond what is necessary to meet the public's needs.Rapid rail transit
Light rail vehicles (LRVs) are distinguished from rapid rail transit (RRT) vehicles by their capability for operation in mixed traffic, generally resulting in a narrower car body and articulation in order to operate in a street traffic environment. With their large size, large turning radius, and often an electrified third rail, RRT vehicles cannot operate in the street. Since LRT systems can operate using existing streets, they can often avoid the cost of expensive grade-separated subway and elevated segments that would be required with RRT.Streetcars or trams
Conversely, LRVs generally outperform streetcars in terms of capacity and top-end speed, and almost all modern LRVs are capable of multiple-unit operation. Particularly on exclusive rights-of-way, LRVs can provide much higher speeds and passenger volumes than a streetcar. Thus a single-unit streetcar capable of only 70 kilometres per hour (43.5 mph) operating on a shared right of way is not generally considered “light rail”. The latest generation of LRVs is considerably larger and faster, typically of length of 29 metres (95.1 ft) with maximum speed around 105 kilometres per hour (65.2 mph).Heritage streetcar
A variation many cities consider is to use historic or replica cars on their streetcar systems instead of modern LRVs. A heritage streetcar may not have the capacity and speed of an LRV, but it will add to the ambiance and historic character of its location.Typical rolling stock
The BART railcar in the following chart is not generally considered to be a "light rail" vehicle, and is only included for comparison purposes.| Type | Rapid Transit | Light Rail | Tram / Streetcar | Heritage Streetcar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Rohr | Siemens | Skoda | Gomaco Trolley Co. |
| Model | BART A-Car | S70 | 10T | Replica Birney |
| Width | 3.2 metres (10.5 ft) | 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) | 2.6 metres (8.53 ft) | 2.62 metres (8.6 ft) |
| Length | 22.9 metres (75.1 ft) | 27.7 metres (90.9 ft) (articulated) | 20.13 metres (66 ft) | 15.16 metres (49.7 ft) |
| Capacity | 150 max | 220 max | 157 max | 88 max |
| Top Speed | 125 kilometres per hour (77.7 mph) | 106 kilometres per hour (65.9 mph) | 70 kilometres per hour (43.5 mph) | 48 kilometres per hour (29.8 mph) |
| Typical Consist | 8-10 vehicles | 1-4 vehicles | 1 vehicle | 1 vehicle |
Light metro
A derivative of LRT is light rail rapid transit (LRRT), also referred to as Light Metro. Such railways are characterized by exclusive rights of way, advanced train control systems, short headway capability, and floor level boarding. These systems approach the passenger capacity of full metro systems, but can be cheaper to construct by using the ability of LRVs to turn tighter curves and climb steeper grades than standard RRT vehicles.Interurbans
The term interurban (German Überland(strassen)bahn) mainly refers to rail-cars that run through the streets like ordinary streetcars (trams), but also between cities and/or towns, often through rural environments. In the period 1900-1930, interurbans were very common in the US, especially in the Midwest. Some of them, like the Red DevilsRed Devil (interurban)
The Red Devil was a high-speed interurban trolley . It was developed by the Cincinnati Car Company for the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad , which bought 20 of them in 1929 for service between cities and towns in Ohio. At and long, they were among the first lightweight trolleys, with side...
, the J.G.Brill Bullets
Bullet (interurban)
The Bullet was a high-speed interurban railcar produced by J. G. Brill and Company in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia and Western Railroad in 1931, and then the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad in 1932. Few were sold because of the Great Depression and the public transport decline in...
, and the Electroliner
Electroliner
The Electroliners were a pair of electric passenger train sets operated by the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, which ran between Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. These streamlined electric multiple unit interurban trains were built by St. Louis Car Company in 1941. Each...
s, were the high-speed rail
High-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...
cars of their time, with an in-service speed of up to about 145 km/h (90 mph).
Train operation
An important factor crucial to LRT is the train operator. Unlike rail rapid transit, which can travel unattended under control of automatic train operation (ATO), safe, high-quality LRT operation relies on a human operator as a key element. The reason that the operator is so important is because the train tracks often share the streets with automobiles, other vehicles, and pedestrians . If trains were fully automated on roads, nobody would be there to stop the train if a car pulled in front of it. Light rail trains are actually very sturdily built for passenger safety, and to reduce damage from impacts with cars. The philosophy of light rail is that a qualified person should be on each train to deal with emergencies, and while that person is there, he or she might as well operate the train.Floor height
The latest generation of LRVs has the advantage of partial or fully low-floor design, with the floor of the vehicles only 300 to 360 mm (11.8 to 14.2 in) above top of rail, a capability not found in either rapid rail transit vehicles or streetcars. This allows them to load passengers, including ones in wheelchairs, directly from low-rise platforms that are not much more than raised sidewalks. This satisfies requirements to provide access to disabled passengers without using expensive and delay-inducing wheelchair lifts, while at the same time making boarding faster and easier for other passengers as well.Power sources
Overhead linesOverhead lines
Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses or trains at a distance from the energy supply point...
supply electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
to the vast majority of light rail systems. This avoids the danger of passengers stepping on an electrified third rail. The Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
uses an inverted third rail
Third rail
A third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...
for its electrical power which allows the electrified rail to be covered and the power drawn from the underside. Trams in Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, France use a special third-rail configuration where the power is only switched on beneath the trams, making it safe on city streets. Several systems in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, as well as a few recently-opened systems in North America use diesel
Diesel engine
A diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses the heat of compression to initiate ignition to burn the fuel, which is injected into the combustion chamber...
-powered trains.
Pros and cons of light rail
All transit service involves a trade-off between speed and frequency of stops. Services that stop frequently have lower overall speed and are therefore less attractive for longer trips but are more likely to go where the user wants. Light rail, monorailMonorail
A monorail is a rail-based transportation system based on a single rail, which acts as its sole support and its guideway. The term is also used variously to describe the beam of the system, or the vehicles traveling on such a beam or track...
, and Bus Rapid Transit
Bus rapid transit
Bus rapid transit is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems using buses to provide faster, more efficient service than an ordinary bus line. Often this is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling...
are all forms of rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
, which generally signifies high speed and widely-spaced stops. Trams are a form of local transit, making more frequent stops.
Tram and light-rail transit systems around the world
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and Jersey City) that once closed down their tram networks are now in the stages of reconstructing, or have rebuilt, some of their tramways.
Most light rail services are currently committed to articulated vehicles like modern LRVs, i.e. tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
s, with the exception of large underground metro systems.
Capacity of light rail versus roads
One line of light rail has a theoretical capacity of up to 8 times more than one lane of freeway (not counting buses) during peak times. Roads have ultimate capacity limits that can be determined by traffic engineeringTraffic engineering (transportation)
For the engineering of communications and computer networks, see Teletraffic engineering.Traffic engineering is a branch of civil engineering that uses engineering techniques to achieve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods on roadways...
. They usually experience a chaotic breakdown in flow and a dramatic drop in speed (colloquially known as a traffic jam) if they exceed about 2,000 vehicles per hour per lane (each car roughly two seconds
Two-second rule (road)
The two-second rule is a rule of thumb by which a driver may maintain a safe following distance at any speed. The rule is that a driver should ideally stay at least two seconds behind any vehicle that is directly in front of the driver's vehicle...
behind another). Since most people who drive to work or on business trips do so alone, studies show that the average car occupancy on many roads carrying commuters is only about 1.2 people per car during the high-demand rush hour
Rush hour
A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...
periods of the day. This combination of factors limits roads carrying only automobile commuters to a maximum observed capacity of about 2,400 passengers per hour per lane. The problem can be mitigated by using high-occupancy vehicle (HOV
High-occupancy vehicle lane
In transportation engineering and transportation planning, a high-occupancy vehicle lane is a lane reserved for vehicles with a driver and one or more passengers...
) lanes and introducing ride-sharing programs, but in most cases the solution adopted has been to add more lanes to the roads. Simple arithmetic shows that in order to carry 20,000 automobile commuters per hour per direction, a freeway must be at least 18 lanes wide.
By contrast, light rail vehicles can travel in multi-car trains carrying a theoretical ridership up to 20,000 passengers per hour in much narrower rights-of-way, not much more than two car lanes wide for a double track
Double track
A double track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single track railway where trains in both directions share the same track.- Overview :...
system. They can often be run through existing city streets and parks, or placed in the medians of roads. If run in streets, trains are usually limited by city block lengths to about four 180-passenger vehicles (720 passengers). Operating on 2 minute headways using traffic signal progression, a well-designed two-track system can handle up to 30 trains per hour per track, achieving peak rates of over 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction. More advanced systems with separate rights-of-way using moving block signalling
Railway signalling
Railway signalling is a system used to control railway traffic safely, essentially to prevent trains from colliding. Being guided by fixed rails, trains are uniquely susceptible to collision; furthermore, trains cannot stop quickly, and frequently operate at speeds that do not enable them to stop...
can exceed 25,000 passengers per hour per track.
Most light rail systems in the United States are limited by demand rather than capacity (by and large, most North American LRT systems carry less than 4000 persons per hour per direction), but Boston and San Francisco light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour per track during rush hour. Elsewhere in North America, the Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
C-Train
C-Train
C-Train is the light rail transit system in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It has been in operation since May 25, 1981. The system is operated by Calgary Transit, a department of the Calgary municipal government.-Operations:...
, Toronto streetcar system
Toronto streetcar system
The Toronto streetcar system comprises eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission , and is the largest such system in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, and track length. The network is concentrated primarily in downtown and in...
, and Monterrey Metro
Monterrey Metro
The Monterrey Metro is a fully grade-separated light rail, or metro, system in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It is the newest of Mexico's metro systems, with operation beginning in 1991. As of October 2008, the system operated 40 high-floor electric trains along 31 km of routes...
have higher light rail ridership than Boston or San Francisco. Systems outside North America often have much higher passenger volumes. The Manila Light Rail Transit System
Manila Light Rail Transit System
The Manila Light Rail Transit System, popularly known as the LRT, is a metropolitan rail system serving the Metro Manila area in the Philippines. Although referred to as a light rail system because it originally used light rail vehicles, it has many characteristics of a rapid transit system, such...
is one of the highest capacity ones, having being upgraded in a series of expansions to handle 40,000 passengers per hour per direction, and having carried as many as 582,989 passengers in a single day on its Line #1. It achieves this volume by running 4-car trains of up to 1350 passengers at a frequency of up to 30 trains per hour. It is important to note, however, that the Manila light rail system has full grade separation and as a result has many of the operating characteristics of a Metro system rather than a light rail system. 1350 passengers per train is more similar to heavy rail than light rail.
A bus line using its own lanes can have a capacity of 7,000 per hour (30 buses per direction, 120 passengers in articulated bus
Articulated bus
An articulated bus is an articulated vehicle used in public transportation. It is usually a single-deck design, and comprises two rigid sections linked by a pivoting joint...
es). Bus traffic is the traditional alternative to light rail, at least if very high capacity is not needed. Using buses, roads can get a high transit capacity. To have 30 buses per direction and hour, they must have priority in traffic lights and have their own lanes, as must trams to reach this density. Buses can go closer to each other than rail vehicles because of better braking capability. However, each bus vehicle requires a single driver, whereas a light rail train may have three to four cars of the same capacity in one train under the control of one driver, increasing labor costs of high- traffic BRT systems.
Integration of bicycles and light rail
Light rail lines have various policies on bicycles. Some light rail lines fleets restrict bicycles during peak hours. Some light rail lines, for example in San Francisco, ban bicycles completely.Costs of light rail construction and operation
The cost of light rail constructionConstruction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...
varies widely, largely depending on the amount of tunneling and elevated structures required. A survey of North American light rail projects shows that costs of most LRT systems range from $15 million per mile to over $100 million per mile. Seattle's new light rail system
Link Light Rail
Sound Transit Link Light Rail is a rapid transit project in the Greater Seattle region, originally approved by a ballot measure in November 1996. Two lines are currently operating as of 2009: Tacoma Link, which uses 3 vehicles built by Škoda, and Central Link, which uses 35 vehicles built by Kinki...
is by far the most expensive in the U.S. at $179 million per mile, since it includes extensive tunneling in poor soil conditions, elevated sections, and stations as deep as 180 feet (54.9 m) below ground level. These result in costs more typical of subways or rapid transit systems than light rail. At the other end of the scale, four systems (Baltimore, MD; Camden, NJ; Sacramento, CA; and Salt Lake City, UT) incurred costs of less than $20 million per mile. Over the U.S. as a whole, excluding Seattle, new light rail construction costs average about $35 million per mile.
By comparison, a freeway lane expansion typically costs $2.3 million per lane mile (a lane mile is a mile-long lane
Lane
A lane is a part of the roadway within a road marked out for use by a single line of vehicles in such a way as to control and guide drivers for the purpose of reducing traffic conflicts. Most public roads have at least two lanes, one for traffic in each direction, separated by Lane markings...
) for two directions. Since a light rail track can carry up to 20,000 people per hour as compared with 2,000-2,200 vehicles per hour for one freeway lane, light rail is comparable in construction cost to freeways on a per passenger-mile basis. For example, in Boston and San Francisco, light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour, respectively, in the peak direction during rush hour.
Combining highway expansion with LRT construction can save costs by doing both highway improvements and rail construction at the same time. As an example, Denver's
T-REX (Transportation Expansion) project rebuilt interstate highways 25 and 225 and added a light-rail expansion for a total cost of $1.67 billion over five years. The cost of 17 miles (27.4 km) of highway improvements and 19 miles (30.6 km) of double-track light rail worked out to $19.3 million per highway lane-mile and $27.6 million per LRT track-mile. The project came in under budget and 22 months ahead of schedule.
LRT cost efficiency improves dramatically as ridership increases, as can be seen from the numbers above: the same rail line, with similar capital and operating costs, is far more efficient if it is carrying 20,000 people per hour than if it is carrying 2400. The Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
C-Train
C-Train
C-Train is the light rail transit system in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It has been in operation since May 25, 1981. The system is operated by Calgary Transit, a department of the Calgary municipal government.-Operations:...
used many common light rail techniques to keep costs low, including minimizing underground and elevated trackage, sharing transit malls with buses, leasing rights-of-way from freight railroads, and combining LRT construction with freeway expansion. As a result, Calgary ranks toward the less expensive end of the scale with capital costs of around $24 million per mile.
However, Calgary's LRT ridership is much higher than any comparable U.S. light rail system at 300,000 passengers per weekday, and as a result its efficiency of capital is also much higher. Its capital costs were ⅓ that of the San Diego Trolley
San Diego Trolley
The San Diego Trolley is a light rail system operating in the metropolitan area of San Diego. The operator, San Diego Trolley, Inc. , is a subsidiary of the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System ...
, a comparably sized U.S. system built at the same time, while by 2009 its ridership was approximately three times as high. Thus, Calgary's capital cost per passenger was much lower than that of San Diego. Its operating cost per passenger was also much lower because of its higher ridership. A typical C-Train vehicle costs only $163 per hour to operate, and since it averages 600 passengers per operating hour, Calgary Transit estimates that its LRT operating costs are only 27 cents per ride, versus $1.50 per ride on its buses.
Trams operating on mainline railways
Around KarlsruheKarlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
, Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
and Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, dual-voltage light rail trains partly use mainline railroad tracks, sharing these tracks with heavy-rail trains. In the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, this concept was first applied on the RijnGouweLijn
RijnGouweLijn
The RijnGouweLijn or RGL is originally a plan for a light rail project in South Holland, Netherlands, with partly new rail tracks and partly using existing rail tracks of the Gouda–Alphen aan den Rijn railway and the Woerden–Leiden railway....
. This allows commuters to ride directly into the city centre, rather than taking a mainline train only as far as a central station and then having change to a tram. In France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
similar tram-train
Tram-train
A tram-train is a light-rail public transport system where trams run both on an urban tramway network and on main-line railways to combine the tram's flexibility and availability and the train's greater speed...
s are planned for Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Mulhouse
Mulhouse
Mulhouse |mill]] hamlet) is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. With a population of 110,514 and 278,206 inhabitants in the metropolitan area in 2006, it is the largest city in the Haut-Rhin département, and the second largest in the Alsace region after...
and Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
; further projects exist.
Some of the issues involved in such schemes are:
- Compatibility of the safety systems
- Power supply of the track in relation to the power used by the vehicles (frequently different voltages, rarely third rail vs overhead wires)
- Width of the vehicles in relation to the position of the platformsRailway platformA railway platform is a section of pathway, alongside rail tracks at a train station, metro station or tram stop, at which passengers may board or alight from trains or trams. Almost all stations for rail transport have some form of platforms, with larger stations having multiple platforms...
- HeightHeightHeight is the measurement of vertical distance, but has two meanings in common use. It can either indicate how "tall" something is, or how "high up" it is. For example "The height of the building is 50 m" or "The height of the airplane is 10,000 m"...
of the platforms
There is a history of what would now be considered light-rail vehicles operating on heavy-rail rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
tracks in the U.S., especially in the case of interurban streetcars. Notable examples are Lehigh Valley Transit
Lehigh Valley Transit
The Lehigh Valley Transit Company was a Pennsylvania interurban rail transport company that operated a network of city and interurban trolley lines. In poor financial condition, LVT abruptly abandoned operation of its Philadelphia Division in September 1951...
trains running on the Philadelphia and Western Railroad
Philadelphia and Western Railroad
The Philadelphia and Western Railroad was a high-speed, third rail-operated, commuter-hauling interurban electric railroad operating in the western suburbs of the U.S. city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of its lines is now SEPTA's R100 Norristown High Speed Line; the other has been abandoned...
high-speed third rail line (now the Norristown High Speed Line
Norristown High Speed Line
The Norristown High Speed Line is an interurban line system operated between Upper Darby and Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA by SEPTA...
). Such arrangements are almost impossible now, due to the Federal Railroad Administration
Federal Railroad Administration
The Federal Railroad Administration is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation. The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966...
refusing (for crash safety reasons) to allow non-FRA compliant railcars (i.e. subway and light rail vehicles) to run on the same tracks at the same times as compliant railcars, which includes locomotives and standard railroad passenger and freight equipment. Notable exceptions in the USA is the New Jersey Transit
New Jersey Transit
The New Jersey Transit Corporation is a statewide public transportation system serving the United States state of New Jersey, and New York, Orange, and Rockland counties in New York State...
River Line
River Line (New Jersey Transit)
The River Line is a diesel light rail system in New Jersey, United States, that connects the cities of Camden and Trenton, New Jersey's capital. It is operated for New Jersey Transit by the Southern New Jersey Rail Group , which originally included Bechtel Group and Bombardier...
from Camden
Camden, New Jersey
The city of Camden is the county seat of Camden County, New Jersey. It is located across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 77,344...
to Trenton
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
and Austin's Capital MetroRail
Capital MetroRail
Capital MetroRail is a commuter rail system that serves the Greater Austin, Texas, area and which is owned by the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The Red Line, Capital Metro's first and only rail line, connects Downtown Austin with Austin's northern suburbs. The line operates on 32...
, which have received exemptions on the provision that light rail operations occur only during daytime hours and Conrail freight service only at night, with several hours separating one operation from the other. The O-train in Ottawa also has freight service at certain hours.
Third-rail power for trams
When electric streetcars were introduced in the late 19th century, conduit current collectionConduit current collection
Conduit current collection is a system of electric current collection used by electric trams, where the power supply is carried in a channel under the roadway, rather than located overhead.-Description:...
was one of the first ways of supplying power, but it proved to be much more expensive, complicated, and trouble-prone than overhead wires. When electric street railways became ubiquitous, conduit power was used in those cities that did not permit overhead wires. In Europe, it was used in London, Paris, Berlin, Marseilles, Budapest and Prague. In the United States, it was used in parts of New York City and Washington DC. Third rail technology is being investigated for use on the Gold Coast
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
of Australia for the Gold Coast Rapid Transit system.
In the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
city of Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
, the Citadis
Citadis
The Citadis is a low-floor tram built by Alstom in La Rochelle, France, and Barcelona, Spain. 1,140 Citadis are currently in use in 28 cities, among others: Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lyon, Montpellier, Orléans, the Paris area, and Barcelona, Dublin, Gdańsk, Katowice, Adelaide, Melbourne, Jerusalem and...
trams are powered by a third rail
Ground-level power supply
Ground-level power supply, also known as surface current collection and Alimentation par Sol is a modern method of third-rail electrical pick-up for street trams. It was invented for the Bordeaux tramway, which was constructed from 2000 and opened in 2003. Until 2011, this is the only place it is...
in the city center, where the tracks are not always segregated from pedestrians and cars. The third rail (actually two closely spaced rails) is placed in the middle of the track, and divided into eight-metre sections, each of which is powered only while it is completely covered by a tram. This minimises the risk of a person or animal coming into contact with a live rail. In outer areas, the trams switch to conventional overhead wires
Overhead lines
Overhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses or trains at a distance from the energy supply point...
. In practice, the Bordeaux power system costs about three times as much as a conventional overhead wire system, and took 24 months to achieve acceptable levels of reliability, requiring replacement of all the main cables and power supplies. Operating and maintenance costs of the innovative power system still remain high. However, despite numerous service outages, the system was a success with the public, gaining up to 190,000 passengers per day.
See also
- Capabus
- Cater MetroTrolleyCater MetroTrolleyMetroTrolley is a battery electric vehicle developed in response to zero emission rail car requirements in certain environments. Its aim is to replace the RRV Hirail-type road-rail vehicle used for ultrasonic rail flaw detection [RFD / non-destructive testing]. Previous trolley types do not have...
- Conduit current collectionConduit current collectionConduit current collection is a system of electric current collection used by electric trams, where the power supply is carried in a channel under the roadway, rather than located overhead.-Description:...
- General Motors Streetcar ConspiracyGeneral Motors streetcar conspiracyThe General Motors streetcar conspiracy refers to allegations and convictions in relation to a program by General Motors and a number of other companies to purchase and dismantle streetcars and electric trains in many cities across the United States and replace them with bus services; a program...
- H-BahnH-BahnThe H-Bahn in Dortmund and Düsseldorf is a suspended, driverless passenger monorail system. The system has been developed by Siemens, who call the project SIPEM ....
- Interurban streetcar
- Light rail in North AmericaLight rail in North AmericaLight rail is a commonly used mode of rapid transit in North America. The term light rail was coined in 1972 by the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration to describe new streetcar transformations which were taking place in Europe and the United States...
- Light Rail Transit AssociationLight Rail Transit AssociationThe Light Rail Transit Association is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to advocate and encourage research into the retention and development of light rail and tramway/streetcar systems...
- List of tram and light-rail transit systems (existing and new/under construction systems only)
- List of town tramway systems (all-time lists)
- List of United States light rail systems by ridership
- List of rail transit systems in the United States
- Overhead linesOverhead linesOverhead lines or overhead wires are used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses or trains at a distance from the energy supply point...
- Passenger rail terminologyPassenger rail terminologyVarious terms are used for passenger rail lines and equipment-the usage of these terms differs substantially between areas:-Rapid transit:A rapid transit system is an electric railway characterized by high speed and rapid acceleration. It uses passenger railcars operating singly or in multiple unit...
- Railway electrification systemRailway electrification systemA railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...
- S-BahnS-BahnS-Bahn refers to an often combined city center and suburban railway system metro in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark...
- Streetcars in North AmericaStreetcars in North AmericaElectric streetcars—trams outside North America—once were the chief mode of public transit in scores of North American cities. Most municipal systems were dismantled in the mid-20th century....
- Third railThird railA third rail is a method of providing electric power to a railway train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost...
- U-Bahn
- Urban rail transitUrban rail transitUrban rail transit is an all-encompassing term for various types of local rail systems providing passenger service within and around urban or suburban areas...
External links
- A movie of Armour's electric trolley, circa 1897 from Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
- Commercial Light Rail Technology
- Advances in Light Rail Technology
- List of Canadian urban rail systems
- Table of Light Rail Transit Agencies in the United States
- Commuter Rail, Light Rail & Rail Transit News
- Light Rail Central photos & news
- American Public Transit Association
- Federal Transit Administration (U.S.)
- Light Rail & Transit News Current news concerning light rail development and issues
- Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the U.S. National Research Council
- Connected Cities
- Light Rail Transit Association (GB)
- Light Rail Central (US/CA)
- Light Rail Now! (US) A pro-light rail web site, opposing monorails, Bus Rapid Transit (busways), and other less common transportation systems
- Light Rail Netherlands (NL) in English, Nederlands, Русский, Deutsch, Français, Español
- http://www.PhoenixLightRail.Net (US-PHX-AZ) Site shows every business within one block of all 28 stations under construction in Phoenix, AZ. Posted 11/8/2007
- The Times Comment on a London light-rail proposal
- Toronto LRT Information Page (CA) A pro-light rail web site aimed at the Greater Toronto Area
- Transit Miami
- Tram Travels/Sporvognsrejser
- (Jane's) Urban Transit Systems