Light rail vehicle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Station of a light rail in downtown Seattle (Westlake Station in 2009)

Light rail vehicle (LRV) or light rail (analogous light rail vehicle , light rail ) are internationally used terms of the transport system with origin from the Anglo-American language area. Light rail, the short form of Light rail transit (LRT), describes a rail-bound, usually electrically powered and standard-gauge transport system for local public and regional transport . Light rail vehicle is the rail vehicle of this system.

Colloquially, Light rail is translated as Stadtbahn in German , which is problematic because the historical as well as current use of the word Stadtbahn overlaps with the use of the term Light rail outside the German-speaking area, but is not completely congruent.

Light rail trains are means of transport that, similar to small railways, usually have a lower capacity and lower speed than conventional rail , commuter and underground trains , but they are equipped with higher speed and greater transport volume than a bus or a traditional tram . The trains run at ground level as well as underground and either independently on their own route or their own embankment or they are fully integrated into road traffic .

Etymology and Definition

Origin of the term

Historically, the term light rail has two origins, on the one hand the British Term Light Railway from the 19th century. On the other hand, there was an American term derived from the name of a new standard of the 1970s, which arose from a renewal of the concept of the conventional tram in the USA. US Standard light rail vehicle (SLVR), a standard for a vehicle of a light rail system, which the US Department of Transportation planned as a local transport system for the cities of Boston and San Francisco , and finally with funds from the Ministry in both cities by the company Boeing Vertol was built.

When the term light rail was coined in 1972 by a department of the US Department of Transportation, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) , there was another suggestion from Vukan Vuchic, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania . He prepared a report on behalf of UMTA, which was produced with the support of the German transport planner Friedrich Lehner and also contained an overview of the European approach to modernizing the tram in the 1960s. In this report, Vukan Vuchic suggested using the German term “Stadtbahn” in the translation “city rail”, but UMTA decided to exclusively use “Light rail” in future.

definition

The Transportation Research Board (TRB), a department of the National Research Council of the USA, finally formulated the following definition in the spring of 1976:

Light Rail Transit represents a form of passenger transport in urban, i.e. urban settlement areas up to metropolitan areas , which mainly uses routes that are separate from normal traffic but also integrated into road traffic. The trains consist either of the electric railcar itself or additional wagons attached . The LRT transport system is characterized by vehicles with a wide variety of capacities and individual performance features as well as moderate costs.
and display information about the image
Light rail in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Light Rail Transit), articulated tram from the French company Alstom (2009)

Both Light Rail (light rail [traffic]) and the opposite word Heavy Rail (heavy rail [traffic]) use the terms for weight, but the concept has no direct connection with it (even if the vehicles are usually lighter than suburban trains). Instead, “light” stands for lighter requirements / lower passenger numbers (intended for light loads and fast movement) . In addition, investments in routes can be made “easier”, i.e. with lower costs and simpler route facilities compared to mainline railways. The UMTA short description literally says “ 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. “Although not covered by this definition, some diesel-electric railways also use the designation light rail, e.g. B. the O-Train in Ottawa.

Current usage of the term

As an official term in German-speaking countries, there is no term in the form of light rail or light rail . Accordingly, there is no entry in the German-language Duden . The word Stadtbahn is also given there as a translation of the French term Métropolitain . In Germany, the term has only been used in company names such as Lightrail Transit Enterprises GmbH, for example in Heidelberg .

Colloquially , for example, the term is described in various Internet projects by European railroad fans as an intermediate form of rail and tram in urban and regional passenger transport.

Several uses are currently recognizable internationally:

  • English language Light rail , Metrorail , Metrolink (e.g .: Manchester Metrolink )
  • Scandinavia Light rail = Lättbana / Letbane ( e.g .: København Ring 3 Letbane and Århus Letbane)
  • Romance languages
    • Spanish Light rail = Tren ligero de ... ( e.g .: Tren ligero de la Ciudad de México)
    • French Light metro, tram = Tramway de ... (e.g .: Tramway de Grenoble)
    • Romanian Light metro = Metroul ușor din ... (e.g .: Metroul ușor din București)
  • West and South Slavic languages Light metro = Lehké metro / Лаки шински систем ( e.g .: Beogradski Laki Metro)
  • East Slavic languages Light rail = Легкий рельсовый транспорт , Light metro = лёгкое метро ( e.g .: Сверхлёгкий электропоезд «Турист» in Novosibirsk )

history

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many North American metropolitan areas sought alternatives to the Interstate Highway system, which construction was almost complete by those years. The increase in private car ownership not only led to an increase in traffic within North American cities, but also to a deterioration in air quality. As a result, many urban regions began to draw up plans for local transport systems. The cities of San Francisco and Washington DC decided to plan systems of heavy rails (heavier railway systems). But in many other regions, the demand, density and potential of the existing traffic did not justify the high construction costs and environmental impact that arose during and after the construction of such conventional systems. In addition, since the 1950s, when over 16 billion people annually used public transport in the United States, the number of passengers has shrunk by half in the 1960s.

Bus lanes and other preferential treatments for buses were already seen as future options, particularly in the US. But in the end the solution was the planning of the light rail. The inspiration for this came from Europe, above all from the new, more effective operation of conventional trams in what was then West Germany , because there, as part of the car- friendly city concept, trams were partially buried and relocated to more independent routes.

After the US UMTA was enacted on the use of LRV light rail vehicles, the first corresponding light rail local transport system was set up in Edmonton (Canada) in 1978. Siemens Duewag U2 light rail cars were used for the Edmonton LRT . The newer light rail systems have been so successful that there are now more than 30 LRT systems in the United States . Note that many tram systems are also classified as LRT in the US - the designation light rail is chosen here to differentiate it from the previous streetcar, which also included other local public transport via roadways. However, the term light rail transit remains in systems with at least some of their own routes ( exclusive rights-of-way ).

In Great Britain, on the other hand, former suburban railways have been converted to LRT systems, with the Light Railways Act of 1896 referring to them as light rail, even if they are more like a S-Bahn, e.g. B. the Tyne and Wear Metro in and around Newcastle. The trend continued with the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London (1987) and the Manchester Metrolink (1992). The Manchester Metrolink illustrates the light rail trend, because there existing suburban rail lines have been reactivated as LRT links and connected with each other by the trains running as trams in the city center (with elevated platforms), and thus the construction of an expensive railway tunnel under the city ( Picc-Vic tunnel ).

As in the USA, its increasing popularity was based on the lower construction and operating costs of conventional railways. In Great Britain, the light rail transit concept was a revitalization of local rail transport, as many tram lines were closed in the 1950s.

Data

The predecessor - historic PCC car 4500 in Toronto.
CLRV car 4159 in Toronto, the pantographs clearly visible .
A SLRV in Boston.
ALRV articulated car 4239 in Toronto, again with a pantograph.

The distances between stops or train stations are 300–800 meters, the train length consists of the multiple unit and 1–3 wagons, and the average maximum speed and the operating speed are 80 and 20–40 km per hour, respectively.

First vehicles

The first two vehicle types in North America came with the Standard Light Rail Vehicle (SLRV) from the USA and the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) from Canada.

SLRV

Main article → Standard Lightrailvehicle

The Standard Light Rail Vehicle cars were built from 1976 and replaced the PCC car in Boston and San Francisco . Due to the still high error rate, not all vehicles ordered from Boeing Vertol were accepted and both cities will in future order from other manufacturers.

CLRV

The cars of the Canadian LRV , used from 1977 in Toronto , were qualitatively better . They also replace the generation of PCC cars. The first ten test cars were built by the Schweizerische Industrie-Gesellschaft (SIG) before series production finally began in Canada.

ALRV

The Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV), manufactured from 1987 onwards, was a further development of the CLRV. Its novelty was the articulated carriage technology , which was already being used in Europe at that time. One of their advantages was that longer railcars became possible.

Cities with Lightrails (selection)

Manufacturer (selection)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jim Cox: Progressive Southern Municipalities . In: Rails Across Dixie. Mc Farland, Jefferson 2001, ISBN 0-7864-4528-9 , p. 269.
  2. ↑ Stephen Verderber In: Sprawling Cities and our Endangered Publish Health. Routledge - Taylor & Francis Group, New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-415-66532-2 , p. 74.
  3. ↑ Zdzislaw Marian Lewalski In: Light Rail Vehicle Compression Requirements. Transportation Research Board - National Research Council, Washington DC, ISBN 0-309-06019-2 , p. 23.
  4. ^ A b Gregory L. Thompson: Birt of Light Rail Movement in North America. In: Publication for “9. National Light Rail Transit Conference “, November 2003. Publication by the Transportation Research Board, Washington DC, 2003, ISSN  0097-8515 , pp. 25ff.
  5. ^ Office of Policy and Program - US Department of Transportation: Definition of Ligt Rail Transit. In: Light Rail Transit - A State of the Art Review. United States Government Printing Office , Washington DC 1976, p. 9.
  6. ↑ Keyword Stadtbahn in Duden
  7. ↑ Välkommen till Lätta spår . In: Publications of the Internet project FODRAL ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Swedish), accessed November 12, 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / lightrail.se
  8. ↑ Definities - Overzicht en discussie . In: Publications of the internet project lightrail.nl (Dutch), accessed on November 12, 2013.
  9. ^ Susan Hanson, Genevieve Giuliano: Planning for Movement within cities. In: The Geography of Urban Transportation. The Guilford Press, New York 2004, ISBN 1-59385-055-7 , pp. 118f.
  10. ^ Eduard Weiner: Light rail transit . In: Urban Transportation Planning in the United States: History, Policy and Practice. Springer, New York 2013, ISBN 978-1-4614-5406-9 .
  11. ↑ see List of United States light rail systems (English)
  12. ^ Philip Bagwell, Peter Lyth: Urban Transport. In: Transport in Britain 1750–2000. Hambledon Continuum, London 2002, ISBN 1-85285-263-1 , p. 116.
  13. ^ P. Jenkin: Urban Railways. In: Urban Railways and the Civil Engineer. Thomas Telford, London 1987, ISBN 0-7277-1337-X , pp. 9ff.
  14. ↑ James Bow The Canadian Light Rail Vehicles Publications of the Internet project Transit Toronto
  15. ↑ James Bow The Articulated Light Rail Vehicles Publications of the Internet project Transit Toronto