River Rail Streetcar

River Rail Streetcar
Car 412 turns off East 2nd Street onto River Market Avenue
Basic information
Country	United States
city	Little Rock , North Little Rock
opening	November 1, 2004
operator	Central Arkansas Transit Authority
Infrastructure
Route length	5.5 km
Gauge	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system	600 V direct current over catenary
Stops	15th
Depots	1
business
Lines	2
Clock in the peak hours	23/25 min
vehicles	5

Main Street Bridge over the Arkansas River

The River Rail Streetcar is a predominantly tourist streetcar in Little Rock and North Little Rock in the US state of Arkansas .

prehistory

A horse-drawn tram existed in Little Rock from 1876 to 1895, and steam-powered railcars also ran in 1888 and 1889 . The first electric tram ran on December 23, 1891, and tram traffic ended on September 1, 1947.

history

The River Rail Streetcar began operating on November 1, 2004, and the route was four kilometers long. On February 16, 2007, a 1.4 kilometer extension was opened. The operator is the Central Arkansas Transit Authority , the largest public transport operator in Arkansas.

route

The route connects the two cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock across the Arkansas River in the form of two large loops on either side of a short central section . It is largely single-track, only the branch line to the Presidential Library in Little Rock, which was opened in 2007, was double-tracked.

In both cities the route runs in a loop. The loop is clockwise in Little Rock and counterclockwise in North Little Rock. They are connected by a single track line across the river on the east side of the Main Street Bridge. The depot is located in North Little Rock.

All branches are laid out as track triangles so that isolated operation is also possible on both loops. The double track of the new line ends immediately in front of the final stop Presidential Library.

business

There are two lines. The daily Blue Line runs the entire route at approximately 25-minute intervals. The Green Line only runs in Little Rock, Monday through Saturday until 5:45 p.m., approximately every 23 minutes. Both lines serve the branch line to the Presidential Library until 5:45 p.m., when all traffic ends there.

vehicles

Railcar 408 in Downtown Little Rock, the rear power pole is on the contact wire

Initially, three replicas of the Birney Safety Car were in service, and two more were purchased as part of the route extension. They were all built by the Gomaco Trolley Company in Ida Grove . Birney vehicles, numbers 400 to 407, already ran on the former tram. The numbers 408 to 412 of the replicas follow on from the previous numbering.

technology

The vehicles are supplied with direct current of 600 volts via an overhead line . In contrast to what is common nowadays, the current - historically - is taken from the catenary via pantographs . The railcars have a power pole for each direction of travel, the rear one is used to draw power, the front one is removed from the contact wire. At the end point of the Presidential Library, the power poles for changing the direction of travel must be removed or attached.

outlook

An extension of the route by four kilometers to Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport is being discussed . In this context, the conversion to a light rail system is being considered.

gallery

• 

  Car 408 on President Clinton Avenue in Little Rock

• 

  Interior of car 408

• 

  Two railcars at the Historic Arkansas Museum stop in Little Rock

• 

  Railcar 409 with Christmas decorations in Little Rock

Web links

• Operator's website with network map and traffic times , accessed on April 17, 2017
• Railwaypreservation.com: Little Rock , accessed January 22, 2014

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Website of the operator ( memento of the original from August 4, 2015 on WebCite ) 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. , accessed January 22, 2014