Rubber-Tire Trams in Medellin, Colombia 2020 

One of the most beautiful trams. Congratulations to Medellin!

hello, as we all know the trains, the subways and the trams are designed according to the needs of the land, for this reason the Medellin tram has pneumatic aids to be able to quickly climb the slopes of Medellin, if this tram line was flat obviously its Wheels would be made of steel, (as usual) but since this line was made mostly on slopes, its wheels are pneumatic to have more acceleration and grip on the slopes, since a patinary metal wheel and easily slip on a steep incline.

As others have said, the rubber tires are usually used for more inclined slopes (or in some metros such as Montreal they also accelerate and brake faster, and are quieter). But apart from that, the tram system itself is lovely. It works well with the pedestrianized area around it, and the lack of major rails keeps it this way. It is also quiet, and obviously partly a social improvement project through the more informal neighborhoods on the surrounding hillsides.

Transit systems usually are built with with topography, power source, usage in consideration. Medellin chose rubber tires for a good reason. Mexico City Paris and Montreal have rubber tired subways Thank you Tim for posting this video😀😀💙

Saludos desde colombia, medellin es llamda la mejor ciudad del territorio y tiene el apodo de la ciudad de la eterna primavera en el 2013 fué conocida como la ciudad mas innovadora del mundo

To answer a question repeatedly raised here in the comments: why did Medellin select a tram on tyres and not a real one? - Medellin is (in my view) the only reasonable Translohr implementation in the world, because it makes full use of the system's only advantage over a conventional streetcar: its ability to climb. Medellin is a city of hills. The translohr can climb up to 13% while still retaining full operation speed upwards and downwards under surface conditions from dry to wet, while streetcar / light rail can climb up to 10%, but only with dramatically reduced acceleration upwards on wet tracks and very slow operation speed downwards on wet and dry tracks. The Ayacucho line could not have been built in an affordable way based on conventional streetcar and light rail technology. Sections of tunnels and big excavations would have been needed to flatten the inclines and this would not have been possible to fund in a threshold country like Columbia (probably it would even be infeasible there due to the presence of illegally erected unstable buildings). So, this was a perfectly right decision for Medellin. - Just recently I have been in Italy, to Venice, spending a day to have a look at the Translohr system there. They have two lines, line T1 connecting old town Venice with its onshore downtown in Mestre over a sea dam, the whole stretch being flat like a pancake, and line T2 connecting downtown Mestre to the railway station and a highrise suburb, also being totally flat except one of the both tunnel ramps into the underground station below the railway station. This one ramp is the only steep graded section in the whole Venice system, making use of the system's only advantage. Now talk of clever transportation investments... I suspect that somebody earned good money from the decision back then made by Venice officials and this was probably the only reason there to select Translohr, because there just is no other actual reason. I guess they will at some pont in the future either convert the system to real streetcar or abandon it, because Translohr clearly has drawbacks in the flat, of which being the worst that there is only one vehicle manufacturer who can dictate a price for the replacement vehicles needed in 20 years...

You can easily tell that they chose rubber tires in order to go up the slopes more easily.

looks to be quieter, the fewer rails mean the street is more bicycle friendly.

Fantastic!!!👍👍👍great Tram Video👍👍👍

Love Columbia, especially the coffee!

The best solution for rugged terrain.

Hello Tim! Hope you are doing well. I'm always envious of you being able to travel all around the world and are all the wonderful places. This video is extra important for men as it shows an awesome solution to the slopy terrain issue. Perhaps this is not the only place this has been applied, but this is the first time Ive seen it. Thank you so much for your excellent work and your sharing it with us. Take care and keep well.

looks better than what we have in melbourne and we have too many

Hi Tim. It is true that it is not a conventional tram as we know it. It has only one rail and uses pneumatic wheels. I have seen this system in the Italian city of Padua (Padova). I think there is also in some French city. There are also undergrounds that use pneumatic wheels without conventional rails such as line 1 of Paris, or the metro of Mexico City or Santiago de Chile. Very good the realization of your video and very beautiful this tram of Medellín. Best regards from Spain. Hola, Tim. Es verdad que no es un tranvía convencional como lo conocemos. Tiene un solo rail y utiliza ruedas neumáticas. Este sistema lo he visto en la ciudad italiana de Padua (Padova). Creo que también lo hay en alguna ciudad francesa. También existen metros que utilizan ruedas neumáticas sin railes convencionales como la linea 1 de París, o el metro de la Ciudad de Méjico o de Santiago de Chile. Muy buena la realización de tu video y muy bonito este tranvía de Medellín. Saludos cordiales desde España.

Excelente Medellin Colombia Tranvia Felicitacion Argentina 👌👌👌👏👏👏👏👌👌👍👍

very very interesting!!!!!!!

Este meio de transporte melhora o entorno. Melhor que o transmilenio de Bogotá. Gostaria que autoridades brasileiras visitassem Medellín para implantar este meio de transporte em várias cidades brasileiras.

Beautiful video. Artful camerawork.

Nice, smooth and quiet Also speeds up and slows down faster

Very smooth ! I like it!

Wow cool tramway

Amazing!!

The technology is Translohr. Originally from Lohr Industries, owned by Alstom since 2012. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translohr

Very nice train system

I like it its so silent, and looks very pretty nice.

Q bien. Saludos desde Barranquilla 👋👋

Wow! Nice

Lo bueno: Es muy bonito, es estético, y gracias a esto en Colombia se están considerando los tranvías como opciones viables en las obras de transporte del pais Lo malo: Tiene un trayecto muy corto y tecnicamente no es un tranvía, es un bus guiado y creo que les vendieron un bus a precio de tranvía.

In Valle de Chalco, there are a similar context. When You Cruise the Xico Vulcano by combi, You may suffer stealings, You Are very unconfortable, unless space... Also, Valle de Chalco Solidaridad could be a Great client of Translohr, because it would replace old kombis and buses and adapts to the ilidical slopes into the city Center. I wish someday that Del Mazo governor visit Medellin, for the posibility to apply the Translohr instead of the actual storbous MexiBus. PD. Valle de Chalco also is a good place if Makoto Shinkai would film a Live-Action version of Your Name. It looks like Itomori. 🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

made in medellin, me cambie de carril

No es un tranvia, es un trolebus guiado. El tranvia circula sobre rieles, con llantas metálicas.

any other countries's tram than better best great tram in the world

Like 👍

❤‼

Are these tires pneumatic?

Just one track?

Do some sections of Medellin Metro run on Steel Wheels & two rails?

how is this different from trolley bus?

👍👀

Americans Can Only Dream about this Tram which are in Columbia

👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

The Wikipedia entry has a good list of the problems with this system. I think these will be superseded by autonomous guided buses in the future. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translohr The Chinese ARRT “trackless tram” hasn’t exactly taken off but it’s better than this, saving the cost and complex of the rail.

Este seguro tiene ruedas de caucho

Translohr

shame the slope forced it to use tires. must be a bumpy ride

🔺It's not a train... !! It calls Streetcars

Technology is not interesting it is dumb and extremely useless in comparison to a tram. Ride quality is low and maintenance costs are higher than of a tram, also it has huge destructive impact on the surface it runs on, due to wheels running on the same spot.

You misspelled a word.... "Tyre", not "tire" The latter means to physically and/or mentally exhaust oneself while the former is the rubber rim on a wheel. If this vehicle runs on the road, then it's NOT a tram, rather it's an articulated trolley-bus.

This is a guided bus built to look like a tram. Much like how trolley replicas are built to look like streetcars, but are actually buses. This is merely a bus without a steering wheel and guided by a center rail. Sorry, but trams don't use rubber tires. You tried it, but no dice.

I don’t like colombia

That is not a tram, it’s a bus with a severe attachment problem.