Urban mass transit can be a confusing thing, with trains, light rail and tramways, so let’s try to make sense of it all. / jagohazzard ko-fi.com/jagohazzard
Mr Train played a part somewhere along the line (is that another pun?) But the Oystermouth & Mumbles railway is where public 'rail' service began for farepaying passengers. Horse-drawn, of course.
@@millomweb Mr Train's original trams used L shaped rail, which stuck up above ground level, which was not liked by cyclists , horses or walkers - or cars when they came along.
Toby's original line was the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway and Toby himself was an LNER J70, formerly GER C53. Henrietta was a W&U carriage, one of which was the coach wrecked in a field in The Titfield Thunderbolt.
I was brought up in Melbourne, Australia, which has long been one of the world's great tram cities. Trams never went out of fashion there and the network has continued to expand in recent decades.
I live in Toronto, Canada and we still have what we call streetcars. The system has expanded somewhat over the last 25 years but not by much and there is endless talk of expansion in the future but I probably won't live to see it.
Tram in old German means (a wooden) beam in English. Way is today used in English, but old German also had it. The meaning of the word way remained unchanged in present in English. Trams were usually long beams of wood with uniform shape from one end to another (circular, square, etc.). Other languages like Slovak or Czech took the old german word tram into their vocabulary, where it is still used today (in german they use the term Balken insted). So tramway literally means a way made out of beams. Which later became rails made out of steel. See that image at 1:01 for reference. Some say that the tram was not the "rail", but the sleeper. I doubt that, since the earliest tramways (again 1:01) did not need that many sleepers and trams, especially a century ago, did not have sleepers, rather thin metal rods connecting the rails every couple of meters, just to keep the gauge. Early electric trams were small, light and slow (25 km/h max). A tramway started out not as the vehicle, it was the "beam road". Later the word tramway was used to call the vehicle itself and the "road" became the track. Back to present day. In Central Europe we have Tramways, High speed tramways, light rail and (heavy or big) rail. High speed tramway is a regular tramway that operates on tracks that are on the level of light rail = they are used exclusively by trams and usually have a proper "railway" signalling system, so the drivers are sure that the track in front of them is free of other trams (at least up to the next signal) if the light is green. reference to the word Tram: www.woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/tram
Yeah, literally "Tram" is the Germanic word for what "Rail" is in Latin languages, whilst similarly "Way" is the Germanic word for "Road" in Latin languages. This basically means that: Tramway Tramroad Railway Railroad ...All literally used to mean exactly the same thing.
@@RCassinello I was in Germany several times in the 1970s and the term strassenbahn was in use for trams. I have been to Germany several times in the last few years and strassenbahn seems to have fallen out of fashion and the term tram is now used.
I was looking for the German word "strassenbahn" for in the USA we took the word "Strass" translated into English is "Street" and the German word "Bahn" to the English word "Car" to come with the name "Streetcar". "Streetcar has been used on this side of the Atlantic since 1836 for what people in Britain call a "Tram".
I wonder if that word "Balken" has any relation to the word "Balkan" (meaning the geographical region in southeastern Europe) from the Turkish language (meaning a wooded, mountainous area)
Here in Finland they're constructing a new line that in English is called a light rail but in Finnish a fast tramway. The latter is probably more accurate, as it will run along the streets and the rolling stock looks extremely similar to the existing trams.
I'm sitting here wearing a Sound Transit shirt. My wonderful wife works in the safety department of Sound Transit which is charged with developing and operating light rail in Seattle Washington USA. It's wonderful to watch your videos and revel in the history of city based railway. The tube is where it all began whether underground or overground. We all share a link with our great great grandfather. I (mis)spent a great deal of my youth bumming a lift on the tube. I was supposed to be going to college in Southend via Benfleet station but I got on the London side and then got off at Barking and hopped the Tube into London where I would spend the day cruising all over the network. I loved experiencing how far the tube went. I'd just take my lunch and spend the day sightseeing. It was a long time ago and now my wife is part of light rail here. It's a funny old world. Keep up the good work Jago, your almost at 100k subscribers. Your a real youtuber now!
There's also the Sheffield Supertram which scores the hattrick of running on the roads through Sheffield, segregated tracks near Sheffield, and on Network Rail's "heavy rail" tracks through Rotherham.
That's mainly because spin doctors told politicians that "Light Rail" sounds more exciting than "Tram" to voters. There is no true light rail n Melbourne because every single route also includes a fair bit of running on streets, so no matter what the publicists say, they are all trams.
Yeah, they are all trams in Melbourne...don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! I love the trams in Melbourne but live in Sydney with the boring, slow and very precious light rail.
In Kassel, Germany we have an interesting mix of what you'd call tram and light rail. In the city, the trains use the same tracks as our usual trams but they change at the (former) main station onto the regular rail network and are a bit like regional trains with way more stops outside the city, so they are called RegioTram.
That sounds somewhat similar to the light rail network in Denver, Colorado. They run on the street in the inner city and segregated from the roads in the suburbs.
@@ominous6845 Not just a very long tram. Tram-train vehicles must comply with rail standards. They usually can run also on 15kV 16,7 Hz (in Germany), not just on 600 V DC like trams. They must comply with other norms of the "big rail" like stiffness of the body (400kN) as well norms regarding their pantographs, wheel profile according to UIC-ORE, etc. A very long tram, which does not operate on any parts of rails where it would share the track with "big rail", is just a fast tram. Not a tram-train. It does not have to comply with "big rail" norms.
Blackpool of course still has a tram network; and are still running the vintage stock at Weekends and Bank Holidays. Absolutely fantastic to travel on; compared to their boring modern-day replacements.
I nearly got hit by one of those when I went there. Then nearly hit by a horse pulling a carriage while getting out the tram's way. And, later, by a police car driving on the goddamn beach, which I'd decided to walk along to avoid the traffic that had nearly hit me earlier.
A few points to muse: •Weymouth Quay Tramway = Heavy Rail • I always thought the Alton & Basingstoke Light Railway was the first ‘proper’ light railway to be opened under the Light Railways Act 1896 - I’m probably wrong. •Thomas the Tank Engine was reprimanded by the Old Bill for not having his wheels covered or having a cow catcher. Naughty boy.
The first light railway opened under the 1896 Act was the Rother Valley Railway (1900), part of the (pre-existing) Kent & East Sussex Railway. (Not to be confused with the current Rother Valley Railway (1991), a heritage line). The Alton & Basingstoke opened in 1904.
Tbh the way I see it, the DLR is much more of a metro than a light rail. For me a light rail is basically a high capacity tramway with majority separation from roads, with a tramway being a system that is majority street running, and by street running I specifically mean, running in a lane that cars could use not just crossing the road frequently and running in the median of a road. (Although I would count running in the median as street running if the tram stops required the passengers to get off onto the road instead of a platform)
We have a Tram-Train in Sheffield (at least I think we do , last time I heard it was stuck on the back of a lorry at some traffic lights because the lorry couldn't negotiate a corner). Apparently it's a tram that can run on tram and main line tracks. Thankfully nobody came up with the idea of using Pacers for this function, which were basically a Leyland bus on train wheels. The gentleman you mentioned by the name of "Train" didn't escape my notice either.
Interestingly the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (a co-operation between Leeds, Wakefield, Kirklees, Calderdale and Bradford local authorities) has just published a masterplan for an extensive rapid transit network across West Yorkshire which will incorporate and co-ordinate buses, trains, trams and so called light rail links across the county, and one thing they appear keen on is the use of Tram Trains.
@@kevinh96 A coordinated timetable - Hope that works out. A good few years ago Leeds was considering a Metro system and at the same time a group was lobbying for the re-introduction of trolley buses instead.
@@kevinh96 I am a little cautious about the idea of "Tram-Trains". They seem to be presented as a "jack of all trades" solution, a universal vehicle that can run on the street, new light rail track and old heavy rail lines. But you can end up with a vehicle that fills all of these roles but doesn't do any of them very well. Long distance passengers are faced with slower, smaller vehicles that stop too frequently whereas the old heavy rail trains were faster and could carry more people, even if they were a little less frequent. Meanwhile in the urban core you have huge LRV style vehicles squeezing round tight corners and potentially quite narrow streets, often at speeds not more than brisk jog. Certainly the idea has its uses, but they are not the best of all worlds.
Interestingly, the early DLR P86 class light rail units had to sold when they could not be used on the tunnel to Bank. So they were sold to Essen in Germany where they now run as street trams. I may be wrong, but I seem to vaguely recall in the early days the DLR thought it might also run the P86 units along roads in places, though that was not to be. The definition of light rail and street trams seems to blur in many places anyway. Many lines have a mix of both features.
Light rail here in the US is basically a tram/streetcar that has a dedicated right of way, where streetcars/trolleys are just small rail vehicles that run on the street.
@@MihkelKiil it does have a separate ROW, which a streetcar doesn’t. Look at Portland, OR. It has a streetcar system that only operates on city streets, and a light rail system that runs on regular tracks, but also on the street.
This is interesting because just because they run on the street, they don't need to be that small. A good number of cities in Central Europe use rather large rolling stock along normal street lanes. To me, at least, a tram uses normal street lights (with possible additional signals) whereas light rail uses railway-like signaling.
@@2712animefreak as far as I know, the only 5 segment LRVs or streetcars (the ones commonly found in abroad) here in the US is NJ Transit’s Kinki Sharyo extended LRVs.
In Calgary the C-Train is known as a Light Rail System even though the downtown portion runs through a street (7th) like a tram even though the rest of the system outside of the downtown is separated with a combination of controlled crossings and grade separations. In Edmonton, their system is also referred to as a Light Rail System even though it's almost a metro with it running as a full underground subway in the downtown portions of the system and a combination of controlled crossings and grade separations outside downtown and no tram-like portions.
This segment reminds me of when Dr. Neil Degrasse-Tyson told the story of the photon that checked into a hotel and was asked if it had any luggage, to which the photon replied 'No, I'm travelling light!'
Nice installment, Sir. Then there's the San Diego Trolley, which calls itself a trolley and is also referred to as light rail. It operates on city streets so its also a tram. Guess that makes it a Light Trolley Tram (which is a regular Trolley Tram but with half the calories).
The tram company which used to be around Colwyn Bay, and Llandudno, was called "The Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Light Railway." this stopped operating in the 1950's, but there are a number of the components still in use.
Here's another difference- here in Toronto, we have streetcars (trams) that stop on request, otherwise they do not stop. Ottawa has a new light rail line and it makes all stops whether or not someone requests it. It runs entirely in its own ROW unlike Toronto where they run with other traffic. There is a new LR line under construction along Eglinton avenue and it will make all stops and does not mix with road traffic.
David Frankal has done lots. The funniest is where he refers to one he made four years earlier, when he took the first tram on the Manchester Airport extension, and you click through, and there are he and his mate in their school uniforms before their voices broke. Oh, and a gold star to his father, who must have driven them to the airport at about 5:30 in the morning.
So here in Seattle, the term “light rail” literally means “rail with a light car”. The trains here are huge & heavy, and they rely on this weight to maintain traction with the rail. Light rail on the other hand maintains traction with powerful electric motors with extremely high torque. This allows light rail to accelerate & decelerate much more smoothly, but decreases its top speed. Most importantly however is that it allows the cars to be light, in the same weight class as a bus. This allows light rail to go up hills, but it also allows light rail to be at street level and at speed safely. Trains at street level in the Western US can only go a couple of miles per hour, basically walking speed, because otherwise there is a very serious risk of a very serious collision. Seattle’s underground light rail network originally had buses running on the same lines as the light rail, a practice which only ended in early 2020 (the system having been built ten years earlier). Lighter rail also needs less strong bedding to keep the rails aligned, so spongy but easy to work with materials like freshly poured concrete can be used (concrete sleepers for heavy rail have to be pre-seasoned and use a very high grit mix to improve their strength against load. Wood sleepers are cheaper, easier to season, and easier to transport which is still why they are the global standard). This makes construction of new Light Rail lines extremely rapid, about the same speed as constructing roads.
I agree with the lighter rolling stock, but Dallas has a light rail network that uses heavier rails than some freight roads (136lb, IIRC). I think light rail is the new term for interurban (at least in the States).
@@johnburns4017 Yeah it's a stupid name, I wish we could change it. Thankfully I now live in Europe so I can unironically refer to the "Toronto tram system".
In North America, there was an early 20th century transportation system referred to as the "interurban" railway. It would be interesting to know which of these classifications mentioned it would fit into.
An amusing (to me at least) recollection of the tram system in Rome. A cyclist, on getting the bicycle wheels stuck in the tram rail, spied a tram coming. Unable to free the wheels, the cyclist signalled the tram to go round... Difficult!
As a person currently living in Rome, I think it represents well the mentality of the people here, and also how neglected the small tram network has been for decades now. At least the construction of some new lines has been recently funded, as well as the purchase of newer veichles. The urban rail network here is in general quite chaotic and inefficient (3 underground lines that have little in common with each other, some urban rail lines that look like the underground ones but legally are not, proper trams, a tram that is legally a light railway...) but it's fascinating nonetheless.
Yes. I recall two tram systems. The one run by the City transit authority with green trams and the elderly blue and white system that headed out to Cinecittà from Termini. In the years between living there and returning as a visitor many of the lines seem to have disappeared.
@@michaelwilson6584 The blue and white system has been closed since the opening of the A underground line in 1980, however there is a meter-gauge light rail line that follows the Casilina road from Termini station to the Centocelle neighbourhood, which is what's left of a long line to the town of Frosinone, gradually closed during the Eighties. Nowdays it's a quite neglected line with old and poorly kept high-floor rolling stock, but a few months ago plans have been finally approved to turn it into a standard gauge line integrated with the existing tram network, and to extend it to Tor Vergata University and Anagnina underground station. Rome is very far from having the public transport infrastructures it would need, due in part to its history (if you dig a hole in a random place you have great chances of finding some kind of ancient object or building), in part to the inefficiency of mayors and public offices, and in part also to the mentality of its citizens
@@michaelwilson6584 Yes! I used to see it every day, and I still live relatively close to it (I've only been living in Rome for a couple of years now, I'm from a totally different part of Italy). More historic cars are on display at the Rome Transport Museum next to the Piramide/Ostiense/Porta San Paolo station complex.
Most of Blackpool's trams route are on segregated areas except in Fleetwood too. The (re) extension to Blackpool North station will be main part of shared traffic running in Blackpool now the main depot has moved from Talbot Road.
The Liverpool Overhead's death sentence derived from the decision to make it out of cast iron rather than masonry. They probably had to do this because in reality it was on stilts over existing stuff. In the end it just crumbled away.
@@alexhando8541 The Overhead was a double decked railway for most of its length. Freight trains under. The sulphur from the steam train's exhaust did not help, neither did neglect during WW2.
What about Glasgow?. Glasgow had a huge tram system until the City Fathers (Cooncil) deliberately ran it into the ground in the 1950's. They did more damage than Dr. Beeching did to the railways in the 60's.
I remember the Glasgow trams in the early 1960s. Locals called them tramcars, or more often just cors. They were painted orange and green to keep both Protestants and Catholics happy! (The same livery was applied to the trolleybuses and motor buses that replaced them.)
I'm intrigued by the partly obscured warehouse sign in the picture of the Liverpool Elevated Railway. Yorkshire Kipper Works? Yorkshire Ripper Works! Or perhaps the too far ahead of its time Yorkshire Zipper Works
Thank you Mr Hazzard. I'm in Australia, I wasn't particularly interested in trains, or London , but I find your explanations and humour very relaxing and your delivery and voice are likewise easy on the ear. Well done sir, I have even leaned things, turns out, London trains are quite a fascinating saga ,who knew?!..well, apart from you obviously. Carry on .
I was going to go "Aha, then under that definition, the train that ran through Weymouth is a tram!" But apparently it was. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weymouth_Harbour_Tramway
That's kind of true.😁 When "light railway" is used to describe a Colonel Stephens-type affair (something like the East Kent) it sounds fine but, when applied to a modern, state-of-the-art system, it starts to sound like "management-speak". Another one like that is "rapid transit system". Funny thing is though, I think "Docklands Light Railway" sounds just about right for what it is.😁
Still it doesn't eliminate the real difference between them two. It is more clearly seen in American style terms of "streetcar" instead of "tram", underlining the fact that tram is in-street feature, with lower average speed and "stops at every corner" - and the "light rail" which is express service, mostly over former heavy railways.
Interestingly, in Sydney we seem to refer to our trams as "light rail", even though, especially so with the new CBD & South East Light Rail completed not all that long ago, the majority of it shares the street with road traffic and pedestrians. The term probably can be pinned to the 90s though when the Inner West Light Rail was made (the first tram Sydney had since the last of its extensive tram network was ripped up in the 1950s), using the old Darling Harbour Goods Line from the NSWGR and SRA days, as most of that ran along the former heavy rail corridor with the beginning out of Sydney Terminal to where the Powerhouse Museum is sharing the laneways that are used by some cars and service vehicles, as well as pedestrians. Canberra's recently completed 'tram' also is referred to as a light rail, and so is the ridiculous 2km Newcastle Light Rail which is literally a tram, but Newcastle's was built well into the NSW Government's 'L' branding for the light rails / trams of NSW. Melbourne of course still refers to their trams as trams, probably because they never got rid of all their trams like Sydney, and the Gold Coast's 'G:Link' is referred to mainly as a tram rather than a light rail as it shares the main roads for most of the line. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rv-IbQ0Ynzc.html Inner West Light Rail (28:35 for the 'tram' part) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1QA4ISCEj6U.html CBD&SELR ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hxt5ZGr_z5w.html A nice contradictory news report
Technically you didn't need an Act of Parliament for a railway, however, if you need to compulsorily purchase property, divert the King/Queen's highway or cross roads on the level, you needed an Act of Parliament. In addition, in the early days of railways, there were no Companies Acts and therefore, an Act of Parliament was needed to setup the company. The extension of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway to Dalkey was built without an Act of Parliament (this was in the era when Britain and Ireland were united).
@@highpath4776 The company took a lease of land from the Board of Works. The route was not great and contains many sharp curves, which bedevil the line to this day (if they had gone for an Act of Parliament, they could have altered the route). In addition, as they could not cross public roads on the level, the company had to gouge a mile long cutting along the route to carry the line under said roads. The line being of sharp curvature and in a cutting has caused problems to this day - the line remaining in use as part of the Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART).
I travelled on the Liverpool Overhead Railway a few times. One interesting feature was that the trains had a first class section, which didn't cost much more than the normal, but was where you travelled when you had your best clothes on.
@@librarian16 The one where it collapsed a bit a few years back and residents had to move out for a while ! I'd guess the railway only went through 1 tunnel ??
@@fenlinescouser3898 Be careful of what you wish for. I'm 89, with mobility limitations, and have just been told that I am "extremely vulnerable" and must shield until the end of March. You will live to see things that I won't.
@@chriswalford4161 Seend Station in Wiltshire should have been called "Seend, base camp". To get to the village passengers were confronted with a mile long 1in 8 climb..
5:05 I've also associated "tram(way)" with urban transport for all of my life. Even if not a native speaker of English or living in an English speaking country, since after all, the Spanish term "Tranvía" is essentially the same word, kind of a direct port.
Now, if someone could convince TfL to extend either the DLR or Tramlink so they have a direct interchange... that’d be the best commute ever. Fun and informative as always!
hmm the tram line actually crosses over the commuter rail line between Beckenham Road and Beckenham Junction so it doesn't seem impossible to at least run trams into Lewisham commuter rail station for an easy transfer. The land near where the lines cross appears to be mostly allotments too which are probably easier to build a junction over than people's houses. Intriguing idea but you know it's illegal to link 2 different parts of South London without forcing people to buy a Zone 1 ticket and change at London Bridge, right?
In New Orleans, Louisiana U.S.A. the natives had "Streetcars". They could identify "foreigners" as soon as they used the term "Trolleys". They also used the term "Neutral Ground" (Sounds like a war zone) as opposed to "Median". They still operate 1920's vintage cars built by J.G.Brill and Perley-Thomas. They added roller bearings to the original trucks (Bogies if you will)..
There is a branch line from Barcaldine in Queensland to Aramac. It was built and run by the local council on a shoestring until 1975. It was the same gauge as the Queensland Railways track and used hand me down rolling stock but because only QR could operate railways in Queensland, the Aramac line was called a tramway.
Sometimes Light Rail takes over from the main railway. The Manchester Metrolink covers the former LYR line from Manchester Victoria to Bury Interchange as well as the southern part of the former MSJ&R.
RandstadRail in The Hague blew my mind. Runs along streets with trams, shares a metro section, and has its own light rail branch. The section shared with metro trains has stations with dual height platforms to cater for the differing vehicle floor heights.
Another very enjoyable video. I suppose another distinction between light rail and trams is that trams are low floor and need minimal platforms - oh! I was forgetting Manchester.
Hi I always enjoy your video I think you missed one of the different between standard rail and light rail and that is the track itself as light rail is lighter than standard rail. Keep up the good work
Historically rail 'strength' is defined in lbs (pounds), or actually lbs per foot, i.e. weight of the rails. At points and crossings the weight of the rails are increased compared with that in other areas to allow for the additional wear encountered. My son knows all about this as he is an apprentice CNC machinist at a factory that makes points and crossings for Network Rail, London Underground and DLR, amongst others - he started his interest as a youngster by building a 1:19 scale (16mm to the foot) narrow gauge railway in our garden.
I hadn't realized that "Light rail" had a distinct legislative definition in Britain. That adds some very interesting context to the issue of nomenclature.
This Stevens needs a video of his own. ( I once knew a couple of Trains, father and son, both transport nuts, the former latterly to be found frequenting a certain paddle steamer until he passed on ). Tram rails and wheels are designed to behave differently on corners than those of trains because tram routes can have much tighter radii. In fact I stumbled across a document specifying this, which cryptically and somewhat bizarrely said trams ride on their flanges, but I haven't been able to find it again since to clarify exactly how this worked. Manchester trams are a hybrid system. mixing rail and street specification. The rails and wheels are to railway specifications. They use old railway lines but with new track, yet still use many of the original stations and the original platforms. When on the roads in the city, it does look a bit surreal in the city centre with chest high platforms surrounded by people.
The Manchester trams have an irritating habit of screeching around corners. They also look out of place. Those high street platforms look awful and are irritating to use. Low platform trams are a dream to use. walk straight on from the pavement then a nice flat floor in the tram. Real hop on and off. Manchester should have taken away the platforms on the old stations or filled in between.
@@johnburns4017 The platforms are odd indeed because lots of places combine road working with old rail routes and have normal low platforms for trams. Maybe it's because in Manchester they used the actual same stations and just put trams into them instead. But what would it have taken to lower the platforms at the old stations? No train uses the same platforms or rails as trams on the old rail routes. Where they run side by side, trams and trains are kept absolutely separate, each on their own track to the same stations with the tram using one of the redundant train platforms.
@@neilbain8736 Trams have to be segregated as they cannot run on the same track, due to crash protection, line of sight driving, and various other reasons. They are literally electric buses on rails.
Tramlink is considered a Tram-train (also according to Wikipedia). A tram, that is, that uses (ordinary) train tracks too. And its vehicles are - to what I know - referred to as Light-rail vehicles, LRV's. So it is, too, a form of Light-rail if you will. And it is a form of Tram, too. I like referring to it as "Modern Trams" - probably I'm not the only one there, and I take my stance from others. For a more detailed go on this, please refer to my comment on Jago's video about the proposed "Docklands Light Tramway".
Excellent, thank you for that clarification. A bit like cleaning a mirror from which much of the silvering has been lost - the image is as clear now as clear as it's ever going to be.
Don't know if this is still the case , but back in the 80's another requirement to be defined as a "Light Railway" was that the driver (if there is one) mustn't be in a separate cab. Which is presumably why we have "Operators" sitting in with the passengers on the DLR.
I shall have to go on the new tram network. It wasn't there when I used to work in Croydon. The rule only applied to Light Railways, ie segregated train lines. They were also not allowed to carry goods as Jago said. I had a friend who worked in BR and he was most peeved at the consessions that a "Light Railway" got as opposed to main line trains.
@@victoredwards247 A Light Railway is different from Light Rail as the Light Railway Act of 1897 is still in force to this very day, sorry if I'm being a pedant
We used to have a monorail in Sydney but they demolished it some years ago. When they planned it about they forgot to plan a route that actually served much purpose!
There are a few very precise cases where a monorail is the best mode for transit, but in almost all other cases, more conventional modes like trams, trains or metro are not only cheaper, but better. Monorail is better when space is tight, and steap slopes have to be dealt with. Or when you want to build a tourist attraction, rather than a transportation mode (hence why they are so popular with theme parks around the world). For about every other case, just go for something else.
@@barvdw Which is why I find this interesting...... rail.bombardier.com/en/solutions-and-technologies/worldwide-projects.html/bombardier/projects/middle-east-africa/egypt/innovia-monorail-300---cityflo-650---cairo--egypt/en especially the length of the two lines, speed of travel and power supply.
Theres a new line currently being built in Switzerland. while the locals call it a tram, its officially called the Limmattal railway. 8 miles long, shes segregated from traffic through use of grass like in Prague. so question now is, is it a Tram or Light Rail?
As far as I know, there are 2 places in the UK where light rail/trams and heavy rail share the same routes. The Tyne and Wear Metro was originally built completely separate from the national network (albeit running on a lot of former national rail lines both to South Shields and on the North Tyneside Loop (not to mention there was a freight depot in Benton which still operated along metro lines for the first 5-10 years of metro operation)), but in the 90s they planned the Wearside extension, because originally it didn't serve Wearside at all, despite the name. And between Pelaw Junction (just beyond Pelaw's metro station) and Sunderland, it runs on national rail metals. Which constantly causes delays to national rail trains, and is a pain when the wires come down (as they often do in september/october at the start of the storm season). Sunderland being the only station in the UK at which light rail and heavy rail use the same platforms (northern services use platforms 1 and 4 at the north end of the station, metros use platforms 2 and 3 at the south end, then Grand Central and LNER (and sometimes when Northern run 2 or 3 units together) operate trains that are too long to be held in the half-length platforms so they straddle platforms 1/2 or 3/4. The Sheffield Supertram also runs on national rail metals on the last little bit to Rotherham Central, hence their new tram-trains had to be made to mainline standards and be given TOPS class 399, and only they can run to Rotherham. However, Rotherham Central has 2 platforms at standard national rail height for the Northern services, and then 2 new platforms were built at a lower height for the tram-trains, meaning the tram-trains can't use the national rail platforms for boarding/alighting, and national rail trains can't use the tram platforms (at least in normal service). I'm not sure what's happening in South Wales, but I am aware that TfW has placed an order for some class 398 tram-trains.
We had a tramway/light railway in East Anglia. The Wisbech and Upwell Tramway lasted until 1966 and sections of the A1101 still has verges along the side of the road where the track used to go. The Reverent W. Awdry author of the Thomas the Tank Engine stories was the vicar of Emneth which is near, based Toby the Tram engine on the engines used on the line.
@@cargy930 A good few years indeed- passenger services ended in 1925 and goods in 1951. A few reminders are left, like the vestigial viaduct here in Midford - it appears, along with the still intact S&D viaduct (now part of a cycleway), in the opening scenes of the Titfield Thunderbolt.
@@LesD9 I had a feeling in the late 70 early 80s that the BBC WORLD service wasn't available in England. May be it would have been had dad put up that areial wire from the house to the tree.
Here we go, a few months later, but still… To venture outside of the UK, I just want to mention the wonderfully diverse transit system in Lausanne, Switzerland. There are two metro lines of which one is a standard gauge “light rail”, i.e. essentially (reasonably modern) tram trains operating on mostly single, but grade separated track; the second being one running on rubber tyres, Paris style, a significant portion in tunnels replacing in situ an older funicular system and extending it. There is also a narrow gauge (1 m, if I remember correctly) independently operated commuter railway that is not considered a tramway, but it runs a very short, but still, distance at grade with road traffic. This of course in addition to local main line trains and an extensive network of trolley buses. All this in a fairly small city.
@@erikthenorviking8251 yes, the Lausanne - Echallens - Bercher or LEB for short is the metre-gauge one. Unfortunately not having had too much fun out and about in Lausanne though. The last year has been a bit of a dreary time for entertainment for some reason…
Sydney just got a light trail extension - although most of it runs down existing streets. And being Sydney, the cars are incompatible with the existing light rail route. You can still see a lot of the remnants of the extensive original tram network they ripped out. Melbourne was sensible and kept their trams.
If only Dunedin had had the money and foresight to maintain the High Street cable car- == to the San Francisco ones....and the event more interesting and vertiginous Rattray St to Kaikorai Valley line......they'd be great tourist attractions as well as local user friendly like the one in Wellington
Writing from New York, a fair distinction might be...: * TRAM or trolley or trolley-car or street_car: Runs mostly on or parallel to a road, which is often a _shared_ right - of - way; power is from an _overhead_ catenary & captured via a pantograph; car doors are minimally above _ground_ level// _-&-_ * LIGHT_RAIL: Runs on a _dedicated_ right - of - way, where there _never_ are pedestrians; power is from a shoe on the car's under-carriage and it over-runs the _third_rail_ ( FAR too lethal to be exposed on a road), which is offset to the side of the railbed; car doors are high above the roadbed, since _all_ stops are _always_ at raised platforms.// =-= As an aside: The track gauge _can_ be the same for light_rail and
street_cars. A good example is Philadelphia, where street_car lines come into the center of the city and share tracks with light_rail. The street_cars stop beyond the raised platforms, so changing modes means 3 or 4 steps. This is a very old system and works quite well, with each mode concentrated where it fits better. /Mike_R
Here in Sydney Australia we have what's called the 'Light Rail', however it runs on both segregated lines and the road at times, so I guess technically its a tram? We did use to have bonafide trams but they were taken away years ago, only for some of their rails to be returned when the Light Rail was built
Ahh, those off-topic ramblings are a laugh, Jago. Very subtle but very funny. 00:22 You have the best narrating style. NEARLY 100K SUBS !! Yes, I agree with the street definition of a tram system. Our trams in Adelaide operate on the city streets and out to Glenelg, a beachside suburb and out to the north west. Further extensions in the city goes further east along North Terrace. In the 1950's there was an extensive tram network and electric overhead-powered trolley buses. All this disappeared as cars and diesel buses became more prolific. As the saying goes, "What Is Old Is New Again".
In Stockholm Sweden we have trams, the line 30 (tvärbanan) across line, which used to be line 22 (tvärbanan) across line that line is often overcrowded. It's similar to the Croydon trams. We also have tram 31 (tvärbanan) across line, tram 21 (Lidingöbanan) lidingö line, tram 12 (nockebybanan) nockeby line and tram 7 (spårväg city) tramway city.
In North America, the distinction between "streetcar" (i.e., tram) and "light rail" is essentially the same and you've mentioned - the former runs in traffic. One other distinction: streetcars are also typically only one short(ish) car, whereas light rail is typically two or three longer cars. (There are exceptions to that, of course.) Where I live in Portland, Oregon, there is an interesting situation where, over the past decade, some of the "light rail" lines now run through downtown on streets they share with city buses (though only with buses), while one of the "streetcar" lines now has a short section where it has its own right of way off the street. So clearly, the lines are blurring as planners get creative, which I think is a good thing. There are good reasons for both cases.
Particularly good video, Jago. Friends must appreciate all of the travelling around that you do, to obtain good views. Some very fine historical pictures shown. The first disused railway I walked was the Colonel Stephens’ Kent & East Sussex Light Railway. In 1964, much of it was there, rusting away, and the track was still in place at Tenterden Town - Rolvenden and beyond. It’s pleasing that some light railway routes like that have been restored to a fine standard.
I recall taking the train from Wimbledon to West Croydon when it was a Southern Region service. It was a very interesting journey with numerous signal boxes at which tokens were exchanged, and quite a few level crossings.
Another interesting and educational video. but just to add to the confusion, the illustration at about 1 minute 8 seconds is on the Little Eaton GANGway, just north of Derby; it opened in 1795 and closed in 1908, and connected a number of collieries and the Deny Pottery to the Derby Canal (at Little Eaton) I must admit, I never really thought of the Liverpool Overhead as a light railway; it certainly wasn't a tram (they ran at right angles to it around the Pier Head), but it was certainly an underground at the Dingle end! Tram rail was to a different profile to railway rails; this meant that Glasgow tram lines were laid to a slightly different gauge so that standard gauge trains could run along them to serve some of the docks and industries of Clydeside.
Well that's cleared that up thanks jago ! Good filming too, yes trams over tramlines in road , light rail lightly laid rails over various ground for light rail goods , Cornwall has many old examples , often wondered about this !
