Types of trams
Articulated trams, invented and first used by the Boston Elevated Railway in 1912–13[1] at a total length of about twelve meters long (40 ft) for each pioneering example of twin-section articulated tram car, have two or more body sections, connected by flexible joints and a round platform at their pivoting midsection(s).
The most unusual double-decker tram used to run between the isolated Western Australian outback town of Leonora and the nearby settlement of Gwalia.
This made passenger access easier, reducing the number of steps required to reach the inside of the vehicle.
[6] In some jurisdictions this has even been made mandatory since the 1990s, for example by Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate in Britain and the Disability Discrimination Act in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries.
Prior to the introduction of the Škoda ForCity,[citation needed], that carried the mechanical penalty of requiring bogies to be fixed and unable to pivot (except for less than 5 degrees in some trams) and thus reducing curve negotiation.
Low-floor trams are now running in many cities around the world, including Adelaide, Amsterdam, Bratislava, Dublin, Gold Coast, Helsinki, Hiroshima, Houston, Istanbul, Melbourne, Milan, Prague, Sydney, Lviv and many others.
Most low-floor trams carry the mechanical penalty of requiring bogies to be fixed and unable to pivot.
[8] This creates undue wear on the tracks and wheels and reduces the speed at which a tram can drive through a curve.
A double-ended tram has an operator's cab and controls at each end of the vehicle, which allows it to easily be driven at full speed in either direction on a continuous segment of track.
Conversely, a single-ended vehicle needs a method of turning at termini so that the operator's cab is in the front of the tram for the reverse journey.
On the other hand, the single cab and controls and fewer door spaces make the tram lighter, increases passenger accommodation (including many more seats) and effects reductions in equipment, weight, first-cost, maintenance cost, and operating expense.
At the end of a run, the tram must be turned around via a balloon loop or some other method, to face in the opposite direction for a return trip.
More commonly nowadays, a bidirectional pantograph may be used to feed power, eliminating the need for an extra procedure when reversing direction.
This can allow the vehicles to match the capacity of conventional trams and cope with gradients up to 13% due to the rubber tyres.
[12] Instead of running on rails, they follow painted lines with rubber tires by using GPS positioning and laser technology — with a centimeter accuracy.
The Eurotram has a modern design that makes it look as much like a train as a tram and has large windows along its entire length.
[16] The recent Citadis-Dualis, intended to run at up to 100 km/h (62 mph), is suitable for stop spacings ranging from 500 m (1,600 ft) to 5 km (3.1 mi).
[18] Belgian vicinal tramway routes were used to haul agricultural produce, timber, and coal from Blégny colliery while several of the US interurbans carried freight.
In Australia, three different "Freight Cars" operated in Melbourne between 1927 and 1977[19] and the city of Kislovodsk in Russia had a freight-only tram system consisting of one line which was used exclusively to deliver bottled Narzan mineral water to the railway station.
The motivation now is to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion and damage to road surfaces in city centres.
The trial was successful, releasing an intended investment of €100 million in a fleet of fifty-two cargo trams distributing from four peripheral "cross docks" to fifteen inner-city hubs by 2012.
[citation needed] After World War II, in both Warsaw and Wrocław, Poland, so-called "tram-nurseries"[33] were in operation, collecting children from the workplaces of their parents (often tram employees).
Systems which have or have had restaurant trams include Adelaide, Bendigo and Melbourne, in Australia; Brussels in Belgium; The Hague in the Netherlands; Christchurch in New Zealand;[35] Milan, Rome and Turin in Italy; Moscow, Russia; Almaty, Kazakhstan [36][37] and Zürich, Switzerland.
[39] Bistro trams with buffets operated on ordinary services between 1924 and 2014 on the U76 Rheinbahn route between Krefeld and Düsseldorf in Germany,[40] and for a brief period in 1911 on the Amsterdam-Zandvoort line.
In Melbourne, Australia, several iconic W class trams run throughout the city in a set route which circles the Central Business District.
A tram-train is a light-rail public transport system where trams run through from an urban tramway network to main-line railway lines which are shared with conventional trains.
