Some shots from Barcelona's very new tramway, the Trambaix. These are shots from the northern network of lines 4, 5 and 6. There is also an unconnected (and slightly less new) network to the south of the city which is also 3 routes. Interestingly both routes terminate on the same diagonal road that intersects the city but with about 2 miles between the routes. No doubt the network will expand enormously in the future and the lines will link up. It would be great to see modern trams rather than buses running along La Rambla and the waterside.
Britain's lagging years behind continental Europe on the installation of modern, sustainable transport systems, but we won't always be so backwards! I suspect that as time goes by the distinction between tram and train will continue to blur and that the New S&D will meet tramways at many points on our route, and trams may even work over some sections of our network. Alternatively we may need to run rails in the streets where building work has blocked our line and the alternatives are too expensive to justify, which will mean running heavy passenger and freight trains through the streets, as in Switzerland and the USA. Who knows?
2 comments:
http://willcummings.com/Pics/Diesel%20Trams.pdf
Nice report about a new tram system in Germany that part uses a heavy rail network. I got it off the ACoRP (Association of Community Rail Partnerships) site weeks ago - it has since disappeared into the bowels of the site
Ignore the headline: "Diesel Trams - A new way forward" - they are hybrid - primarily electric.
The trams are the first of their kind that can handle both the 15kV AC mainline and the 600v DC street car sections, and a diesel engine for parts with neither.
They are also up to both standards for signalling and operating on the line, saving a huge amount of money in unnecessary track building, and where electrification would cost too much - such as tunnels
Tram = Train
Ooops - small correction in my previous comment - there is still no Tram that can run on all three types of track - there are 2 types - one that is Diesel-electric 600DC, and another type that is 600DC-15000AC....
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