STATISTICS BRIEF

THE GLOBAL TRAM AND LIGHT RAIL LANDSCAPE OCTOBER 2019

INTRODUCTION

As of 31 December 2018, tram and light rail sys- article describes the evolution of LRT since 2015, tems (both described as LRT in this article) are and provides a snapshot of the situation in 2018. available in 389 cities across the world. The present

EUROPE 204 systems EURASIA NORTH 1,276 lines 83 systems AMERICA 9,296 km 735 lines 3,483 km 40 systems 10,422 m pax 2,061 m pax 111 lines 1,596 km 770 m pax ASIA- PACIFIC 42 systems SOUTH 133 lines AMERICA 1,090 km 8 systems MENA 794 m pax AFRICA 11 systems 10 lines 1 system 37 lines 110 km 2 lines 238 km 151 m pax 34 km 415 m pax 38 m pax

1 180

A REMARKABLE RENAISSANCE 160 LRT has enjoyed a renaissance since the new millennium, 140 with no less than 108 new cities (re)opening their first 120

line. As Figure 1 shows, Europe has traditionally been a 100 Europe leader in LRT development with 60 new systems, not in- 80 Asia-Pacific cluding new lines in existing systems and line extensions. MENA & Africa Europe is followed by Asia-Pacific and North America 60 Eurasia with 20 and 16 new systems respectively. 40 South America LRT system opening (per half-decade) 1985-2019! North America 20 40 450 0 35 400 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

7 +56% 350 30 Figure 3: Evolution of LRT development (km)

6 300 25 3

2 250 2 4 20 2 10 1 5 200 RIDERSHIP 15 6 1 1 150 1 1 2 In 2018, annual LRT ridership worldwide reached 14,651 10 1 19 19 5 100 4 2 15 million passengers, with Europe accounting for 10,422 11 1 5 50 2 7 million. For the first time, the symbolic threshold of 10 5 3 0 0 0 billion passengers was reached in Europe in 2016. Eurasia pre-1985 1985-89 1990-94 1995-99 2000-04 2005-09 2010-14 2015-19 Europe North America Latin America Eurasia Asia MENA Africa Cumulative # systems is the only other region with patronage figures expressed Europe North America South America in billion. Figure 4 shows details of all regions with rider- Eurasia Asia-Pacific MENA & Africa Cumulative # systems shipWorldwide below the billion LRT passengerRidership threshold. 2018 (m. pax)

Figure 1: LRT system opening per half-decade, 1985-2019 415 151

794 Europe 770 38 Europe Between 2014 and 2018, 1,153 km of new LRT has Eurasia Eurasia opened worldwide (see Figure 2). 2017 was a watershed North America 2,061 year as, for the first time, green-field LRT projects in Asia-PacificNorth America Asia-Pacific exceeded those in Europe (see Figure 3). MENA The trend is expected to continue as China has started 10,422 SouthAsia America Pacific Newmassive LRT Infrastructu investment inr ethese (km, intermediate 2015-18) capacity sys- Africa MENA tems, and Europe has to dedicate significant resources to asset maintenance and modernisation (brown-field). GLOBAL RIDERSHIP (m.)

Figure 4: Ridership distribution (m. passengers), 2018 34 Asia-Pacific 197.5 267.2 Eurasia 14,800 Europe 14,600 30.3 135.4 South America 14,400 MENA 68.1 North America 14,200

420.5 Africa 14,000

13,800

13,600 2015 2016 2017 2018 Figure 2: New LRT infrastructure (km), 2014-2018

Figure 5: Total global ridership evolution (m. passengers), 2015-2018

2 Total patronage increased by 4.8% (672 million) from There are strong variations within regions. For example, 13,986 to 14,651 million between 2015 and 2018 (see 27 trips for Canada compared to 5 for USA, and 138 for Figure 5). Germany compared to 44 in France. Figure 6 shows that all regions except Eurasia are expe- The busiest LRT network is Budapest with 427 million riencing demand growth: 30% in MENA (+ 95 million), passengers recorded in 2018. The top-10 ranking is 64% in Latin America (+ 59 million), 15% in Asia-Pacific shown in Figure 8. All systems in this top-10 are long-es- (+ 101 million), 7% in Europe (+ 675 million) and 1% in tablished tram networks, except Paris where LRT was North America (+10 million). Demand in Africa has been re-introduced just 25 years ago. The networks in Mel- stable between 2016, the first full year of operation, and bourne and Hong-Kong are the only non-European LRT 2018. systems reaching the top-10. However, Eurasia is experiencing a constant decline in Top-10 busiest LRT networks (m. per year) ridership, falling 12% between 2015 and 2018. This is Budapest partly due to the closure of systems, and partly by the lack of sufficient investment by cities to maintain the Prague quality of their tram services. Worldwide LRT ridership 2015-2018 (m. pax) Vienna

12000 Paris* 10,422

10000 Warsaw*

8000 Hong-Kong

6000 Cologne

4000 Zürich 2,061 2000 770 794 Melbou rne 415 151 38 0 Europe Eurasia North America Asia-Pacific MENA South America Africa Berlin

Figure 6: Ridership evolution worldwide (m. passengers), 2015-2018 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 * 2017 data used

The average number of LRT trips per inhabitant per year Figure 8: Top-10 busiest LRT systems (m. passengers), 2018 is a useful KPI to measure the intensity of use of available services. Such an indicator is only relevant if it is based on a consistent methodology for the collection of pop- The mostTop-10 crowded most c LRTrowded network LRT networks is Alexandria (m. pax with / km 5.63 of ulation data in the given urban area . The results range million passengers per annumline) per km of line. The top-10 between 2 and 56, as shown in Figure 7. ranking is shown in Figure 9.

60 Alexandria

50 Istanbul Sarajevo 40 Hong Kong

30 Nice 56 Zagreb 20 33 Guadalaja

10 Jerusalem 12 3 9 6 2 00 Brno Europe Eurasia MENA Africa North Asia- South Geneva America Pacific America 0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 Figure 7: Number of LRT trips per year per inhabitant, 2018 Figure 9: Top-10 most crowded LRT systems (m. passengers per km of line), 2017

3 INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENTS Between 2015 and 2018, LRT infrastructure grew stead- ily in almost every region of the world for a total of 662 As of 31 December 2018, there were 389 cities with km. The growth rate, however, varies greatly from one LRT. Cities with multiple operators, like Hong Kong, Ma- region to another, ranging from 62% in South America to drid, Lyon, Paris and Basel are counted as one system. 1% in North America. The only region exposed to stagna- 2,304 lines in the world cover 15,847 km. Figure 10 indi- tion is Africa and the only region exposed to decline (-83 cates how these lines are distributed by region. km) is Eurasia, mainly due to closure of tram systems in 10 cities since 2015.

NUMBER OF SYSTEMS 9,296 9,000

40 42 8,000 11 1

8 7,000 83 6,000

5,000

4,000

New LRT Infrastructure (km, 2015-18) 204 3,483 3,000 Asia Pacific Eurasia Europe South America MENA

2,000 LENGTH KM 1,596 1,090 1,000

34 1,090 238

1,596 110 Asia-Pacific 110 34 34 197.5 267.2 Europe Eurasia North Asia- MENA South Africa Eurasia 238 Asia Pacific America Pacific America Europe 3,483 Eurasia Europe 30.3 South America Figure 11: Evolution of line length worldwide (km), 2015-2018 135.4 South America MENA MENA 68.1 North America North America

420.5 Africa Africa 9,296

NUMBER OF LINES 10 111 133 Asia Pacific 37 2 Eurasia

735 Europe South America

MENA

North America 1,276 Africa

Figure 10: Fixed assets distribution by region, 2018 © visualspace

4 New LRT Infrastructure (km, 2015-18) New LRT Infrastructure (km, 2015-18) As Figure 12 shows, there are notable differences be- MOBILE ASSETS tween network structures (line length and distance be- tween stops) across the world. While the European av- NewThe fleetLRT Infrastructu available to operatere (km, 2,304 2015-18) LRT lines worldwide erage lies at 7.3 km, lines tend to be longer on average in consists of 37,290 trams and light rail vehicles. The fleet regions with newer systems and limited number of lines Newis distributed LRT Infrastructu as34 shown inre Figure (km, 14.2015-18) Total fleet distributionAsia-Pacific like South America, North America and Africa (11-17.1 km). 197.5 34 267.2 New LRT Infrastructure (km, 2015-18)Asia-PacificEurasia In regions with older and more complex systems, lines 267.2 197.5 601 EurasiaEurope tend to be shorter in average (like in Europe, Eurasia and 34 30.3 Asia-PacificSouth America Japan). 135.4 2,396 267.2 Europe 197.5 267.2 30.3 EurasiaMENAEu rope 1352,937.4 13134 41 South America EuAsia-Pacificrope 18 1,000 68.1 MENAEuNorthropeEurasia America 197.5 267.2 34 30.3 135.4 30.3 SouthAfricaAsia-PacificEurasiaNorth America America 877 900 13568.4 .1 420.5 North America 197.5 267.2 MENAEurope 796 MENAEurasiaAsia Pacific 15 772 420.5 Africa 800 68.1 20,75430 .3 EuNorthSouthrope America 13568.410,430 .1 NorthMENA America 700 420.5 30.3 SouthAfricaMENASouth America America 12 135.4 420.5 Africa 68.1 North America 600 MENAAfrica 519 502 68.1 420.5 NorthAfrica America 9 447 500 420.5 Africa 400

Average line length (km) 331 6 Figure 14: Distribution of mobile assets, 2018 300

200 Average distance between stops (m) 17 3 8 11 14 Currently 12,421 vehicles worldwide are partial or full low- 100 7 6 floor, representing 37% of the total, ranging from 100% 5 of the fleet (Africa) to much lower levels, as indicated in 0 0 Asia- Eurasia Europe South MENA North Africa Figure 15. Of course, the proportion of state-of-the-art America America Pacific low-floor LRVs depends on the market structure (recent LRT systems opened since early 90’s compared to leg- Figure 12: LRT network characteristics, 2018 acy systems) and the financial capabilities of operators and authorities to renew ageing fleets. Low floor vehicles per regions The longest LRT network is Melbourne (250 km) fol- 25,000 100% lowed by St. Petersburg (246km) and Berlin (193.2km). The top-10 Trankingop-10 longest is shown LRT Winorldwide Figure 13.(km)

Melbourne 250 20,000 80%

St. Petersburg 246

Berlin 193 15,000 60%

Moscow 181

Milan 180 10,000 40%

Vienna 178

Budapest 160 5,000 20%

155 Düsseldorf

Dallas 149 0 0% Cologne 149 Europe Eurasia North Asia MENA South Africa America Pacific America 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 Figure 15: Number of total fleet and percentage of low-floor vehicles Figure 13: Top-10 longest LRT systems worldwide (km), 2018 by region, 2018

5 Data about vehicle-kilometre were available for 32 countries. Weighted average annual mileage per vehicle worldwide, ranging between 78,000 km (North Ameri- ca) and 44,000 km (MENA). Europe, as the largest LRT region, is 52,000 km. The discrepancy depicted in Fig- ure 17 can be partly explained by the fleet age structure as well as the urban areas’ spatial characteristics. Longer systems with longer distance between stops are likely to clock more kilometres every day. Yearly mileage

90,000

80,000

70,000 © Sergii Figurnyi 60,000

An indicator of fleet density (number of vehicles per km 50,000 of infrastructure) was defined to characterise the fleet 40,000 size required to provide urban LRT services (see Figure 16). 30,000

20,000

Eurasia 10,000

0 North Africa Asia-Pacific Europe MENA MENA America

Figure 17: Average annual mileage per LRV (km), 2018 Europe

Asia- Pacific

North America

Africa

South America

0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50

Figure 16: Number of vehicles per km of line, 2018

The global average is 2.2 vehicles per km of line. The high value in Eurasia is likely to be caused by a higher than average fleet age and number of number of vehicles not in regular use. In MENA, the average is driven up by the frequent double-traction operation using long trains counting as two LRVs (Tunis, Casablanca, Rabat…).

6 PERSPECTIVE

With continued pressure to reduce congestion, to im- prove air quality in cities and to reduce greenhouse gas emission contributing to climate change, LRT will contin- ue to obtain support of decision-makers and the travel- ling public. LRT is clean, silent and space-efficient. Over 1,000 km of green-field LRT projects are expected to open for revenue service in the next three years. However, in Europe and Eurasia, more attention and re- sources will be paid to the maintenance, modernisation and replacement of assets like fleet, tracks and stations to keep ageing systems attractive and fit for operation- al purpose. For this reason, the growth of green-field projects in these regions will continue to slow down as illustrated by Figure 18. This trend will also affect North America in the future. The LRT growth will be mainly driven by the Asia-Pacific region.

180

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Europe MENA & Africa Asia-Pacific Eurasia South America North America

Figure 18: Forecast for new LRT infrastructure (km) by region

7 DEFINITION AND METHODOLOGY

The data for this document was extracted from a erated on guided rubber-tyred multi-articulated database compiled by UITP using official company vehicles with right-of-Way 2 are included. Infra- data and other authoritative sources, such as na- structure predictions are based on scenarios devel- tional statistics office and national associations. oped from UITP’s rail project database. LRT and trams are urban rail-guided systems oper- ated at least partly on line-of-sight, on infrastruc- The full dataset is available upon request. ture shared with other users and partly on their own infrastructure (Right-of-Way type 2). Systems op- © Beyond DC © Beyond

This is an official Statistics Brief of UITP, the International Association of Public Transport. UITP has more than 1,700 member companies in 100 countries throughout the world and represents the interests of key players in this sector. Its membership includes transport authorities, operators, both private and public, in all modes of collective passenger transport, and the industry. UITP addresses the economic, technical, organisation and management aspects of passenger transport, as well as the development of policy for mobility and public transport worldwide.

DIGITAL VERSION AVAILABLE ON This Statistics Brief was prepared by the Rail Unit of the UITP Secretariat.

OCTOBER | 2019

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