THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHT RAIL MAGAZINE www.lrta.org www.tramnews.net MAY 2014 NO. 917 TRAMS HELP COMBAT EUROPE’S POLLUTION Making the case for city circulator loops CTA crash operator “dozed off” Turkey: New lines and new LRVs St Petersburg to privatise tram fleet? ISSN 1460-8324 £4.10 Brazil New Orleans 05 Transit for the World The road to recovery Cup and beyond – and future growth 9 771460 832036 London, 1 October 2014 ENTRIES OPEN NOW Best Customer Initiative Best Environmental and Sustainability Initiative Employee/Team of the Year Manufacturer of the Year Most Improved System Operator of the Year Outstanding Engineering Achievement Award Project of the Year <EUR50m Project of the Year >EUR50m Significant Safety Initiative Supplier of the Year <EUR10m Supplier of the Year >EUR10m Technical Innovation of the Year Judges’ Special Award Vision of the Year For advanced booking and sponsorship details contact: Geoff Butler – t: +44 (0)1733 367610 – @ [email protected] www.lightrailawards.com CONTENTS The official journal of the Light Rail Transit Association MAY 2014 Vol. 77 No. 917 www.tramnews.net EDITORIAL EDITOR Simon Johnston Tel: +44 (0)1733 367601 E-mail: [email protected] 13 Orton Enterprise Centre, Bakewell Road, Peterborough PE2 6XU, UK 194 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tony Streeter E-mail: [email protected] WORLDWIDE EDITOR Michael Taplin Flat 1, 10 Hope Road, Shanklin, Isle of Wight PO37 6EA, UK. E-mail: [email protected] NEWS EDITOR John Symons 17 Whitmore Avenue, Werrington, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs ST9 0LW, UK. E-mail: [email protected] SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR Neil Pulling 213 207 WORLDWIDE CONTRIBUTORS Tony Bailey, James Chuang, Paul Nicholson (Australia), Richard Felski (Spain), Ed Havens, Bill NEWS 188 REFUELLING THE UK REVOLUTION 204 Vigrass (USA), Andrew Moglestue (Switzerland), Paris fights pollution with free public Taking inspiration from other countries, Mike Russell, Nikolai Semyonov (Russia), Vic Simons, Alain Senut (France), Thomas Wagner (Germany). transport; Obama gives transit budget the UK is on the cusp of new LRT PRODUCTION boost; Budapest automated metro opens. development, argue leading observers. Lanna Blyth Tel: +44 (0)1733 367604 E-mail: [email protected] FLEXING SOME MUSSEL POWER 193 SYSTEMS FACTFILE: ESSEN 207 DESIGN An innovative approach to collaboration on Neil Pulling uses Essen’s extensive rail Debbie Nolan ticketing in the UK’s south West. systems to explore the German city and ADVERTISING its neighbours. COMMERCIAL MANAGER BRAZIL: WORLD CUP AND BEYOND 194 Geoff Butler Tel: +44 (0)1733 367610 E-mail: [email protected] With stadiums still to be completed, will WORLDWIDE REVIEW 213 PUBLISHER any of the planned mass transit projects Hasselt – Maastricht international tramway Howard Johnston open in time? Mike Taplin reports. to go ahead; CSR Nanjing Puzhen wins Tramways & Urban Transit is jointly published by the 40-train order for Suzhou metro; Freiburg- LRTA and LRTA Publishing on the third Friday of each NEW ORLEANS FINALLY ON THE UP 198 im-Breisgau tramline extends. month preceding the cover date. Some nine years after Hurricane Katrina, LRTA WEBSITE AND DIARY New Orleans’ passengers are now seeing the MAILBOX 218 Brian Lomas benefits following takeover by Veolia in 2009. Is LRT 21st Century economic colonialism? E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] LRTA MEMBERSHIP (with TAUT subscription) Tramways & Urban Transit is sent free to all paid-up GOING ROUND IN CIRCLES? 201 CLASSIC TRAMS: OSLO RECALLED 220 members of the Light Rail Transit Association. The city circulator, or loop, is not a new idea Mike Russell looks back at a centenary event SUBSCRIPTIONS – but it is one that is building momentum. that set the bar for others back in 1994. LRTA Membership Secretary (Dept T06), 38 Wolseley Road, Sale M33 7AU, UK. BACK ISSUES Tel: +44 (0)1406 373070 Electrify to fight the pollution problem PRINT AND DISTRIBUTION We all read about pollution, but many urbanites had the problems brought Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, home to them this month as cities battled some of the worst smog in Lincs PE10 9PH, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1778 391000. decades. Asthma sufferers and the elderly were warned to avoid long periods LRTA REGISTERED OFFICE c/o 138 Radnor Avenue, Welling, Kent DA16 2BY, UK. outdoors and even the fit and healthy found breathing more difficult. Private company limited by guarantee, No. 5072319 Some European cities have seen sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and in England and Wales. PM10 levels double that of World Health Organisation and European LRTA CHAIRMAN Commission safe levels. Saharan winds and unusual meterological conditions may have Andrew Braddock made the situation in Europe worse, but although this episode is severe, it is a symbol LRTA DEPUTY CHAIRMAN of something deeper – and many see this as a sign of worse things to come. Nations face Vic Simons tough legal action as their cities repeatedly fail to meet clean air targets, but as these LRTA PUBLISHING REGISTERED OFFICE: targets are imposed and missed, is air pollution being taken seriously enough? c/o 8 Berwick Place, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL7 4TU, UK. Private Limited Company, No. 06169422 Paris introduced free public transport for a weekend and even tried to limit car usage in England and Wales. by banning cars with even-numbered licence plates on one day, followed by a ban on © LRTA Publishing 2014. odd-numbered licence plates the next. Other areas have used similar techniques to try to Articles are submitted on the understanding they may also clean up cities, but they are usually only temporary, emergency measures. later be used on our websites or other media. A contribution is accepted on the basis that its author is responsible for the China’s largest cities regularly see dangerously high levels of air pollution. Urumqi, now opinions expressed in it, and such opinions are not those of embarking on metro construction, has seen conditions reach such critical levels in recent LRTA Publishing or the LRTA. All rights reserved. months that it has had to take the radical step of closing some roads, and even its airport. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including There is no simple way to cut our emissions and clean up our atmosphere – a range of photocopying, recording or by any information storage and measures need to be taken. This is where electrified mass transit comes in. As our urban retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from areas get ever more crowded, it requires real commitment from governments to make the copyright owner. Multiple copying of the contents of the magazine without prior written approval is not permitted. the change; this is especially true when massive revenues are placed on fuel duties and Government funds are squeezed. As Frank Kelly, Professor of Environmental Health at King’s College London, told the BBC: “The political will needs to be substantial, because it will be costly.” Simon Johnston, Editor COVER: Citadis 302 408+458 at the Pointe de Bezons Seine crossing, Paris, on 5 March. N. Pulling www.tramnews.net . www.lrta.org MAY 2014 / 187 News A wealth of new lines in Turkey Paris fights air pollution Turkey welcomed three new urban and light rail with free public transport developments last month, starting with the opening of Automobile use curbed as French capital chokes under intense smog Istanbul’s Vezneciler metro station on line M2 on 16 March. A few days later, on Wednesday ities across Europe The WHO report has linked on Sunday 16 March. The capital 19, the 5.2km (3.2-mile) light suffered the worst air pollution to around seven was joined by Caen and Rouen, rail extension from Arabayatagi pollution and smog in million deaths a year, or nearly while Reims and Grenoble offered to Otosansit in Bursa’s eastern decades in March, the one in eight deaths worldwide free transit just on the Friday. suburbs also opened. A further Csame month the World Health in 2012 – more than double The Velib bicycle-sharing 2.8km (1.7-mile) extension to Organisation (WHO) released previous estimates and reportedly and Autolib electric car sharing Kestel opened on 27 March. figures claiming that airborne more than road traffic deaths, schemes were also declared free Opening of the 5km (three- pollution is now the world’s smoking and diabetes combined. of charge, while from Monday 17 mile) extension from Yunusemre largest single environmental In Paris, with PM10 levels March the alternate numberplate to Açelya in the eastern suburbs health risk. exceeding 100 mg/m3 for three system (with car use restricted by of Eskisehir on 18 March saw the The poor conditions were days, the government announced number plate) was introduced to introduction of tram route 3, created due to a combination that public transport would be curb car traffic. This restriction Beledniye Konser Salonu (Opera) – of atmospheric conditions and free of charge from 05.30 on lasted just one day (during which Açelya, worked by ten Bombardier Saharan winds. Friday 14 March to close of service 4000 drivers were given EUR22 Flexity cars. The total fleet for the spot fines), as pollution reduced 20km (12-mile) system is now 33. due to meteorological factors, The extension of the metro at but was to be kept under review. Ankara by 16.5km (10.3 miles) It is only the second time from Kizilay in the city centre to such drastic restrictions have Koru in the south opened on 15 been undertaken in Paris, with March; this section is labelled the first such car ban being M2, though it appears to work enforced in 1997. However, through with line M1.