THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHT RAIL MAGAZINE www.lrta.org www.tautonline.com NOVEMBER 2019 NO. 983 ALGERIA: AFRICA’S TRAMWAY LEADER Seven years and six new systems... with more to come in 2020 Avignon: France’s 24th new tramline Vital funding secured for NY Subway Success at the Global Light Rail Awards Jokeri Light Rail New Taipei £4.60 Bringing modern All aboard Taiwan’s LRT to Helsinki newest tramway CONTENTS The official journal of the Light Rail 415 Transit Association November 2019 Vol. 82 No. 983 www.tautonline.com EDITORIAL EDITOR – Simon Johnston [email protected] 409 ASSOCIATE EDITOr – Tony Streeter [email protected] WORLDWIDE EDITOR – Michael Taplin [email protected] NewS EDITOr – John Symons [email protected] SenIOR CONTRIBUTOR – Neil Pulling WORLDWIDE CONTRIBUTORS Richard Felski, Ed Havens, Andrew Moglestue, Paul Nicholson, Herbert Pence, Mike Russell, Nikolai Semyonov, Alain Senut, Vic Simons, Witold Urbanowicz, Bill Vigrass, Francis Wagner, Thomas Wagner, Philip Webb, Rick Wilson PRODUCTION – Lanna Blyth 425 Tel: +44 (0)1733 367604 [email protected] NEWS 404 SYstEMS factfilE: Danhai LRT 425 DESIGN – Debbie Nolan Avignon becomes France’s 24th tramway An integral part of land development ADVertiSING city; USD51.5bn secured for vital New York north of the Taiwanese capital, Neil Pulling COMMERCIAL ManageR – Geoff Butler Subway modernisation and expansion; reports on the country’s newest LRT system. Tel: +44 (0)1733 367610 [email protected] Copenhagen M3 inaugurated; China opens another 200km of new metro lines; Hoek WORLDWIDE REVIEW 430 PUBLISheR – Matt Johnston van Holland light metro opens; Mauritius Brussels plans to convert tram subway to Tramways & Urban Transit inaugurates Metro Express LRT; celebrating metro; New lines in Nice and Lyon set for 13 Orton Enterprise Centre, Bakewell Road, success at the Global Light Rail Awards. November openings; Okayama announces Peterborough PE2 6XU, UK new tram plans; Genève tests Annemasse Tramways & Urban Transit is published by Mainspring JOKERI light Rail 409 tram extension; ground-breaking for Seattle’s on behalf of the LRTA on the third Friday of each By 2024 modern light rail will supplement Northgate – Lynwood LRT extension; LA month preceding the cover date. Helsinki’s traditional tramway and do much completes Blue line reconstruction; Metrolink to increase capacity. Lauri Kangas explains. helps rescue Heaton Park heritage line. PRINT AND DISTRIBUTION algERia’S TRAMWAY REVOlutiON 416 MAILBOX 435 Warners (Midlands), Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH, UK TAUT begins a comprehensive two-part Why the ‘new’ rolling stock lets the Isle of LRTA MEMBERSHIP (with TAUT subscription) special focus on development in North Wight down; and the UK has the expertise... Tramways & Urban Transit is sent free to all paid-up Africa’s oil capital. but does it lack the light rail vision? members of the Light Rail Transit Association. DEPOT SOlutiOns in MauRitius 422 CLASSICS: A ROManian MilEstONE 436 LRTA WEBSITE AND DIARY Brian Lomas Furrer+Frey’s MOCS offers safety and Mike Russell was one of few foreigners at the [email protected] [email protected] accessibility for rail systems. 150th birthday celebrations in Timişoara. SuBSCriPtioNS, MEMBERSHIP AND BACK ISSueS LRTA Membership Secretary (Dept T06), 38 Wolseley Road, Sale M33 7AU, UK. Tel: +44 (0)117 951 7785 Light rail reaches the areas that other modes can’t [email protected] Website: www.lrta.info What makes light rail special is surely its sheer flexibility as a concept. FOR CORPORATE SuBSCriPtioNS VISIT You can run a tram (or more likely a tram-train) along a railway, but you www.mainspring.co.uk certainly couldn’t send a high-speed express or heavy coal train through the narrow streets of Nottingham, Avignon, Augsburg or Messina. LRTA REGISTERED OFFICE 138 Radnor Avenue, Welling DA16 2BY, UK. That might sound obvious, but it’s worth restating again as in that simple Private company limited by guarantee, No. 5072319 truth lies light rail’s wealth of opportunity to give old corridors new relevance. This in England and Wales. month you can read about projects on the island of Mauritius, as well as half a world away LRTA ChaIRMAN – Paul Rowen in Hoek van Holland. What these two projects have in common lies in the re-purposing [email protected] of heavy rail corridors – in one case long disused, in the other still in existence but © LRTA 2019 under-utilised after the disappearance of its traditional traffic (boat trains). Articles are submitted on the understanding they may also The Netherlands example is also a fine reminder of light rail’s role – more than later be used on our websites or other media. A contribution perhaps any other rail-based solution – as a valuable ‘gap filler’. For while a new is accepted on the basis that its author is responsible for the metro-style service from Rotterdam’s municipal operator has replaced its largely opinions expressed in it, and such opinions are not those of unlamented heavy rail predecessor, freight trains will still be able to use the same the LRTA or Mainspring. All rights reserved. metals. With the right provision, light rail explicitly does not exclude other modes. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including In that sense, Hoek van Holland follows in a now long tradition that dates back to projects photocopying, recording or by any information storage and such as Karlsruhe’s tram-train, and will soon to be joined by the UK’s South Wales Metro. retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from There, a local tram-train network will absorb and be skillfully grafted onto parts of a local the copyright owner. Multiple copying of the contents of the rail system, while still allowing long-distance trains, freight and other traffic (TAUT 982). magazine without prior written approval is not permitted. This is all part of a further blurring of the lines between modes. So we need to take the logical step of thinking in terms of corridors and passengers rather than getting hung up COVER: Oran’s new tramway opened in 2013; it is on differences in technology or rolling stock. It is also another prompt of the benefits light just one of six Algerian cities to welcome light rail rail can bring to not only new routes, but those that still exist too. Simon Johnston, Editor service within the last decade. Mike Russell www.tautonline.com . www.lrta.org NOVEMBER 2019 / 403 News France welcomes its 24th modern tramway – and in less than 35 years The first phase of Avignon’s network is to open on 19 October – part of a two-line network by 2023 hen the new modern tramline in Avignon carries its first passengers Won 19 October, it will be the 24th French city to re-introduce trams. Work on line T1 (5.2km/ 3.2 miles) began on 17 October 2016. In 2018 a second line, T2 (3.2km/two miles), was approved for construction in 2021-23 costing EUR60m. T1 links Saint-Roch (Université des Métiers) and Saint-Chamand (Plain des Sports), with interchange to the Chrono bus C2 service at the central République Gare Centre adjacent to the SNCF station. The tram will largely replace bus line 1A. In 2023 this will also interchange with T2, running from Piot (Pont Édouard Daladier) to St-Lazare (Université Arendt). The same year will also see T1 diverted onto a short branch through the city walls ABOVE: Running along the city from République to Jean Jaures. ramparts beside Blvd St-Roch, Avignon There are plans to extend line T2 Citadis Compact 104 passes République. to reach Opéra Grand Avignon in the second half of the decade. RIGHT: On 12 September, a Construction work in Chamand-bound test run pauses at the new stop that will serve SNCF Gare Avignon was supposed to start Centrale. Both: B. Patton earlier in 2016, but this was delayed by the newly-elected city and is handled by a subsidiary of mayor, who wanted to cancel Transdev, under the new Orizo the scheme due to fears over brand. A depot has been disruption after witnessing the built at Place des Maraichers at scale of the works in Besançon. Saint-Chamand. The Avignon scheme agreed in Avignon is a historic city on 2010 had been for a new tramway the left bank of the river Rhône of two lines totalling 14.4km in south-east France. Home of the (8.9 miles), worked by 24 Citadis papacy from 1309 to 1377, it has Compact (205) low-floor trams, a population of 275 300. The city and estimated to cost EUR250m. itself has a population of 91 000, Discussion between the with 12 000 living in the historic agglomeration and the city saw a centre – a UNESCO World reduced EUR135m project agreed Heritage Site – that is enclosed and this was approved by Grand by medieval ramparts. Avignon’s ‘Metrolite’ for Chennai? Avignon in January 2015. first-generation tramway closed Negotiations with Alstom in 1932. Feasibility studies are to be by Chennai Metro Rail Limited resulted in the order for compact Since the start of France’s undertaken for what could (CMRL) and the Tamil Nadu 24m four-axle trams being modern tramway revolution, become India’s first modern Government, will recommend reduced to ten (at a cost of more than 1350 new trams light rail system, in Chennai possible alignments, as well as EUR25m), with four more due in have been delivered. Of those, in the southern state of Tamil providing estimated costings. 2023. The first of the 2.4m-wide 75% have come from French Nadu.