THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHT RAIL MAGAZINE www.lrta.org www.tautonline.com JULY 2016 NO. 943 TAIWAN JOINS THE ASIAN LIGHT RAIL REVOLUTION Behind the scenes with Siemens North America Midland Metro reaches New Street Rio’s wire-free tramway opens DC Metro told ‘fix faults or close’ ISSN 1460-8324 £4.25 Berlin security Miskolc 07 Co-operation to Green Arrow tram keep passengers safe upgrade hits target 9 771460 832043 261 CONTENTS The official journal of the Light Rail Transit Association JULY 2016 Vol. 79 No. 943 www.tautonline.com EDITORIAL EDITOR Simon Johnston Tel: +44 (0)1733 367601 E-mail: [email protected] 13 Orton Enterprise Centre, Bakewell Road, Peterborough PE2 6XU, UK ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tony Streeter E-mail: [email protected] WORLDWIDE EDITOR Michael Taplin 264 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 WORLDWIDE CONTRIBUTORS Tony Bailey, James Chuang, Paul Nicholson, Richard 244 Felski, Ed Havens, Bill Vigrass, Andrew Moglestue, Mike Russell, Nikolai Semyonov, Vic Simons, Herbert Pence, Alain Senut, Thomas Wagner. NEWS 244 SIEMENS IN NORTH AMERICA 261 PRODUCTION Rio tramway opens for Olympics; LA Metro Vic Simons is given a guided tour of Siemens’ Rick Wilson service reaches Santa Monica; Bank Holiday Sacramento manufacturing facility. Tel: +44 (0)1733 367604 E-mail: [email protected] opening for Midland Metro New Street DESIGN service; Washington’s year of Metro safety SYSTEMS FACTFILE: MISKOLC 264 Debbie Nolan shutdowns; Two big orders for Bombardier. Neil Pulling visits this intriguing Hungarian ADVERTISING city that now calls its reinvigorated tramway COMMERCIAL MANAGER Geoff Butler NGT ‘NO’, LIGHT RAIL ‘YES’? 250 “the basic pillar of public transport.” Tel: +44 (0)1733 367610 E-mail: [email protected] Tony Streeter looks in detail at the decision PUBLISHER to cancel the Leeds trolleybus scheme. WORLDWIDE REVIEW 269 Howard Johnston Waterloo – Kitchener LRVs delayed; Fuzhou Tramways & Urban Transit is jointly published by the PASSENGER SAFETY IN BERLIN 252 metro opens; Paris T6 extends to Viroflay LRTA and LRTA Publishing on the third Friday of each Now welcoming over 1bn passengers per Rive Droite; State regulators threaten Atlanta month preceding the cover date. year, TAUT explores operator BVG’s more Streetcar suspension after poor audit; LRTA WEBSITE AND DIARY proactive approach to safety. UK tram-train faces further delays. Brian Lomas E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] LRTA MEMBERSHIP (with TAUT subscription) OBSERVATIONS FROM KAOHSIUNG 256 MAILBOX 274 Tramways & Urban Transit is sent free to all paid-up With trials well underway, Ciril van Hattum Advice for London’s new Mayor; Should members of the Light Rail Transit Association. explores Taiwan’s first modern tramway. guided busways come under LRT regulation? SUBSCRIPTIONS AND MEMBERSHIP ENQUIRIES LRTA Membership Secretary (Dept T06), RZESZÓW MONORAIL PLANS 260 CLASSIC TRAMS: HAGEN’S LEGACY 276 38 Wolseley Road, Sale M33 7AU, UK. Marek Ustrobiński explains to Witold Mike Russell concludes the fascinating story Tel: +44 (0)117 9517785 Urbanowicz how this Polish city prefers an of the trams that served the German city of BACK ISSUES Tel: +44 (0)117 951 7785 elevated monorail to surface light rail. Hagen, which closed its network 40 years ago. PRINT AND DISTRIBUTION Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1778 391000. Is the blame culture holding LRT back? LRTA REGISTERED OFFICE c/o 138 Radnor Avenue, Welling, Kent DA16 2BY, UK. A world where no decision can be made without a fear of retribution Private company limited by guarantee, No. 5072319 stifles creativity and innovation. It is seen in every walk of life, but the in England and Wales. toxic nature of ‘blame culture’ is certainly counter-productive for massive LRTA CHAIRMAN infrastructure schemes. I’m not advocating a lack of responsiblity and Andrew Braddock ownership, far from it, but when it comes to placing multi-million Euro E-mail: [email protected] tram orders, or building new lines or systems in built-up areas, are we too LRTA DEPUTY CHAIRMAN risk-averse to achieve efficiencies? And is more money going on legal fees than major Paul Rowen city improvements that will geuninely change the lives of millions? LRTA PUBLISHING REGISTERED OFFICE c/o 8 Berwick Place, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL7 4TU, The term ‘risk management’ didn’t appear in anyone’s vocabulary 50 years ago, yet UK. Private Limited Company, No. 06169422 modern contracts often have onerous provision for the ‘what ifs’; and such clauses add in England and Wales. time, cost and complexity to decision-making processes. We see more and more contract © LRTA Publishing 2016 awards challenged in the courts, and delays to major schemes cause wranglings that can Articles are submitted on the understanding they may also drag on for years. The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry is one such case in point. Large sums later be used on our websites or other media. A contribution is accepted on the basis that its author is responsible for the have been spent but a single witness is yet to be called and everything has gone very opinions expressed in it, and such opinions are not those of quiet in the search for what went wrong in the delivery of the Scottish capital’s tramway. LRTA Publishing or the LRTA. All rights reserved. Lessons must absolutely be learned and responsiblity must be taken for poor No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in decisions, but what can really be drawn from years of debate about money already spent any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and (or wasted)? Financial compensation will be cold comfort to those inconvenienced by retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from years of disruption, and any growth will inevitably be delayed. the copyright owner. Multiple copying of the contents of the Decent and robust planning in the first instance will help, to make sure that decisions magazine without prior written approval is not permitted. aren’t as ‘risky’. Removing a culture of fear for actions taken in good faith that go wrong is COVER: Kaohsiung station C3 Cianjhen Star, now another idea. The more we work together, the more we achieve. Simon Johnston, Editor receiving trial passenger services. Ciril van Hattum www.tautonline.com . www.lrta.org JULY 2016 / 243 News Rio’s trams will run for the Olympics Brazil’s wire-free modern tramway opens, part of a major revitalisation project for Rio de Janeiro he first section of the Up to 420 passengers can be 28.6km (17.7-mile) VLT carried in each 2.65m-wide tram, tramway, built in the giving a capacity of 250 000 Porto Maravilha district passengers/day on the system. ofT central Rio de Janeiro, opened Porto Maravilha is the largest for passenger service from Praça urban renewal project in Brazil; Mauá to Santa Dumont Airport up to 8000 new houses will on 5 June (postponed at the last be built as part of a mixed use minute from 22 May). Free travel development including retail was offered for the first four weeks; and cultural venues. from 1 July the fare is BRR3.80 Meanwhile, metro line 4 (EUR0.95), payable by smartcard. extension from Ipanema to Barra At first just two AlstomCitadis da Tijuca will open on 1 August, 402 trams were in service but access will be restricted to between 12.00 and 15.00, but by Olympic ticket holders, athletes the end of June the schedule was and officials. due to be extended to 17.00. Eight trams will provide a 15-minute ABOVE AND LEFT: On the first service (06.00-24.00) during the phase of a wider network, Alstom Olympic Games in August. Three Citadis 402 trams use APS surface further lines are due to open. current collection on the Work on the BRR1.2bn VLT tramway. Porto Maravilha (EUR300m) project began in July 2012 when tenders were invited to build and operate the system. On 30 April 2013 the winning consortium was announced as VLT Carioca, made up of CCR, Invepar, Odebrecht Transport, Riopar and RATP Dev. The network features lines equipped throughout with Alstom’s APS surface current collection system. Alstom has delivered 32 double-ended seven-section 44m Citadis trams; the first five were built in France and the remaining 27 at Alstom’s Taubaté facility in the state of São Paulo. Tram-train for Full Canberra light rail project costs West Yorkshire? TramForward has backed a call revealed as preliminary works begin from Greg Mulholland MP for discussions on the development The total cost of the 12km contract, valued at AUD707m such as service performance, of a tram-train system for the (7.5-mile) light rail line linking (EUR457m). cleanliness and fare evasion. UK’s Leeds City Region and Gungahlin with the centre of Transport Canberra said the The Australian Capital West Yorkshire. Mr Mulholland the Australian capital has been AUD707m figure came with a Territory (ACT) Government is MP for Leeds North West put at AUD939m (EUR607m), ‘75% confidence level’ – and will receive the fare income and Chairman of the All-Party Transport Canberra revealed comes in significantly lower and bear the brunt of any lower Parliamentary Light Rail Group. following the financial close of than the AUD783m (EUR506m) revenue due to lower than The UK Government has the contract for construction, outlined in its 2014 business expected ridership. The 2014 agreed that the GBP173.5m operations and maintenance case.