Developing Light Rail
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LIGHT RAIL INTEGRATION MARKET Busan Newcastle Metro cars South Korea’s rst modern A tram line is added to the e metro rolling stock tram line is taking shape new operator’s responsibilities market had a strong 2018 PAGE 18 PAGE 32 PAGE 38 www.metro-report.com Spring 2019 Developing light rail Metro Report International | Spring 2019 3 CONTENTS Volume 33 No 1 | Spring 2019 Thinking forwards COMMENT ne light rail industry professional recently asserted that ‘it is obvious that the UK lags far behind many other nations in its 4 Reshaping urban mobility | Yves Amsler reflects on the lack of forward thinking when it comes to city transport’. Many role of urban rail in a changing market would disagree with this assessment, not least those who are workingO in the city transport sector today. DIGEST London is generally seen as the reference for account-based contactless ticketing, which was introduced on the TfL network in 2014 to comple- ment the Oyster card. Its rapid adoption in cities around the world makes 6 City Digest | Manila, Istanbul, UK trams, Luxembourg, Berlin, New York this seem like a very forward-thinking move indeed: where London led, others are following. Innovation is not just on display in London. Last year, mobility as a ser- CITIES vice came to Birmingham in the form of the Whim multimodal app. is is certainly not the rst instance of MaaS — Whim started out by oering its 10 Beijing | As the Chinese capital grows, so does its service in Helsinki — but Birmingham is one of the few cities that is trying metro network this concept while it is still in its infancy. 13 China | Opening bonanza continues apace Initiatives like these are not exclusive to the UK, of course, but it is hard 16 China | Massive metro expansion schemes approved to make a case that the country ‘lags far behind’ in this respect. In any case, it is not always clear what constitutes ‘forward thinking’. Half a century ago, 18 Busan | South Korea’s second city chosen as testbed for who was seen as forward-thinking: the planner designing big roads for lots the country’s first modern tram line of private cars, or those arguing in favour of tram and metro expansion? 20 Douala | Tram network construction is expected to e claim suggested that tram developments in the UK compare unfa- start soon vourably with those in the USA. While light rail expansion in the UK has 22 India | The pace of metro development picks up slowed in recent years, other regions are arguably making more progress 26 Mexico City | Public transport investment is a priority than North America, where the recent spate of small-scale streetcar open- ings is unlikely to make a signicant dierence to modal split. Although 32 Newcastle | Transport network remodelling reaches these projects are welcome, it is dicult to see such small and infrequently next step with tram line inauguration run routes as the future, especially at a time of rapid development in an 34 Wien | Work starts on Austria’s first driverless metro line increasingly multi-modal urban mobility sector. Q MARKET & TECHNOLOGY 38 Metro car orders | A strong year in the metro rolling stock market 44 Russia | Sharp contrasts in the fortunes of Russia’s seven ‘‘ metro networks ‘Where London 47 Additive Manufacturing | 3D printing is emerging as a commercially viable option for producing transport led, others are components following’ 48 Innovations | Illumination, passenger information, ticketing Karol Zemek DIARY Editor, Metro Report International [email protected] 50 Diary & Contact Bonatrans’ wheelsets for the Moderus CONTACT US Gamma trams that Modertrans is supplying LIGHT RAIL INTEGRATION MARKET Busan Newcastle Metro cars Metro Report International, 6th Floor, Chancery House, South Korea’s rst modern A tram line is added to the e metro rolling stock tram line is being developed new operator’s responsibilities market had a strong 2018 to Pozna are PAGE 18 PAGE 32 PAGE 38 ń St Nicholas Way, Sutton, SM1 1JB, United Kingdom www.metro-report.com Spring 2019 characterised by several innovative features. Developing light rail Tel. +44 20 8652 5200 Fax +44 20 8652 5210 These include the [email protected] BONASILENCE®D noise ® absorber, the BONAXLE See p50 for full details induction hardened axle, and longitudinal pins on the outer circumference Annual subscription in USA $56. of the wheel centre that increase resistance Metro Report International is published twice a year by DVV Media International and distributed in the USA by SPDSW, 95 Aberdeen to rotation of the Road, York PA 17406. Periodicals postage paid at York PA. wheel centre relative to the tyre. US Postmaster: send address changes to Metro Report International, c/o PO Box 437, Emigsville PA 17318-0437. MRIN_Spring19_p003.indd 3 18/04/2019 15:48:43 4 Spring 2019 | Metro Report International COMMENT Yves Amsler Reshaping urban mobility UITP Senior Adviser Yves Amsler reflects on the role of urban rail in a changing market, and considers how automation and connectivity look set to disrupt traditional models of public transport provision. rail. Recharging facilities in the city 24·5 m. Conversely, smaller and more will become increasingly important, as exible autonomous vehicles may en- private vehicles, from bicycles to cars, able the economical provision of public will need access to energy when parked transport at o-peak times. Once again, away from their usual base. Railway the relative advantage of rail over bus YVES AMSLER substations could thus become the an- will decrease. chor points of urban ‘electromobility’, Public transport providers will have Yves Amsler is Senior Advisor at UITP and and UITP’s third particularly if they can be integrated to adapt the way in which they organise party on various Shift2Rail research projects, notably into multimodal interchanges where the their operations. Conventional regular IT2RAIL and GOFAR in IP4. He has co-ordinated the public feeder modes connect with rail-based services will increasingly be limited to transport industry’s Spectrum User Group since 2010. trunk routes. the densest city areas and peak times, Radical changes to the structure of while exible ‘on-demand’ modes will operating costs will make energy con- become more common in the outskirts ransport is changing. And This comment sumption a much more important pa- of cities and at quieter times. urban transport, both rail is based on rameter in the economic comparison e maintenance regime will also and road, is changing faster Yves Amsler’s between modes, as well as inuencing change, thanks to continuous monitor- contribution and more profoundly than to Volume 3 of vehicle design. In order to improve o- ing and early detection of equipment Twe have ever seen before. Global trends Rolling Stock peak frequencies while saving energy, it failures. Vehicles are already being in- in the Railway such as urbanisation, technical innova- System, edited will be necessary to adjust train lengths spected automatically when they enter tion and the imperatives of tackling by Reinhard by automatic coupling and uncoupling, or leave a depot. climate change are combining to trans- Christeller and Eric Fontanel. for example. form the services oered to city dwell- Personal connectivity ers, the way in which transport net- Automation reshaping services e near universalisation of personal works are organised and operated, and Automation looks set to trigger the connectivity is opening up new perspec- the kinds of vehicles that are needed. most profound upheavals in the provi- tives. Connected urban dwellers are al- Past experience has shown how the sion of public transport. Eliminating ready modifying their consumption of emergence of new technologies has drivers will reduce operating costs con- transport, favouring the emerging new shaped the evolution of railways over siderably, as stang is by far the most providers of on-demand services, both time, improving the productivity, at- expensive element today. at will in- private and shared. tractiveness and sustainability of the rail evitably pose challenges for operators, Internet-enabled individual-use (but mode. Today, factors such as electrica- authorities and unions, and we can perhaps no longer ‘private’) vehicles will tion, automation and the connectivity of be sure that the transition will not be become more comfortable and easy to people and systems are leading to new straightforward. use for all types of short and long jour- concepts of shared mobility, such as In terms of surface transport, auto- neys. Meanwhile, MaaS will facilitate Mobility as a Service. mation will enable ultra-precise guid- the shared use of vehicles, building If urban rail modes from metros and ance of vehicles, which will minimise on the concepts of carpooling, car- or Electric buses are suburban railways to trams and light rail reducing prospects the physical width of bus lanes and bike-sharing. are to remain attractive, their role must be for new trolleybus reduce the relative advantage of trams e current reference is Uber, which claried. Rail should be the backbone of networks and have and light rail. It may also facilitate the was initially created to provide individual helped to push the urban transport networks around which development of operation of road vehicles longer than passenger transport and has now diver- all other modes are articulated. But it will catenary-free trams. the current permitted maximum of sied into other services such as home be imperative for rail to oer commercial delivery as well as shared services such speeds and capacity that are clearly supe- as Uberpool. Today, private MaaS pro- rior to road alternatives, along with very viders are often seen as beneting from high levels of reliability, both to justify unfair competition with public trans- this priority and to minimise passenger port.