THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHT RAIL MAGAZINE www.lrta.org www.tramnews.net AUGUST 2014 NO. 920 RIGA: MODERNISATION IN THE BALTIC STATES UK Transport Minister: ‘Light rail benefits are clear’ Minneapolis trams reach St Paul Alstom Transport partners with GE Metrolink Airport line to open early ISSN 1460-8324 £4.10 Charlotte Brussels 08 Urban rail diversifies Centenary of the in North Carolina remarkable line 81 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 324 CONTENTS The official journal of the Light Rail Transit Association August 2014 Vol. 77 No. 920 www.tramnews.net EDITORIAL 335 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 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 348 (Australia), Richard Felski (Spain), Ed Havens, Bill Vigrass (USA), Andrew Moglestue (Switzerland), NEWS 316 CHARLOTTE: SUCCESS AND GROWTH 331 Mike Russell, Nikolai Semyonov (Russia), Vic Simons, Alain Senut (France), Thomas Wagner (Germany). The French Government backs GE bid for A northward LYNX extension and a new PRODUCTION Alstom power – but transport stays in France; streetcar line; 2014 promises to be a pivotal Lanna Blyth Manchester Metrolink Airport link to open year for North Carolina’s light rail operation. Tel: +44 (0)1733 367604 E-mail: [email protected] a year early; Keolis joint venture secures DRL DESIGN operating concession; London Underground SYSTEMS FACTFILE: RIGA 335 Debbie Nolan hits new passenger record; Minneapolis – Neil Pulling explores the diverse tramway ADVERTISING St Paul Green line opens. that serves the Latvia’s biggest city. COMMERCIAL MANAGER Geoff Butler Tel: +44 (0)1733 367610 E-mail: [email protected] COMMENT 323 WORLDWIDE REVIEW 341 Paul Tetlaw looks at some of the difficult Sydney approvals; Zürich tunnel opens; first PUBLISHER questions that will be posed by Transform Tramino due in Braunschweig; Delhi’s Violet Howard Johnston Scotland’s Public Inquiry into the troubled line expands; Singapore orders new metro cars. Tramways & Urban Transit is jointly published by the LRTA and LRTA Publishing on the third Friday of each Edinburgh tram project. month preceding the cover date. MAILBOX 346 LRTA WEBSITE AND DIARY UK CONFERENCE LOOKS FORWARD 324 The ‘invisibility’ of Edinburgh trams on Brian Lomas The future of the UK’s tramways is the airport route suggests a perfect case for E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] promising – or so they say. TAUT reports public transport integration. LRTA MEMBERSHIP (with TAUT subscription) on the UK Light Rail Conference, held Tramways & Urban Transit is sent free to all paid-up this year in Nottingham, and the political CLASSIC TRAMS: BRUXELLES 348 members of the Light Rail Transit Association. heavyweights that have forecast a bright Mike Russell reports on celebrations of a SUBSCRIPTIONS LRTA Membership Secretary (Dept T06), outlook for coming years. very special route – line 81. 38 Wolseley Road, Sale M33 7AU, UK. BACK ISSUES Tel: +44 (0)1406 373070 PRINT AND DISTRIBUTION Retaining expertise to maintain momentum Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Having spent two days in Nottingham for the UK Light Rail Conference Lincs PE10 9PH, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1778 391000. this month, it is apparent that the UK’s LRT industry is in a buoyant mood LRTA REGISTERED OFFICE as the ‘bounce’ following the global financial crisis takes effect. But the c/o 138 Radnor Avenue, Welling, Kent DA16 2BY, UK. Private company limited by guarantee, No. 5072319 word that I heard repeated time and time again across the varied debates – in England and Wales. and not just from UK delegates – is ‘pipeline’. LRTA CHAIRMAN For any skilled industry, this is a common problem. How do you keep the forward Andrew Braddock order books healthy enough to prevent extended breaks and maintain skills and LRTA DEPUTY CHAIRMAN expertise? This is a global issue, but one that the UK seems to suffer more than most, Vic Simons with 5-10 years between the opening of new systems. LRTA PUBLISHING REGISTERED OFFICE: Many of the debates at this year’s conference focused on how we sell the benefits of c/o 8 Berwick Place, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL7 4TU, LRT to attract funding to ensure that the best and the brightest remain in the industry. UK. Private Limited Company, No. 06169422 in England and Wales. There is no shortage of innovative thinking, but innovation grows from experience. © LRTA Publishing 2014. In North America there’s a wealth of new schemes – over 50 either under construction Articles are submitted on the understanding they may also or in the planning stages – so there is confidence within the industry that there will be later be used on our websites or other media. A contribution continued work. Similarly, the Middle East is currently fertile ground for new light and is accepted on the basis that its author is responsible for the urban rail schemes, with seemingly mega-project after mega-project coming on stream. opinions expressed in it, and such opinions are not those of Australia is also looking strong, with some exciting new schemes underway that will LRTA Publishing or the LRTA. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in transform many of the country’s major population centres. any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including Yet following two incredibly positive decades at the end of the 20th Century and one photocopying, recording or by any information storage and and a half at the start of the 21st, the momentum seems to be waning in Europe. One of retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the copyright owner. Multiple copying of the contents of the the main reasons for this, of course, is that many of the towns and cities where light rail magazine without prior written approval is not permitted. systems make sense already have them, so now is the time to extend and, in many cases, renew ageing assets. But if new systems don’t emerge soon we may soon find ourselves approaching the cliff edge. Simon Johnston, Editor COVER: One of Riga's longer Škodas, 15T1 58033 on the rebuilt section west of Jugla. Neil Pulling www.tramnews.net . www.lrta.org AUGUST 2014 / 315 News Alstom partners with General Electric Board approves the establishment of three joint ventures in power, but transport stays in France n 21 June the signalling operations, which French Government has around 1200 employees, for announced it had EUR602m. chosen to back a Alstom Chairman & CEO Orevised bid from General Electric Patrick Kron was keen to in the battle to acquire the energy point out the company’s assets of Alstom. This was despite transportation ambitions in the a bid of EUR14.6bn from Siemens North American market, where in partnership with Mitsubishi GE Capital could support the Heavy Industries on 16 June. new business through financing The GE deal is worth solutions ‘on a case-by-case EUR12.34bn and involves basis’. The new transport giant the establishment of three is estimated to have sales of 50/50 joint ventures in power EUR6.2bn and 28 200 employees. generation and transmission, Multiple collaboration renewable energy and nuclear agreements are expected to technology. The French allow Alstom to grow its market Government is to hold a 20% share in freight and the rail preferred share, the holding technology supply chain in Under the new deal, Alstom Transport will continue supplying its Citadis trams to currently held by Bouygues SA, North America, complementing Paris in the future. These examples are on the T3 service at Pont du Garigliano, a line giving it veto and governance Alstom’s worldwide position in that will become a full circle around the city centre under current plans. N. Pulling rights over issues related to passenger transport. security and technology of GE Chairman and CEO Jeff headquarters’ decision-making achieved later in 2014 for closure nuclear plants. Immelt said: “The alliance will in France, and ensures that the in early 2015. The French company will retain and strengthen France’s Alstom name will endure.” Some market analysts foresee retain and strengthen its presence in the energy business The deal is subject to that there could still be a future transport division through the and reinforce Alstom Transport. regulatory and shareholder merger of Siemens’ and Alstom’s acquisition of 100% of GE’s rail It creates jobs, establishes approval, which could be transport divisions. Guangzhou’s new supercap trams Albania to get new tramway? When the 7.7km (4.8-mile) circular tramway in the Haizhou One of Europe’s more remote development district of the capital cities, Tiranë in Albania Chinese city of Guangzhou opens (population 321 000), is in late 2014/early 2015, passengers starting the development of will be carried on seven 100% a tramway project designed low-floor trams – but there will be to run 9km (5.6 miles) on an no OLE.