THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHT RAIL MAGAZINE www.lrta.org www.tautonline.com MAY 2015 NO. 929 DUBAI’S TECHNOLOGICAL TRAMWAY TOUR DE FORCE Issues for modern track maintenance and renewal US submits USD478bn transit plan Chinese hydrogen tram revealed Brussels approves north-south metro ISSN 1460-8324 Oxford Denmark 05 £4.25 Tram lessons from Green credentials its French twin city supported by LRT 9 771460 832043 2015 INTEGRATION AND GLOBALISATION Nottingham Conference Centre, UK: June 17-18 2015 The tenth edition of the UK Light Rail Conference returns to Nottingham and promises to be the biggest and best yet. From planning and finance debates through to presentations on light rail construction, regulation and operation, the Conference brings you together with key industry players, whether attending as a delegate or exhibitor. Nowhere else can you join 300 light rail decision-makers to debate the burning issues of the day. • Unrivalled networking opportunities • Over 70 leading speakers and panelists • Biggest ever exhibition area • Technical tour of Nottingham Express Transit • Networking dinner hosted by international transport operator Keolis Book your place NOW! Download the schedule at www.mainspring.co.uk/events SUPPORTED BY D O C K L A N D S 172 CONTENTS The official journal of the Light Rail Transit Association MAY 2015 Vol. 78 No. 929 www.tramnews.net EDITORIAL 188 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 178 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 Felski, Ed Havens, Bill Vigrass, Andrew Moglestue, Mike Russell, Nikolai Semyonov, Vic Simons, Alain Senut, Thomas Wagner. PRODUCTION Lanna Blyth NEWS 172 SMALL CITY LRT 195 Tel: +44 (0)1733 367604 E-mail: [email protected] CSR Sifang unveils hydrogen tram; OSIRIS Dr Nicholas Falk and Reg Harman argue the DESIGN programme’s energy efficiency successes; case for a modern tramway for Oxford, UK. Debbie Nolan US submits USD478bn transit funding plan; ADVERTISING Brussels north-south metro plan aproved. HAMBURG: METRO NOT TRAMS 199 COMMERCIAL MANAGER Geoff Butler Günter Elste explains why the German city Tel: +44 (0)1733 367610 E-mail: [email protected] DENMARK’S LRT RENAISSANCE 178 of Hamburg favours metros over tramways. PUBLISHER Trams last ran in Denmark in 1972; now Howard Johnston David Steele from SYSTRA looks at the four SYSTEMS FACTFILE: CONSTANTINE 201 Tramways & Urban Transit is jointly published by the new systems currently under development. How the new tramway has revitalised this LRTA and LRTA Publishing on the third Friday of each traffic-clogged city – Mike Russell reports. month preceding the cover date. MAINTENANCE AND RENEWAL 182 LRTA WEBSITE AND DIARY James Snowdon considers some of the WORLDWIDE REVIEW 205 Brian Lomas aspects that influence the life of street track. Argentina renationalises surburban rail E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] networks; tram works begin in Rio de Janeiro; LRTA MEMBERSHIP (with TAUT subscription) Tramways & Urban Transit is sent free to all paid-up DUBAI: SHOWCASE FOR THE GULF? 188 Montpellier resurrects tramline 5 plan. members of the Light Rail Transit Association. Tramways & Urban Transit looks at the SUBSCRIPTIONS AND MEMBERSHIP ENQUIRIES technical innovations that make the new MAILBOX 210 LRTA Membership Secretary (Dept T06), Dubai Tramway a pioneeer in modern LRT. On the need for a tramway ‘TripAdvisor’. 38 Wolseley Road, Sale M33 7AU, UK. Tel: +44 (0)117 9517785 DUBAI RAIL REGULATION 193 CLASSIC TRAMS: TROLLEY-POLES PT.2 212 BACK ISSUES Gurmeet Kaur examines the governing The decline of the trolley-pole is charted Tel: +44 (0)1406 373070 principles of Dubai’s urban rail development. by Mike Russell and Alan Pearce. PRINT AND DISTRIBUTION Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1778 391000. LRTA REGISTERED OFFICE c/o 138 Radnor Avenue, Welling, Kent DA16 2BY, UK. Reliability and superb service at no extra charge Private company limited by guarantee, No. 5072319 In many parts of the world, why is the reputation of rail travel tarnished by in England and Wales. a perception of delays and disruption? What kind of message are we giving LRTA CHAIRMAN by suggesting that there is a chance that travelling by tram, metro or train Andrew Braddock E-mail: [email protected] will mean you won’t get to your destination on time? LRTA DEPUTY CHAIRMAN Delays and disruption are one of the inevitable distractions of modern Paul Rowen life. We’re all in a rush to get to where we need to be and public transport LRTA PUBLISHING REGISTERED OFFICE: should fit seamlessly into the routine in enhancing people’s lives and making it simpler c/o 8 Berwick Place, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL7 4TU, and more convenient, not more difficult and more stressful. Unpreparedness on the UK. Private Limited Company, No. 06169422 behalf of operators in managing essential works or unexpected hold-ups, or dealing in England and Wales. with passengers when things do go wrong simply cannot be acceptable. Having spent © LRTA Publishing 2015. Articles are submitted on the understanding they may also 36 hours in airport lounges and at railway stations delayed upon my return to the office later be used on our websites or other media. A contribution in the past week – with little information or compensation – has convinced me of this. is accepted on the basis that its author is responsible for the Following on from one of the themes from last month, if things do go awry where are opinions expressed in it, and such opinions are not those of the staff comforting passengers and doing their best to guarantee an onward journey? LRTA Publishing or the LRTA. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in The UK’s Docklands Light Railway is one network that has an enviable reputation for any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including high reliability and customer satisfaction. As Managing Director Kevin Thomas from photocopying, recording or by any information storage and KeolisAmey Docklands explains in this month’s supplement, a 99% service should be retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from “the norm, a given”. This is even more important if a large percentage of your customers the copyright owner. Multiple copying of the contents of the magazine without prior written approval is not permitted. are tourists. Guiding those unfamaliar with your network – or perhaps trams and metro travel in general – is a constant process and passenger information and education is crucial in presenting a positive image of modern urban rail. Simon Johnston, Editor COVER: A spectacular view of an Alstom Citadis tram crossing Dubai Marina in March 2015. Neil Pulling www.tautonline.com . www.lrta.org MAY 2015 / 171 News EU energy project hails progress OSIRIS programme develops ‘toolbox’ for optimising energy consumption in urban rail he three-year OSIRIS efficiencies across the entire rail the 2020 target set at the outset OSIRIS PARTNERS (optimal strategy to system, the result of the EUR7.3m of the programme. Alstom innovate and reduce project – co-funded by the EU’s OSIRIS has also laid AnsaldoSTS energy consumption in Seventh Framework Programme, the framework for a new Areva Turban rail systems) programme which provided EUR4.3m – is comparative rolling stock energy ATAC Roma concluded in March, with the development of a ‘toolbox’ consumption tool through a ATM (Azienda Trasporti Milanesi) partners and participants hailing relevant to the specific segments modular duty cycle system. CAF the progress made in reducing of the urban transport sector. Among the technical CMM (Center for Mathematical energy usage and improving This includes new methodologies innovations are a new tram Modelling) efficiency in Europe’s tramway for simulating, evaluating and onboard lithium-ion energy D’Appolonia and metro networks a success. optimising energy consumption, storage system developed by Istanbul Ulasim The UNIFE-co-ordinated which has since contributed CAF Power & Automation and ITA (Instituto Tecnológico de Aragón) programme brought together 17 to a 10% reduction by some Saft that has been proven on NewRail partners (see right). Focusing on European systems, well ahead of the Vitoria-Gasteiz tramway, an RATP Alstom-developed lightweight Saft auxiliary converter for Milan’s Siemens metro line 3, and a water-cooled Technische Universität Wien HVAC system for equipment UITP rooms from AnsaldoSTS that has been successfully trialled at Rome’s Barberini station in in Istanbul, 50GWh in Paris, and partnership with ATAC. 15GWh in Milan. The partners RATP and Istanbul metro have also developed KPIs which operator Istanbul Ulasim co- allow direct comparisons for operated on energy-efficient consumption and business and escalators, tunnel and station economic factors. ventilation systems and new Many of the research projects lighting systems. The potential are still at an early stage, with Vitoria-Gasteiz 511 was fitted with a new onboard energy storage system that for these to reduce energy further work required, in all gave 25% greater efficiency and improved energy recovery from regenerative consumption – and bills – was likelihood through the Shift²Rail braking by 5%. OSIRIS/UNIFE reflected in a 10GWh reduction and Horizon 2020 initiatives. Cardiff Metro and Seattle’s Inekon battery tram arrives cable car plans Following testing in the Czech from Capitol Hill to Pioneer could also be appropriate for A call has been made for the Republic, a prototype Inekon Square (4km/2.5 miles), with segments of the planned Center creation of a new organisation low-floor tram with off-wire regenerative braking charging City Connector extension.