THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHT RAIL MAGAZINE HEADLINES l Metrolink services to Oldham begin l Budapest congestion charge to aid BKV? l DART celebrates 250 millionth passenger SMALL CITY SUCCESS: ANGERS LAYS TRACKS FOR GROWTH Warsaw: Joining the Euro metro league Tram Zürich West: Kusttram: How the latest Trams serving tramway extension the Belgian is unlocking coastline for regeneration areas over 125 years AUGUST 2012 No. 896 WWW. LRTA. ORG l WWW. TRAMNEWS. NET £3.80 TAUT_August12_Cover.indd 1 2/7/12 18:57:21 Delivering a world-class light rail system for Metrolink across Greater Manchester MPT The M-Pact Thales consortium brings together three industry leading companies: Laing O’Rourke, VolkerRail and Thales UK. The consortium is responsible for the design, construction and maintenance of the multi-million Contact: Bryan Diggins, MPT Project Director pound Metrolink extension. e: [email protected] 246_TAUT1207_MPT ad.indd 1 29/5/12 09:11:47 MPT advert 2012.indd 1 8/5/12 11:07:56 Contents The official journal of the Light Rail Transit Association 288 News 288 AUGUST 2012 Vol. 75 No. 896 Manchester opens the first section of its Oldham and Rochdale www.tramnews.net extension; Brest welcomes the return of tramways after 68 EDITORIAL years; new lines in Orléans and Algiers; Washington DC Editor: Simon Johnston explores funding options; Congestion charging plan to boost Tel: +44 (0)1832 281131 E-mail: [email protected] Eaglethorpe Barns, Warmington, Peterborough PE8 6TJ, UK. ailing finances of Budapest operator BKV? Associate Editor: Tony Streeter 294 Looking back in Angers E-mail: [email protected] Neil Pulling visits western France to assess the tramway’s Worldwide Editor: Michael Taplin fortunes one year on and the city’s plans for expansion. Flat 1, 10 Hope Road, Shanklin, Isle of Wight PO37 6EA, UK. E-mail: [email protected] 300 Tram Zurich West 294 News Editor: John Symons The latest tramway addition in Switzerland’s largest city 17 Whitmore Avenue, Werrington, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs ST9 0LW, UK. came in under budget and is changing the face of areas E-mail: [email protected] marked for regeneration, Andrew Moglestue explains. Contributor: Neil Pulling 303 Systems Factfile: Kusttram Design: Debbie Nolan Belgium’s 68km (43-mile) coastal tramway continues to Production Executive: Carla Corrado flourish after over 125 years of operation, with a ridership Tel: +44 (0)1832 281134 E-mail: [email protected] record of 13 million passengers between 2010 and 2011. Worldwide Contributors: Aare Olander, Nikolai 307 Warsaw: Joining the Euro metro league Semyonov, Sergei Tarkhov (CIS), Mike Russell, Norman Bartlett, 303 Thomas Wagner, Pedro Costa, Richard Felski, Jordi Ibanez (Europe), Witold Urbanowicz explains how the landscape of Poland’s Yoshiri Nogi (Japan), Anthony Bailey, Ian Hammond, Paul Nicholson capital is changing and the crucial part that metro expansion (Australia), Vic Simons, Charles Lietwiler, Steve Morgan, Tom Swinney. is playing in the city’s ambitions for growth. LRTA Website and Diary: Brian Lomas E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] 313 Worldwide Review Commercial Manager: Vicky Binley Batna commissions tram studies; New report suggests Tel: +44 (0)1832 281132 E-mail: [email protected] Toronto’s 2020 LRT is unachievable; Siemens’ Chinese metro Advertising Manager: Andy Adams signalling wins; Le Havre undertakes first trials; Netherlands Tel: +44 (0)1832 281135 E-mail: [email protected] debates U-turn on tramway privatisation; Uijeongbu metro Eaglethorpe Barns, Warmington, Peterborough PE8 6TJ, UK. enters service; LA continues light rail expansion. Publisher: Howard Johnston 307 318 Letters Tramways & Urban Transit is jointly published by the LRTA and LRTA Publishing on the third Friday of each month preceding the cover date. More considerations for wire-free operation; Why the UK needs to embrace EU funding. LRTA MEMBERSHIP (with TAUT subscription) Tramways & Urban Transit is sent free to all paid-up members of the 320 Classic Trams: Long-lived interurbans - Part 2 Light Rail Transit Association. You are welcome to join the LRTA. In the second part of his spotlight on the last two Łódź SUBSCRIPTIONS: LRTA Membership Secretary (Dept T06), interurban tramlines, Mike Russell further reviews their 38 Wolseley Road, Sale M33 7AU, UK. operation and history. BACK ISSUES: Tel: +44 (0)1406 373070 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, Light rail’s bumper month for openings Kent DA16 2BY. Private company limited by guarantee, No. 5072319 SIMON JOHNSTON, EDITOR in England and Wales. LRTA Chairman: Andrew Braddock. LRTA Deputy Chairman: Vic Simons This month boasts no fewer than ten than a taxpayer boondoggle, offering LRTA PUBLISHING REGISTERED OFFICE: c/o 8 Berwick Place, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL7 4TU. Private Limited Company, No. 06169422 new LRT openings worldwide. The pace little value for money and “19th Century in England and Wales. of tramway and metro development is technology” (like the internal combsution © LRTA Publishing 2012. showing little sign of slowing as cities engine!). He adds that “the real push Articles are submitted on the understanding they may also later be used embrace their myriad benefits. for streetcars comes from engineering on our websites or other media. A contribution is accepted on the basis that With new systems, extensions – both firms that stand to earn millions of its author is responsible for the opinions expressed in it, and such opinions are not those of LRTA Publishing or the LRTA. All rights reserved. heritage and modern – in no fewer than dollars planning, designing and building No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form eight nations (from the UK and France to streetcar systems”. by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior Algeria, Brazil and South Korea), light rail Given the undeniable challenges our permission in writing from the copyright owner. Multiple copying of the is in its ascendance... despite the efforts urban areas face – pollution, choking contents of the magazine without prior written approval is not permitted. of certain sections of the anti-LRT lobby. congestion and ever more valuable land Negative organisations are typified by space – this kind of dangerous anti-LRT THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHT RAIL MAGAZINE HEADLINES well-known US author Randal O’Toole, propaganda serves no purpose other l Metrolink services to Oldham begin l Budapest congestion charge to aid BKV? who has published his latest light rail- than to ignore the obvious facts that light l DART celebrates 250 millionth passenger bashing paper, The Great Streetcar rail systems do work, and are greatly Conspiracy, this month. appreciated by those that use them. A long climb through Already a prolific author of With further new systems and the University Hospital grounds takes the anti-urbanist and anti-LRT comment, significant extensions due in the coming Angers tramway in his latest paper around smaller months, Mr O’Toole and his peers surely SMALL CITY SUCCESS: ANGERS ‘streetcar’ systems that serve distinct need to experience the next generation LAYS TRACKS FOR GROWTH towards the plateau Warsaw: Joining the Euro metro league west of the river neighbourhoods, Mr O’Toole carefully of LRT systems to be convinced of Tram Zürich West: Kusttram: How the latest Trams serving tramway extension the Belgian is unlocking coastline for Maine. chooses his facts to try and convince his their merit in aiding regeneration and regeneration areas over 125 years AUGUST 2012 No. 896 WWW. LRTA. ORG l WWW. TRAMNEWS. NET £3.80 Neil Pulling readership that light rail is nothing more developing communities. TAUT_August12_Cover.indd 1 2/7/12 18:57:21 www.tramnews.net . www.Irta.org AUGUST 2012 287 287_TAUT1208_Contents.indd 1 2/7/12 19:10:33 News MANCHESTER METROLINK OPENS FIRST SECTION TO OLDHAM MUMPS On 13 June, tram 3024 is pictured at the Central Park stop on an inbound A rail-served recycling depot at Reliance Street, Newton Heath, is the reason Metrolink working from Oldham Mumps. This stop was constructed seven years ago, prior operation is restricted to single line working in this area. On 13 June, Freightliner 66585 to Metrolink’s original expansion scheme being put on hold. Mike Haddon (left) awaits loading as 3004 passes on its way to Oldham Mumps. Mike Haddon SERVICES on the UK’s Manchester Metrolink line to Oldham Mumps fleet at Trafford is composed of ten M5000 trams, nine for service and began on 13 June, when the St Werburgh’s Road service was extended one spare. Services to Piccadilly from Bury and Altrincham, previously beyond Victoria to a temporary terminus at Mumps. linked operationally, have been split with the Bury line being operated There are eight stops along the new line with a journey time of 25 from Queens Road and the Altrincham line from Trafford. The Oldham minutes to the city centre and a 12-minute headway Mondays-Sat- line is split with three trams from Trafford and six from Queens Road. urdays and during shopping hours on Sundays. Early morning and The next phase in Metrolink expansion will be opening of the line to evening services on Sundays run to a 15-minute headway. It is planned Droylsden on which overnight testing began on 11 June. The new line, to operate a six-minute headway as the line is extended to Rochdale which will be extended on to Ashton-under-Lyne, serves the Etihad station and onto Rochdale Town Centre; when complete the extension Stadium of Manchester City FC as well as a further seven stops. is to be 22.5km (14 miles) long. The Transport and Works Act Order for the ‘Second City Crossing’ Preparatory to the opening of the Oldham line, Trafford Depot was has now been submitted to the Department for Transport.