THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHT RAIL MAGAZINE www.lrta.org www.tramnews.net SEPTEMBER 2013 NO. 909 ZARAGOZA: LRT FOR A NEW GENERATION SPECIAL REVIEW Metro Sul do Tejo: Problem not solution? Riyadh signs mega-metro contracts Constantine trams open for business KinkiSharyo’s new California facility Salt Lake City Woltersdorf £3.80 Update: Taking 90 years of village TRAX to the airport tramway operations THE HAC LONDON, UK 2 OCTOBER 2013 SUPPORTED BY Don’t miss out... Book your table NOW! For further details, or to book your place, contact: Andy Adams +44 1733 367605 | [email protected] Best Customer Initiative | Operator of the Year | Supplier of the Year | Project of the Year | Most Signi cant Safety Initiative | Environmental Initiative of the Year | Employee/Team of the Year | Rising Star of the Year | Innovation of the Year | Worldwide Project of the Year | Worldwide Supplier of the Year CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION HOSTED BY AWARDS SPONSORS p362 LRA_A4Advert.indd 1 05/08/2013 14:30 364 CONTENTS The official journal of the Light Rail Transit Association SEPTEMBER 2013 Vol. 76 No. 909 www.tramnews.net 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 375 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 379 WOrlDWIDE COntrIbutORS Aare Olander, Nikolai Semyonov, Sergei Tarkhov (CIS), Mike Russell, Norman Bartlett, Thomas Wagner, NEWS 364 SYSTEMS FACTFILE: NUREMBURG 392 Pedro Costa, Richard Felski, Jordi Ibanez (Europe), Yoshiri Nogi (Japan), Anthony Bailey, Ian Hammond, Seoul revises nine-line LRT plans; Jerusalem Bavaria’s second centre is also one of Paul Nicholson (Australia), Vic Simons, Charles Lietwiler, to double Red line length by 2016; Riyadh Germany's great transport cities; Neil Puling Steve Morgan, Tom Swinney (US). awards contracts for 176km metro; LA Metro looks at the changed role of trams in the city. PRODuctION exercises further KinkiSharyo options. Carla Corrado WoRLDWIDE REVIEW 397 Tel: +44 (0)1733 367604 E-mail: [email protected] TRAX TO THE AIRPORT 371 Brussels confirms two new tram routes DeSIGN Vic Simons revisits Salt Lake City to by 2020; Karlsruhe welcomes newest Debbie Nolan examine the new Green line extension. Bombardier tram-trains; Dublin reveals Luas ADVertiSING COmmercIAL ManaGer shortlist for new operating concession; Lviv Vicky Binley CREATING AN ‘AGE OF RESILIENCE’ 372 unveils locally-built low-floor tram design. Tel: +44 (0)1733 367602 E-mail: [email protected] Kevin Leather and Dr David Viner discuss ADvertISING ManaGer how LRT planners, designers and operators MAILBox 402 Andy Adams need to build-in climate change resilience. How climate change is forcing change for Tel: +44 (0)1733 367605 E-mail: [email protected] LRT operators; more on integrated ticketing. PublISher ALMADA LRT: IS IT A FAILURE? 375 Howard Johnston Amid claims of causing ‘desertification’ of a CLASSIC TRAMS: WOLTERSDORF 404 Tramways & Urban Transit is jointly published by the city, Ana Lopes, Pilar Orero and Guillermo Mike Russell reports from the centenary of LRTA and LRTA Publishing on the third Friday of each month preceding the cover date. Talavera examine Metro Sul do Tejo’s future. one of Germany’s great rural tramways. LRTA WebSIte anD DIary Brian Lomas TRANVÍA DE ZARAGOZA 379 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] TAUT examines the award-winning tramway project in southern Spain: its innovation, LRTA MEMBERSHIP (with TAUT subscription) Tramways & Urban Transit is sent free to all paid-up its succesful phased opening programme and its plans to build a second line, despite members of the Light Rail Transit Association. the worst economic climate in Spain for decades. You are welcome to join the LRTA. SubScrIptIONS LRTA Membership Secretary (Dept T06), 38 Wolseley Road, Sale M33 7AU, UK. All hail the ‘car trains’ of the future... BACK ISSUES Tel: +44 (0)1406 373070 We’re back to electric cars this month, following ‘new’ reports of automated PRINT AND DISTRIBUTION cars capable of running at high speeds across electrified super highways. Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Firstly, this not a new idea. RCA and GM were playing with ‘electronic Lincs PE10 9PH, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1778 391000. highways’ and driverless cars in the 1960s. Back then they predicted we LRTA REGISTERED OFFICE would all have one by the 1980s... we’re still waiting. c/o 138 Radnor Avenue, Welling, Kent DA16 2BY, UK. Now Google and the major carmakers are back, trying to convince us all Private company limited by guarantee, No. 5072319 that the private car is not a dying mode. There’s talk of driverless vehicles that can drop in England and Wales. you off at work and then find a parking space (isn’t this just a chauffeur?), or plans for LRTA CHAIrman Andrew Braddock super highways with cars running at 100mph (160km/h)-plus speeds just centimetres apart with their passengers free to read a book, catch up on work, or even sleep. LRTA Deputy CHAIrman Vic Simons But isn’t that what trains, trams and metros have been offering for over a century? LRTA PUBLISHING REGISTERED OFFICE: c/o 8 Berwick Urban space is at a premium and this is only ever going to get worse before it gets better Place, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL7 4TU, UK. Private – so, in the same way as we do with our buildings, surely we need to think about how we Limited Company, No. 06169422 in England and Wales. maximise transport space in urban environments. © LRTA Publishing 2013. It’s about packaging. All these automated cars will still need parking spaces and Articles are submitted on the understanding they may also charging points and that still means taking up space somewhere. As Councillor Jane later be used on our websites or other media. A contribution Urqhart from Nottingham City Council illustrated so well at the recent UK Light Rail is accepted on the basis that its author is responsible for the Conference, one tram full of passengers is equal takes to three buses or 177 cars; the opinions expressed in it, and such opinions are not those of LRTA Publishing or the LRTA. All rights reserved. latter takes up an awful lot of road space – as well as parking spaces. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in For the end-to-end element, there’s always smaller PRT systems and peoplemovers any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including as feeder systems, or you can even grab a bike or walk if you’re only dropped off a few photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from hundred metres from your destination. We just have to look back... to the future. the copyright owner. Multiple copying of the contents of the magazine without prior written approval is not permitted. www.tramnews.net . www.lrta.org SEPTEMBER 2013 / 363 News Toronto LRT/ subway row Seoul revises major LRT breaks out again city-linking project Renewed argument broke out in the Toronto city council in July as Mayor Rob Ford sought Ambitious plan announced for nine-line system to restructure transport to push through a plan that would see the Scarborough Rapid he Seoul city government citizens to get to any subway The city plans to contribute Transit automated line replaced has announced an station within ten minutes.” 35.7% of the total cost of the by a 7km (4.35-mile) extension ambitious plan to build Under the envisioned plan, project, with 13.7% coming from of the Bloor-Danforth subway a nine-line KRW8.55trn a revision of the city’s LRT central government, 4.5% from line on a new alignment, rather T(approx. EUR5.77bn) LRT system plan from 2008, the Seoul rail operators and the remaining than conversion to conventional over the next decade to restructure Metropolitan Government 46.1% from the private sector, light rail as part of the Metrolinx the South Korean capital’s will create the 85km (52.8- according to The Korea Herald. Eglinton project. transport and promote mass mile) network of nine radial City officials believe the The Mayor commented that he transit in the growing megacity. lines, increased from seven, to project is economically viable, was willing to put up taxes and The new lines will improve connect suburban areas largely expecting 10 000 passengers/day seek private sector involvement connectivity between the existing in the north-west and south- on the new system, and to meet the additional cost, nine-line metro (combined east and form links with the increasing city public transport however the city council voted length 314km, 195 miles) and city’s increasingly congested coverage from 64% to 75%. on 17 July to seek a bigger bolster the city’s economy. downtown area. Figures suggest A detailed report is due provincial contribution, about Mayor Park Won-soon said: that traffic congestion cost to be submitted to central CAD400-600m (the subway “Sticking to the rail-centered the city’s economy as much as government in September, extension has not yet been fully public transport policy, the city KRW8trn (EUR5.4bn) in 2011. following the conclusion of costed, but is expected to reach will restructure the system over The city has also decided to further environmental and CAD2.9bn). The province has the next ten years, allowing extend the current subway line 9.