THE INTERNATIONAL LIGHT RAIL MAGAZINE www.lrta.org www.tramnews.net SEPTEMBER 2014 NO. 921 RELINKING THE TWIN CITIES OF MINNESOTA Budapest special: Renewal and expansion New LRT openings on four continents Moscow’s worst metro crash kills 23 Royal salute for Den Haag’s 150 years ISSN 1460-8324 £4.10 Guided busways Manila 09 A valid alternative Urban ambitions in to light rail options? the Philippines 9 771460 832036 London, 1 October 2014 For booking, entries and sponsorship details contact: Geoff Butler – t: +44 (0)1733 367610 – @ [email protected] www.lightrailawards.com 391 CONTENTS The official journal of the Light Rail Transit Association September 2014 Vol. 77 No. 921 www.tramnews.net EDITORIAL 362 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 396 Neil Pulling WORLDWIDE CONTRIBUTORS NEWS 356 SYSTEMS FACTFILE: DIJON 391 Tony Bailey, James Chuang, Paul Nicholson New tramways for Gold Coast, Tucson, Málaga Combining financial resources achieved (Australia), Richard Felski (Spain), Ed Havens, Bill and Besançon; Siemens preferred for San signficiant savings for Dijon and Brest – Neil Vigrass (USA), Andrew Moglestue (Switzerland), Francisco LRVs; Moscow metro crash kills 23; Pulling visits the former to see this in practice. Mike Russell, Nikolai Semyonov (Russia), Vic Simons, Alain Senut (France), Thomas Wagner (Germany). Uraltransmash’s stunning ‘iPhone on rails’. PRODUCTION SALT LAKE CITY 396 Lanna Blyth MINNEAPOLIS – ST PAUL 362 Vic Simons revisits Salt Lake City for a Tel: +44 (0)1733 367604 E-mail: [email protected] Vic Simons reports on the new route that progress update on its tram development. DESIGN reconnects Minnesota's two largest cities. Debbie Nolan WORLDWIDE REVIEW 397 ADVERTISING MANILA 368 Wien expansion plan; Danish and Swedish COMMERCIAL MANAGER The Philippines throws up a complex co-operation; Washington opens Silver line. Geoff Butler Tel: +44 (0)1733 367610 E-mail: [email protected] background for its light rail/metro network: Ciril van Hattum explores its development. MAILBOX 402 PUBLISHER UK construction costs and the role of buses. Howard Johnston GUIDED BUSWAYS VS. LRT 389 Tramways & Urban Transit is jointly published by the LRTA and LRTA Publishing on the third Friday of each Reg Harman offers a viewpoint on modern CLASSICS: AMSTERDAM 404 month preceding the cover date. guided busways. 150 of tramways at the Hague is celebrated. LRTA WEBSITE AND DIARY Brian Lomas BUDAPEST’S TRANSPORT E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] RENAISSANCE LRTA MEMBERSHIP (with TAUT subscription) Budapest’s modern transit revolution Tramways & Urban Transit is sent free to all paid-up Tramways & Urban Transit gets an exclusive look at BKK’s recent metro members of the Light Rail Transit Association. expansion and its ambitious plans to transform the public transport SUBSCRIPTIONS LRTA Membership Secretary (Dept T06), offering in the Hungarian capital. 38 Wolseley Road, Sale M33 7AU, UK. A special review in association with BACK ISSUES Budapest supplement 16pp.indd 373 12/08/2014 08:59 Tel: +44 (0)1406 373070 PRINT AND DISTRIBUTION Broadcasting the light rail message Warners (Midlands) plc, The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, The summer months each year usually bring a glut of system extensions Lincs PE10 9PH, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1778 391000. and new lines and 2014 is no exception, so it’s great to be able to offer a LRTA REGISTERED OFFICE warm welcome to the LRT club to the Gold Coast, Tucson, Malaga and – c/o 138 Radnor Avenue, Welling, Kent DA16 2BY, UK. Private company limited by guarantee, No. 5072319 very shortly – Besançon. All very different systems, and each with lessons to in England and Wales. offer the industry – expect to read more on each in coming issues. LRTA CHAIRMAN The issue of safety has again appeared large this month with the loss of 23 lives and Andrew Braddock serious injuries to over 160 more passengers on Moscow’s metro. Although the cause LRTA DEPUTY CHAIRMAN of this horrific accident is unknown asTAUT went to press, the loss of a single life on Vic Simons any urban transit network is unacceptable. With the pace of expansion on many of LRTA PUBLISHING REGISTERED OFFICE: the world’s great systems reaching a rapid pace, it is important that safety is never c/o 8 Berwick Place, Welwyn Garden City, Herts AL7 4TU, compromised and the industry needs to hold itself to account and ask many, often UK. Private Limited Company, No. 06169422 in England and Wales. difficult, questions with each and every incident. © LRTA Publishing 2014. One city that is undergoing a fantastic programme of both expansion and renewal Articles are submitted on the understanding they may also is Budapest. As one of the planet’s more comprehensive multi-modal networks, it is later be used on our websites or other media. A contribution exciting to read how a ground-up restructuring is delivering a real step-change – you is accepted on the basis that its author is responsible for the can do the same in this issue's special supplement that begins on page 373. opinions expressed in it, and such opinions are not those of Lastly, among the most amusing things this month are the column inches devoted LRTA Publishing or the LRTA. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in to hip-hop star Coolio’s endorsement of light rail. Ahead of an Australian tour, the US any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including rapper told local media in Canberra that light rail systems are “dope” and that “light rail photocopying, recording or by any information storage and is a very inexpensive form of transportation and very easy to get around”. retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the copyright owner. Multiple copying of the contents of the While academic and eminently sensible advocates of modern urban rail technology magazine without prior written approval is not permitted. receive little publicity for their views, what appears to be an off-hand comment from a prominent music star spreads like wildfire across the world. Perhaps we need more celebrity ambassadors! Simon Johnston, Editor COVER: A Green line service in downtown St Paul, Minnesota, on 15 June. Eric Wheeler/Metro Transit www.tramnews.net . www.lrta.org SEPTEMBER 2014 / 355 News Tramways open across the globe Three new systems begin operations on three continents – and more are to come in late August. he months of July and August saw new tramways opening around the world, in Australia, the TUSA and Spain. France’s Besançon was to follow in August. On 20 July Queensland’s Gold Coast became the first Australian city to benefit from the opening of a new tramway since Sydney joined the list in 1997 (and the first new city since Geelong in 1912). The 13km (eight-mile) line serves fast-growing communities with a fleet of 14 G:Link-branded 43.5m Bombardier Flexity 2 trams built in Germany, and was created under an AUD1.2bn (EUR0.8bn) 18-year PPP contract with the GoldLinQ consortium. Over 55 000 passengers crowded onto the trams for a first-day ride. Trams run every 7.5 minutes for most of the day (ten minutes at weekends), and 15 minutes in the early Crowds wait to board a G:Link Bombardier Flexity tram at University Hospital on opening day, 20 July. I. Lynas morning and evening. A second stage is planned to take the line as a downtown circulator. were carried. The USD198.8m three years later than planned north to an interchange with the The 6.2km (four-mile) (EUR148.5m) tramway is at a cost reaching EUR760m. Brisbane rail line at Nerang. SunLink line that links the served by eight 20.1m trams Both lines start from a common This could be built in time for the University Medical Center delivered by United Streetcar underground terminus at 2018 Commonwealth Games. with the university, city centre, from Clackamas, Oregon. El Perchel-Maria Zambrano Tucson in Arizona is one of convention centre and the Three days of free rides were (near the RENFE station), then several US cities that has been Mercado district was opened on offered, before revenue service split with line 1 running west building a short tramline to act 25 July when 170 000 passengers started. SunLink is operated by to Colegios Mayores (the outer RATP-Dev McDonald Transit end features surface tracks) and with a ten-minute service line 2 south-west to Palacio requiring six cars for most of de los Deportes. Trams leave the day. A 24-hour SunGo card every 7.5 minutes, providing a costs USD4 (EUR3). 15-minute service on each line. Next year Old Pueblo Trolley, The CBTC signalling system a museum group that previously was supplied by Alstom. Service operated on part of the SunLink is provided by TRAVELSA using alignment, hopes to introduce 14 five-section 32.4m CAFUrbos tours of the line with a preserved 3 low-floor cars. tram. The group has taken A 1.8km (1.2-mile) extension delivery of a pantograph for its to Hospital Civil nearer the city ex-Lisboa tram. centre will follow in 2017. Málaga in Spain started Rounding off the group, the passenger service on its ‘metro’ latest French tramway to open is on 30 July after a week of open in Besançon with inauguration days at each station.