A lightrail and streetcar primer.
The silly season has begun in the Vancouver region, with TransLink desperately trying to persuade regional mayors to levy more taxes to mainly pay for the Evergreen SkyTrain light-metro line. The following is a quick primer on streetcars, LRT and SkyTrain for use at upcoming transit dog and pony shows.
Question: What is the difference between LRT and a Streetcar or tram?
Answer: Today the difference between LRT and a streetcar/tram is the quality of rights-of-way, where a streetcar operates on-street in mixed traffic, light rail operates on a reserved rights-of-way (R-O-W), such a boulevard or a streetcar/tram only HOV lane on-street, which gives LRT an unimpeded transit route and faster commercial speeds. Today, there is little difference between a tram/streetcar and light rail vehicle except for motor size.
Q: What is SkyTrain?
A: SkyTrain is a proprietary unconventional light-metro system system first marketed by the Urban Transit Development Corporation of Ontario, which is now owned by Bombardier Inc. SkyTrain is considered an unconventional railway because it is powered by Linear Induction Motors and is incompatible to operate with any other transit system, save itself. The Canada Line metro and SkyTrain are incompatible in operation. there are only 7 "SkyTrain" type systems in operation around the world, despite being first marketed in the late 1970's
Q: What is light metro?
A: Light-metro was originally supposed to bridge the gap of what old streetcars could carry and what ridership would justify a heavy-rail metro. Modern LRT has made light-metro almost obsolete and automatic (driverless) light-metro's obsolete, with its higher construction and operating costs.
Q: Is SkyTrain cheaper to operate than LRT?
A: No, SkyTrain costs about 40% to 60% more to operate than comparable LRT operations. Also the provincial government subsidises SkyTrain at about $250 million annually.
Q: How fast can LRT operate?
A: Generally speaking, LRT can operate as fast as its R-O-W will permit. Streetcars or trams generally have smaller motors giving maximum speeds of 60 to 70 kph, while LRT has larger motors, giving speeds of 80 to 110 kph.
Q; TransLink claims that Skytrain is faster than LRT?
A: SkyTrain seems to be faster than LRT because TransLink has designed SkyTrain to be faster.
Q: How much does LRT cost to build?
A: Light rail can be built as cheaply as $5 to $6 million/km using TramTrain; $15 to $25 million/km. for a streetcar; $20 million/km + for light rail. TransLink has always gold-plated light rail with all sorts of added cost to drive up the cost to be as close to Skytrain it can.
Q: What is the capacity of a light rail vehicle (LRV)?
A: Today, the capacity (all seats occupied and standees at 4 persons per m/2) of a LRV ranges from 200 to 350 persons, In Asia, there are plans for trams to have a capacity of 450 persons.
Q: What is the capacity of LRT and/or streetcar line?
A: The capacity of a tram/streetcar line is dependent on vehicle size and headways. In Karlsruhe Germany, the main tram route through the city is seeing peak hour capacities in excess of 40,000 persons per hour per direction, which is 10,000 more than the maximum theoretical capacity of SkyTrain!
Q: What is TramTrain?
A: TramTrain is a tram/LRT vehicle that has the ability to both operate on mainline railways or streetcar track. Since being introduced in 1994, there are now 3 times as many TramsTrains in service that SkyTrain type systems.
A reserved rights-of-way enables LRT to obtain commercial speeds of that of a metro.
