96-410: The A and B Loop is a streetcar circle route of the Portland Streetcar system in Portland, Oregon , United States. Operated by Portland Streetcar, Inc. and TriMet , it is made up of two separate services: the 6.1-mile (9.8 km) A Loop, which runs clockwise , and the 6.6-mile (10.6 km) B Loop, which runs counterclockwise. The route travels a loop between the east and west sides of
192-622: A tram engine in the UK) at the head of a line of one or more carriages, similar to a small train. Systems with such steam trams included Christchurch , New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; other city systems in New South Wales ; Munich , Germany (from August 1883 on), British India (from 1885) and the Dublin & Blessington Steam Tramway (from 1888) in Ireland. Steam tramways also were used on
288-520: A Vermont blacksmith, had invented a battery-powered electric motor which he later patented. The following year he used it to operate a small model electric car on a short section of track four feet in diameter. Attempts to use batteries as a source of electricity were made from the 1880s and 1890s, with unsuccessful trials conducted in among other places Bendigo and Adelaide in Australia, and for about 14 years as The Hague accutram of HTM in
384-514: A combination of various other local or regional sources completed the locally sourced funding. On April 30, 2009, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced $ 75 million in federal funding for the project, the full amount that was requested. It was the first streetcar project to receive funding under the Small Starts program in part due to the Obama administration 's departure from
480-517: A complete loop in either direction takes just under one hour. In August 2022, the A Loop carried an average of 1,541 riders on weekdays while the B Loop carried 1,369 riders. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic , which impacted public transit ridership globally , the route had served significantly more riders; the A and B Loop carried 3,612 and 3,064, respectively, on weekdays in September 2019. During
576-617: A majority of the route operate in a one-way pair : the 6.1-mile (9.8 km) A Loop, which runs clockwise , and the 6.6-mile (10.6 km) B Loop, which runs counterclockwise. From Southwest Market Street, the route travels north through downtown Portland to the Pearl District via 10th and 11th avenues. It turns east on Northwest 10th and Lovejoy towards the Broadway Bridge and crosses the Willamette River. After
672-721: A new bridge over the Willamette River for the Portland–Milwaukie Light Rail Project , proposed an inner eastside loop route using the Broadway Bridge and TriMet's proposed bridge (instead of the Hawthorne Bridge). The city council adopted the Eastside Streetcar Alignment Study that June. The study outlined a westside–eastside streetcar route that ran from the existing streetcar tracks in the Pearl District , across
768-563: A new river crossing between the South Waterfront and OMSI near Caruthers Street; this led to a decision to build the first phase of the eastside streetcar 3.3 miles (5.3 km) up to OMSI (farther south from Hawthorne Boulevard) until the new bridge could be completed, after which the streetcar would cross the bridge back to the west side to complete the loop. Metro , the Portland metropolitan area 's regional government, approved
864-726: A similar technology, Pirotsky put into service the first public electric tramway in St. Petersburg, which operated only during September 1880. The second demonstration tramway was presented by Siemens & Halske at the 1879 Berlin Industrial Exposition. The first public electric tramway used for permanent service was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It
960-499: A spare. Local publications highlighted the resulting infrequent service and criticized the streetcar's reliability and slow speed. Joseph Rose , writing for The Oregonian , called the streetcar the "Stumptown Slug" after he traveled quicker from OMSI to Powell's City of Books on foot. The first new streetcar finally arrived in January 2013 and entered service on June 11. Fares were $ 1 upon opening due to TriMet's discontinuation of
1056-455: A two-week transitional "pre-revenue service" phase. The CL Line was formally re-branded as the "A and B Loop" on September 12, 2015, when Tilikum Crossing opened to the public and began permitting streetcars to carry passengers on the route section across the bridge. Portland city and streetcar officials have credited the eastside extension with encouraging development along and near its route; they have claimed that major redevelopment projects in
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#17327806351901152-946: A well-known tourist attraction . A single cable line also survives in Wellington (rebuilt in 1979 as a funicular but still called the " Wellington Cable Car "). Another system, with two separate cable lines and a shared power station in the middle, operates from the Welsh town of Llandudno up to the top of the Great Orme hill in North Wales , UK. Hastings and some other tramways, for example Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden and some lines in Karachi , used petrol trams. Galveston Island Trolley in Texas operated diesel trams due to
1248-802: Is equipped with a ticket vending machine , real-time display system, and line information signs, and is accessible to users with limited mobility . Connections to FX and MAX Light Rail can be made at several stops along the route. Streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in the United States) is a type of urban rail transit consisting of either individual railcars or self-propelled multiple unit trains that run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way . The tramlines or tram networks operated as public transport are called tramways or simply trams/streetcars. Because of their close similarities, trams are commonly included in
1344-640: Is still in operation in modernised form. The earliest tram system in Canada was built by John Joseph Wright , brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright , in Toronto in 1883, introducing electric trams in 1892. In the US, multiple experimental electric trams were exhibited at the 1884 World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana , but they were not deemed good enough to replace
1440-734: Is the sole survivor of the fleet). In Italy, in Trieste , the Trieste–Opicina tramway was opened in 1902, with the steepest section of the route being negotiated with the help of a funicular and its cables. Cable cars suffered from high infrastructure costs, since an expensive system of cables , pulleys , stationary engines and lengthy underground vault structures beneath the rails had to be provided. They also required physical strength and skill to operate, and alert operators to avoid obstructions and other cable cars. The cable had to be disconnected ("dropped") at designated locations to allow
1536-713: The Bleecker Street Line until its closure in 1917. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , had its Sarah Street line drawn by horses until 1923. The last regular mule-drawn cars in the US ran in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas , until 1926 and were commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1983. The last mule tram service in Mexico City ended in 1932, and a mule tram in Celaya, Mexico , survived until 1954. The last horse-drawn tram to be withdrawn from public service in
1632-706: The Free Rail Zone , which had allowed free use of the Portland Streetcar system. TriMet had intended to cut service on bus route 6–ML King Jr Blvd, which ran alongside the eastside tracks, but increased service instead after interviewing riders. The second phase of the Portland Streetcar Loop Project, referred to as "Close the Loop", which was later changed to "Complete the Loop", extended the streetcar tracks from OMSI across
1728-933: The Lamm fireless engines then propelling the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city. The first commercial installation of an electric streetcar in the United States was built in 1884 in Cleveland, Ohio , and operated for a period of one year by the East Cleveland Street Railway Company. The first city-wide electric streetcar system was implemented in 1886 in Montgomery, Alabama , by the Capital City Street Railway Company, and ran for 50 years. In 1888,
1824-932: The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) launched the MLK/Grand Transit Improvements project, a complement to the Rose Lane Project that added red lanes to the streetcar alignment on Grand Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Work started on October 7 and was completed after four weeks. In April 2022, the City of Portland filed a lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court against TriMet and Stacy and Witbeck for negligence and breach of contract . The city alleged that TriMet failed to oversee
1920-715: The Richmond Union Passenger Railway began to operate trams in Richmond, Virginia , that Frank J. Sprague had built. Sprague later developed multiple unit control, first demonstrated in Chicago in 1897, allowing multiple cars to be coupled together and operated by a single motorman. This gave rise to the modern subway train. Following the improvement of an overhead "trolley" system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires by Sprague, electric tram systems were rapidly adopted across
2016-824: The West Midlands Metro in Birmingham , England adopted battery-powered trams on sections through the city centre close to Grade I listed Birmingham Town Hall . Paris and Berne (Switzerland) operated trams that were powered by compressed air using the Mekarski system . Trials on street tramways in Britain, including by the North Metropolitan Tramway Company between Kings Cross and Holloway, London (1883), achieved acceptable results but were found not to be economic because of
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#17327806351902112-909: The Willamette River by crossing the Broadway Bridge in the north and Tilikum Crossing in the south. The A and B Loop connects Portland's downtown , Pearl District , Lloyd District , Central Eastside , and South Waterfront . It serves various landmarks and institutions, including the Rose Quarter , the Oregon Convention Center , the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and Portland State University (PSU). Riders can transfer to Frequent Express (FX) and MAX Light Rail from several stations along
2208-1241: The 1850s, after which the "animal railway" became an increasingly common feature in the larger towns. The first permanent tram line in continental Europe was opened in Paris in 1855 by Alphonse Loubat who had previously worked on American streetcar lines. The tram was developed in numerous cities of Europe (some of the most extensive systems were found in Berlin, Budapest , Birmingham , Saint Petersburg , Lisbon , London , Manchester , Paris , Kyiv ). The first tram in South America opened in 1858 in Santiago, Chile . The first trams in Australia opened in 1860 in Sydney . Africa's first tram service started in Alexandria on 8 January 1863. The first trams in Asia opened in 1869 in Batavia (Jakarta), Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) . Limitations of horsecars included
2304-713: The 1894-built horse tram at Victor Harbor in South Australia . New horse-drawn systems have been established at the Hokkaidō Museum in Japan and also in Disneyland . A horse-tram route in Polish gmina Mrozy , first built in 1902, was reopened in 2012. The first mechanical trams were powered by steam . Generally, there were two types of steam tram. The first and most common had a small steam locomotive (called
2400-420: The 1980s. The history of passenger trams, streetcars and trolley systems, began in the early nineteenth century. It can be divided into several distinct periods defined by the principal means of power used. Precursors to the tramway included the wooden or stone wagonways that were used in central Europe to transport mine carts with unflanged wheels since the 1500s, and the paved limestone trackways designed by
2496-481: The Australian state of Queensland between 1909 and 1939. Stockholm , Sweden, had a steam tram line at the island of Södermalm between 1887 and 1901. Tram engines usually had modifications to make them suitable for street running in residential areas. The wheels, and other moving parts of the machinery, were usually enclosed for safety reasons and to make the engines quieter. Measures were often taken to prevent
2592-462: The British newspaper Newcastle Daily Chronicle reported that, "A large number of London's discarded horse tramcars have been sent to Lincolnshire where they are used as sleeping rooms for potato pickers ". Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century, and many large metropolitan lines lasted into the early 20th century. New York City had a regular horsecar service on
2688-529: The Broadway Bridge to the Lloyd District, then south along Grand Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Hawthorne Boulevard. A southern crossing back to the west side depended upon whether the proposed bridge would be constructed, leaving that section undetermined at the time. In 2008, the Portland–Milwaukie project steering committee selected a locally preferred alternative that included
2784-606: The CL Line increased employment around their areas by 22 percent, compared to just eight percent by Multnomah County , between 2006 and 2013. In February 2020, the Portland City Council adopted the Rose Lane Project in an effort to improve bus and streetcar travel times within the city. The ongoing project aims to create red-painted dedicated lanes, remove or restrict on-street parking, and implement traffic-signal priority for buses and streetcars. That October,
2880-774: The Entertainment Centre, and work is progressing on further extensions. Sydney re-introduced trams (or light rail) on 31 August 1997. A completely new system, known as G:link , was introduced on the Gold Coast, Queensland , on 20 July 2014. The Newcastle Light Rail opened in February 2019, while the Canberra light rail opened on 20 April 2019. This is the first time that there have been trams in Canberra, even though Walter Burley Griffin 's 1914–1920 plans for
2976-583: The Irish coach builder John Stephenson , in New York City which began service in the year 1832. The New York and Harlem Railroad's Fourth Avenue Line ran along the Bowery and Fourth Avenue in New York City. It was followed in 1835 by the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in New Orleans, Louisiana , which still operates as the St. Charles Streetcar Line . Other American cities did not follow until
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3072-538: The Lloyd District, including years-long efforts by Metro to build a convention center hotel , began or were announced after the extension had started construction. In 2013, Hassalo on Eighth broke ground at the Lloyd 700 "superblock", where the eastside extension was deliberately routed to support redevelopment. OMSI began pursuing redevelopment plans for its location in Southeast Portland in 2008. Days before
3168-430: The Netherlands. The first trams in Bendigo, Australia, in 1892, were battery-powered, but within as little as three months they were replaced with horse-drawn trams. In New York City some minor lines also used storage batteries. Then, more recently during the 1950s, a longer battery-operated tramway line ran from Milan to Bergamo . In China there is a Nanjing battery Tram line and has been running since 2014. In 2019,
3264-436: The North Sydney line from 1886 to 1900, and the King Street line from 1892 to 1905. In Dresden , Germany, in 1901 an elevated suspended cable car following the Eugen Langen one-railed floating tram system started operating. Cable cars operated on Highgate Hill in North London and Kennington to Brixton Hill in South London. They also worked around "Upper Douglas" in the Isle of Man from 1897 to 1929 (cable car 72/73
3360-418: The Portland Streetcar Loop Project predicted 8,100 average weekday trips during the first operating year, while an alternative forecasting method predicted 3,900 average weekday trips for the same period. The FTA recorded an actual usage of 2,500 average weekday trips for the first year. Analysis attributed the lower-than-anticipated ridership to less frequent service than planned (15-minute actual headways versus
3456-463: The Romans for heavy horse and ox-drawn transportation. By the 1700s, paved plateways with cast iron rails were introduced in England for transporting coal, stone or iron ore from the mines to the urban factories and docks. The world's first passenger train or tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway , in Wales , UK. The British Parliament passed the Mumbles Railway Act in 1804, and horse-drawn service started in 1807. The service closed in 1827, but
3552-410: The SE Water/OMSI streetcar platform and installed the streetcar-track connection with the new bridge. Shuttle buses carried riders in sections where the streetcar tracks were temporarily closed. From June 26 to August 17, 2015, CL Line service ceased operating as part of Multnomah County's closure of the Broadway Bridge to make way for repainting. On August 30, 2015, a new temporary schedule eliminated
3648-413: The Second Street Cable Railroad, which operated from 1885 to 1889, and the Temple Street Cable Railway, which operated from 1886 to 1898. From 1885 to 1940, the city of Melbourne , Victoria, Australia operated one of the largest cable systems in the world, at its peak running 592 trams on 75 kilometres (47 mi) of track. There were also two isolated cable lines in Sydney , New South Wales, Australia;
3744-562: The UK at Lytham St Annes , Trafford Park , Manchester (1897–1908) and Neath , Wales (1896–1920). Comparatively little has been published about gas trams. However, research on the subject was carried out for an article in the October 2011 edition of "The Times", the historical journal of the Australian Association of Timetable Collectors, later renamed the Australian Timetable Association. The world's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg invented and tested by inventor Fyodor Pirotsky in 1875. Later, using
3840-410: The UK took passengers from Fintona railway station to Fintona Junction one mile away on the main Omagh to Enniskillen railway in Northern Ireland. The tram made its last journey on 30 September 1957 when the Omagh to Enniskillen line closed. The "van" is preserved at the Ulster Transport Museum . Horse-drawn trams still operate on the 1876-built Douglas Bay Horse Tramway on the Isle of Man , and at
3936-522: The Willamette River to the South Waterfront . This phase had awaited the Portland–Milwaukie project's new river crossing, which finally began construction in 2011. The project had a total cost of $ 6.7 million and included automatic train stop upgrades. Construction of the streetcar components started in August 2013 with the installation of a turning loop on the intersection of Southeast Stephens Street, Grand Avenue, and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. From September to October that year, crews expanded
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4032-508: The advantages over earlier forms of transit was the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on steel rails, allowing the trams to haul a greater load for a given effort. Another factor which contributed to the rise of trams was the high total cost of ownership of horses. Electric trams largely replaced animal power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Improvements in other vehicles such as buses led to decline of trams in early to mid 20th century. However, trams have seen resurgence since
4128-406: The bridge, the tracks traverse Broadway and Weidler streets. The B Loop then turns right onto Northeast Grand Avenue, while the A Loop turns right on Northeast 7th Avenue, left on Oregon street, and another left onto Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The lines reconnect at a turning loop on Southeast Stephens Street and enter an overpass at Harrison Street, which carries the route to OMSI. From OMSI,
4224-460: The busiest tram line in Europe, with a tram running once per minute at rush hour. Bucharest and Belgrade ran a regular service from 1894. Ljubljana introduced its tram system in 1901 – it closed in 1958. Oslo had the first tramway in Scandinavia , starting operation on 2 March 1894. The first electric tramway in Australia was a Sprague system demonstrated at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition in Melbourne ; afterwards, this
4320-439: The capital then in the planning stage did propose a Canberra tram system. In Japan, the Kyoto Electric railroad was the first tram system, starting operation in 1895. By 1932, the network had grown to 82 railway companies in 65 cities, with a total network length of 1,479 km (919 mi). By the 1960s the tram had generally died out in Japan. Two rare but significant alternatives were conduit current collection , which
4416-458: The car up the hill at a steady pace, unlike a low-powered steam or horse-drawn car. Cable cars do have wheel brakes and track brakes , but the cable also helps restrain the car to going downhill at a constant speed. Performance in steep terrain partially explains the survival of cable cars in San Francisco. The San Francisco cable cars , though significantly reduced in number, continue to provide regular transportation service, in addition to being
4512-402: The cars to coast by inertia, for example when crossing another cable line. The cable then had to be "picked up" to resume progress, the whole operation requiring precise timing to avoid damage to the cable and the grip mechanism. Breaks and frays in the cable, which occurred frequently, required the complete cessation of services over a cable route while the cable was repaired. Due to overall wear,
4608-434: The city council formally authorized the Central City Streetcar project. By then, discussions to expand streetcar service east of the Willamette River had also begun, and $ 200,000 was allocated to strengthen the outer lanes of the Hawthorne Bridge with the intention of having it carry a future line between OMSI and the Oregon Convention Center . The Hawthorne Bridge was closed in March 1998 and reopened in April 1999 with
4704-409: The city's hurricane-prone location, which would have resulted in frequent damage to an electrical supply system. Although Portland, Victoria promotes its tourist tram as being a cable car it actually operates using a diesel motor. The tram, which runs on a circular route around the town of Portland, uses dummies and salons formerly used on the Melbourne cable tramway system and since restored. In
4800-473: The classic tramway built in the early 20th century with the tram system operating in mixed traffic, and the later type which is most often associated with the tram system having its own right of way. Tram systems that have their own right of way are often called light rail but this does not always hold true. Though these two systems differ in their operation, their equipment is much the same. Oregon Route 99E Too Many Requests If you report this error to
4896-416: The combined coal consumption of the stationary compressor and the onboard steam boiler. The Trieste–Opicina tramway in Trieste operates a hybrid funicular tramway system. Conventional electric trams are operated in street running and on reserved track for most of their route. However, on one steep segment of track, they are assisted by cable tractors, which push the trams uphill and act as brakes for
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#17327806351904992-689: The contractor, whose workers, in turn, failed to "perform the work in a professional and workmanlike manner", in the construction of an elevated section of the streetcar near OMSI after cracked walls and foundational flaws were discovered. The city is seeking $ 10 million from the defendants for the cost of repairs. As of January 2022, the A and B Loop operates from 5:30 am to 11:30 pm on weekdays, from 7:30 am to 11:30 pm on Saturdays, and from 7:30 am to 10:30 pm on Sundays. Headways in each direction range from 15 minutes between 10:00 am and 7:00 pm on weekdays and Saturdays to 20 minutes for all other times. Traveling
5088-436: The deck with lighter fiber-reinforced concrete . In the Pearl District, sections of what had been two bidirectional streets—Lovejoy and Northrup—were converted into one-way streets after rail was installed. The Lovejoy ramp on the west end of the Broadway Bridge reopened to traffic in November 2010. In Southeast Portland , workers built a 425-foot (130 m) bridge that carried the streetcar from Southeast Stephens Street to
5184-430: The downhill run. For safety, the cable tractors are always deployed on the downhill side of the tram vehicle. Similar systems were used elsewhere in the past, notably on the Queen Anne Counterbalance in Seattle and the Darling Street wharf line in Sydney. In the mid-20th century many tram systems were disbanded, replaced by buses, trolleybuses , automobiles or rapid transit . The General Motors streetcar conspiracy
5280-570: The eastside extension and ran additionally on the west side via 10th and 11th avenues for a total of 4.5 miles (7.2 km); it overlapped with the NS Line between Southwest Market Street and Northwest Northrup Street. Service along the eastside segment commenced with frequencies of 18 minutes instead of 15 minutes (or 12 minutes as initially planned) due to funding cuts by the city and TriMet, and delivery delays from United Streetcar. The delays additionally forced Portland Streetcar to deploy its entire fleet of 11 cars and operate without
5376-469: The eastside extension's opening, OMSI's senior vice president stated that the streetcar's presence "will be an important element in the development of the lower eastside". In December 2021, OMSI submitted a formal proposal to the city for the "OMSI District", which plans to develop 10 city blocks into mixed-use buildings and includes up to 1,200 new housing units. A study published for the Transportation Research Record in 2018 noted that observed stations along
5472-443: The eastside extension. In July 2011, the city council agreed to contractual changes that reduced the number of streetcars on order from six to five due to unanticipated costs related to production. United Streetcar had relied on Czech streetcar manufacturer Škoda , which built the Portland Streetcar's first vehicles, to provide the propulsion system that eventually failed acceptance testing. Project officials subsequently opted to obtain
5568-417: The eastside streetcar extension with the selection of a locally preferred alternative on July 20, 2006, that the city council adopted in September 2007. The total cost of the project, including the cost to purchase additional vehicles, amounted to $ 148.8 million. Portland allocated $ 27 million of city funds, and $ 20 million from the state, $ 15.5 million from a local improvement district , and
5664-446: The engines from emitting visible smoke or steam. Usually the engines used coke rather than coal as fuel to avoid emitting smoke; condensers or superheating were used to avoid emitting visible steam. A major drawback of this style of tram was the limited space for the engine, so that these trams were usually underpowered. Steam trams faded out around the 1890s to 1900s, being replaced by electric trams. Another motive system for trams
5760-429: The entire length of cable (typically several kilometres) had to be replaced on a regular schedule. After the development of reliable electrically powered trams, the costly high-maintenance cable car systems were rapidly replaced in most locations. Cable cars remained especially effective in hilly cities, since their nondriven wheels did not lose traction as they climbed or descended a steep hill. The moving cable pulled
5856-439: The fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for day in and day out, and produced prodigious amounts of manure, which the streetcar company was charged with storing and then disposing. Since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. In 1905
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#17327806351905952-501: The first two weeks from opening, about 3,200 riders used the eastside extension per day on weekdays, 1,700 fewer riders than what the westside line recorded when it opened. Six months later, PBOT reported the streetcar collected only 55 percent of its expected fares; PBOT had projected fare revenues of $ 1 million annually, which would have resulted in an 11-percent farebox recovery ratio of its $ 8.9 million operating expenses. Forecasts used to help justify federal funding for
6048-411: The intersection of Southwest Montgomery and 5th, the A Loop crosses PSU's Urban Plaza diagonally for Mill Street, while the B Loop turns right onto 5th Avenue. The A Loop returns to Southwest 10th Avenue from Mill Street, while the B Loop turns left onto Market Street and proceeds until it returns to 11th Avenue. The A and B Loop serves 52 stations, 24 of which are shared with the NS Line. Each platform
6144-444: The late 19th and early 20th centuries a number of systems in various parts of the world employed trams powered by gas, naphtha gas or coal gas in particular. Gas trams are known to have operated between Alphington and Clifton Hill in the northern suburbs of Melbourne , Australia (1886–1888); in Berlin and Dresden , Germany; in Estonia (1921–1951); between Jelenia Góra , Cieplice , and Sobieszów in Poland (from 1897); and in
6240-402: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was one particular hazard associated with trams powered from a trolley pole off an overhead line on the early electrified systems. Since the tram relies on contact with the rails for the current return path, a problem arises if the tram is derailed or (more usually) if it halts on a section of track that has been heavily sanded by a previous tram, and
6336-449: The name CL Line in favor of two separately named routes: "A Loop" and "B Loop". A Loop and B Loop took over the CL Line route and were further extended on the west side via existing tracks from Southwest 10th and Market streets in downtown Portland to Southwest Moody and Meade streets in the South Waterfront. Streetcars began crossing the new bridge, which by then was named " Tilikum Crossing ", but without carrying passengers across it, during
6432-475: The necessity of overhead wire and a trolley pole for street cars and railways. While at the University of Denver he conducted experiments which established that multiple unit powered cars were a better way to operate trains and trolleys. Electric tramways spread to many European cities in the 1890s, such as: Sarajevo built a citywide system of electric trams in 1895. Budapest established its tramway system in 1887, and its ring line has grown to be
6528-421: The oldest operating electric tramway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram was opened near Vienna in Austria. It was the first tram in the world in regular service that was run with electricity served by an overhead line with pantograph current collectors . The Blackpool Tramway was opened in Blackpool, UK on 29 September 1885 using conduit collection along Blackpool Promenade. This system
6624-562: The outer-lane decks rebuilt to accommodate notches for rails. In July 2001, the Lloyd District Development Strategy proposed a separate plan that envisioned a Lloyd District transit hub , with modern streetcars complementing existing bus and MAX Light Rail service; it suggested running streetcar lines on Broadway and Weidler streets through to the west side via the Broadway Bridge , which had carried streetcars from 1913 to 1940. In February 2003, Portland Streetcar officials, amid TriMet (Portland's regional transit agency) plans to construct
6720-623: The planned 12 minutes) and overstated projections for the number of commuters transferring from outside the Central City. The overall system set a ridership record in February 2017; that year saw ridership increase by 10 percent, mostly along the eastside. The streetcar set another record in April 2018, when the A and B Loop recorded 7,424 riders per day on weekdays. The A and B Loop is a circle route that runs across subdistricts contained within Portland's Central City, namely downtown Portland, Pearl District, Lloyd District, Central Eastside , and South Waterfront. It consists of two services that for
6816-415: The poor paving of the streets in American cities which made them unsuitable for horsebuses , which were then common on the well-paved streets of European cities. Running the horsecars on rails allowed for a much smoother ride. There are records of a street railway running in Baltimore as early as 1828, however the first authenticated streetcar in America, was the New York and Harlem Railroad developed by
6912-467: The practices of the Bush administration , which had awarded the funding to projects based on speed across long routes. The Small Starts allocation, secured in large part through the efforts of U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Peter DeFazio of Oregon, was the largest and final component of the financing plan and meant the project could proceed with construction. In January 2007, Oregon Iron Works
7008-472: The project route along city streets, crews laid tracks in three-to-four- block increments, with each segment completed every four weeks. Excavation for the trackbed was eight feet (2.4 m) wide and 14 to 18 inches (36 to 46 cm) deep. Workers closed the Broadway Bridge for renovation from July to September 2010. To maintain the existing weight of the bridge after adding tracks, which was necessary to allow it to continue lifting its spans, workers replaced
7104-473: The project's eastern terminus at OMSI. The extension's overhead lines went live in April 2012, and testing continued through to opening day. The 28-station, 3.3-mile (5.3 km) eastside extension opened on September 22, 2012. Portland Streetcar formed a new service called the "Central Loop Line" (CL Line) and renamed the original service on the west side the " North South Line " (NS Line). The CL Line operated
7200-458: The propulsion system from Austrian manufacturer Elin, which necessitated changes to the streetcar design to accommodate a different form factor. The changes led to higher costs and delayed the project for five months. Groundbreaking for the Portland Streetcar Loop Project took place on June 25, 2009. Portland awarded the building contract to Stacy and Witbeck , and construction began in August. For
7296-600: The route. Portland city officials considered an eastside streetcar line upon authorizing the Central City Streetcar on the west side in 1997. After several years of planning, the Portland Streetcar Loop Project was approved and held its groundbreaking in 2009. The first 3.3 miles (5.3 km) opened between the Broadway Bridge and OMSI on September 22, 2012. It was inaugurated by the Central Loop Line ( CL Line ) service, which ran additionally on
7392-741: The streetcar tracks connect with the MAX tracks just west of the OMSI/Southeast Water MAX station as they approach Tilikum Crossing to cross the river back to the west side. They split at the four-track South Waterfront/South Moody MAX station , where the streetcar tracks run in the middle of the station's island platforms but don’t stop at the station. The route connects with the westside streetcar alignment on Southwest Moody Avenue then heads north towards RiverPlace . The tracks turn left on Southwest River Parkway, right on 4th Avenue, left on Montgomery Street, and split again on 5th Avenue. From
7488-542: The suburban tramway lines around Milan and Padua ; the last Gamba de Legn ("Peg-Leg") tramway ran on the Milan- Magenta -Castano Primo route in late 1957. The other style of steam tram had the steam engine in the body of the tram, referred to as a tram engine (UK) or steam dummy (US). The most notable system to adopt such trams was in Paris. French-designed steam trams also operated in Rockhampton , in
7584-558: The tracks. Siemens later designed his own version of overhead current collection, called the bow collector . One of the first systems to use it was in Thorold, Ontario , opened in 1887, and it was considered quite successful. While this line proved quite versatile as one of the earliest fully functional electric streetcar installations, it required horse-drawn support while climbing the Niagara Escarpment and for two months of
7680-416: The tram and completing the earth return circuit with their body could receive a serious electric shock. If "grounded", the driver was required to jump off the tram (avoiding simultaneous contact with the tram and the ground) and pull down the trolley pole, before allowing passengers off the tram. Unless derailed, the tram could usually be recovered by running water down the running rails from a point higher than
7776-466: The tram loses electrical contact with the rails. In this event, the underframe of the tram, by virtue of a circuit path through ancillary loads (such as interior lighting), is live at the full supply voltage, typically 600 volts DC. In British terminology, such a tram was said to be 'grounded'—not to be confused with the US English use of the term, which means the exact opposite. Any person stepping off
7872-427: The tram, the water providing a conducting bridge between the tram and the rails. With improved technology, this ceased to be an problem. In the 2000s, several companies introduced catenary-free designs: Alstom's Citadis line uses a third rail, Bombardier's PRIMOVE LRV is charged by contactless induction plates embedded in the trackway and CAF URBOS tram uses ultracaps technology As early as 1834, Thomas Davenport ,
7968-502: The westside along 10th and 11th avenues. The opening of Tilikum Crossing in 2015 extended the streetcar from OMSI to the South Waterfront; this completed the loop, and the CL Line was rebranded to A and B Loop. In 1990, a citizen advisory committee , citing the 1988 Central City Plan, convinced the Portland City Council to develop a streetcar (then referred to as "trolley") network in downtown Portland . In July 1997,
8064-804: The wider term light rail , which also includes systems separated from other traffic. Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than main line and rapid transit trains. Most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph sliding on an overhead line ; older systems may use a trolley pole or a bow collector . In some cases, a contact shoe on a third rail is used. If necessary, they may have dual power systems—electricity in city streets and diesel in more rural environments. Occasionally, trams also carry freight . Some trams, known as tram-trains , may have segments that run on mainline railway tracks, similar to interurban systems. The differences between these modes of rail transport are often indistinct, and systems may combine multiple features. One of
8160-409: The winter when hydroelectricity was not available. It continued in service in its original form into the 1950s. Sidney Howe Short designed and produced the first electric motor that operated a streetcar without gears. The motor had its armature direct-connected to the streetcar 's axle for the driving force. Short pioneered "use of a conduit system of concealed feed" thereby eliminating
8256-532: The world's first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle tramcar at an assembly facility in Qingdao . The chief engineer of the CSR subsidiary CSR Sifang Co Ltd. , Liang Jianying, said that the company is studying how to reduce the running costs of the tram. Trams have been used for two main purposes: for carrying passengers and for carrying cargo. There are several types of passenger tram: There are two main types of tramways,
8352-401: The world. Earlier electric trains proved difficult or unreliable and experienced limited success until the second half of the 1880s, when new types of current collectors were developed. Siemens' line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train , limiting the voltage that could be used, and delivering electric shocks to people and animals crossing
8448-682: Was a case study of the decline of trams in the United States. In the 21st century, trams have been re-introduced in cities where they had been closed down for decades (such as Tramlink in London), or kept in heritage use (such as Spårväg City in Stockholm). Most trams made since the 1990s (such as the Bombardier Flexity series and Alstom Citadis ) are articulated low-floor trams with features such as regenerative braking . In March 2015, China South Rail Corporation (CSR) demonstrated
8544-534: Was awarded a $ 4 million contract to locally produce a streetcar prototype as provided by the Transportation Equity Act of 2005 . On July 1, 2009, its subsidiary, United Streetcar , unveiled the first prototype in Portland; it was the first U.S.-built streetcar in nearly 60 years. That August, the city signed a $ 20 million contract to purchase six new vehicles from United Streetcar for
8640-491: Was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. This was the world's first commercially successful electric tram. It drew current from the rails at first, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. In Britain, Volk's Electric Railway was opened in 1883 in Brighton. This two kilometer line along the seafront, re-gauged to 2 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 825 mm ) in 1884, remains in service as
8736-487: Was installed as a commercial venture operating between the outer Melbourne suburb of Box Hill and the then tourist-oriented country town Doncaster from 1889 to 1896. Electric systems were also built in Adelaide , Ballarat , Bendigo , Brisbane , Fremantle , Geelong , Hobart , Kalgoorlie , Launceston , Leonora , Newcastle , Perth , and Sydney . By the 1970s, the only full tramway system remaining in Australia
8832-621: Was restarted in 1860, again using horses. It was worked by steam from 1877, and then, from 1929, by very large (106-seat) electric tramcars, until closure in 1960. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was something of a one-off however, and no street tramway appeared in Britain until 1860 when one was built in Birkenhead by the American George Francis Train . Street railways developed in America before Europe, due to
8928-628: Was tested in San Francisco , in 1873. Part of its success is attributed to the development of an effective and reliable cable grip mechanism, to grab and release the moving cable without damage. The second city to operate cable trams was Dunedin , from 1881 to 1957. The most extensive cable system in the US was built in Chicago in stages between 1859 and 1892. New York City developed multiple cable car lines, that operated from 1883 to 1909. Los Angeles also had several cable car lines, including
9024-635: Was the Melbourne tram system. However, there were also a few single lines remaining elsewhere: the Glenelg tram line , connecting Adelaide to the beachside suburb of Glenelg , and tourist trams in the Victorian Goldfields cities of Bendigo and Ballarat. In recent years the Melbourne system, generally recognised as the largest urban tram network in the world, has been considerably modernised and expanded. The Adelaide line has been extended to
9120-411: Was the cable car, which was pulled along a fixed track by a moving steel cable, the cable usually running in a slot below the street level. The power to move the cable was normally provided at a "powerhouse" site a distance away from the actual vehicle. The London and Blackwall Railway , which opened for passengers in east London, England, in 1840 used such a system. The first practical cable car line
9216-878: Was widely used in London, Washington, D.C., and New York City, and the surface contact collection method, used in Wolverhampton (the Lorain system), Torquay and Hastings in the UK (the Dolter stud system), and in Bordeaux , France (the ground-level power supply system). The convenience and economy of electricity resulted in its rapid adoption once the technical problems of production and transmission of electricity were solved. Electric trams largely replaced animal power and other forms of motive power including cable and steam, in
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