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87-694: The University Link tunnel is a 3.15-mile (5.07 km) light rail tunnel in Seattle , Washington . The twin-bore tunnel carries Link light rail service on the University Link Extension of Central Link (now the 1 Line), running from the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel to University of Washington station via Capitol Hill station . The 21 ft-wide (6.4 m) tunnels are lined with precast gasketed concrete segments connected with steel bolts and

174-724: A "light rail" vehicle (it is a heavy rail vehicle), and is only included for comparison purposes. Low-floor LRVs have the advantage of a low-floor design, allowing them to load passengers directly from low-rise platforms that can be little more than raised curbs. High-floor light rail systems also exist, featuring larger stations. Historically, the track gauge has had considerable variations, with narrow gauge common in many early systems. However, most light rail systems are now standard gauge . Older standard-gauge vehicles could not negotiate sharp turns as easily as narrow-gauge ones, but modern light rail systems achieve tighter turning radii by using articulated cars . An important advantage of

261-572: A Herrenknecht TBM. During 2021, the UK's largest TBM was delivered by Herrnknecht for the boring of the Silvertown Tunnel . Herrenknecht also produced the TBMs to bore multiple tunnels for Britain's High Speed 2 (HS2) railway line. During 2023, Herrenknecht acquired a majority stake in the geothermal energy specialist H. Anger’s Söhne Bohr- und Brunnenbaugesellschaft mbH in order to expand

348-458: A bus, there will be even more capacity when there is a combination of cars and light rail. Table 3 shows an example of peak passenger capacity. The cost of light rail construction varies widely, largely depending on the amount of tunneling and elevated structures required. A survey of North American light rail projects shows that costs of most LRT systems range from $ 15 million to over $ 100 million per mile. Seattle's new light rail system

435-531: A capital of 20 million euros. By 1984, Herrenknecht had opened Herrenknecht International Ltd. in Sunderland , England, its first foreign subsidiary. During the late 1980s, the company became involved with Maschinen und Stahlbau GmbH of Dresden . Following the merger of the two companies in 1988, Herrenknecht became a joint-stock company (AG). Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the company pursued an expansion strategy to achieve worldwide operations. During

522-403: A chaotic breakdown inflow and a dramatic drop in speed (a traffic jam ) if they exceed about 2,000 vehicles per hour per lane (each car roughly two seconds behind another). Since most people who drive to work or on business trips do so alone, studies show that the average car occupancy on many roads carrying commuters is only about 1.5 people per car during the high-demand rush hour periods of

609-1142: A common right-of-way (however, Link converted to full separation in 2019). Some systems, such as the AirTrain JFK in New York City, the DLR in London, and Kelana Jaya Line in Kuala Lumpur , have dispensed with the need for an operator. The Vancouver SkyTrain was an early adopter of driverless vehicles, while the Toronto Scarborough rapid transit operated the same trains as Vancouver, but used drivers. In most discussions and comparisons, these specialized systems are generally not considered light rail but as light metro systems. Around Karlsruhe , Kassel , and Saarbrücken in Germany, dual-voltage light rail trains partly use mainline railroad tracks, sharing these tracks with heavy rail trains. In

696-416: A light rail train may have three to four cars of much larger capacity in one train under the control of one driver, or no driver at all in fully automated systems, increasing the labor costs of BRT systems compared to LRT systems. BRT systems are also usually less fuel-efficient as they use non-electrified vehicles. The peak passenger capacity per lane per hour depends on which types of vehicles are allowed on

783-435: A live rail. In outer areas, the trams switch to conventional overhead wires . The Bordeaux power system costs about three times as much as a conventional overhead wire system and took 24 months to achieve acceptable levels of reliability, requiring the replacement of all the main cables and power supplies. Operating and maintenance costs of the innovative power system still remain high. However, despite numerous service outages,

870-543: A longer distance. Light rail cars are often coupled into multiple units of two to four cars. Light rail systems may also exhibit attributes of heavy rail systems, including having downtown subways, as in San Francisco and Seattle . Light rail is designed to address a gap in interurban transportation between heavy rail and bus services, carrying high passenger numbers more quickly than local buses and more cheaply than heavy rail. It serves corridors in which heavy rail

957-570: A lower capacity and speed than a long heavy rail passenger train or rapid transit system. Narrowly defined, light rail transit uses rolling stock that is similar to that of a traditional tram, while operating at a higher capacity and speed, often on an exclusive right-of-way. In broader use, it includes tram-like operations mostly on streets. A few light rail networks have characteristics closer to rapid transit or even commuter rail , yet only when these systems are fully grade-separated are they referred to as light metros . The term light rail

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1044-642: A more diverse range of design characteristics than LRT, depending on the demand and constraints that exist, and BRT using dedicated lanes can have a theoretical capacity of over 30,000 passengers per hour per direction (for example, the Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit system operates up to 350 buses per hour per direction). For the effective operation of a bus or BRT system, buses must have priority at traffic lights and have their dedicated lanes, especially as bus frequencies exceed 30 buses per hour per direction. The higher theoretical of BRT relates to

1131-483: A pair of TBMs with a diameter of 15.43m, then the largest in the world, for the boring of two large tunnels under Shanghai , China. In December 2012, Herrenknecht acquired Techni-Métal Systemes SAS, a French manufacturer of tunnel supply vehicles; the move expanded the company's portfolio to comprise all technical equipment and services relating to TBMs. Three years later, Herrenknecht launched its first horizontal directional drilling HDD rock cutting tools, which enabled

1218-621: A range of automation technology including underground vehicles, conveyor belts and monitoring systems, and shaft-drilling equipment. In the energy industry, it provides equipment for oil and gas pipelines, fossil fuel exploration, geothermal energy development and electricity tunnels. Its drilling rigs can reach eight kilometers underground and its TBMs range in diameter from 10 cm to 19 meters. Its other services include tunneling personnel, spare parts/refurbishment, installation, rental and re-used TBMs. As an international company, 90% of its sales were outside of Germany as of 2015 . Over time,

1305-407: A result, has many of the operating characteristics of a metro system rather than a light rail system. A capacity of 1,350 passengers per train is more similar to the heavy rail than light rail. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is an alternative to LRT and many planning studies undertake a comparison of each mode when considering appropriate investments in transit corridor development. BRT systems can exhibit

1392-703: A route for tunneled light rail extensions through Capitol Hill and the University District and towards Northgate , using the Montlake Cut and a new station at Husky Stadium . Sound Transit began the federal grant process in August 2005 for a US$ 750 million grant that would allow Sound Transit to build the $ 1.9 billion project to connect the University of Washington and Capitol Hill to Downtown Seattle without increasing local taxes. In November 2005,

1479-545: A station on First Hill , but due to soil conditions that might increase costs and construction risks, as well as cost-effectiveness requirements, the station was dropped from the route. To mitigate the impact of the cancelled First Hill station, the First Hill Streetcar was built to connect First Hill to the Pioneer Square and International District neighborhoods via Broadway and South Jackson Street;

1566-534: A top speed of 55–71.5 miles per hour (88.51–115.1 km/h) depending on the system, while the trains on the all-underground Montreal Metro can only reach a top speed of 72 kilometres per hour (44.74 mph). LACMTA light rail vehicles have higher top and average speeds than Montreal Metro or New York City Subway trains. Many light rail systems—even fairly old ones—have a combination of both on- and off-road sections. In some countries (especially in Europe), only

1653-481: A tramway, a light metro, and, in a narrow sense, rapid transit. This is especially common in the United States, where there is not a popularly perceived distinction between these different types of urban rail systems. The development of technology for low-floor and catenary-free trams facilitates the construction of such mixed systems with only short and shallow underground sections below critical intersections as

1740-494: A turn northward along Nagle Place into Capitol Hill station , located near Cal Anderson Park and Seattle Central College on Capitol Hill . Leaving the station, University Link Tunnel then turns northeast and descends at a 4.1% grade , reaching its greatest depth under Volunteer Park at 300 feet (91 m) below ground level, before turning northward in the Montlake neighborhood. The tunnel passes 15 feet (4.6 m) under

1827-565: Is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology while also having some features from heavy rapid transit . The term was coined in 1972 in the United States as an English equivalent for the German word Stadtbahn , meaning "city railway". Different definitions exist in some countries, but in the United States, light rail operates primarily along exclusive rights-of-way and uses either individual tramcars or multiple units coupled together, with

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1914-470: Is a generic international English phrase for types of rail systems using modern streetcars/trams, which means more or less the same thing throughout the English-speaking world . Light rail systems can range from trams runnig in streets along with other traffic, to semi-metro systems having portions of grade separated track. People movers are even "lighter", in terms of capacity. Monorail

2001-527: Is a separate technology that has been more successful in specialized services than in a commuter transit role. The use of the generic term light rail avoids some serious incompatibilities between British and American English . The word tram , for instance, is generally used in the UK and many former British colonies to refer to what is known in North America as a streetcar , but in North America tram can instead refer to an aerial tramway , or, in

2088-602: Is a significant amount of overlap between the technologies; similar rolling stock may be used for either, and it is common to classify streetcars or trams as a subcategory of light rail rather than as a distinct type of transportation. However, some distinctions can be made, though systems may combine elements of both. Low-floor light rail lines tend to follow a reserved right-of-way and with trains receiving priority at intersections, and tend not to operate in mixed traffic, enabling higher operating speeds. Light rail lines tend to have less frequent stops than tramways, and operate over

2175-563: Is by far the most expensive in the US, at $ 179 million per mile, since it includes extensive tunneling in poor soil conditions, elevated sections, and stations as deep as 180 feet (55 m) below ground level. This results in costs more typical of subways or rapid transit systems than light rail. At the other end of the scale, four systems (Baltimore, Maryland; Camden, New Jersey; Sacramento, California; and Salt Lake City, Utah) incurred construction costs of less than $ 20 million per mile. Over

2262-426: Is especially important for wheelchair access, as narrower gauges (e.g. metre gauge) can make it challenging or impossible to pass the tram's wheels. Furthermore, standard-gauge rolling stock can be switched between networks either temporarily or permanently, and both newly built and used standard-gauge rolling stock tends to be cheaper to buy, as more companies offer such vehicles. Overhead lines supply electricity to

2349-502: Is expensive. Similarly, the most expensive US highway expansion project was the " Big Dig " in Boston, Massachusetts, which cost $ 200 million per lane mile for a total cost of $ 14.6 billion. A light rail track can carry up to 20,000 people per hour as compared with 2,000–2,200 vehicles per hour for one freeway lane. For example, in Boston and San Francisco, light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour, respectively, in

2436-575: Is hard to distinguish between what is called light rail, and other forms of urban and commuter rail. A system described as a light rail in one city may be considered to be a streetcar or tram system in another. Conversely, some lines that are called "light rail" are very similar to rapid transit ; in recent years, new terms such as light metro have been used to describe these medium-capacity systems. Some "light rail" systems, such as Sprinter , bear little similarity to urban rail, and could alternatively be classified as commuter rail or even inter-city rail. In

2523-559: Is impractical. Light metro systems are essentially hybrids of light rail and rapid transit. Metro trains are larger and faster than light rail trains, with stops being further apart. Many systems have mixed characteristics. Indeed, with proper engineering, a rail line could run along a street, then go underground, and then run along an elevated viaduct. For example, the Los Angeles Metro Rail 's A Line "light rail" has sections that could alternatively be described as

2610-484: Is one of the highest capacity ones, having been upgraded in a series of expansions to handle 40,000 passengers per hour per direction, and having carried as many as 582,989 passengers in a single day on its Line 1 . It achieves this volume by running four-car trains with a capacity of up to 1,350 passengers each at a frequency of up to 30 trains per hour. However, the Manila light rail system has full grade separation and as

2697-629: The 1925 serum run to Nome as a reference to the Washington Huskies athletic program . Another machine, named Brenda, was manufactured by Hitachi Zosen in Japan and was launched twice to complete the tunnels from Capitol Hill station to the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel ; the 679,500-pound (308,200 kg) machine was later refurbished and used again on the Northgate Link Tunnel from 2014 to 2016. Light rail service on

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2784-542: The Cádiz TramBahia , where trams share track with commuter and long-distance trains from the main terminus in the city and curve off to serve cities without a railway connection. Some of the issues involved in such schemes are: There is a history of what would now be considered light rail vehicles operating on heavy rail rapid transit tracks in the US, especially in the case of interurban streetcars . Notable examples are Lehigh Valley Transit trains running on

2871-758: The London Underground and the New York City Subway . Conventional rail technologies including high-speed , freight, commuter , and rapid transit urban transit systems are considered "heavy rail". The main difference between light rail and heavy rail rapid transit is the ability for a light rail vehicle to operate in mixed traffic if the routing requires it. The world's first electric tram operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg , Russia , invented and operated on an experimental basis by Fyodor Pirotsky in 1880. The first tramway

2958-532: The Montlake Cut while climbing a 4.5% grade to end at University of Washington station near Husky Stadium . Sound Transit originally estimated that the trip between Westlake and the University of Washington would take 8 minutes, but later refined it to a scheduled 6 minutes. Trains run 20 hours a day on weekdays in the tunnel, arriving every 6 to 10 minutes during rush hour and midday, and every 15 to 20 minutes at other times. The line originally included

3045-637: The Netherlands , this concept was first applied on the RijnGouweLijn . This allows commuters to ride directly into the city center, rather than taking a mainline train only as far as a central station and then having to change to a tram. In France, similar tram-trains are planned for Paris, Mulhouse , and Strasbourg ; further projects exist. In some cases, tram trains use previously abandoned or lightly used heavy rail lines in addition to or instead of still in use mainline tracks. In 2022, Spain opened

3132-874: The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa, Ontario , Canada, the River Line in New Jersey , United States, and the Sprinter in California , United States, which use diesel multiple unit (DMU) cars. Light rail is different from the British English term light railway , long-used to distinguish railway operations carried out under a less rigorous set of regulations using lighter equipment at lower speeds from mainline railways. Light rail

3219-644: The Paramount Theatre in Downtown Seattle; a proposed vent in the Montlake neighborhood was removed in 2007 after opposition from nearby residents and a determination that the two stations could handle emergency ventilation on their own. 47°37′11.48″N 122°19′13.02″W  /  47.6198556°N 122.3202833°W  / 47.6198556; -122.3202833 Light rail Light rail (or light rail transit , abbreviated to LRT )

3306-703: The Philadelphia and Western Railroad high-speed third rail line (now the Norristown High-Speed Line ). Such arrangements are almost impossible now, due to the Federal Railroad Administration refusing (for crash safety reasons) to allow non-FRA compliant railcars (i.e., subway and light rail vehicles) to run on the same tracks at the same times as compliant railcars, which includes locomotives and standard railroad passenger and freight equipment. Notable exceptions in

3393-510: The University of Washington to install dampeners on the rails that run under the science buildings, air cushions to tables in the science buildings, and to mitigate environmental impacts due to construction and traffic impacts from having the station on university grounds. In 1999, Sound Transit chose their preferred route for the light rail system, including a 4.5-mile-long (7.2 km) tunnel between downtown, First Hill , Capitol Hill and

3480-621: The University of Washington Medical Center , instead of at 15th Avenue NE and NE Pacific Street as selected in 1999. An additional station serving the university was opened in 2021 at NE 45th Street and Brooklyn Avenue NE as part of the Northgate Link Extension , approved by voters in November 2008 as part of the Sound Transit 2 (ST2) package. A groundbreaking ceremony for the project was held on March 6, 2009, at

3567-530: The medians of roads . If run in streets , trains are usually limited by city block lengths to about four 180-passenger vehicles (720 passengers). Operating on two-minute headways using traffic signal progression, a well-designed two-track system can handle up to 30 trains per hour per track, achieving peak rates of over 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction. More advanced systems with separate rights-of-way using moving block signaling can exceed 25,000 passengers per hour per track. Most light rail systems in

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3654-624: The 1970s was proven to have been a technical failure by the following decade. After World War II, the Germans retained many of their streetcar networks and evolved them into model light rail systems ( Stadtbahnen ). With the exception of Hamburg , all large and most medium-sized German cities maintain light rail networks. The concept of a "limited tramway" was proposed by American transport planner H. Dean Quinby in 1962. Quinby distinguished this new concept in rail transportation from historic streetcar or tram systems as: The term light rail transit

3741-483: The 2010s, the company developed a new semi-trenchless method for pipeline installation; by 2019, roughly 380 km of new pipelines were being installed worldwide using Herrenknecht's technology. During 2014, the company reported a record level of orders at 1.2 billion euros, which was primarily attributed to its involvement in the construction of multiple metro expansion schemes across the Middle East and Asia. In

3828-495: The French city of Bordeaux , the tramway network is powered by a third rail in the city center, where the tracks are not always segregated from pedestrians and cars. The third rail (actually two closely spaced rails) is placed in the middle of the track and divided into eight-metre sections, each of which is powered only while it is completely covered by a tram. This minimizes the risk of a person or animal coming into contact with

3915-662: The US are the NJ Transit River Line from Camden to Trenton and Austin's Capital MetroRail , which have received exemptions to the provision that light rail operations occur only during daytime hours and Conrail freight service only at night, with several hours separating one operation from the other. The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa also has freight service at certain hours. With its mix of right-of-way types and train control technologies, LRT offers

4002-455: The US as a whole, excluding Seattle, new light rail construction costs average about $ 35 million per mile. By comparison, a freeway lane expansion typically costs $ 1.0 million to $ 8.5 million per lane mile for two directions, with an average of $ 2.3 million. However, freeways are frequently built in suburbs or rural areas, whereas light rail tends to be concentrated in urban areas, where right of way and property acquisition

4089-666: The United States and in North America . In Britain, modern light rail systems began to appear in the 1980s, starting with the Tyne and Wear Metro from 1980 and followed by the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London in 1987, continuing into the 1990s including the establishment of the Manchester Metrolink in 1992 and the Sheffield Supertram from 1994. Due to varying definitions, it

4176-590: The United States are limited by demand rather than capacity (by and large, most American LRT systems carry fewer than 4,000 persons per hour per direction), but Boston's and San Francisco's light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour per track during rush hour. Elsewhere in North America, the Calgary C-Train and Monterrey Metro have higher light rail ridership than Boston or San Francisco. Systems outside North America often have much higher passenger volumes. The Manila Light Rail Transit System

4263-472: The United States, "light rail" has become a catch-all term to describe a wide variety of passenger rail systems. Light rail corridors may constitute a fully segregated corridor, a dedicated right-of-way on a street, an on-street corridor shared with other traffic, a corridor shared with other public transport, or a corridor shared with pedestrians. The most difficult distinction to draw is that between low-floor light rail and streetcar or tram systems. There

4350-419: The University District with a crossing under Portage Bay ; the tunnel under Portage Bay was later deemed too costly and risky in 2000, and later dropped in favor of alternative options crossing the Montlake Cut . Due to many missteps, Sound Transit shortened the line in 2001 from the original 21 miles (34 km) to 14 miles (23 km), truncating the line to Downtown Seattle . In 2004, Sound Transit selected

4437-600: The University Link Extension began on March 19, 2016. The extension opened six months earlier than scheduled, by using unused float time , and came in $ 200 million under the $ 1.9 billion budget. Cellular service in the tunnel began in August 2016 for T-Mobile customers, provided by an agreement with Mobilitie to install a distributed antenna system during the tunnel's construction. The University Link tunnel begins in Downtown Seattle at

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4524-415: The ability of buses to travel closer to each other than rail vehicles and their ability to overtake each other at designated locations allowing express services to bypass those that have stopped at stations. However, to achieve capacities this high, BRT station footprints need to be significantly larger than a typical LRT station. In terms of cost of operation, each bus vehicle requires a single driver, whereas

4611-866: The case of the Disney amusement parks , even a land train . (The usual British term for an aerial tramway is cable car , which in the US usually refers to a ground-level car pulled along by subterranean cables .) The word trolley is often used as a synonym for streetcar in the United States but is usually taken to mean a cart, particularly a shopping cart, in the UK and elsewhere. Many North American transportation planners reserve streetcar for traditional vehicles that operate exclusively in mixed traffic on city streets, while they use light rail to refer to more modern vehicles operating mostly in exclusive rights of way, since they may operate both side-by-side targeted at different passenger groups. The difference between British English and American English terminology arose in

4698-421: The closure of Glasgow Corporation Tramways (one of the largest in Europe) in 1962. Although some traditional trolley or tram systems continued to exist in San Francisco and elsewhere, the term "light rail" has come to mean a different type of rail system as modern light rail technology has primarily post-WWII West German origins. An attempt by Boeing Vertol to introduce a new American light rail vehicle in

4785-626: The company has applied its underground expertise to new areas, such as the decommissioning of offshore wells . Herrenknecht has formed several partnerships and joint ventures with other companies. During early 2020, the Belgium offshore installation specialist DEME Offshore and Herrenknecht formed a team to produce a subsea drill for use at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm in France. The French geothermal specialist Arverne Group formed

4872-421: The company to cover the complete drilling process. By 2015, the company had around 5,000 employees, roughly two-thirds of which worked at the company's headquarters in the installation of hydraulic and electronic components and final inspection. Furthermore, 300 staff worked at three locations across China . In 2015, Herrenknecht had 82 subsidiaries around the world and has worked on 2,600 projects. During

4959-404: The company’s portfolio of automated drilling rigs and equipment. The firm has also investigated the use of advanced control systems, guided by artificial intelligence , in order to minimise noise levels generated from geothermal energy schemes. The company works with the mining, transport and energy sectors, building TBMs for road, railway, metro and utilities construction. In mining, it offers

5046-413: The cost for the construction of the line after Sound Transit agreed to add $ 127 million in contingency amounts to cover unseen costs of the tunneling. After years of negotiations, Sound Transit reached an agreement on disruption and construction with the University of Washington in 2007. As part of the agreement, Sound Transit moved the preferred site of the first University station near Husky Stadium and

5133-415: The day. This combination of factors limits roads carrying only automobile commuters to a maximum observed capacity of about 3,000 passengers per hour per lane. The problem can be mitigated by introducing high-occupancy vehicle ( HOV ) lanes and ride-sharing programs, but in most cases, policymakers have chosen to add more lanes to the roads, despite a small risk that in unfavorable situations an extension of

5220-755: The direct translation, which is city rail (the Norwegian term, by bane , means the same). However, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead. Light in this context is used in the sense of "intended for light loads and fast movement", rather than referring to physical weight. The infrastructure investment is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA), in its Glossary of Transit Terminology, defines light rail as: ...a mode of transit service (also called streetcar, tramway, or trolley) operating passenger rail cars singly (or in short, usually two-car or three-car, trains) on fixed rails in

5307-578: The future site of University of Washington station , marking the beginning of University Link construction. The project used three tunnel-boring machines , all sporting a 21-foot-diameter (6.4 m) cutterhead, during construction from May 2011 to May 2012. Two of the tunnel-boring machines, named "Balto" and "Togo", were manufactured by Herrenknecht in Germany and were launched from the University of Washington station south toward Capitol Hill; each machine weighed 1,109,900 pounds (503,400 kg) and were named after two famous Alaskan husky sled dogs from

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5394-622: The late 1990s was the largest in the world at that time, while the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel (the Gotthard Base Tunnel ) was bored using the company's apparatus. By 2015, the company had around 5,000 employees. Martin Herrenknecht established the Martin Herrenknecht engineering company in 1975; it initially had six employees. Two years later, it became Herrenknecht GmbH , at which point it had

5481-656: The late 1990s, Herrenknecht built a TBM with a diameter of 14.20m, which was the largest in the world at that time, for a project to increase the capacity of the Elbe Tunnel in Hamburg , Germany (completed in 2002). The boring of the world's longest and deepest railway tunnel, the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland, was performed using the company's machinery; excavation was completed in 2009, roughly six months ahead of schedule. That same year, Herrenknecht delivered

5568-458: The late 19th century when Americans adopted the term "street railway", rather than "tramway", with the vehicles being called "streetcars" rather than "trams". Some have suggested that the Americans' preference for the term "street railway" at that time was influenced by German emigrants to the United States (who were more numerous than British immigrants in the industrialized Northeast), as it is

5655-524: The latter is described as light rail. In those places, trams running on mixed rights-of-way are not regarded as a light rail but considered distinctly as streetcars or trams. However, the requirement for saying that a rail line is "separated" can be quite low—sometimes just with concrete "buttons" to discourage automobile drivers from getting onto the tracks. Some systems such as Seattle's Link had on-road mixed sections but were closed to regular road traffic, with light rail vehicles and buses both operating along

5742-462: The light rail concept was the "Shaker Heights Rapid Transit" which started in the 1920s, was renovated in 1980-81 and is now part of RTA Rapid Transit . Many original tram and streetcar systems in the United Kingdom , United States , and elsewhere were decommissioned starting in the 1950s as subsidies for the car increased. Britain abandoned its tram systems, except for Blackpool , with

5829-551: The line received the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) best rating of "High". During a visit in November 2006 by Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and Senator Patty Murray , it was announced that the line had passed its third of four milestones to get the grant when it received federal approval to complete its final design. In January 2008, the FTA announced that they would finance $ 830 million of

5916-469: The mid 2010s, eight Herrenknecht-built TBMs, valued at £10 million, were deployed to bore out a 13 mile stretch of tunnel for Crossrail , a mostly-underground commuter railway line beneath London. In May 2020, workers on the Brenner Base Tunnel reportedly set a new record for hard rock tunnel, boring a distance of 61 meters and 4 centimeters within 24 hours, a feat that was achieved using

6003-441: The north end of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel under Pine Street at 9th Avenue near Convention Place bus station ; the nearest train stop is at Westlake station , five blocks to the west. The tunnel heads northeast along Pine Street in a cut-and-cover tunnel for two blocks until the tunnel-bored segment begins at Boren Avenue underneath Interstate 5 . It turns east, dipping south as far as Union Street, before completing

6090-465: The old and new systems. Since the 1980s, Portland, Oregon , has built all three types of system: a high-capacity light rail system in dedicated lanes and rights-of-way, a low-capacity streetcar system integrated with street traffic, and an aerial tram system . The opposite phrase heavy rail , used for higher-capacity, higher-speed systems, also avoids some incompatibilities in terminology between British and American English, for instance in comparing

6177-404: The peak direction during rush hour. Herrenknecht Established by Martin Herrenknecht in 1975, the company soon grew. Its first overseas subsidiary, Herrenknecht International Ltd , was created in 1984; a further 79 subsidiaries would be setup or purchased over the next 30 years to provide global coverage. Its products have often pushed technological boundaries; a Herrenknecht-built TBM in

6264-556: The required clearance height can be reduced significantly compared to conventional light rail vehicles. Reference speed from major light rail systems, including station stop time, is shown below. However, low top speed is not always a differentiating characteristic between light rail and other systems. For example, the Siemens S70 LRVs used in the Houston METRORail and other North American LRT systems have

6351-432: The right-of-way that is often separated from other traffic for part or much of the way. Light rail vehicles are typically driven electrically with power being drawn from an overhead electric line via a trolley [pole] or a pantograph ; driven by an operator onboard the vehicle; and may have either high platform loading or low-level boarding using steps." However, some diesel-powered transit is designated light rail, such as

6438-415: The road network might lead to increased travel times ( Downs–Thomson paradox , Braess's paradox ). By contrast, light rail vehicles can travel in multi-car trains carrying a theoretical ridership up to 20,000 passengers per hour in much narrower rights-of-way , not much more than two car lanes wide for a double track system. They can often be run through existing city streets and parks , or placed in

6525-401: The roads. Typically roadways have 1,900 passenger cars per lane per hour (pcplph). If only cars are allowed, the capacity will be less and will not increase when the traffic volume increases. When there is a bus driving on this route, the capacity of the lane will be higher and will increase when the traffic level increases. And because the capacity of a light rail system is higher than that of

6612-618: The same as the German term for the mode, Straßenbahn (meaning "street railway"). A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams after World War II except in Blackpool , eight major North American cities ( Toronto , Boston , Philadelphia , San Francisco , Pittsburgh , Newark , Cleveland , and New Orleans ) continued to operate large streetcar systems. When these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both

6699-408: The standard gauge is that standard railway maintenance equipment can be used on it, rather than custom-built machinery. Using standard gauges also allows light rail vehicles to be conveniently moved around using the same tracks as freight railways. Additionally, wider gauges (e.g. standard gauge) provide more floor clearance on low-floor trams that have constricted pedestrian areas at the wheels, which

6786-552: The streetcar began operation in January 2016, months later than anticipated because of delivery issues with the vehicle manufacturer. The tunnel has a total of 16 cross passages excavated in 2012 and 2013 using the Sequential Excavation Method to connect the two bores at regular intervals for use as emergency exits and maintenance access points. There is one vent for the tunnel, located at a lot adjacent to

6873-551: The system was a success with the public, gaining up to 190,000 passengers per day. Automatic train operation is employed on light rail networks, tracking the position and speed of a train and hence adjusting its movement for safety and efficiency. One line of light rail (requires 7.6 m, 25' right of way) has a theoretical capacity of up to 8 times more than one 3.7 m (12 foot) lane on a freeway, excluding busses, during peak times. Roads have ultimate capacity limits that can be determined by traffic engineering , and usually experience

6960-503: The trams, making it safe on city streets. Several systems in Europe and a few recently opened systems in North America use diesel -powered trains. When electric streetcars were introduced in the late 19th century, conduit current collection was one of the first ways of supplying power, but it proved to be much more expensive, complicated, and trouble-prone than overhead wires . When electric street railways became ubiquitous, conduit power

7047-460: The vast majority of light rail systems. This avoids the danger potentially presented by an electrified third rail . The Docklands Light Railway uses an inverted third rail for its electrical power, which allows the electrified rail to be covered and the power drawn from the underside. Trams in Bordeaux , France, use a special third-rail configuration where the power is only switched on beneath

7134-434: The widest range of latitude of any rail system in the design, engineering, and operating practices. The challenge in designing light rail systems is to realize the potential of LRT to provide fast, comfortable service while avoiding the tendency to overdesign that results in excessive capital costs beyond what is necessary to meet the public's needs. The BART railcar in the following chart is not generally considered to be

7221-459: Was coined in 1972 by the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA; the precursor to the Federal Transit Administration ) to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany, the term Stadtbahn (to be distinguished from S-Bahn , which stands for Stadtschnellbahn ) was used to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt

7308-486: Was excavated using three tunnel-boring machines in 2011 and 2012. Light rail service began on March 19, 2016. Construction of light rail was originally proposed in the 1996 Sound Move measure, with plans to open a line from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport to the University District in 2006. However, Sound Transit in the 1990s was plagued with continually escalating costs, include an agreement with

7395-677: Was introduced in North America in 1972 to describe this new concept of rail transportation. Prior to that time the abbreviation "LRT" was used for " Light Rapid Transit " and " Light Rail Rapid Transit ". The first of the new light rail systems in North America began operation in 1978 when the Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta , adopted the German Siemens-Duewag U2 system, followed three years later by Calgary, Alberta , and San Diego, California . The concept proved popular, with there now being numerous light rail systems in

7482-632: Was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. It initially drew current from the rails, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. The first interurban to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889. An early example of

7569-527: Was used in those cities that did not permit overhead wires. In Europe, it was used in London, Paris, Berlin, Marseille, Budapest, and Prague. In the United States, it was used in parts of New York City and Washington, D.C. Third rail technology was investigated for use on the Gold Coast of Australia for the G:link light rail, though power from overhead lines was ultimately utilized for that system. In

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