Light rail transit (LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit characterized by a combination of tram and rapid transit features. While its rolling stock is similar to that of a traditional tram, it operates at a higher capacity and speed and often on an exclusive right-of-way. In many cities, light rail transit systems more closely resemble, and are therefore indistinguishable from, traditional underground or at-grade subways and heavy-rail metros.
Brookville Equipment Corporation, based in Brookville, Pennsylvania, United States, manufactures railroad locomotives for industrial and light capacity switching needs. The company also builds and restores streetcars. The company used to be known as Brookville Locomotive Company.
A tram-train is a type of light rail vehicle that both meets the standards of a light rail system, and also national mainline standards. Tramcars are adapted to be capable of running on streets like an urban tramway but also be permitted operation alongside mainline trains. This allows services that can utilise both existing urban light rail systems and mainline railway networks and stations. It combines the urban accessibility of a tram or light rail with a mainline train's greater speed in the suburbs.
The Xochimilco Light Rail is a light rail line that serves the southern part of Mexico City. It connects to, but is not considered a part of, the Mexico City Metro. Rather, it is operated by the Servicio de Transportes Eléctricos (STE), the authority that operates Mexico City's electric trolleybus system and formerly operated the municipal electric tram system.
Ian Allan Publishing was an English publisher, established in 1942, which specialised in transport books. It was founded by Ian Allan.
The Portland Vintage Trolley was a heritage streetcar service in Portland, Oregon, United States, that operated from 1991 to 2014. It operated on a portion of the MAX light rail system, and for a brief time also operated on the Portland Streetcar system, in downtown and nearby areas. Service was provided with replicas of a type of Brill streetcar, nicknamed the "Council Crest" cars, which last served Portland in 1950. The service was managed by Vintage Trolley Inc., a non-profit corporation, and the cars were owned and operated by TriMet, Portland's transit agency. For 18 of its 23 years, the service followed a 2.3-mile (3.7 km) section of what is now the MAX Blue Line, between Lloyd Center and the west end of downtown. In September 2009, the route was changed to a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) section of the MAX system, along the transit mall in downtown Portland, from Union Station to Portland State University (PSU).
The Light Rail Transit Association (LRTA), formerly the Light Railway Transport League (LRTL), is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to advocate and encourage research into the retention and development of light rail and tramway/streetcar systems. The LRTA publishes the monthly magazine Tramways & Urban Transit, and is based in the United Kingdom but with an international membership and remit.
A medium-capacity system (MCS), also known as light rapid transit or light metro, is a rail transport system with a capacity greater than light rail, but less than typical heavy-rail rapid transit. MCS's trains are usually 1–4 cars. Most medium-capacity rail systems are automated or use light rail type vehicles.
Although tram systems date to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many old systems were closed during the mid-20th century because of the advent of automobile travel. This was especially the case in North America, but postwar reductions and shutdowns also occurred on British, French and other Western European urban rail networks. However, traditional tramway systems survived, and eventually even began to thrive from the late 20th century onward, some eventually operating as much as when they were first built over a century ago. Their numbers have been augmented by modern tramway or light rail systems in cities which had discarded this form of transport.
A rubber-tyred tram is a development of the guided bus in which a vehicle is guided by a fixed rail in the road surface and draws current from overhead electric wires.
The Metrotranvía Mendoza is a public light rail transport system for the city of Mendoza, Argentina, served by articulated light rail cars operating on newly relaid tracks in former-General San Martín Railway mainline right-of-way.
United Streetcar, LLC, was an American manufacturer of modern streetcars, located in the Clackamas area in the southeastern suburbs of Portland, Oregon, founded in 2005. It was the only U.S. company building modern streetcars—as distinct from light rail cars or new replicas of historic streetcars—until 2013, when Brookville received its first order for a modern streetcar, for the Dallas Streetcar.
Tramways & Urban Transit(TAUT or T&UT), also known as Modern Tramway, is a British monthly magazine about tramways and light rail transport, published continuously since 1938. Its content is orientated both to tramway enthusiasts and to persons working in the tram transport field or studying tramways. It has been issued monthly from the beginning. Although published in Britain, the magazine's coverage is international, and its regular "World News" column includes detailed news on electric trams and light rail worldwide.
The New Electric Railway Journal was a quarterly American magazine primarily about electric urban rail transit in North America, published from 1988 to 1998, with an international circulation. Its name was a tribute to a much earlier magazine with similar coverage, the Electric Railway Journal, established in 1884 and published until 1931.
The Cagliari light rail system, commercially known as Metrocagliari, is a two-line light rail system that serves the town of Cagliari and part of its metropolitan area, in Sardinia, Italy. The system was inaugurated in 2008 and has subsequently been expanded to two lines.
The TriMet transit system, serving the Portland metropolitan area in Oregon, owns and operates two different rail transit systems: a light rail system known as MAX, and a commuter rail system known as WES. The fleet of 145 MAX electric light rail vehicles (LRVs) includes five different models, designated by TriMet as "Type 1" through "Type 6". All types are used on all of the MAX lines, but the Type 6 cars – which will gradually replace the Type 1 cars – are still being delivered and have not yet begun to enter service. The comparatively very small WES fleet includes three different types of diesel commuter rail cars.
The Siemens SD660, originally known as the Siemens SD600, is a double-articulated, 70%-low-floor light rail vehicle (LRV) manufactured by Siemens Transportation Systems. It was the first low-floor light rail vehicle to be used in the United States. It first entered service in 1997 with its only operator, TriMet, on the MAX light rail system in Portland, Oregon, United States.
