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49 Comments
Where would you build a tram train system?
In logistics, robot hardware is quite easy to do. The hard part is mapping and obstacle avoidance in certain situations.
A light rail is a tram train
Great video and thank your for featuring our city and our system. Two sidenotes though: If you want to read more about it, the system is actually called the "Karlsruher Modell" and it's inspired many cities to look into similiar options with regard to their public railway solutions.
SECONDLY and more importantly: One of the main motivations for implementing this system was "umsteigefrei in die Region", meaning "getting into the region without changing lines". You just hop into a Stadtbahn (tramtrain) at a run-of-the-mill inner-city stop (while it is a tram), it leaves the city and becomes a train and half an hour later you hop out being in the centre of another city where it operates as just another tram without ever changing lines – this is one of the reasons this system became so popular.
I grew up close to the S4 approx. 20km from Karlsruhe and going to other cities and using public transport was so strange because there was tram and train which was basically the same for me 😄
The nearest station to Liverpool's airport is Liverpool South Parkway. It is 6-platofrms. But it is a over a mile from the airport, needing a bus to get to the airport. Tram-trains have been suggested to run from the station on roads to the airport. Also tram-train have been suggested to run out from the heavy rail Merseyrail network emerging from the disused Wapping tunnel (one of he oldest in the world, being the first tunnel under a metropolis) then run into the Docklands (old docks converted for commercial and residential use.
They can be of use to plug a gap. So far the tram-trains are only a suggestion. Tram-train are expensive.
It really makes me wonder if it would be feasible to jack the entire platform to accommodate each vehicle.
What a lucky city
In Melbourne, Australia they are not Tram Trains but are called Light Rail. The Biggest and most extensive Rail Network in the World.
I think it's kinda impressive that the system is so big, it once reached both the northern (used to go up to Bietigheim-Bissingen) and southern (Herrenberg) ends of the Stuttgart S-Bahn. I also really like the design of the trains.
you find similiar modells in the german cities kassel and chemnitz
In Kassel they have added tram trains to their normal tram system which can enter the mainline at the central station. They wanted to also operate on unelectrified mainline, so Alstom put an additional diesel engine in a few of those RegioTrams. A tram with a diesel engine. That is just cursed. But it works.
I live in Bath (where there's mutter of a tram system to help with the horrible traffic but I'm not holding my breath) but nearby in Bristol, I think tram trains could be really good because there are quite a few heavy rail lines in the area, but they aren't very frequent and there are still a lot of areas which aren't as well connected by rail
One example in Japan would be Fukui Railway trams running onto Echizen Railway tracks which are shared with trains
Kinda curious whether trams will take over trains though, similar to trams in Hiroshima taking over tracks in the suburban section
The light rail trams on route 96 and route 108 run on heavy rail lines in the suburbs of Albert Park, Middle Park and Port Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia.
I believe that has been the case since the 1980s.
The difference is that heavy trains no longer run on the train tracks.
Karlsruhe isnt a small City its one of the biggest in Baden Württemberg
While you're at it, take a look at what Hannover did.
The vehicles have high floors, so the train-station platforms are normal height. When they exit the "tunnel stations", then the stairs fold down, they become trams
Vienna has one interesting line (Wiener Lokalbahn – WLB, called Badener Bahn) that's not quite a tram train, but more like a regional tram, since it's not grade-separated in some places outside of the city. In the city it operates along with other trams.
I think there should be more of it to connect the city better to it's surroundings outside the city limits.
If you're covering less prominent German transit megaregions, is there a chance you might cover the Rhine-Ruhr-Wupper city region and its weird amalgamation of rail?
It truly does have (almost) everything – trams, Stadtbahn, several suspended monorails, S-Bahn, mainline regional (express) rail, and even trolleybuses! – and it all melds together, with the same networks serving different roles in different places. And yes, it includes some tram train action around Cologne!
It's also one of those regions where it's difficult to distinguish what counts as a "system" – the area of one particular light rail + tram network? Many of those are interconnected and through-run onto each other. One of the two fare systems? There's a border region where both apply, and the S-Bahn covers both in one network. Etc.
It also has multi-height platforms on some of the mixed Stadtbahn/tram systems. I'd be happy to provide more info!
Talking about trams, you have to do a video about the Gothenburg Tram system in Sweden. Beautiful city and great tram network which connects the entire city together great. The trams are iconic in Sweden and Scandinavia and are what most people think of when they hear Gothenburg
If you want to try this system out, now is the right time as transit in the entirety of Germany is only 9 euros a month atm excluding high speed rail ofc. Still it's a super great deal which I personally used to get to Munich, cologne, hamburg and even Karlsruhe.
I almost never use it since Karlsruhe has an amazing bike infrastructure.
finally my City🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
There’s something slightly similar to this in south jersey called the “River Line” it serves as a streetcar in Camden, and becomes a train as it travels north to Trenton. It’s not nearly as advanced as this but it’s pretty interesting
HEY THATS MTA LIGHTRAILLINK makes me feel like I'm going to BWI
As someone from cologne I have to say: Karlsruhe was not the first! Kinda
The German Stadtbahn had it's first Stadtbahn train line in the 1950s, operating on both the BOStrab (tram traffic rules) and EBO (mainline rail), though with only 1 electrification system (750/800V). The lines are used by both the Stadtbahn and freight train, but not mainline rail. Also, those shared tracks are not owned by DB, but HGK, the local freight operator
The cologne Stadtbahn also connects to Bonn (which has its own tram/Stadtbahn system) with two shared lines
build a tram train system on the OBRY is what I would do
Why not just use busses and have a dedicated HOV lane?
These tram trains aren't fast like metro. Seems pointless.
E
Cologne is quite interesting as it has tram-trains and an s-bahn
Hong Kong's Light Rails are kinda the worst of both worlds
I love Karlsruhe! Have visited many times, it's a great place. Really love the tram network there, easily my favorite in the world.
Trams are the best public transport system.
I live in Switzerland where narrow gauge trams are common and despite being a car guy I still like to take the tram from time to time.
I live in a medium sized French city that also has a tram train. There's a line that starts 3 minutes walking out from my home and brings me straight to the a series of villages up in the mountains where I can go for a walk in the forest, swim in a beautiful lake, enjoy traditional sites and architecture…
I boarded it today and it cost me exactly 3.00€ for a round-trip, with confortable seats and AC. What else can I ask from my city on a beautiful summer afternoon? I'm so grateful we have all this in Europe, and I'm sorry for North Americans that became enslaved to their car in the name of what they call "Freedom".
You should do a video on Naples Funiculars
Sheffield actually has a tram-train service: it takes the same route as the yellow until its penultimate stop then goes to Rotherham.
The Siemens-Duewag trams used don't meet TOPS specifications so Stadler Citylinks were purchased for this exact purpose.
I love the Karlsruhe Tram. Many years ago I actually found out that some tram cars had coffee shops in them for the morning commute. How amazing is that. A coffee shop in a tram;-)
There's also a Tram Train in Sheffield here in the UK
Karlsruhe is not small for a german city🥲
My experience with the Karlsruhe tram is not the best. I used it once travelling from Freiburg to Würzburg. I had to transfer in Karlsruhe and I thought, that the next train would be a normal train, but then it was a tram. Now, I had to ride the tram for 2 hours in the middle of the summer without AC. It was horrible.
RTD in Denver essentially has tram trains. It's cool to get picked up on the street and a few minutes later look over as you're cruising past highway traffic. They could do implementation a bit better, but that's a given. I don't think the tram trains share tracks with the regular train traffic, but the commuter rail in Denver does.
Until July 2019 one could travel with S5 from Karlsruhe to Bietigheim-Bissingen, and there change to… another S5, this time served by S-Bahn Stuttgart and reach Stuttgart's city center. It was decided to shorten S5 to Pforzheim and give the stretch to BB to conventional rail (more bike spaces, more toilets*, etc.)
* yeah, MORE. As many Karlsruhe Stadtbahn vehicles actually do have a toilet.
Around 8:12 you mention "I talked more about platform heights in my fundamentals video up here". Unfortunately, whatever you originally were pointing to is not there in my browser as of today's Youtube. I see your channel has a heap of videos categorized as "Fundamentals" though. Which one of these contains the platform heights info please?
my hometown of bremen, germany is currently extending one of its tram lines which is going to be running on some of the train network, so they actually had to order some new trams which are compliant with standards to run on that network, which might technically classify them as tram trains? interestingly though, the train line which the trams are going to use has been disused for a while so the trams can just operate normally like any other tram.
Remember the river line in Camden is also a tram train
There are actually more systems in Germany that operate like Karlsruhe.
1. Saarbrücken has the Saarbahn which operates between French Saaregemuines and German Lebach. Outside of Saarbrücken it runs like a local train with 15kV AC while running on 750 DC within the City.
2. Chemnitz has a similar system where Trams start at the main station, run through the city and then change onto the standard tracks.
3. Zwickau has a unique system where the opposite happens. The local trains from the Czech Republic run until the main station and then divert onto the tram tracks (which actually had to be modified due to different gauges) and runs for 2 more stops together with the tram until stopping at the central station.
The metro/tram/train system in Karlsruhe is one of the most amazing system in the whole world. Being there and taking a tram in the city street that directly take me to another city was amazing.
Can you do a train video of trains to waken in Germany for the waken heavy metal festival
As a German, Karlsruhe ist not a small city. Maybe in comparison to Paris or NYC, but it has several hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. A small town here has 10'000 to 50'000 inhabitants.
That said, the Karlsruhe system needs to be exported to more cities throughout the world, and, like you said, especially mid-sized cities (e.g. Lübeck/Luebeck) would benefit greatly from such a system that connects it to surrounding, smaller cities.