In the past, we’ve talked about various gadgetbahns and rubber-tire rail transit, but I thought it was a good idea to create a new video rounding up these technologies, talking about their benefits and, well, drawbacks. Enjoy!
Special thanks to Olivier Simard-Casanova (Cities 2100 writer), Luke Starkenburg, Julian Merle-R., and ronylouis for providing footage used in this video!
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Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.
27 Comments
This might be ridiculous to others but what's more ridiculous is a huge rubber tired car that could only transport with a maximum 6 people but 2 – 1 people carried most of the time that can only carry way lesser than a Van but consumes the same fuel of a loaded Van even it is empty.
Yes, I'm talking about SUV!
Worth mentioning that LIM systems (such as Vancouvers skytrain) don’t require traction of the wheels as the train is essentially being pulled a long and not driven by its wheels. This basically eliminates the issue of wheel slippage.
Columbia solution, steel cog rail tram would work better.
I think you missed the point. Tires allow for really short brake distances and acceleration thanks to the grip.
Also when leaves get on rails, it becomes a major issue for classic tramways regarding braking.
It is definitely possible to retread rubber tyres. Road hauliers do it all the time. There's no reason why it wouldn't be possible with people mover tyres, apart from potential greedy rightsholders wanting to sell new ones and not selling new treads.
There are both rubber tire and steel wheel MRT in the capital of my country . Although rubber tire is consider to be quieter and more smooth, I feel they just a little better than road bus.
11:55 why would you not get the ride and service quality of a tram? That makes no sense
Technically speaking many mountain cable cars are rubber tired.
But steel on steel is difficult to use when climbing steep mountains, although possible.
Grea5 video mate
I would say that in some cities noise would also really play into it. A good friend of mine lives in the hague in the Netherlands, and the trams are insanely loud and seeing as there's about 8 lines running acros the intersection right next to his house, i could imagine rubber tires would actually be quite nice…
10:11 Why wouldn't tires be able to be reprofiled? It still happens all the time in aviation. Mind you a single Boeing 787 tire does cost about €10000 so the savings are high by doing so. But back in the day it was also frequently done on cars and busses.
It's just a Bus that looks like a Tram. It's still a Bus. Most Buses are now low floor so how it a Tram.
Thank you
I had no idea that abominations such as Translohr existed before I saw this video. It feels like a good old trolleybus with extra steps (and worse).
Using these for Paris trams was a terrible mistake. I have riden them several times, and they are horribly overcrowded. Not a pleasant experience.
I think a regular tram 🚊 on steel wheels would have been better.
i really appreciated this trans lore
12:45 Actually when raining rubber tyres will suffer less loss in braking power compared to steel wheels, unless your tyres are slicks, which in the past would likely have meant that automating a train would've been easier if it used the former (unless its fully underground & thus the tracks won't be made slipperier by rain), though I guess improvements in propulsion/signalling technology would make this less of an issue for steel wheels now e.g. embedding sensors to detect if a track is more slippery due to rain, which would trigger trains to brake earlier & more gradually, & perhaps run at a higher top speed to make up for loss in time due to more gradual braking
4:57 I read that the rubber tyred-line on the Taipei Metro (Brown/Muzha line) was originally made by Matra, whose delivery was delayed/affected by technical problems, leading to former Taiwan/ROC President (& then mayor of Taipei?) Chen Shui-bian (陳/陈水扁) to famously say "瑪/玛特拉不拉,我们自己拉" ("(If) Matra doesn't pull it off, we'll pull it off ourselves")
Is the shot of the TTC streetcar at 6:52 a sumbliminal dig at "Bombardier's not-great moments"? LOL
Just put down Rails you car feens
In Switzerland we have IT
Trolley Bus
I predict that the suburban Translohr light rail lines in the suburbs of Paris France (T5 and T6 ) will in time have to be converted to steel wheel light rail lines. Ditto for all other Translohr light rail lines in the world.
We are getting them in Morocco too Casablanca city and Agadir city in 2023. Let’s see how it is going to turn out for us
I'm astonished at how much fantasy and egineering knowledge is being applied for single cause: not to use trolleybuses at any cost.
And then we have Van Hool's ExquiCity…. let's make a tram out of a bus!
One could also argue they are like rollercoasters, except that modern coasters use polyutherane wheels. But especially the sidewheels….
And what about the trolleybus?
Also, about wooden wheels, steel wheels and rubber wheels… There's a reason we ride on rubber wheels on bicycles in the Netherlands….
It's examplemary for how efficient they are, really. Especially when rarely anyone had an electric bicycle.
12:45 and that's why we throw salt on every bicycle path in the Netherlands if it snows. The question really is: if. Especially in the south.