The Modern Tram Has Gone Off the Rails.

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From the humble streetcar to sleek caterpillars winding through provincial French cities to metros in Toronto and Tel Aviv, trams have evolved into a very special transit mode. But has it all been good?
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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!
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.

[@RMTransit]

P.S.: Tel Aviv does have another service that runs on the Red Line to try and provide more service in the metro portion of the line - but this doesn’t fix the fundamental problem with the vehicles and dwell times!

[@YishaiBarr]

This doesn't fix the problem with the expected crowding once enough people are attracted to the line on a daily basis and not just to try it out. The prediction of overcrowding on day one was wrong, but that's just because people weren't actually used to using it yet.

[@AMPProf]

DO YOU REDDIT???

[@MrLukealbanese]

I worked on the Red line for 5 years. There's a lot to the story.

[@galashery7264]

TL;DR: tunnel well used most services run only in dedicated right of way, also there’s a flyover in the branch junction. The dumb thing is that everyone in city planning wanted a metro for decades but the state said the usual “not enough people to justify too expensive”, so they went with what they believed was a budget option despite the clear need for a metro. The tunnel is actually definitely not under used(the capacity can be increased if more trains are ordered tho). The red line has 3 service patterns. R1 is the longest going the full length of the line from Bat Yam to Petach Tikva CBS. R3 only runs in the dedicated right of way, it starts in the four platform station of Elifelet near Jaffa and ends in Kiryat Ariye near the depot with a national rail connection. R2 is an extension of R3 all the way to Bat Yam, and doesn’t operate all day, instead only during specific times and no more than two trains per hour. The overwhelming majority of services are R3. If you wait on the platform in a station on the main trunk two out of three services are R3. Actually the problem of the red line is not underutilization of the tunnel, but terrible frequency of the above ground section (and many more problems). The red line has also a flyover in its branch junction in petach tikva too increase capacity.

[@unconventionalideas5683]

Great video! But to those of us familiar with the less/fewer rule, it was a bit distracting. But the point still came through.

[@yonirapaport330]

the worst part about Tel Aviv's light rail: it originally was planned as a metro until the finance ministry decided that it was "too expensive" and pushed a switch to light rail. then, 10 years later that same ministry realized trams would not be enough to actually provide the capacity needed and brought a metro system back to the table after the tram lines were already being constructed. absolutely no foresight

[@bavelbenjamin]

And finally approved M2!

[@Fishmans]

Same in Sydney. Long term planning documents show the government wants to eventually build a metro to the east, duplicating the new light rail route.

[@YishaiBarr]

The Finance Ministry even bypassed the Transport Ministry for that decision. Normally, the Transport Ministry has to argue for years over funding this type of thing.

[@reezdog]

It's also on stolen Palestinian land. So yeah, lots to disagree on.

[@YishaiBarr]

@@reezdog The land was bought by the people who live there. You can't suddenly claim that you want it back.

[@MaidLucy]

My city actually has a corridor that has Busses almost every 50 seconds. This would be a perfect tram route, but we still have a lot of people who don't understand that the sheer amount of busses isn't cutting it anymore. On top of that, the university campus has a coverage of three routes that run every 5 minutes with articulated busses and all of them are still insanely crammed in the morning and evening hours where most students come and leave. Also a perfect route for a tram. We could easily 2x the capacity there. But not with busses.

[@LasseRamson]

certified Hamburg moment

[@s.a.m.9837]

Real

[@olivermeineke9707]

Isn't the new U5 subway built there? But of course the current status easyly has lastet 40 years too long.

[@rishi-m]

Haha, you might as well be talking about Quebec City here! Interesting parallels if you weren't, super fun coincidence if you were!

[@MaidLucy]

@@rishi-m I'm actually from Ratisbona (Regensburg) in Germany. Interesting to see that many other cities have similar transit problems! We are currently planning two entirely new tram routes with the Stadtbahn project. We have had really old streetcar style trams before but replaced them with busses in the 60s.

[@aliancemd]

You have to experience proper Tram infrastructure to appreciate it. Go to a city like Vienna - they have both metro and Tram, you take the Metro for further distances and the Tram for that “last mile” movement acceleration. Take a Tram like in Nice, France where they use it both on the surface(the edges of the city) and as a metro(inside the city) and you’ve got a very reusable, comfortable system that gets you closer to the spots you need

[@RMTransit]

I've used Vienna's system, its excellent

[@AlejandroRamirez-le2vv]

Berlin is a good example too

[@jacktattersall9457]

Sydney (NSW) does its trams (called light rail right). The L2 and L3 are a 'walking accelerator' on the pedestrianized George Street in the CBD that works well with the Sydney Trains heavy suburban rail that also runs between Central and Circular Quay but with fewer stops and is much faster but takes longer to get into the large underground or elevated station complexes.

[@vojtasTS29]

Vienna, Linz, Prague (and many other czech cities), most german Strassenbahn systems (not the Stadtbahn high floor ones), Budapest, Szeged etc. are just classic first generation tram systems. It's mostly just the english speaking world and France (that ripped out most of it's railway system as well) that were happy to get rid of them. Budapest's network moves the most people out of any tram network, period, even if Melbourne's is much bigger for example.

[@cotochris]

I find Budapest Tram system extremely efficient and well intergrated with the metro, bus and train systems. All very easy to use.

[@Rider9530]

Honestly, even though I knew since the beginning when they started building the tel aviv red line that it would be a mistake not to build it as a subway instead, it's still far better then what we had before, which was nothing. At least now I can use the terrible bus service less.

[@yoavcohen2218]

I haven't got to use it yet. But anything is better than nothing as you said.

[@Rider9530]

@@yoavcohen2218 It's honestly pretty great, although you can definitely tell that it's way better on the underground sections... the moment the train goes to the surface of the street it becomes slower and a lot more annoying, still better then a bus though. the underground section & stations are great, fast and come extremally frequently.

[@YishaiBarr]

Right now, it's only really good for people trying to get to and from Tel Aviv. Using it for short lengths on the street level isn't worth it due to how painfully slow it is.

[@pizzajona]

What do you think of Israel Railways? It seems like a good system from when I used it to get from Hod Hasharon to Tel Aviv and back when I went to the country to visit family.

[@Rider9530]

​@@pizzajona It's pretty good. obviously it's not high-speed rail but because Israel is so small it doesn't really matter. It does the job of connecting Gush Dan, Jerusalem, Be'er Sheva and Haifa pretty good. I do hope that one day it will connect the north and south of the country better and maybe one day even high-speed rail to Eilat (the only place in Israel that actually need high-speed rail), but I doubt that will ever happen. And I also hope they will add platform screen doors/gates to the stations, especially now that they show interest in doing it after that girl died in an accident because they didn't have Platform screen doors/gates.

[@meslud]

Here in Vienna, you can actually see the transition from old style trams to modern trams. It's the second largest tramway system in the world, and it's basically right in between metro and bus. There are 5 (soon 6) subway lines, 28 tram limes and I guess about 40-60 bus lines. You use the metro to get from one side of the city to another, then you get on the tram to go to the exact part you want, and most of the time you don't need to use a bus, unless you have a *very* specific goal with very few visitors. Cars never stopped having respect for trams here, and it's actually never trams that block car traffic, but it's always reported the other way round. They have a system in place where a misplaced car (wrongly parked) will be taken away in about 10 minutes, no matter where in the city - and of course, they have to pay. Sometimes you even here about trams just taking of side mirrors of cars, and I don't think the tram drivers or the public transport company ever get sued about this. We love our trams.

[@graemescobie1623]

Sorry to say, you better do some more research as it is far from the second longest network in the word. it is approximately 30Km short of the second place in the top 10 longest tramways.

[@uncinarynin]

One important aspect: Trams are perhaps the most visible form of public transport in cities. By this I mean that you only see the station entrances of an underground metro. Buses are seen here and there and you might run into a bus stop but it's not immediately clear where they are going, especially when you aren't from there. Tram tracks are always there, if you happen to run across them, just walk along the track for a bit and you'll reach a stop without even having to consult a map. With this level of visibility, tram lines and vehicles can also contribute a lot to the character and aesthetics of a city. Numerous French cities realized this and ordered specific designs of trams, also giving attention to a give the lines and stops a nice appearance. Compared to this, the trams in many places are covered in ugly advertisement wraps that sometimes even cover the windows and are mostly not a visual improvement. Existing tram systems often have mostly low level platforms (or even boarding from street level), which is why they usually get low floor rolling stock nowadays. When building a new system, low floor is typically chosen if you want to build stops in densely built areas where high platforms would be too intrusive (after all you also need steps or ramps to get onto the platform). Hannover is an example of a tram system that decided to go all high floor (earlier series of units had folding steps for boarding from high or low level but now all stops have high platforms and new rolling stock requires high platforms to board). But Hannover also doesn't have much of an "old town" to speak of, the way it's been destroyed in the second world war and rebuilt afterwards: Some houses look old but are actually just old facades stuck to 1950s houses.

[@muulsh5341]

in Lyon (France) they asked a group of 350 international street artists to make arts for the trams so you can regularly see new designs, I think it's pretty cool

[@rongpirson5250]

⁠@@muulsh5341in Melbourne we have a similar thing where the government asks some artists to create temporary new art for 8 trams every year

[@ArtyMars]

Melbourne’s Tram system in Australia is incredible - my favourite part of this city, they are on almost every street, they’re almost NEVER late and have predictable arrival times unlike busses, and they’re smooth to ride on, no corners or crazy bus drivers jumping curbs

[@ethanmccormick3271]

I love that I don't need to look up a timetable for the tram lines I use, I just turn up and there's one due in the next few minutes Melbourne would not be the same without it's tram network

[@theorangeoof926]

@@ethanmccormick3271Sir Robert and the 1956 Olympics are to thank for the tram network continuing to exist.

[@fredjones554]

Have a look at the film "on the beach." It was shot in Melbourne in the 50s. You can see some classic Melbourne outdoor shots including trams. Also an excellent movie.

[@bar10ml44]

It’s a pity that every window has been damaged and the overcrowding down St Kilda Road at peak is awful. One hiccup and the network is chaos.

[@mx338]

As a Berliner I don't really think there's an issue with the old style tram systems, the issue is cars, and over here banning cars from urban neighborhoods is a real ambition.

[@leonard.pw0792]

In Berlin? Kai Wegner sagt nein

[@friednatur2557]

Berliners are very yummy.

[@cooltwittertag]

lmao banning cars, tell that to the conservatives

[@szymex22]

Trams are great for running inside streets. I think that it’s best to run trams with a lot of interlining instead of the modern tram transfer system. Transfers should be only for those destinations that would not fill a tram going directly between them. Trams are also okay if you push them thought a high capacity corridor for part of their route, while they go on streets for the rest of it, since it allows many people to travel through that corridor directly. They are also good for running onto normal rail lines and connecting the suburbs (running further than the suburbs to other cities is bad though, these aren’t vehicles made to run those distances) However making what is a metro and using trams for it is just insanity

[@RMTransit]

I agree, the vehicles are not designed for metro style operations

[@alezar2035]

​@@RMTransithowever, as you mentioned in the video, this high level of interlining is not fit for a tram, and is more adequate for buses We should make an effort to deinterline tram networks to increase capacity

[@jacktattersall9457]

@@alezar2035 Not necessarily, if you have a section of dedicated right of way on the tramway, interline multiple routes on that section ensures that you may best use of the high-capacity section.

[@jonaseggen2230]

In cities with narrow streets like Oslo, it makes sense as you have designated lanes for public transport. Also in cities with a declining demographic, and unless cars and car use, insurance, and fuel is cheep and taxed low, the younger generations will have less money as there will be so many elderly that needs support. Thus they will use more public transport.

[@nikhilPUD01]

Trams looks more modern and futuristic transportation thing than other transportation.

[@maqueexxtv7241]

Could you talk about Manchester Metrolink? It would be really cool to hear your thoughts on the system as a whole.

[@RMTransit]

October!

[@gavinyu21]

Melbourne Australia has a fairly successful tram system because they make the CBD main streets mostly car-free. Trams and cycling are prioritised and most importantly, all rides in the CBD are free of charge. Without these changes, the tram is just a larger capacity bus that is slower and takes up more space.

[@francistaylor1822]

As another Melbnournite, agreed 100% though its obviously more complicated than that - Melbourne is much better for having them.

[@lzh4950]

One thing I noticed about some cities' pedestrianized streets (in Zurich too) is that they may still allow trams on them, which my country doesn't have, so when my country tried pedestrianizing 1 of our downtown streets, the buses that served it had to skip it & be diverted away, & the problem with that was that it turned the street into a transport dead zone (other than by walking)

[@spidy278-nm7tu]

The world's most locked down city also has the lowest CBD office occupancy levels in Australia (56%).

[@mathewferstl7042]

@@spidy278-nm7tu doesn't have anything to do with the discussion or the city itself (it's a MP issue, not a city issue)

[@Mark_Ganopolsky]

The Red Line in Tel Aviv consists of 3 operational lines. One of which, “R3”, operates only at the underground section, between a station with 4 platforms, and a station at the depot, which is located on a separate short branch. It allows the underground segment to reach a higher frequency than on street level.

[@YishaiBarr]

Problem is that the smaller length might be a problem in the near future once it attracts enough people.

[@RMTransit]

Yes but that doesn't fix the problem - the max headway and capacity utilization even with R3 is much lower than the same tunnels could see if the service used metro vehicles.

[@xouxoful]

Well I guess there are tons of tunnels in the world without a 90s headway. Does it mean one shouldn’t build tunnels ?

[@YishaiBarr]

@@xouxoful It means if one builds tunnels, they should use it for the appropriate system that can utilise it to the maximum extent possible.

[@darkigg]

Unfortunately, the frequency of r3 is not as high as it could be right now. As a matter of fact, the whole system has yet to reach its untended frequency according to what I understood. Although the main problem with r3 is that it's the shortest and least useful line.

[@itayalush4831]

Hi there, Tel Avivian and long time channel viewer here. First of all, when I saw you made a video covering my city it made me super happy and I'd like to thank you for that. Anyway It's important to note a few things about the new red line: 1. You said the capacity of the underground segment is limited by the overground tail ends, but this issue is somewhat mitigated by the fact that 3 lines are operating on the same track (R1 across the entire line, R2 across the same line but terminating at a different place, and most importantly R3, which starts at the southernmost end of the underground part, and terminates overground). The combination of all these operating simultaneously leads to increased frequency on the often busier underground part, while still appeasing the politicians that wanted overground light rail. 2. The reason for using light rail instead of a metro is extremely complicated, starting in the 1970's with former PM Golda Meir, stopping along the way at underfunding, car-centric planning, and the ever present threat of terrorism in underground stations, all leading to a complicated bureaucratic mess that birthed the red line we have today. Building something like this in Israel is far more complicated than north america, and while I agree with you that it could've been a lot better, given how low transit is on the government's priorities list, I and many others are glad to get three half baked semi-metro semi-tram lines instead of another 50 years of empty promises. 3. Transit is viewed very weirdly in Israel. Taking the bus is considered a lower-class thing by older generations, but people like my mother, whom I haven't seen ride the bus in my entire lifetime, and has declined it as an option every time I brought it up, is actually fine with taking the tram everywhere so that's always good. The same can be said for Israeli Railways. Even when the bus is faster, people just take the train, they view it more positively. 4. The video clips you showed are all from the first day when the system made it's debut, and the amount of people there doesn't reflect the reality on the line currently Anyhow thanks for covering Tel Aviv! Come visit sometime, it's super walkable, has great micro-mobility, and now light rail!

[@YishaiBarr]

The issue was also the Dan and Egged Duopoly that prevented railway development.

[@RMTransit]

The max service frequency still means the tunnels can't handle as much service as would otherwise be possible. The surface sections incentivized the use of low floor trains - but those same trains are inefficient for the tunnel and thus limit frequency and capacity.

[@muhilan8540]

The 3rd point is the same in the US outside of the big cites in the northeast, it's much less true in Canadian cities however.

[@mazalart]

I’m from Jerusalem. My children are aged 29-38, so their associations with buses have nothing to do with social class, but rather with terror attacks. My oldest always feels nauseous on a bus - it brings back horrible things that he witnessed.

[@RandomPerson-ln6yp]

From my experience living in Israel for some time, the busses were fabulous in terms of just the sheer quantity. But the Israel Railways is sooo good to get from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and back

[@larkinjun]

I'm on holiday in Lisbon atm and finally get the distinction between a legacy tram network and a MET as you describe in the video (with the exception of one line that has always had a tramway, and is the only one with modern trams as well). Also, the buses here (ran by the same company that runs the trams) are really well planned as a network. Im an urban planner but not a transport specialist, so I love your videos because they literally change how i experience the places i visit! Thanks!

[@zionosphere]

Reece, thank you for breaking down these modes into the fundamentals. This is definitely a good follow-up to the metro video you recently did. I don't know if you planned this with a series in mind, but you definitely should keep it up.

[@RMTransit]

I did not plan them to fit together but this is a good point!

[@cb7560]

Good video. I used to live in Karlsruhe and now live in Melbourne - two of the best cities in the world for trams. The thing people forget about Melbourne is that not only is the system one of the (or the) biggest in the world, but it is also one of the few systems outside Europe that has been operating right through the past century, as the trams were never replaced by buses (as in Sydney and Brisbane). Combined with the suburban train network, it is a brilliant system.

[@mikevale3620]

I have to add as a fellow Melburnian that as younger people increasingly choose not to buy cars or get licenses, that the extensive Melbourne tram and train system is growing even more popular as the population ages.

[@lzh4950]

I also noted that unlike in many other places, Melbourne & Japan's trams are still relatively short (~12-24m per trainset)

[@marcdefaoite]

Reece, your enthusiasm and passion is a gift that keeps on giving. It's so nice to see someone so clearly enjoying themselves so much at what they do. Keep up the good work.

[@RMTransit]

Thanks, this means more than you know

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

@@RMTransit the concluding lines of this video were solid; good faith criticism in the name of trying to get better transit, so we can have more transit.

[@NomisTowns]

In my hometown of Bergen in Norway we have a system that it seems no one can agree upon whether it is tram or light rail (I would call it light rail myself). There is currently 2 lines and a 3rd line is planned, but the political parties cannot agree if it should run in front of the old town or in tunnels inside the mountain. Like many European cities we had a tram system at the end of the 1800s that got thrown out in the 1960s because "buses are the future".

[@Vanadium]

Sounds like the system he mentioned from Germany Karlsruhe. This is System runs on train tracks. You can enter the car by a high train station and just from street level because of the build in stairs. Some of those lines connect cities that are 100km far away from each other. The network is 660km in total but now got down to 500. Some segments are underground. Multiple big cities are connect and some of the lines actually use sprinter systems to function as a fast express train. It can and will run 100km/h

[@NomisTowns]

Yeah I guess it has some similarities. It doesn't run on train tracks but probably could if they were connected and it's quite a bit shorter of a network. It does feel more like a train in some parts as it runs either completely separate from the road or on separated medians outside the city centre. And it does reach 100km/h I am pretty sure, at least inside a 3km long tunnel on the new line 2.

[@n.bastians8633]

Dedicated RoW and even greentrack were common features even during the first streetcar era, and they still exist in many surviving systems. What's different about modern French tramways is that they follow guidelines which prefer these features along the entire RoW (partly for aesthetic reasons), instead of applying them selectively and only as needed, as in older systems.

[@eddieredmann3]

I was gonna say! The oldest operating streetcar line in the world has been on a greenway pretty much since its inception!

[@markclemens3409]

Tramways in French cities such as Dijon, Montpellier and Grenoble contribute to an incredible degree to the quality of life by reducing road congestion, providing another transportation option and giving each city a distinctive transport livery. On a trip to France in 2021, I found trams ranged mostly from full to crammed. The network is expanding in many places including Rennes, Toulouse and Lyon. . One further advantage of trams I haven't seen mentioned in these threads is that they're an attractive transit mode for people inclined to claustrophobia who avoid metro systems.

[@bojoskydive]

The low floor design purpose is not for esthetic reasons but for mobility inclusion. Think about the following categories of travelers: wheelchair users, people using crutches, old people, parents with strollers.

[@BaryLevi]

The planned Tel Aviv metro is unfortunately also going to be incredibly problematic. It's going to be a fully underground system spanning 150 kilometers in what resembles more of a suburban rail formation than a metro. Sort of like the Ile-de-France RER but tunneled the entire way. The main branch is going to be running parallel to the existing suburban and intercity rail system with stations outside the Tel Aviv city center thus having the same problems as the rail system, and many sections that could be overground such as parts of M3 and parts of M1 are not. The only line that really makes sense is M2 which goes into the city center and is fully under dense urban areas. Really the problem with the suburban rail (and generally with rail stations in Israel) is that they are outside city centers. But I think they can be upgraded easily to an every-10-minute service (with the main bottleneck being Tel Aviv only having 3 rails, easily solvable by removing car lanes from the adjacent highway), and the extra money used to build M1 and M3 could have gone to building better links to existing suburban rail stations and generally making the areas around rail stations more dense and walkable. Some suburban rail stations such as Rosh Haayin are simply in the middle of a highway interchange with almost no transit access to the actual city.

[@YishaiBarr]

The issue with the Israel Railways railways is that they aren't segregated enough for high frequencies even in the rare instances where the stations are well placed.

[@silverkobo]

adding to your comment, the money could be spent on street level cheap trams to replace the huge bus fleet we use in Tel Aviv area, thus providing a great last mile solution and making transit more comfortable to ride

[@YishaiBarr]

@@silverkobo That's not a good option. The infrastructural work to make something that won't solve the traffic problem whatsoever is not worth it.

[@ThermoMan]

Reece. Great video. One of your best I think. Your script is on point and well delivered and illustrated. Thank you for raising the issue that low floor trams have big problems and are not a panacea

[@RMTransit]

I appreciate that!

[@rachelcarre9468]

I love your videos and the have informed me so much. I appreciate also how much your presentation style has matured and the confidence you have discovered.

[@lewis7315]

San Diego has an absolutely awesome light rail/streetcar transit system. Has had one since the 1980s. This system actually breaks even financially, costs the taxpayers very little to operate. The monthly pass is about $70. My retired pass is $24 a month. The bus system which is very average, connects to this multi route streetcar system. You should do a video on our system. We even give our old used quality German-made streetcars to a South American city system to be used by them for another 20 years.

[@markhemsworth2670]

Fantastic background. I haven't thought through the simple but obvious logistics of # of ppl x frequency, and how the station sizes directly correlate. Thanks!

[@AL5520]

For the Tel Aviv light rail. The system was planned in 1995 and after many delays (some due to the 2008 crisis) construction started in 2015 with direct government funding (after the BOT bid winner could not raise the necessary fund after 4 years if extensions). Construction started in 2015, cost was $4.9B. The line is 24 km (~15 mi), half is underground. The main section is 22 km (13.7 mi) with a short branch with 2 stations of 2 km (1.2 mi). The two at grade sections are in locations that requires lower capacity but once the line is fully functional as it opened a month ago already moved 130,000 people a day, which is less than the 235,000 expected as it was the first month, during the summer vacation and the Jewish New Year. As every new line it does not work at full capacity so max frequency is every 6 minutes. Once the system stabilizes and the train will get full priority at intersections max frequency will be every 3 minutes. The line is actually divided into 3 sub lines. The R1 runs from end to end of the main section, R2 (currently not operational) will go from the Bat Yam end to the branch and the the R3 start at the branch, which is the depot and ends at the last underground station which has 2 island platforms with 4 tracks so it can feed more trains to the underground section and increase frequency to the maximum of a train every 90 seconds. All trains in the underground section are switched to automatic. The brand last station is actually inside the depot and connected directly to the adjacent suburban railway station (with more services in the near future). BTW, apart from the platform screen doors the underground station are fully air conditioned (with the exception of the last one as it is open as it's just before the line goes back to street level). Two more light rail lines are under construction (set to open in 2027/28). The mentioned metro system is not under study but in last approval stages. Construction is planned to start in 2025 (but there will probably be some delays). The system consists of 3 fully grade separated, mostly underground, lines with 109 station and 150 km (~93 mi) in length. The estimated cost is ~$40B but will probably cost more. Tel Aviv is also served by Israel Railway with 4 stations ruining through the main CBD and with many expansions under construction and planned expansions up to 2040. The network in in the last stages of electrification and an upgrade of the control system from PZB to ETCS level 2.

[@jetro8623]

Nice video once again! If you are ever planning to do another video of transit in Helsinki, Finland, I'd be more to happy to film you video material for it. Helsinki has some really cool and ambitious tram projects being built at the moment, which includes the longest bridge in Finland. Better yet the bridge is only for trams and bikes/pedestrians and not for cars. Keep up the good work and content. Cheers from a finnish tram driver!

[@XGD5layer]

To add, the first light rail line has finished construction and will open in 4 weeks. Other projects include the mentioned longest tramway bridge that's currently under construction.

[@youmightnotknowme9861]

"Manufacturers don't build high Floor trains anymore" Ha! Just Look at the new City trains for Stuttgart from Stadler or the new city-trains for Dortmund, Düsseldorf and Hannover. They look really nice and the Stuttgart City-trains have the most comfortable seats EVER. No need going low-floor just for the sake of being low-floor, if your enitre system is optimised for high-floor

[@jan-lukas]

Cologne as well, there are new high-floor LRVs here since 2020 I think, there will also be new low-floor ones in the next few years (probably 2025) and then again high-floor in 2027/2028 I think. Also the trains are getting longer with every order right now, it was 60m trams for a very long time now, but there's now plans for 70m in 2027/2028 (limited by the delivery of new trains) and 90m ones hopefully before the end of this decade (which is limited by the station expansion, not the new trains)

[@youmightnotknowme9861]

@@jan-lukas Very cool, this Just prooves reece's and our Points even more

[@RMTransit]

Its a thing I have heard!

[@kozmaz87]

Budapest has one of the best tram networks in my humble opinion. In the inner city there is always a tram somewhere nearby and it takes you almost anywhere within the Hungaria Circular.

[@patrickhundley1203]

This was a great video, very informative. I’m sure they’re more work, but I really enjoy your videos that discuss a broader topic(compared to videos talking about individual systems) like these!

[@andrewbest5854]

Thanks Reece for another high quality video. I like how you plunge into the details. The footage of the various tram systems from around the world is a great adjunct to the discussion and analysis. Having just spent 6 weeks in Japan, it seems to me that cities like Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kumamoto are of a size and density where at least one metro line would be justified. Trams are fun from the tourist point of view in that you get to see the streetscape, but are fundamentally less efficient having to compete with vehicles on the road and traffic signals. Also for lugging a suitcase around, the level entry and larger interiors to subways is appreciated. The subways and trains almost always seem to be on time to within a minute, whereas the trams and especially buses are much more unpredictable.

[@JBS319]

This is important for MTA to take into account, as the Interborough Express project, currently set to be a light rail line due to a short section of street running to avoid building a new tunnel, would be much better off as a city train than a MET. Especially as this is supposed to be an orbital line connecting numerous other transit lines, the massive capacity constraints brought by low floor vehicles would be a major drag. A three car train of S200s would do much better in this regard than a three car train of S70s. Using city trains would also allow the MTA to use some of the same interior specifications they use for the subway. And the Brooklyn Army Terminal already has a high level platform. Unfortunately, so far, the renderings show low-floor vehicles, but with study and public hearings, that could possibly change, especially as Buffalo's fleet is getting up there in age, and having a joint order of trains with MTA would bring NFTA's costs down significantly. And if there's one thing we know about state politics in New York, it's much easier to get things done downstate by also throwing a bone upstate.

[@97nelsn]

Also take in account that the current governor of NY, Kathy Hocul, is from Buffalo (which is rare politically) and has given The Bills a new stadium so that might be why she’s considering the IBX as a light rail project so that Buffalo’s light rail gets the same equipment the IBX will use. If Cuomo was in charge, he would’ve pushed for a subway IBX in the same way he pushed for the LGA AirTrain & renaming the Tappan Zee into the Mario Cuomo Bridge.

[@97nelsn]

Also, I still believe a light rail IBX is a bad idea since it will be at capacity in the first day. Would’ve been better if ran with the trains used on the JFK AirTrain instead of light rail, although there would be parts of the city where light rail would make sense (such as a route between St. John’s University to LIC via a redesigned Queens Boulevard, a Greenpoint to Astoria route with provisions to expand deeper into Brooklyn, and a rebuilt Myrtle Ave Elevated to street level line to connect Downtown Brooklyn with the J & M line in Bushwick).

[@RMTransit]

I agree of course but, I imagine the aesthetics are a more important consideration here than they probably should be. Especially because most of the line is not on street!

[@spartan117zm]

@@97nelsnCuomo had his faults but at least he recognized the needs of NYC. Honestly the city should just split into a city-state at this point. There’s so many things NYC needs that get blocked by random state senators from the up state region that it really doesn’t benefit the city very much to remain tied to the rest of the state.

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

Worth noting the Siemens S70 is no longer in production and instead it's superceded by the S700, which has a WAY better middle section for capacity.

[@dozyproductionss]

In Warsaw trams make a lot of sense because most of our trams don't interact much with traffic beyond obeying street lights. A lot of the bus lanes here just create way more traffic during rush hour.

[@gunbuster363]

I just stumbled into this channel and I could tell it is a magnificent channel

[@gregessex1851]

Good video as always. When you look at any transit, you have to step back and understand the Urban Planning of the city. Taking Sydney for example, for years most investment has been in high capacity radial heavy railway which has resulted in the unintended consequence of people taking very long trips to work yet having to rely on cars for everything else. Sydney is now being planned around three “cities” with other “sub cities” (for want of a better word). The idea is to develop metros and light rail centred on these nodes rather than the traditional CBD which is far from “Central”. People often criticise current projects as not making sense, but when you overlay them on the big plan, they do. That goes as well for the decision to use trams and/or metros rather than high capacity heavy rail.

[@un_tizio_a_caso2701]

In Turin there are still old trams in service in the central routes, but they are being replaced by newer veicles. Fortunately the ATTS will preserve two of them (with many other historical veicles). The system is old, and went through many shrinking in the 70's and 80's, but now they are slowly tring to expand it again. There were also a couple of tram-trains like routes but those were removed in the 50's. One used to go to Rivoli and the longer one to Saluzzo. Nowdays there's only a little remaining knowledge about these suburban lines.

[@RMTransit]

Some of the new Hitachi trams being deployed in Italy look interesting

[@marcomontella6006]

In Turin there is the project to use the dismissed city rail tunnel and trench to Caselle (a new rail tunnel connected with Turin's Passante Ferroviario, the city main rail tunnel) as a new tram route. I saw the project which is very interesting, but also very expensive, as there are new tunnel sections to build and even underground stations. To have stops with low floor platform for trams. I'm wondering if making a metro or metro like line isn't better.

[@m4rch84]

most of the network is legacy and slow. The norther part of line 4 for long even though on own tramway, that is shared with busses, taxis and other public administration cars (police for example). Having the line dedicated, eventually with grass and better traffic light synchronization would decrease traveling time. I used to live in Turin and i always had the impression they could be improved a lot. On the south part, I don't understand why the line was build with one track in the opposite way instead of placing the tracks in the middle and leaving cars on the 2 sides. It would be much faster and with less interference with cars traffic imho.

[@Noam-Bahar]

Didn't expect you to talk about the Tel Aviv red line! I haven't used it much, apart from one time I took a ride for fun from the city center to Jaffa, and I have similar thoughts to your points. In my opinion - it's way overdue, it's about time we have it, and it's better than nothing.

[@JagoHazzard]

Thanks for the shout-out!

[@fresagrus4490]

This video answered a few questions I always had. Thank you

[@bartdekoning6047]

This is an interesting video because it is relevant to my city. I think the "modern tramway" is just a standard evolution of tram networks. In my city of roughly 500k, they started working on the tram system in 1863 and started passenger operations in 1864. It can't really get more historic than that in the world of trams, it truly is a classic tram city. Over that time it has always been an extensive network and always in operation by HTM. The network has also always been the backbone of the transit network, with the city and regional buses, that were introduced in the 1920s, always playing a secondary role. The buses always served the less busy commuter corridors in the city and provided crosslinks to the tram system that served the busier main corridors. The buses also served the more sparsely populated areas around the city. But in some ways, the tram system is truly a historic network, as it goes crisscross through the city on a fairly large number of lines. But realistically it just acts as a high-capacity and extremely reliable city and regionwide BRT system. They now also introduced regional light BRT lines, but the quality of the bus network in general is already very high, so it is basically the same as the other bus lines, so more just branding. The system has been a bit lucky that they picked 1435mm standard gauge in 1863, which put it on the right track for modernization over a century later. Initially, it was a network with a lot of street running, but they later realized that running on separate tracks was beneficial, so that became the standard. I think it was the first city to implement grassy tram tracks at a large scale and kept it to this day. These days, by far most of the network is on separate tracks and nearly each stop has shelter and platform (no boarding from a curb or even worse, the street) after many decades of upgrades. The network is always being improved a bit, to improve the average speed and reliability, which is where separated tracks help (besides limiting intersections and always having priority there). Especially in the last 2 decades, they have worked hard to switch the remaining sections where possible and needed to separate tracks and limit the intersections to increase average speeds and reliability. At the same time, they made sure that all these lines could function with bidirectional, wider trams (2.65m), and longer trams (up to 40 meters). And of course, the stops were always improved, with all stations being accessible and having universal level boarding and all stops having shelter and next-arrival screens. Some lines were even made to accept 80-meter-long trams in the future (or 2 coupled trams to make an 80-meter combination). Part of the retrofits is preparation to switch the system to 750 volts from 600 volts. Those retrofits, mean the system is being made ready to accept modern trams line by line. 10 out of 13 tramlines have already been retrofitted to the standards described above. Of those only 1 line really has a considerable street running part, but looking at the total route length, it is only around 10% of the length. The last 3 lines have the most street running and are thus most difficult to retrofit. That is why they came last and still use the old trams. Currently, one line is clearly the worst offender with around a third of the route length being on mixed traffic. The other lines are more like 10% to 15%. They will try to improve the situation on these lines, but for most parts, it will be physically impossible to fit dedicated tracks or easily reroute it. So they are looking at just improving the situation there or just removing car traffic completely from those streets. The retrofits are clearly a switch from old trams to modern trams. Since WWII they only used PCCs and since the 80s they have only used articulated trams which were 30 meters long, but they were high-floor and narrow and could only use 600 volt DC. Those are still used and have received quite some retrofits to keep them relevant, the oldest started being retired in the early 2010s, and they should be retired within a few years. Since the mid-2000s they have only ordered modern low-floor trams. They are all quite similar, so low-floor, bidirectional, over 35 meters long, 2.65m wide on standard gauge, can run on 750 volt DC, a maximum speed of 80km/h, and 2 double doors on either side. And some other things you can expect of a modern tram, like air conditioning and regenerative braking. But the trams differ in quite some key ways compared to the trams mostly used on modern tramways as seen in France currently. They use relatively long carriages and each car has at least 1 or 2 double-axle bogies. All bogies are double-axled and can rotate. So there are no fixed bogies or floating carriages on the HTM system. The old articulated trams used double-axle bogies at either end, and 2 jacobs bogies to connect the 3 parts together. The first modern trams were the Alstom Regiocitadis of which 72 were ordered in the mid-2000s. These were 37 meters long and consisted of 3 parts, the first and last part had a powered rotating bogie, and the middle section had 2 unpowered rotating bogies. The new modern trams ordered that should replace the last remaining old articulated trams have the same design. These are the Stadler TINA trams of which they ordered 100. And lastly, in the mid-2010s they ordered their second batch of modern trams. These were the shortest at 35 meters and consisted of 4 parts. Each part has a single rotating bogie, of which 3 were powered, and one of the middle ones wasn't powered. Currently, there are around 200 trams of which 142 are modern and 60 are old, within a few years it should be 242 modern trams. These days the network has 13 tramlines with 336 kilometers of track (single) and a total route length of 222km (both ways). The system has a punctuality of around 95% and the share of canceled trips sits at roughly 0.8%. It saw around 90 million unique paid passenger journeys (data based on smart transit card check-ins and check-outs) before the pandemic. The total costs were €0,52 per passenger kilometers traveled, and for that, it needed €0,19 (36%) of subsidies per passenger kilometers traveled. The average speed of the 13 lines on the network is around 25 km/h including stops. The trams run on renewable energy, so they run without direct CO2 emissions. The number of lines will likely expand in the future as they are considering starting up a line again partially using tracks that weren't actively used by a line anymore. And they are working on a new tram corridor that should split into 2 branches to 2 different places next to The Hague, which will also be served by new lines. They are also actively working on or studying extending some lines. The greatest bottlenecks are currently the city center tunnel and the 2 elevated sections of tram tracks near the city centers. They want to create more such parts and extend the existing ones and increase the capacity on those lines, also by changing the control system. Possibly also moving some lines to ground level again like some lines already are. Currently, the limited capacity of that bottleneck is preventing them from introducing 5-minute headways on some of the lines going through there. But in general, they moved away from peak frequencies to higher all-day frequencies. The lowest headway on the network is 20 minutes (on most lines it is 15 minutes) and the system runs every day from 5 to 6 AM until 12PM to 1AM. Daytime frequency generally ranges from 7.5 minutes to 12 minutes. Before the pandemic, the minimum frequency was 15 minutes. But they introduced 20-minute headways on a few less busy lines during the least busy hours (e.g. Sunday morning and evening). They also had 5-minute headways on busy lines during peaks, which haven't returned yet in favor of higher all-day frequency and then the pandemic came. But they likely move away from peak times anyway, as off-peak hours and weekends have gotten busier and peak times less busy. Hopefully, it is temporary, and that there will be enough money, staff, and demand to bring back daytime 5-minute headways and get that maximum headway back down to 15 minutes. One exception to this is one line that runs every 20 minutes all day every day after and before the pandemic. That line is not fully finished yet and thus demand is very limited, it should get its extension from a large Intercity station to a large university campus sometime next year (after years of delays). In short, it is a historic tram network and is still mostly designed as a legacy tram network. But it has modernized and consists of the characteristics you can expect of the "Modern European Tramway" due to a network that has always "naturally" evolved bit by bit over 160 years of being in continuous operations. And through that, it has kept up with the times and been able to provide a modern and quality service. But you can still see that the foundations of the system are what makes it a legacy system. And a network like that can be the backbone of a medium-sized city just fine. The Hague could have been able to get a metro if politicians pushed for it just after WW2, like Rotterdam and Amsterdam, and there were plans. But those were never pushed through and all that eventually came were parts of a pre-metro-like concept. They never tried to create a metro network or do as if it should function like one. So instead of that, they fully focused on the tram network. Only one metro line serves the city from Rotterdam, but you covered that in a video already. It is also covered by an extremely good train network with plenty of train stations in the region and an extremely frequent InterCity and stoppage service strains going to anywhere in the country.

[@etbadaboum]

Quality comment. Thank you.

[@markdickson3820]

I would love his thoughts on Manchester network. I don’t live there but I’ve always thought it was/is a strange choice for a city of 2 million to use . They wanted a real metro but were turned down repeatedly and have ended up with an elaborate tram system. I live somewhere else in uk and have always thought Manchester got screwed, it’s a city that should get more attention and be pulling/contributing more weight (& adding to economy) within the country but for that it needs a real multi modal transit system. That’s to say nothing of Liverpool being close as well as Leeds not far, so it could all be integrated for a region wide system. That said, people seem to like the tram system so perhaps I’m wrong - I’d like to hear an opinion from someone who follows this more closely.

[@jan-lukas]

Metrolink also uses stupidly short trains, like if you build light rail maybe use trains that are longer than 30m? Here in Cologne (1 Million inhabitants) the same trains were used before Manchester bought theirs and they're always used in a coupled 60m configuration with one branch line as an exception.

[@RMTransit]

Video coming soon

[@theblah12]

TfGM still has long term ambitions for a underground tunnel for Metrolink in the city centre, either as a replacement for the existing core section or as part of an entirely new tram-train line. Whether that will ever happen is up to debate.

[@Mark-gt5uu]

​@@jan-lukas Manchester's trams can couple up to form a double unit, which they do on busier routes. 60m is not bad for most of the lines

[@mattreads1]

I travel daily from one end of the system to the other for uni and I think there are way fewer doubles than there need to be for the insane demand there is for the service. That said I'm quite hopeful about the Bee Network and Andy Burnham's ambitions for transport in the region.

[@acanadianethan]

St. Louisian Here, thanks for featuring our bus in the "Outmoded" part (despite like 2 seconds and then never seen again), it's rare St Louis ever gets mentioned in Transit and when it did it was for a very short time about our Light Rail System. I'd love to see a video on STL Metro someday if possible!

[@jasonpike9626]

We have trams in Gdansk. They work very well, and do not get stuck in traffic, (unlike buses, which do). Most the tram lines run down the middle of a road, but if they do, it's often a dual carriageway and there's a traffic island in the middle of the road that serves to house the tram stop and provide a halfway house for pedestrians crossing the road at a 2-stage zebra crossing.

[@lance-biggums]

Edmonton did the exact same thing as Calgary for its new lines and rolling stock. We had a fairly good thing going with our high-floor Stadtbahn/city rail type LRT, even better than Calgary's because the city centre was all tunneled instead of on-street. Now we're switching to lower-capacity, slower low-floor vehicles to run essentially a suburban rail service.

[@RMTransit]

Its bad, not going to make transit a more competitive option

[@Fan652w]

Thank you Reece from Roger Sexton for a very well presented video. Here in Europe converting our busiest bus routes to trams makes perfect sense; especially on environmental grounds, not to mention the chronic shortage of bus drivers. However you assert 'Aesthetics shouldn't drive such important decisions.' The fact is that in Europe trams are often opposed because of the 'ugly wires' - happily batteries are solving that problem. But inserting HIGH platforms in the street environment (as in Manchester and some western German cities) generates opposition both on aesthetic and practical grounds. (High tram platforms create obstructions for pedestrians.)

[@MarioFanGamer659]

To be fair, if they're on exclusive tracks then the high platforms won't make much of a difference (as they should).

[@transitspace4366]

Quebec city tramway project faces many complaints because of its overhead wires, ironically in Europe, I’ve never heard any! They’re part of the urban landscape there so I guess Europeans just don’t notice them anymore. APS sections were mainly built to preserve some important monuments, and they’re still very uncommon.

[@Fan652w]

@@transitspace4366 You are certainly right when you say that Europeans generally regard overhead wires as 'part of the urban landscape'. An extreme example of this is the centre of Berne (Switzerland), which is a UNESCO world heritage site which I often visit as a (British) tourist. The beautiful medieval city centre, undamaged by wars, has both tram and trolleybus wires! However, note that APS is very expensive. Second generation tramways now often use batteries to negotiate 'monument' areas. Nice (France) started this trend in 2007 and other cities have are following, including Birmingham (England).

[@RMTransit]

@@transitspace4366 there have def been complaints in Europe, just less well publicized haha

[@drakewauters2109]

Well done!!

[@patrickfiedler9261]

Thank you for your modern Video i found it today morning

[@AaronSmith-sx4ez]

Yeah...in many cities trams are billed as a low cost alternative metro trains, but most planners don't realize the tradeoff they will make in frequency, variable/operating costs, and speed. Trams are nicer than buses though. Buses are even more crowded and most buses are diesel which pollute a lot...especially when they idle or accelerate. Diesel fumes produce nasty nitric oxides, cause cancer, and their particular matter they produce get into your lungs. It's not ideal to have a lot diesel vehicles in a dense downtown.

[@RMTransit]

Yeah, its just not on a spectrum of bad good, these issues are multidimensional

[@mdhazeldine]

P.S. Interested to know what you think about Manchester's decision to use high-floor trams for the Metrolink, vs TFL's decision to use low-floor trams for the Croydon Tramlink. Both systems have a mixture of on-street city-centre running and using old railway lines. I've ridden both systems and I can't decide which I like best. I think getting on and off the Croydon trams is easier, but once you're onboard, the Metrolink trams are nicer because the entire floor is level. The high platforms in Manchester are a bit annoying, because you have to walk to the end of the stop and up a ramp to get onto the platform, whereas in Croydon, you just walk across the track and step up like onto a curb. Pros and cons!

[@pauldevey8628]

Good video. Thank you!

[@ampersand.]

Very interesting, thanks.

[@orimation2956]

can you do a video with about the rd line with more depth please 🙏

[@henryostman5740]

West Berlin has largely a rail subway system while East Berlin is mostly served by streetcars or 'trams', after reunification there was some push to get subways to replace the trams however the local folks didn't want that and wanted their trams continued. I think that the old 'east' part of the city is less dense and more traditional in its housing zones and the fanned out fingers of the trams system is more conducive to this lifestyle plus you're above ground and can look out the windows instead of shooting down some dark tunnel. The development of the 'low floor' car design along with the longer articulated trams of today has allowed that to meet modern needs to a great extent. Along major roads into the city the trams have exclusive lanes to themselves and delays on tram system, based on my experience, is more related to incidents with auto traffic than with any breakdown of the tram itself that is rather infrequent. The early days of trolleys generally represented a switch from either horse cars or cable and many of these were four wheeled vehicles, as cars got bigger they went to two bogies or trucks as they are referred to in the US. In the twenties and thirties in the US, streetcar companies reverted to four wheel Birney 'safety' cars that allowed one man operation (no conductor to collect fares) to reduce costs. Four wheel cars have significant speed limitations due to a tendency to 'hunt' or swing back and forth on the tracks.

[@SdH76zhEU]

there are a few of U-Bahn-Lines serving Ostberlin. I think during cold war days they had like 3 or 4 lines operated fully by the DDR, right? Amazing I think is, that in eastern Germany they kept almost all Tramlines. Still today many Towns far below 100K have got even several Tramlines, wich is quit remarkable!!! Where as in the West theres far less Trams, bigger Citys like Münster or Aachen left only with Buses!

[@futurerails8421]

@@SdH76zhEU East Berlin had 2 side of the U2 and the U5, the other 2 linies crossing it were transit lines for the west with their stations closed. The sad thing is that even with Western Germany beeing so much worse in keeping trams than the East, it was still one of the best examples in the West together with Austria and Switzerland.

[@justmeajah]

I'm happy for myself when I know your answer will be : "it depends" 🤣🤣 I love your channel!!

[@adm_131]

Kuala Lumpur mentioned! Cant wait for the video!

[@papertxrtle]

The tramway in Nice, FR is very interesting, it’s a tramway but it also goes underground

[@planefan082]

It's a pretty cool metro/tram hybrid

[@papertxrtle]

@@planefan082 yea I agree, it’s also very sleek and is high frequency which is nice

[@BLACKSTA361]

Western Germany has loads of Systems like that

[@jack2453]

Great stuff I so 100% agree on what you call city-trains, which are great in German cities as well as Newcastle and Manchester in the UK. BUT they are still trams and not as different from the french style tram systems as you make out. Also agree with you on the Calgary arguments on vehicles and aesthetics. Manchester city centre stops are no less pleasing than those in Paris St Denis or Sydney; and the new Stadler vehicles coming to Newcastle would be great.

[@johnburns4017]

Newcastle does not have trams. It has a metro.

[@bonumonu5534]

I grew up riding a small old tram everyday to school for 11 years. Its still my favorite form of traveling and i have very soft feelings towards these trams

[@ianfoster8908]

Perhaps you should have a look at Melbourne, Australia. This city had an extensive cable car network (much bigger than San Francisco) which was converted to electric in the early 1900s. It has since been modified and significantly extended to outer suburbs. Two shorter electrified passenger rail lines were converted to tram and extended for street running at the outer ends. In the CBD and inner suburbs trams run in the middle of the road but with dedicated RoWs in outer suburbs. The system works well. You forgot to mention horse trams. One reason for the early tramways was that roads were not paved so rails allowed a single horse to pull a relatively large number of passengers.

[@OriginalPiMan]

As a resident of a city with an old tram network, I don't really understand the MET system. Trams are the comfortable street level short stop vehicle. Buses are the tolerable but less comfortable alternative for getting where tram tracks haven't been laid. And trains are the best option for getting between suburbs, where they are available. The MET system feels to me like taking the longer distance of a suburban train network, and sticking on the lower capacity of a tram network. Just make it a proper train in the first place, and run fewer carriages if the ridership isn't there yet.

[@RMTransit]

The thing is you cannot run mainline trains through an urban environment very easily!

[@OriginalPiMan]

@@RMTransit But a key point of MET systems is that they don't run directly on the roads either, so wouldn't they have the same amount of rails on aroud the same footprint?

[@MarioFanGamer659]

@@OriginalPiMan Typically, these systems use narrower vehicles (generally up to 2.65m at least in Europe) which also means a more narrow ROW and the curves also likely are too sharp for regular trains. But of course, it's still a ROW whose space has to be reserved, I can't deny that.

[@OriginalPiMan]

@@MarioFanGamer659 So MET is a narrow gauge train for a different purpose than usually thought of for narrow gauge? (Although I acknowledge that rail gauge and vehicle width are only partially correlated.) Looking at the trains and trams in my city, the trams are 2.65, and the trains are 3.04. So only 39cm different, but that would be a lot for these trams that run on the streets with the cars.

[@NoirMorter]

I'd love if you could share your view on the Omaha, Nebraska light rail they're building. I'm happy about it but don't think it will do what they want.

[@lordsiomai]

as someone who is from a country without trams, I'm just super jealous of you guys getting to ride them everyday

[@a.a.p3254]

Toronto has a amazing street car systems. I remember using them in the early 80’s they still had the old vintage cars. Then in the 90’s Bombardier cars came in love taken the Queen street cars to the Lakeshore from downtown. Cheers 🇨🇦

[@Rider9530]

Please do a video about the red line (and the other 2 light rail and 3 metro lines)

[@YishaiBarr]

For people saying that the R3 route on the Red Line in Gush Dan, the prediction for overcrowding from day one took that into account too. The fact that it's ridable now since people haven't been attracted to it doesn't change the fact that it's not prepared for the eventual usage on one of the densest transport routes in the country. The expenses taken to build these stops that don't have contingency options to grow the sizes of the trains is the same as a metro station. A waste on a huge bunch of levels. And, the street level Bat Yam-Yaffo part sucks badly. The Petach Tikva part is still tolerable.

[@ryannewman9248]

Bat Yam will get better once they sort out the traffic light right of way issue. In my mind though the green line makes less sense than the red with just 4 underground stations, (at least red has 1/3 stations underground). At least 2-3 stations on either side of the planned undergound ones with the density and ridership to have been put under ground.

[@YishaiBarr]

@@ryannewman9248 Many of the green line stops seem to be grade separated even if they're above ground. Either way, the Bat Yam-Yaffo part without the traffic light issue is still a pretty large portion of the line within a dense area.

[@user-mn4cc6bb7t]

Here in Edinburgh, we have had a modern tramline (singular) since 2014 and an extension was opened earlier this year so that the line now travels 11.5 miles. This line goes nowhere near where I or any relatives live and I suspect I will never use it. Friends in Sheffield and Nottingham, which have had modern trams for longer, tell me that they have never used the trams there either for the same reason. I have used trams quite a bit in different cities in France when on holiday or on business but never in the UK. It makes me wonder about the purpose of trams and whether they will ever be more than just a minor public transport player in our country, because they will never match the comprehensive networks of buses that we have in UK cities. French colleagues have told me that a lot of mayors in French cities saw having trams in their cities as being a bit of a vanity project and most of my colleagues didn't use the trams there either. The video was interesting though.

[@BillHimmel]

Real interesting!

[@franciscomena8816]

Excellent video, as always. RMTransit, Could you talk about the railway systems in the Dominican Republic? (country located in the Caribbean). We have a metro in the country's capital, Santo Domingo, and we are building more lines to expand the capacity of that metro. We are also building a Monorail in Santiago, the second most important province in the country. A metropolitan train from the center of the capital to the most important airport in the country (also located in Santo Domingo) is in the bidding process. Finally, a tram will also be in the bidding process on Independencia Avenue and will connect with an "urban train" in San Cristóbal, a province located next to Santo Domingo.

[@nonamenoanswer666]

I am the rare example of someone who actually uses Tel Aviv Red Line several times a week. Thanks to the underground part of it in Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan I can now cross the whole city in 10-15 minutes, whereas on a bus it would sometimes take me 40 min. You missed one very disappointing (frankly, infuriating) problem with the new tram in Tel Aviv - it does not operate on Shabbat and if the current trend in politics continues, the planned metro will be shut down from Friday afternoons to Saturday evenings as well. It would be very interesting to hear your thoughts if we ever can solve any transportation problems in a country that basically imprisones everyone who doesn't have a car on the weekend.

[@Geotpf]

Discussion on how religions mess things up are probably beyond the scope of this channel.

[@sorryi6685]

WTF? It's a sad that we are sliding back to dark ages

[@YishaiBarr]

Shabbat isn't an infrastructural consideration. Not something that can't be solved if there was a decision to run it on Shabbat. Not worth discussing in the video.

[@nonamenoanswer666]

@@YishaiBarr But it is an infrastructural consideration. You take a very expensive system and just close it for 1.5-2 days every single week, not to mention many Israeli holidays. The budget you allocated to it is already lost, you are losing the investments every single weekend. Have you tried to live anywhere in Israel without a car? All the years I had no car, I felt like I am under a curfew every single weekend. It worth discussing everywhere, especially under the video about the multi-billion project made useless. This is not fair to working people, not logical, and frankly just dumb.

[@YishaiBarr]

@@nonamenoanswer666 No it's not, because that can be solved with a policy change. I don't have a car and Iive here. I am planning on getting one, but Shabbat is the least of the problems, since it sucks during the week as well. Also, none of the transport projects here return much from the investment per se, it's merely a means of getting the economy as a whole to work, because people can actually move through this gridlock.

[@antisteo]

Trams are much more comfortable than busses. They don't shake that much, they fit more passengers. The German city of Dresden just creates a new tram route through the city because wherever there are tram lines, more people use public transport.

[@ImCatish]

Facts about Viennese public transport (primarily operated by Wienerlinien): It has a Metro called “U-Bahn (Untergrund-Bahn)” where most trains operate primarily underground with some primarily overground. There is currently a new model coming to the “U-Bahn” with I believe 6 models currently in operation on the line U3. They have Trams (Straßenbahn) which are overground with them primarily operating on streets but have some parts next to streets, and have about 2 (multiple line shared) underground part. with about 1-5 stations on them (there might be more). There is currently a new model coming step by step to the different lines with some operating manly on them by now. There are buses for parts with too many cars or not enough people for trams. And they have ÖBB (regional/local trains and not from Wienerlinien) running through the City and beyond. During rush hour it can be very crowded on them all with some people waiting for the next train (which might not even work). Be aware that this information is not from the Internet and only from my knowledge.

[@markdebruyn1212]

What about the Wiener Lokalbahn

[@JeroenHuijsinga]

Thank you about talking about Tel Aviv's Red Line. It should be said that there is a ton of political deliberations (as opposed to planning deliberations) that dominate this project (by definition, any transit project, but this one stands out). Two main issues here: the Red Line is part of a three-line first phase that includes a Green and Purple Line which are under construction. You notice the missing colors: Yes, this is a truncated much bigger project consisting of SIX lines. The briefly mentioned new metro project will replace this. It will also include destinations that are too far away to be covered by a light rail. Nevertheless, the current Red Line also takes a whopping 80 minutes between the last stops. The current extreme right government has put the metro project on hold though. The central tunnel is not the only part that will not be used efficiently. In the current timetable, zero trains will run on all of Shabbat, meaning more than 24 hours between Friday afternoon and Saturday night. This is also true for the current train system and busses. Shabbat break is a given in Israel, but in this case, it hurts more because of the high investment. Tel Aviv and Haifa do have Shabbat busses, so it would make sense to have the light rail run too. The underground station layouts are very complicated with wide concourses and vast voids, yet entrances/exits are limited in number. Many stations double as bomb shelters and have extensive extra space for air conditioning. Thus it was decided to have only short parts of the system run in tunnels. The Purple Line will run entirely on the surface, but still have a length comparable to the Red Line, running to remote places at the edge of the urbanity and crossing main roads, leading to congestion. I assume, it will take like two hours to run from end to end. The sections of the Red Line that run on the surface are often designed badly with bicycle paths basically running across platforms, requiring ugly fences and extensive signage to warn both tram passengers and cyclists. Certain street level sections also substantially slows down the train, and thus the whole service. For the most part it runs in the median of main streets though with right of way at crossings. What I am curious about is to what extend the tunnels and underground stations were laid out in such a way that they could be converted into a real metro. This would mean cutting off the street level sections and building new underground connections. It has been done in some places like Brussels, but I am not aware of any new system that have that option. It could be one way to save this city that suffers from congestion and a highly inefficient public transit (=bus) system.

[@adamspencer3702]

I do like the idea of using trams and tram trains to serve small rural communities/minor cities and replace buses on busy urban routes. But this, you hit it out of the park: Never send a tram to do a train/metro's job.

[@CosmicTrash2]

Really loved the video your job is incredible 👍(this is unrelated but if your planning a video on Lyon I can give you some footage if you want to)

[@RMTransit]

I am! Please email me!

[@CosmicTrash2]

​@@RMTransit just to what email do I write to you?

[@pentestical8265]

Please do a video on Zurich’s tram system. Your video on the cantons S-Bahn was great, and I’d love to hear if it’s objectively a good tram system or not.

[@dinonobody4768]

One of the worst tram systems I’ve ever seen is the DC tram. It tries to be an urban network but it only spans 4 kilometers making it completely useless.

[@likensf7499]

Please talk about tram in Milan and suburban railway😅😅

[@giacomogalli2448]

Especially since it's a great example of how to use a trans-city tunnel

[@RMTransit]

Eventually! I have my metro video in the future!

[@likensf7499]

@@giacomogalli2448 La madonnina ineguagliabile su tutto😂

[@likensf7499]

@@RMTransit i live in Milan and i saw ur video on milan metro… great as a true milanese

[@m4rch84]

Rome and Turin transit would also be interesting to be explored

[@johnnysecular]

wow very informative!

[@reconquista4011]

I moved to Dresden and absolutely fell in love with trams. It makes sense in a city of this size too (a bit over 1/2 million). There are a lot of tourists and residents congregating near or passing through the center of the city, particularly during Christmas and the summer season. The city, is however, a bit too small to justify expensive metro lines. The tram lines offer a mass-transit option that is roomier and a lot more modern and sleek than a bus (there are screens which flash news/weather updates/show current and upcoming stops) the interior feels like a metro train but cleaner than many I've experienced, and provides enough room for bikes, strollers, furniture, pets, people. It also tends to feel less sketchy or dark or dirty than many metro lines, likely due to the fact that it's above ground. And a huge bonus is that you get to sight-see during your ride.

[@alienworm1999]

Would you consider making a video on the tale of two cities? Baltimore (and central MD in general) has had a floundering metro system mired with constant project starts, stops, delays, and political meddling. DC, on the otherhand, has flourished into one of the best metro systems in North America. What is WMATA doing differently that makes them so much more effective than the Maryland Transit Authority (MTA)?

[@pizzajona]

It essentially boils down to DC getting big funding for Metro under LBJ while Baltimore did not. You would enjoy reading The Great Society Subway by Zachary Schrag, it’s the definitive history of the DC metro. Comparing their current services, there are a couple reasons why DC is better. First, it is richer and so easier to invest in the system. Plus it helps that the capital should look good to tourists. Second, there are more lines and the lines serve a lot more people. Baltimore’s one metro line is not very near to the population outside of downtown. Third, WMATA made a conscious decision coming out of the pandemic to pay for the best service they can before federal money runs out, rather than running on austerity to stretch the budget. The thinking is this will endear the residents and politicians of the region into keeping these current historically-great headways (off-peak at least) while also showing how essential transit is to the city. Baltimore’s subway has not chosen to do that and sometimes runs only one train in each direction along the entire line.

[@safuu202]

Funding and an actual collabroative effort btwn multiple jurisdictions to actually have a good system lol. See Hogan's decision to kill the Red Line in Baltimore and green light the Purple Line in the inner MD suburbs of DC and you'll see clearly the night and day difference. The state of MD's actively neglect and disregard for the city of Baltimore.

[@yaitz3313]

Annoyingly, Israel does have a different light rail line (also the beginning of a larger system) that is excellent - the Jerusalem Light Rail. The first line, the Red Line, opened in 2011. The long delay between the first line and other lines is because the city wanted to wait and see how the first line would develop before deciding to build more - and the first line was a smashing success. Now the city is in the process of building an extension to that line as well as two new lines, with a number more in planning. The section of the Red Line that is INCREDIBLY good is the section between the transit hub at the Central Bus Station and Navon Train Station to the west and the Old City to the east. Here, the line runs along the historic Jaffa Road, and has transformed it into the single best pedestrian location in the country. Starting at the Old City's Jaffa Gate and the Jerusalem city hall, the line runs along a purely pedestrian street for about 1.5 kilometers through the city's downtown to the Mahane Yehuda street market, and then about another kilometer along a mixed road with wide, comfortable sidewalks and infrequent cars. Until the line's construction, Jaffa Road was a narrow car-infested road that was really unpleasant (like the parallel Agrippas Street to the south still is), but the building of the light rail transformed that corridor into a tourist destination in its own right. It's a model of the types of incredible urban environments a well-planned light rail can do to its city. The Red Line continues north from the Old City and south from the transit hub along more standard light rail corridors. Tel Aviv tried to mimic Jerusalem's transformation by having their light rail run along Jerusalem Road (if you're wondering about the names, Jaffa Road was historically the beginning of the Jerusalem-Jaffa road in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem Road was the end of it in Jaffa. Both are named after the same road). However, it's nowhere near as good. Tel Aviv wasn't willing to commit to totally car-free, so they have loops along which cars can enter and leave Jerusalem Road, making it a much worse experience as a pedestrian. In addition, there are way more intersections with regular roads then in Jerusalem's (Jerusalem has two; Tel Aviv has seven), making the light rail much slower and more frustrating then in Jerusalem, and again worsening the pedestrian experience. Tel Aviv also failed to invest in renovating many of the historic buildings like Jerusalem did, making Jerusalem Road seem dingy compared to Jaffa Road. The Tel Aviv light rail project is basically the lowest standard a transit project can hit without being actively harmful; it cost a ridiculous amount of money, provided a low standard of service, and utterly failed to reach its true potential. I mean, I did still get up really early to ride it on its first-ever trip. A low-quality transit project is still a transit project, and is still better then nothing.

[@YishaiBarr]

Jerusalem's line is severely ill prepared for holidays when people from all over the country crowd onto a tram.

[@Daniel-jv1ku]

I mostly agree. Jerusalem's Red Line is very very successful. Honestly, I was surprised that Israel's planners could pull something off like that. In many places, they completely changed the face of the city. Jaffa Road is a perfect example. They took one of the most important streets in Jerusalem and made it into a place that even tourists want to visit, even though it's the modern part of Jerusalem. Now, pedestrians and trams share the same street with no curbs or separation barriers whatsoever, and yet the light rail runs efficiently and the pedestrians feel safe. Instead of chaos, their thoughtful street design created a phenomena that belongs to older cities... an unwritten code of behaviour that everyone follows when using Jaffa St. When people see the tram approaching or hear its pleasant chime, they flow back into the formal sidewalk. When it's gone, they comfortably "stretch their legs" and walk on the actual tramway. Despite having among the greatest rates of pedestrians and simultaneously serving as the city's main artery for public transportation, there isn't a single object separating the two competing forms of movement and yet the tram moves along quickly without delay & the pedestrians don't feel like it is intruding into their space. It's genius. Usually with these projects the mere suggestion of removing all barriers between people and transit seems inefficient, dangerous, and ridiculous. Here, they made it work better than any other option could ever do. Without it, Jaffa Road wouldn't be such a wonderful place. This is really impressing for me. Take the Jerusalem Chords Bridge, whose design is inspired from King David's harp while also creating a futuristic feeling for Jerusalem's upcoming central business district. It defines the main vehicular entrance to the city and will be a focal point for the upcoming district's public square. I usually hate these kinds of projects, and I would usually rage about how they are ugly eyesores that are not appropriate for their surrounding context; certainly not for Jerusalem. And yet, I don't how to describe it but I absolutely love it. Despite all odds, I think it actually contributes to Jerusalem's image and doesn't detract from it. I am equally impressed with the quality of its materials and how the "chords" create different forms as you're moving. At the same time, there are many things about Jerusalem, and in this case, particularly the light rail that disappoint me. While I love the street lights that they used on Jaffa St, I also think it was mistake not to use them in more places that are historical and to also create another signature street light for the more modern parts of the city. They just settled for utilitarian ugly utilitarian lights - the same kind that is sadly used everywhere around the world. It is also regretful that, while they tried very hard for some parts of each line, their suburban designs are very very lazy & basically do nothing to improve their surroundings. There is also the city's insistence that there should be as many high-rises around the route as is possible. Even on the aforementioned Jaffa Road in the older areas, they plopped a giant glass condo that towers above Jaffa Road's mid-rise buildings, barely has any Jerusalem stone, has a copy-paste condo design, and can be seen from almost every part of Jaffa St and all of Jerusalem's observation points. It seems as if it's a massive middle-finger to everything good about Jerusalem. The city demands skyscrapers even where they make no sense and have no connection to their context. They also think that high-rises are the best option instead of looking into mid-rise European buildings with some skyscrapers with careful placement. They also want developers to stop using Jerusalem stone and instead use glass! The mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion, has done lots of good but he is also doing awful things like this. That's why I really hope people vote him out of office in favour of a mayor that is worthy of Jerusalem. I have more complaints but I'll cut it short. The last thing that really makes me angry is the cable car project. Instead of building the Yellow Line, which would branch off the Red Line and end next to the Western Wall Plaza, they're willing to desecrate the Holy Basin that wraps around the Old City with a cable car. Their justification? That a tram extension would take a few years more than a cable car. Are they crazy?! That's a good enough reason to vandalize one of Jerusalem's most important places? Shame on them. I really hope this project gets cancelled. It's evil.

[@yaitz3313]

@@Daniel-jv1ku Yeah, the Chords Bridge really is a remarkable piece of design. In a 3,000-year-old city, it's managed to become an iconic piece of the urban landscape in only a decade. As for the problems, I agree that the cable car plan is scandalous and nonsensical when the Gold Line plans already exist (it's not the Yellow Line), and that they seem to have put literally all of their integration effort with the light rail into Jaffa Road. However, with the high-rises, the problem is deeper and more complicated. It's a combination of two factors. The first is a mistake that NJB has discussed in his video on land use around transit stations; permissions are being granted around light rail lines for new construction, but not enough land is being granted. That means that, rather then a gradual decrease in density as distance increases from the light rail, developers have to pack as much housing as they can directly alongside the light rail, making high-rises the only viable option for them. The second, and more fundamental, problem is that Jerusalem is a rapidly growing city whose housing prices are already expensive, so a lot of new housing construction is badly needed. However, there are basically no areas where new developments can be built; north, south, and east is geopolitics hell, and west are the Judean Mountains, whose natural services are important for the city. This means that new housing needs to be built on top of already existing neighborhoods; but that's hard to politically justify anywhere, let alone a city as historic as Jerusalem. Just TRY to build townhouses and low-rises in Rehavia, or the German Colony, or Talpiot, and people will riot; there are historically significant buildings everywhere, and a high concentration of NIMBYs in these wealthier neighborhoods. So, instead of taking the difficult challenge of trying to balance historical conservation with the needs of the modern city while overriding the ferocious NIMBY objections, the city takes the easier route of giving out only tiny parcels of land for redeveloping. With the massive housing needs of the city, that leaves developers in a spot where the only viable options for them are either high-rises or luxury housing. Jerusalem badly needs an overarching plan to tackle this issue, finding a way to balance the needs of densification and the needs of historical preservation across the city; right now, the city is trying to have both and getting neither.

[@gustavoarquitecto]

I am starting a passion for rails system information, l like your enthusiasm for teaching about those systems.

[@tom-sn4gd]

Funnily enough, you shown in one of the first example Paris' T2 tram, that would benefit a lot from being a heavier rail system now.

[@de-fault_de-fault]

Trams have become the hammer in the "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" of transit planning. They just aren't the perfect solution people want them to be, yet it seems every time a transit project is being planned, there's at least strong pressure to try to force a tram solution to work. IBX leaps to mind, which, if it gets done as a tram project (which now it looks like trams or nothing) will, yes, be better than not doing it. But it will also be a huge missed opportunity in terms of capacity and future connectivity.

[@RMTransit]

I think your first line says it all!

[@orimation2956]

thanks you for taking about the new red line in tel aviv

[@RMTransit]

Finally got there!

[@cyril3248]

5:11 omg, I pass by that place almost once a week. That street was rebuilt only for tram and pedestrians and it feels great!

[@robertcartwright4374]

God bless you, Reece!

[@PSNDonutDude]

I actually think high floor trains look really nice. With most systems level boarding is easily done with high floor trains. This just makes too much sense for North American planners, but to be fair, in Hamilton for example, we are still dealing with basic complaints regarding construction noise and disruption, how ugly the poles and wires will be, and adding what some might see as a less attractive vehicle would just add insult to injury. My only hope is that especially for systems like Ottawa's, they may be altered in 50 or 80 years to be high floor, or team trains as they should have been. It could theoretically happen sooner if it hits capacity limits.

[@RMTransit]

I think the more realistic solution will be more lines to reduce congestion, even if it's sort of suboptimal

[@krayton5952]

I don't get why high floor trams are not more commonly used. If you want level boarding, you just need a concrete box on the street which is much cheaper than other ways of getting more capacity

[@jan-lukas]

In which way are high floor trams supposed to have more capacity? In general I don't get why high-floor and low-floor is such a great debate, as long as your platforms have the same height as your trains that should be enough. Here in Cologne we have high- and low-floor LRTs and their specifications (speed 80km/h, max grade 6%, capacity around 200 people per car with two-car trains on basically all routes) are always super similar

[@CharlsonS]

​@jan-lukas High floor trains have more capacity by default, because you are not limited by bogies that are unavoidable on low floor and that have impact on interior design. Technologically speaking maintaining a high floor tram is simpler, because not everything is confined into a smaller less accessible space that can be found on low floor bogies. Cologne is better off getting rid of its absolutely pointless low floor subsystem on its Stadtbahn again. And make the lines like the southern leg of the 12 a regular street tram or something.

[@markuseberlein3394]

As long as all systems use the same height. Here we have a 2 S-Bahn lines with different heights which stop at the same stations.

[@vincentvegeta6172]

And another masterclass 👌

[@SpotterCrazyperson]

We need more light rail, especially trams that can run like trams and metros because they are very flexible

[@Irgoe]

Should have included the Luas in Dublin. I mean Irish public transport in general is awful.

[@markvogel5872]

Are they going to run trams on Friday/Saturday or will it be like Jerusalem and not.

[@WillChung7]

Have you seen Prague's tram service? It's so nice!

[@davidhascovitch4287]

As a person who regularly use red line of tel aviv, i can say that there was out of places, only in firsts days of opening the red line. But now in middle of red line, often all peoples have a seat.

[@eranreznic9583]

9:04 - The red line has the R3 service that operates only at the tunnel, that brings the tunneled frequency to 3 minutes.

[@RMTransit]

3 minutes is only half the frequency a tunnel could handle on a modern system, and the vehicles and dwell times further impact capacity

[@lindsaycole8409]

London's Wimbledon to Croydon to South East London Tram network is interesting. It uses a lot of ex-rail right of ways to move quickly between the outer extremes while being an actual tram in Croydon itself. I think this works, the reason the right of ways were available is that they weren't heavily used so eventually closed but not built over. The flexibility of a tram and more balanced capacity made it viable again.

[@andybrice2711]

The Tramlink is pretty miraculous. It puts the local rail to shame. A service every 5-10 minutes, which accelerates to 50 mph in seconds, for the price of a bus. Compared to trains which arrive maybe every 30 minutes if they feel like it, then lumber along at an average speed of 18mph, and cost quadruple the ticket price of a tram.

[@andywarne963]

Tramlink has really worked, it also reduced the problem with the level crossing at the Kingston Road (1 min walk from my house) which in the old train days would interrupt traffic for around 5 minutes per train. Loadings on Tramlink are really high, proves that people will use transport with a 10 min or less interval but not a 30 minute one.

[@andybrice2711]

​@@andywarne963 It just makes so much sense to have smaller, more frequent vehicles on metro services, rather than long trains arriving occasionally. And also to have orbital services rather than every line running radially.

[@peterdodds2694]

Planning student in Calgary here, I'd love to take a look at your sources for the Calgary portion of the video. I found it really interesting!

[@avolenter]

0:25 Oh. Ganz tram from Budapest. I am actually on a tram driver class, and Ganz gonna be one of the trams i have to learn and drive.