Funicular
A funicular is one of the modes of transportation which uses a cable traction for movement on steep inclined slopes. A funicular railway employs a pair of passenger vehicles which are pulled on a slope by the same cable which loops over a pulley wheel at the upper end of a track; the vehicles counterbalance each other. They move synchronously: while one vehicle is ascending, the other one is descending the track; these particularities distinguish funiculars from other types of cable railways. For example, a funicular is distinguished from an inclined elevator by the presence of two vehicles which counterbalance each other; the name "funicular" itself is derived from the Latin word funiculus, the diminutive of funis, which translates as "rope". The basic idea of funicular operation is that two cars are always attached to each other by a cable, which runs through a pulley at the top of the slope. Counterbalancing of the two cars, with one going up and one going down, minimizes the energy needed to lift the car going up.
Winching is done by an electric drive that turns the pulley. Sheave wheels guide the cable to and from the slope cars. Early funiculars used two parallel straight tracks, four rails, with separate station platforms for each vehicle; the tracks are laid with sufficient space between them for the two cars to pass at the midpoint. Three-rail arrangement was used to overcome the half-way passing problem; the wheels of the cars are single-flanged, as on standard railway vehicles. Examples of this type of track layout are the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh and most cliff railways in the UK; the Swiss engineer Carl Roman Abt invented the method that allows cars to be used with a two-rail configuration: the outboard wheels have flanges on both sides, which keeps them aligned with the outer rail, thereby holding each car in position, whereas the inboard wheels are unflanged and ride on top of the opposite rail crossing over the rails at the passing track. Two-rail configurations of this type avoid the need for switches and crossings, since the cars have the flanged wheels on opposite sides and will automatically follow different tracks, in general reduce costs.
In layouts using three rails, the middle rail is shared by both cars. The three-rail layout is wider than the two-rail layout, but the passing section is simpler to build. If a rack for braking is used, that rack can be mounted higher in a three-rail layout, making it less sensitive to choking in snowy conditions; some four-rail funiculars have the upper and lower sections interlaced and a single platform at each station. The Hill Train at Legoland, Windsor, is an example of this configuration; the track layout can be changed during the renovation of a funicular, four-rail layouts have been rebuilt as two- or three-rail layouts. The cars can be attached to a second cable running through a pulley at the bottom of the incline in case the gravity force acting on the vehicles is too low to operate them on the slope. One of the pulleys must be designed as a tensioning wheel to avoid slack in the ropes. In this case, the winching can be done at the lower end of the incline; this practice is used for funiculars with gradients below 6%, funiculars using sledges instead of cars, or any other case where it is not ensured that the descending car is always able to pull out the cable from the pulley in the station on the top of the incline.
Another reason for a bottom cable is that the cable supporting the lower car at the extent of its travel will weigh several tons, whereas that supporting the upper car weighs nothing. The lower cable adds an equal amount of cable weight to the upper car while deducting the same weight from the lower, thereby keeping the cars in equilibrium. A few funiculars have been built using water tanks under the floor of each car that are filled or emptied until just sufficient imbalance is achieved to allow movement; the car at the top of the hill is loaded with water until it is heavier than the car at the bottom, causing it to descend the hill and pulling up the other car. The water is drained at the bottom, the process repeats with the cars exchanging roles; the movement is controlled by a brakeman. The Giessbachbahn in the Swiss canton of Berne, opened in 1879 was powered by water ballast. On it was converted to electrical power; the Bom Jesus funicular built in 1882 near Braga, Portugal is another example.
The funicular Neuveville - St-Pierre in Fribourg, Switzerland, is of a particular interest as for counterbalancing it utilizes waste water, coming from a sewage plant at the upper part of the city. Funicular railways operating in urban areas date from the 1860s; the first line of the Funiculars of Lyon opened in 1862, followed by other lines in 1878, 1891 and 1900. The Budapest Castle Hill Funicular was built in 1868–69, with the first test run on 23 October 1869. In Istanbul, the Tünel has been in continuous operation since 1875 and is both the first underground funicular and the second-oldest underground railway; the oldest funicular railway operating in Britain dates from 1875 and is in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Until the end of the 1870s, the four-rail parallel-track funicular was the normal configuration. Carl Roman Abt developed the Abt Switch allowing the two-rail layout, used for the first time in 1879 when the Giessbach Funicular opened in Switzerland. In the United States, the first funicular to use a two-rail layout was the Telegraph Hill Railroad in San Francisco, in operation from 1884 until 1886.
The Mount Lowe Railway in Altadena, was the fir
Select Bus Service
Select Bus Service is a brand used by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Regional Bus Operations for bus rapid transit service in New York City. SBS began service in 2008 in order to improve reliability on long, busy corridors. SBS routes use camera-enforced bus lanes; the first route was the Bx12 along the Pelham Parkway. Twenty-one more routes are proposed through 2027. However, in summer 2018, the MTA announced that it was considering delaying the implementation of SBS routes outside Manhattan until 2021 because of the city's upcoming bus-network redesign. In 2002, Schaller Consulting conducted a study on potential bus rapid transit services in New York City. In 2004, the MTA in conjunction with the New York City Department of Transportation and New York State Department of Transportation, performed an initial study on bus rapid transit, with 80 corridors studied citywide. In late 2004, the MTA identified five corridors for implementation of bus rapid transit, one in each of the five boroughs: the Fordham Road/Pelham Parkway corridor in the Bronx, First Avenue and Second Avenue in Manhattan, Merrick Boulevard in Queens, Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island.
Four bus priority corridors were identified for implementation or expansion: Madison Avenue, Fifth Avenue, 34th Street, Webster Avenue. The Merrick Boulevard corridor was scrapped because of community opposition related to loss of parking. However, the corridor is being considered again as part of the Bus Forward study in 2017; the Select Bus Service program was unveiled to the public on March 25, 2008. At the time of the announcement, the MTA and then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg had stated that implementation on other corridors was contingent on the passage of congestion pricing, which did not make it for a vote in the legislature; the first Select Bus Service corridor, on the Bx12 along 207th Street, Fordham Road, Pelham Parkway, was placed into service on June 29, 2008. The next line, the M15, saw Select Service begin on October 10, 2010 after the delivery of new low-floor buses; the M34/M34A line was started on November 13, 2011. A 34th Street busway was planned that would require eliminating 34th Street as a through street, but it was dropped in favor of the standard SBS model.
The B44 Rogers/Bedford/Nostrand Avenues bus route, the fifth Select Bus Service corridor in the city, was implemented on November 17, 2013 after the arrival of new fare machines. The S79 Hylan Boulevard/Richmond Avenue route slated to be converted to SBS in 2013, was moved up to September 2, 2012. A sixth corridor, the second for the Bronx, began service on the Bx41 Webster Avenue route on June 30, 2013. Another Select Bus Service route on Webster Avenue, which will be extended to run between LaGuardia Airport and Fordham Plaza alongside the local Bx41 route, is proposed for implementation. A seventh corridor, the third for Manhattan, the M60 125th Street–Triborough Bridge–Astoria Boulevard bus route to LaGuardia Airport, was converted to SBS on May 25, 2014. An eighth Select Bus Service route was planned in the 2014–2017 Financial Plan; the eighth Select Bus Service corridor, the fourth in Manhattan, was for the M86 running on 86th Street, scheduled to start running on June 28, 2015, but pushed back to July 13, 2015.
The ninth corridor, the second for Brooklyn, is the B46 on Utica Avenue. When implemented, the local and Select Bus Service route of the B46 changed northern terminals to improve reliability. Planned for implementation in fall 2015, it was instituted on July 3, 2016; the tenth corridor, the first for Queens, is the Q44 limited bus route running on East 177th Street and Main Street, which began on November 29, 2015. Selected stops in the Bronx were combined into much busier stops for faster service, some stops in Queens have been replaced by the Q20A/B local routes; as both the Q20 branches do not enter the Bronx and the Q44 ran local late nights only, the Q44 gained 24/7 SBS service between the Bronx Zoo and Jamaica. The Q20A replaced the Q44 local in Queens late nights. On September 25, 2016, the eleventh corridor and the second for Queens, the Q70, was rebranded as the "LaGuardia Link" and became a SBS route; as opposed to other SBS routes, the Q70 is wrapped in a light blue scheme with clouds and airplanes in order to encourage more people to use public transportation when using the airport.
This marked MTA Bus's first SBS route, as well as the second for the eleventh overall. The M23, the twelfth corridor and the fifth in Manhattan, became a Select Bus Service route on November 6, 2016 with dedicated bus lanes and countdown clocks at some stops, replacing M23 local service at the cost of $1.7 million. The M79 became an SBS route on May 2017, with the installation of bus lanes along its route; the Bx6, after the completion of bus lanes and widened sidewalks, became an SBS route on September 3, 2017. It supplements the local service by stopping at high riders
Cable car (railway)
A cable car is a type of cable railway used for mass transit where rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars start by releasing and gripping this cable as required. Cable cars are distinct from funiculars, where the cars are permanently attached to the cable, cable railways, which are similar to funiculars, but where the rail vehicles are attached and detached manually; the first cable-operated railway, employing a moving rope that could be picked up or released by a grip on the cars was the Fawdon Wagonway in 1826, a Colliery railway line. The London and Blackwall Railway, which opened for passengers in east London, England, in 1840 used such a system; the rope available at the time proved too susceptible to wear and the system was abandoned in favour of steam locomotives after eight years. In America, the first cable car installation in operation was the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway in New York City, as its first-ever elevated railway which ran from 1 July 1868 to 1870.
The cable technology used in this elevated railway involved collar-equipped cables and claw-equipped cars, proving cumbersome. The line was rebuilt, reopening with steam locomotives. In 1869 P. G. T. Beauregard demonstrated a cable car at New Orleans and was issued U. S. Patent 97,343. Other cable cars to use grips were those of the Clay Street Hill Railroad, which became part of the San Francisco cable car system; the building of this line was promoted by Andrew Smith Hallidie with design work by William Eppelsheimer, it was first tested in 1873. The success of these grips ensured that this line became the model for other cable car transit systems, this model is known as the Hallidie Cable Car. In 1881 the Dunedin cable tramway system opened in Dunedin, New Zealand and became the first such system outside San Francisco. For Dunedin, George Smith Duncan further developed the Hallidie model, introducing the pull curve and the slot brake. Both of these innovations were adopted by other cities, including San Francisco.
In Australia, the Melbourne cable tramway system operated from 1885 to 1940. It was one of the most extensive in the world with 1200 trams and trailers operating over 15 routes with 103 km of track. Sydney had a couple of cable tram routes. Cable cars spread to other cities, although the major attraction for most was the ability to displace horsecar systems rather than the ability to climb hills. Many people at the time viewed horse-drawn transit as unnecessarily cruel, the fact that a typical horse could work only four or five hours per day necessitated the maintenance of large stables of draft animals that had to be fed, groomed and rested. Thus, for a period, economics worked in favour of cable cars in flat cities. For example, the Chicago City Railway designed by Eppelsheimer, opened in Chicago in 1882 and went on to become the largest and most profitable cable car system; as with many cities, the problem in flat Chicago was not one of incline, but of transportation capacity. This caused a different approach to the combination of grip trailer.
Rather than using a grip car and single trailer, as many cities did, or combining the grip and trailer into a single car, like San Francisco's California Cars, Chicago used grip cars to pull trains of up to three trailers. In 1883 the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Railway was opened, which had a most curious feature: though it was a cable car system, it used steam locomotives to get the cars into and out of the terminals. After 1896 the system was changed to one on which a motor car was added to each train to maneuver at the terminals, while en route, the trains were still propelled by the cable. On 25 September 1883, a test of a cable car system was held by Liverpool United Tramways and Omnibus Company in Kirkdale, Liverpool; this would have been the first cable car system in Europe, but the company decided against implementing it. Instead, the distinction went to the 1884 route from Archway to Highgate, north London, which used a continuous cable and grip system on the 1 in 11 climb of Highgate Hill.
The installation was not reliable and was replaced by electric traction in 1909. Other cable car systems were implemented in Europe, among, the Glasgow District Subway, the first underground cable car system, in 1896. A few more cable car systems were built in the United Kingdom and France. European cities, having many more curves in their streets, were less suitable for cable cars than American cities. Though some new cable car systems were still being built, by 1890 the cheaper to construct and simpler to operate electrically-powered trolley or tram started to become the norm, started to replace existing cable car systems. For a while hybrid cable/electric systems operated, for example in Chicago where electric cars had to be pulled by grip cars through the loop area, due to the lack of trolley wires there. San Francisco became the only street-running manually operated system to survive—Dunedin, the second city with such cars, was the second-last city to operate them, closing down in 1957.
In the last decades of the 20th-century, cable traction in general has seen a limited revival as automatic people movers, used in resort areas, airports (for exampl
Rail replacement bus service
A rail replacement bus service uses buses to replace a passenger train service either on a temporary or permanent basis. The train service, replaced may be of any type such as light rail, streetcar, commuter rail, regional rail or heavy rail, intercity passenger service; the rail service may be replaced if the line is closed due to rail maintenance, a breakdown of a train, a rail accident, strike action, or if the rail service is not economically viable. Terms for a rail replacement bus service include bus bridge. Substitution of rail services by buses can be unpopular and subject to criticism, so the term bustitution is used pejoratively. A similar concept in some ways is motorization, but that term more broadly refers to the rise of the automobile as well as bus transportation. In Australia, a permanent or temporary rail-replacement service change is referred to as bustitution. In November 1941, the Western Australian Government Railways introduced its first rail replacement service, operating a service from Perth to Kojonup via Boddington.
By 1949, there were 28 buses, by 1959, more than fifty. On the Queensland Rail network, to relieve congestion on the single track Sunshine Coast line, the rail service is supplemented by a bus service operated by Kangaroo Bus Lines on weekdays between Caboolture and Nambour as route 649. NSW TrainLink, Transwa and V/Line all introduced extensive networks in New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria in the 1970s and 1980s that replaced regional trains. Via Rail, the operator of the national passenger rail network, uses the term "bustitution" to refer to rail replacement with buses; as in the United Kingdom buses replaced rail services on closed lines. The most recent example can be found in County Wexford whereupon the suspension of rail services between Rosslare Europort and Waterford in 2010 Bus Éireann route 370 was introduced; however the bus takes longer than the train journey and fails to serve Waterford railway station. Bus have been used to replace rail in Japan when rail service have to be suspended due to disaster, economics, or engineering works.
Notably, in some cases where those rail lines are closed permanently, some of the former rail right-of-way are converted into bus right-of-way to provide grade-separated Bus Rapid Transit service. When train services operated by Transdev in Auckland train services are sometimes replaced by a bus, the resulting service is called Rail Bus. New Zealand Railways Road Services replaced many train routes with buses. During the British Railways Board's railway rationalisation in the 1960s, known as the Beeching cuts, bus substitution was an official policy for replacing train services on closed lines; this policy was unsuccessful, however, as the bus services were far slower than the train services they replaced, causing many passengers to give up on public transport altogether. Rail replacement bus services have been used to operate Parliamentary train services; when North London Railways services between Watford Junction and Croxley Green were withdrawn in March 1996, to avoid the legal complications and costs of actual closure, train services were replaced by buses.
The service was withdrawn when the branch was formally closed in September 2003. Following the withdrawal of Central Trains services between Stafford and Stoke-on-Trent to facilitate the West Coast Main Line upgrade at the request of the Strategic Rail Authority in May 2003, BakerBus route X1 was introduced to serve Norton Bridge, Stone and Wedgwood stations; when the train service was reintroduced by London Midland in December 2008, only Stone regained a rail service with the other stations continuing to be served by route X1. In October 2017, the Department for Transport declared Norton Bridge station closed, but will continue to fund the replacement bus service until March 2019. Following the withdrawal of services by Arriva CrossCountry between Reading and Brighton in December 2008 that were the only passenger services on three short sections of line between Ealing Broadway and Wandsworth Road, a replacement weekly bus service was introduced; the service ceased in June 2013. Rail-replacement bus services occurred on a large scale following the dismantling of the street railway systems of many cities in North America in the mid-20th century.
Temporary substitution of buses for trains may be done with Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoach service. Rail-replacement bus services are common among urban rail transit systems due to unexpected service disruptions. For example, one of the effects of Hurricane Sandy in New York was that the New York City Subway required replacement bus service for several subway routes; as the subway runs 24/7/365, replacement bus service is provided when subway lines were closed for scheduled maintenance, so interruptions in subway service require replacement bus service during off-peak hours. Planning rail-replacement services in a high-patronage environment, such as a high-capacity rapid transit network, requires efficient use and management of time and resources in order to prevent major travel disruptions; this was exemplified by a July 2015 shutdown on the Toronto subway during rush hour caused by a communication system breakdown, in which the local transit operator opted not to use replacement buses as "it wasn't possible to replace the entire subway's capacity with buses".
A similar incident as Toronto happened in Singapore on 7 July 2015 after a mass shutdown on the North South East West Lines after a power system failure. Operator SMRT and rival SBS Transit did not activate bus bridging but made all buses free islandwide due to the sheer scale of t
Transit bus
A transit bus is a type of bus used on shorter-distance public transport bus services. Several configurations are used, including low-floor buses, high-floor buses, double-decker buses, articulated buses and midibuses; these are distinct from all-seated coaches used for longer distance journeys and smaller minibuses, for more flexible services. A transit bus will have: large and sometimes multiple doors for ease of boarding and exiting minimal or no luggage space bench or bucket seats, with no coachlike head-rests destination blinds / displays such as headsigns or rollsigns or electronic dot matrix/LED signs legal standing-passenger capacity fare taking/verification equipment pull cord or bus stop request buttonModern transit buses are increasingly being equipped with passenger information systems, multimedia, WiFi, USB charging points, entertainment/advertising, passenger comforts such as heating and air-conditioning; some industry members and commentators promote the idea of making the interior of a transit bus as inviting as a private car, recognising the chief competitor to the transit bus in most markets.
As they are used in a public transport role, transit buses can be operated by publicly run transit authorities or municipal bus companies, as well as private transport companies on a public contract or independent basis. Due to the local authority use, transit buses are built to a third-party specification put to the manufacturer by the authority. Early examples of such specification include the Greater Manchester Leyland Atlantean, DMS-class London Daimler Fleetline. New transit buses may be purchased each time a route/area is contracted, such as in the London Buses tendering system; the operating area of a transit bus may be defined as a geographic metropolitan area, with the buses used outside of this area being more varied with buses purchased with other factors in mind. Some regional-size operators for capital cost reasons may use transit buses interchangeably on short urban routes as well as longer rural routes, sometimes up to 2 or 3 hours. Transit bus operators have a selection of'dual-purpose' fitted buses, standard transit buses fitted with coach-type seating, for longer-distance routes.
Sometimes transit buses may be used as express buses on a limited-stopping or non-stop service at peak times, but over the same distance as the regular route. Fare payment is done via Smart card single or multi-ride coupon/ticket cash and is done upon Pre-payment, done at ticket machines located at the bus stops or at other locations, before getting on the bus. Boarding departing both, e.g. after crossing fare zone boundaries in transit, via an attendant or bus conductor Depending on payment systems in different municipalities, there are different rules with regard to which door, front or rear, one must use when boarding/exiting. For rear doors, most buses have doors opened by patron. Most doors on buses use air-assist technology, the driver controlled doors, use air pressure to force them open, patron-operated doors, can push them open, the doors are heavy, so the touch-to-open or push bar mechanism, sends pressurized air to open the doors. Most doors will signify that they are unlocked and open with lights, this gives guide to those who are going up or down the door steps to not trip and fall.
Unlocked or open doors, will trigger a brake locking mechanism on the bus to prevent it from moving while someone could be entering or exiting the bus, when the door is closed, the lock will release, this is implemented on rear doors, not on front doors, since the driver will be paying attention to the front door. Transit buses can be double-decker, rigid or articulated. Selection of type has traditionally been made on a regional as well as operational basis. Depending on local policies, transit buses will usually have two, three or four doors to facilitate rapid boarding and alighting. In cases of low-demand routes, or to navigate small local streets, some models of minibus and small midibuses have been used as transit type buses; the development of the midibus has given many operators a low-cost way of operating a transit bus service, with some midibuses such as the Plaxton SPD Super Pointer Dart resembling full size transit type vehicles. Due to their public transport role, transit buses were the first type of bus to benefit from low-floor technology, in response to a demand for equal access public service provision.
Transit buses are now subject to various disability discrimination acts in several jurisdictions which dictate various design features applied to other vehicles in some cases. Due to the high number of high-profile urban operations, transit buses are at the forefront of bus electrification, with hybrid electric bus, all-electric bus and fuel cell bus development and testing aimed at reducing fuel usage, shift to green electricity and decreasing environmental impact. Developments of the transit bus towards higher capacity bus transport include tram-like vehicles such as guided buses, longer bi-articulated buses and tram-like buses such as the Wright StreetCar as part of Bus Rapid Transit schemes. Fare collection is seeing a shift to off-bus payment, with either the driver or an inspector verifying fare payments. A commuter or express bus service is a fixed-route bus characterized by service predominantly in on
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, surrounded by Alberta's central region; the city anchors the north end of what Statistics Canada defines as the "Calgary–Edmonton Corridor". The city had a population of 932,546 in 2016, making it Alberta's second-largest city and Canada's fifth-largest municipality. In 2016, Edmonton had a metropolitan population of 1,321,426, making it the sixth-largest census metropolitan area in Canada. Edmonton is North America's northernmost metropolitan area with a population over one million. A resident of Edmonton is known as an Edmontonian. Edmonton's historic growth has been facilitated through the absorption of five adjacent urban municipalities in addition to a series of annexations through 1982, the annexation of 8,260 ha of land from Leduc County and the city of Beaumont on January 1, 2019. Known as the "Gateway to the North", the city is a staging point for large-scale oil sands projects occurring in northern Alberta and large-scale diamond mining operations in the Northwest Territories.
Edmonton is a cultural and educational centre. It hosts a year-round slate of festivals, reflected in the nickname "Canada's Festival City", it is home to North America's largest mall, West Edmonton Mall, Fort Edmonton Park, Canada's largest living history museum. The earliest known inhabitants arrived in the area, now Edmonton around 3,000 BC and as early as 12,000 BC when an ice-free corridor opened as the last glacial period ended and timber and wildlife became available in the region. In 1754, Anthony Henday, an explorer for the Hudson's Bay Company, may have been the first European to enter the Edmonton area, his expeditions across the Canadian Prairies were to seek contact with the aboriginal population for establishing the fur trade, as the competition was fierce between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. By 1795, Fort Edmonton was established on the river's north bank as a major trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company; the new fort's name was suggested by John Peter Pruden after Edmonton, the hometown of both the HBC deputy governor Sir James Winter Lake, Pruden.
In 1876, Treaty 6, which includes what is now Edmonton, was signed between the Aboriginal peoples in Canada and Queen Victoria as Queen of Canada, as part of the Numbered Treaties of Canada. The agreement includes the Plains and Woods Cree and other band governments of First Nations at Fort Carlton, Fort Pitt, Battle River; the area covered by the treaty represents most of the central area of the current provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The coming of the Canadian Pacific Railway to southern Alberta in 1885 helped the Edmonton economy, the 1891 building of the Calgary and Edmonton Railway resulted in the emergence of a railway townsite on the river's south side, across from Edmonton; the arrival of the CPR and the C&E Railway helped bring settlers and entrepreneurs from eastern Canada, Europe, U. S. and other parts of the world. The Edmonton area's fertile soil and cheap land attracted settlers, further establishing Edmonton as a major regional commercial and agricultural centre; some people participating in the Klondike Gold Rush passed through South Edmonton/Strathcona in 1897.
Strathcona was North America's northernmost railway point, but travel to the Klondike was still difficult for the "Klondikers," and a majority of them took a steamship north to the Yukon from Vancouver, British Columbia. Incorporated as a town in 1892 with a population of 700 and as a city in 1904 with a population of 8,350, Edmonton became the capital of Alberta when the province was formed a year on September 1, 1905. In November 1905, the Canadian Northern Railway arrived in Edmonton. During the early 1900s, Edmonton's rapid growth led to speculation in real estate. In 1912, Edmonton amalgamated with the City of Strathcona, south of the North Saskatchewan River. Just before World War I, the boom ended, the city's population declined from more than 72,000 in 1914 to less than 54,000 only two years later. Many impoverished families moved to subsistence farms outside the city, while others fled to greener pastures in other provinces. Recruitment to the army during the war contributed to the drop in population.
Afterwards, the city recovered in population and economy during the 1920s and 1930s and took off again during and after World War II. The Edmonton City Centre Airport opened in 1929. Named Blatchford Field in honour of former mayor Kenny Blatchford, pioneering aviators such as Wilfrid R. "Wop" May and Max Ward used Blatchford Field as a major base for distributing mail and medicine to Northern Canada. World War II saw Edmonton become a major base for the construction of the Alaska Highway and the Northwest Staging Route; the airport was closed in November 2013. In 1892 Edmonton was incorporated as a town; the first mayor was Matthew McCauley, who established the first school board in Edmonton and Board of Trade and a municipal police service. Due to mayor McCauley's good relationship with the federal Liberals this helped Edmonton to maintain political prominence over Strathcona, a rival settlement on the south bank of the North Saskatche
Tram
A tram is a rail vehicle which runs on tramway tracks along public urban streets. The lines or networks operated by tramcars are called tramways; the term electric street railways was used in the United States. In the United States, the term tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tyred trackless trains, which are unrelated to other kinds of trams. Tram vehicles are lighter and shorter than main line and rapid transit trains. Today, most trams use electrical power fed by a pantograph sliding on an overhead line. In some cases by a contact shoe on a third rail is used. If necessary, they may have dual power systems—electricity in city streets, diesel in more rural environments. Trams carry freight. Trams are now included in the wider term "light rail", which includes grade-separated systems; some trams, known as tram-trains, may have segments that run on mainline railway tracks, similar to interurban systems. The differences between these modes of rail transport are indistinct, a given system may combine multiple features.
One of the advantages over earlier forms of transit was the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on steel rails, allowing the trams to haul a greater load for a given effort. Problems included the fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed and cared for day in and day out, produced prodigious amounts of manure, which the streetcar company was charged with disposing of. Electric trams replaced animal power in the late 19th and early 20th century. Improvements in other forms of road transport such as buses led to decline of trams in mid 20th century. Trams have seen resurgence in recent years; the English terms tram and tramway are derived from the Scots word tram, referring to a type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram derived from Middle Flemish trame; the identical word la trame with the meaning "crossbeam" is used in the French language. Etymologists believe that the word tram refers to the wooden beams the railway tracks were made of before the railroad pioneers switched to the much more wear-resistant tracks made of iron and steel.
The word Tram-car is attested from 1873. Although the terms tram and tramway have been adopted by many languages, they are not used universally in English; the term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, referred to horsecars. When electrification came, Americans began to speak of trolleycars or trolleys. A held belief holds the word to derive from the troller, a four-wheeled device, dragged along dual overhead wires by a cable that connected the troller to the top of the car and collected electrical power from the overhead wires. "Trolley" and variants refer to the verb troll, meaning "roll" and derived from Old French, cognate uses of the word were well established for handcarts and horse drayage, as well as for nautical uses. The alternative North American term'trolley' may speaking be considered incorrect, as the term can be applied to cable cars, or conduit cars that instead draw power from an underground supply. Conventional diesel tourist buses decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the US.
Furthering confusion, the term tram has instead been applied to open-sided, low-speed segmented vehicles on rubber tires used to ferry tourists short distances, for example on the Universal Studios backlot tour and, in many countries, as tourist transport to major destinations. The term may apply to an aerial ropeway, e.g. the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Although the use of the term trolley for tram was not adopted in Europe, the term was associated with the trolleybus, a rubber-tyred vehicle running on hard pavement, which draws its power from pairs of overhead wires; these electric buses, which use twin trolley poles, are called trackless trolleys, or sometimes trolleys. The New South Wales, government has decided to use the term "light rail" for their trams; the history of trams, streetcars or trolley systems, began in early nineteenth century. It can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used; the world's first passenger train or tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway, in Wales, UK.
The Mumbles Railway Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1804, horse-drawn service started in 1807. The service was restarted in 1860, again using horses, it was worked by steam from 1877, from 1929, by large electric tramcars, until closure in 1961. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was something of a one-off however, no street tramway would appear in Britain until 1860 when one was built in Birkenhead by the American George Francis Train. Street railways developed in America before Europe due to the poor paving of the streets in American cities which made them unsuitable for horsebuses, which were common on the well-paved streets of European cities. Running the horsecars on rails allowed for a much smoother ride. There are records of a street railway running in Baltimore as early as 1828, however the first authenticated streetcar in America, was the New York and Harle
