1.
Tram
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A tram is a rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets, and also sometimes on a segregated right of way. The lines or networks operated by tramcars are called tramways, Tramways powered by electricity, the most common type historically, were once called electric street railways. However, trams were used in urban areas before the universal adoption of electrification. Tram lines may run between cities and/or towns, and/or partially grade-separated even in the cities. Very occasionally, trams also carry freight, Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than conventional trains and rapid transit trains, but the size of trams is rapidly increasing. Some trams may also run on railway tracks, a tramway may be upgraded to a light rail or a rapid transit line. For all these reasons, the differences between the modes of rail transportation are often indistinct. In the United States, the tram has sometimes been used for rubber-tired trackless trains. Today, most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph, in some cases by a sliding shoe on a third rail. If necessary, they may have dual power systems — electricity in city streets, trams are now included in the wider term light rail, which also includes segregated systems. The English terms tram and tramway are derived from the Scots word tram, referring respectively to a type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram probably derived from Middle Flemish trame, a Romanesque word meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, the identical word la trame with the meaning crossbeam is also used in the French language. 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, North Americans prefer streetcar, trolley, or trolleycar. The term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, and originally referred to horsecars, when electrification came, Americans began to speak of trolleycars or later, trolleys. The troller design frequently fell off the wires, and was replaced by other more reliable devices. The terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the troller, Modern trams often have an overhead pantograph mechanical linkage to connect to power, abandoning the trolley pole altogether. Conventional diesel tourist buses decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys in the US, the term may also apply to an aerial ropeway, e. g. the Roosevelt Island Tramway. Over time, the trolley has fallen into informal use
2.
RegioSprinter
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The RegioSprinter is a German diesel railcar built by Siemens-Duewag for rapid regional railway services. Originally the RegioSprinter was designated as a Regional Combustion-engined Railbus by Duewag AG, developed as prototypes for fast regional railway services on the plains, the RegioSprinter still has the fastest acceleration of any multiple unit or railbus in Germany. Due to several technical and conceptual defect, however, only few were built. Based on their experience with the Regiosprinter Siemens developed its successor, the Desiro, in 1999, all the Vogtlandbahn vehicles were converted to meet tramway regulations, in order to be able to transfer to a tram line in the centre of Zwickau. The vehicles are designed with three sections, in the two, single-axled end modules are the drivers cabs and the drive units like those on trams. In the middle is a twin-axled, unmotored module, two thirds of the vehicle has a low floor. The seats are arranged in a 2+3 configuration, there is no due to the short journey distances envisaged. Late the Vogtlandbahn had to fit all its vehicles with toilets, in 1995 the Dürener Kreisbahn bought a total of 17 RegioSprinter for the Rurtalbahn, which were deployed to the two sections of line radiating from Düren, replacing the Uerdingen railbuses. From 1996 the Vogtlandbahn bought a total of 18 vehicles for use on the lines from Zwickau to Adorf/Vogtl. because the completion of these routes was repeatedly delayed after their refurbishment, the new vehicles initially worked the line from Zwickau to Bad Brambach. At present the railbuses are in services on the following Vogtlandbahn lines, – Zwotental – Klingenthal – Kraslice VB2 Zwickau Hbf – Reichenbach ob Bf – Herlasgrün – Plauen ob Bf – Adorf/Vogtl. – Mehltheuer – Plauen ob Bf – Herlasgrün – Falkenstein/Vogtl, – Zwotental – Adorf Until the timetable change in December 2006 the Vogtlandbahns RegioSprinters were also on duty on the VB7 line between Schönberg/Vogtland and Schleiz West. Services on this route were withdrawn on 9 December 2006 by the public transport company of the free state of Thuringia. Moreover, in 2006 two of the railbuses were hired to the Prignitz railway, which used them on their lines in the western Ruhrgebiet due to a shortage of stock. In 1999 the Nærumbanen in the Copenhagen area bought four RegioSprinter railbuses, since 2002 operations have been run by Lokalbanen A/S, which took over several smaller railway companies in the Copenhagen area. The railbuses were owned at the time by the Hovedstadens Lokalbaner, which hired them to the LB
3.
Street running
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On-street running or street running is the routing of a railroad track or tramway track running directly along public streets, without any separation. The rails are embedded in the pavement, and the train shares the street directly with pedestrians. Trains generally travel at reduced speed for safety reasons, if there are stations on the section, they can appear similar in style to a tram stop, but often lack platforms, pedestrian islands, or other amenities. Passengers may be required to wait on a distant sidewalk, and then to board or disembark directly among mixed traffic in mid-pavement, rather than at curbside. Although bridges and tunnels are not streets, rails can still be embedded in the surface of bridges and this is also considered to be street running. This list does not include conventional tram, interurban, light rail or the tram portions of tram-train systems, over the Salto Grande Dam, between Concordia, Argentina and Salto, Uruguay. Bridge between Viedma, Río Negro and Carmen de Patagones, Buenos Aires, the North Coast main line runs down Denison Street in Rockhampton, Queensland carrying freight and passenger services. A sugar-cane railway runs down Mill Street, uruguaiana, almost 300 m. in the Vasco Alves street to reach the Paso de los Libres–Uruguaiana International Bridge. Notable examples in Canada include, Brantford, Ontario Clarence Street Guelph, Ontario Kent Street, CNR, near Mannheim, the Oberrheinische Eisenbahn and Rhein-Haardt-Bahn are street running through several villages. In Linkenheim, near Karlsruhe, the Hardt Railway was changed to BOStrab in 2011 for that reason, Road and rail share the Lindaunis Bridge in Schleswig-Holstein. Freight trains using the infrastructure of Rhein-Sieg-Verkehrsgesellschaft to the company Evonik in Niederkassel-Lülsdorf passing the village Sieglar are running inside the Pastor-Böhm-Straße, one of the most famous locations is when the steam-powered Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Toy train squeezes between narrow shop fronts down past a bazaar in India. Indonesia used to have an extensive steam tramways network, which had street running sections in various towns and cities in Java. Two sections remain in use in 2010, part of the Wonogiri branch runs along the Slamet Riyadi street in Surakarta, the earlier line sees both passenger and freight service, while the other line is exclusively for freight. Freight trains to and from the docks at Dublin share the Alexandra road with cars The Bernina Railway runs in the streets of Tirano, the Circumetnea ran until 1999 on the Corso delle Provincie in Catania. The Cremona–Iseo railway ran until 1956 in the street of Cavatigozzi. The Domodossola–Locarno railway started until the 1980s from the square of Domodossola. The Rivabahn was until 1981 a freight railway that ran into the city of Trieste along the seaside street, the Rome–Fiuggi railway runs completely along the Via Casilina in Rome. This railway serves as the only way of reaching Machu Picchu from Cusco without walking
4.
Heilbronn
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Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is surrounded by Heilbronn County and, with approximately 123,000 residents, the city on the Neckar is a former Imperial Free City and is the seat of Heilbronn County. Heilbronn is also the center of the Heilbronn-Franken region that includes most of northeast Baden-Württemberg. Heilbronn is known for its industry and is nicknamed Käthchenstadt. Heilbronn is located in the corner of the Neckar basin at the bottom of the Wartberg. It occupies both banks of the Neckar, and the highest spot inside city limits is the Schweinsberg with a height of 372 meters, Heilbronn is adjacent to Swabian-Franconian Forest Nature Park and is surrounded by vineyards. Heilbronn and its surroundings are located in the part of the larger Stuttgart metropolitan area. The city is the center of the Heilbronn-Franken region and is one of fourteen such cities in the Baden-Württemberg master plan of 2002. The city is divided into nine boroughs, The oldest traces of humans in, the fertile Neckar floodplains in the Heilbronn basin aided early settlement by farmers and ranchers. The city limits of present-day Heilbronn contain many sites of Bronze Age finds, later on, but still before AD, the Celts already mined here for salt from brine. Under Roman Emperor Domitian the Romans pushed east away from the Rhine, a castle in todays borough of Böckingen was part of that limes, and nearby numerous Roman villas and plantations were built. Around 260, the Romans surrendered the limes, and the Alamanni became rulers of the Neckar basin, between the 4th and 7th centuries, the area became part of the Frankish Empire, and the first settlement was built in the general vicinity of the present center of town. In 741 Heilbronn is first mentioned in a document of the Diocese of Würzburg as villa Helibrunna. The name Heilbrunna hints to a well that is located not far from the basilica, in 1225 Heilbronn was incorporated into the Hohenstaufen Empire as oppidum Heilecbrunnen. Oppidum signified a city fortified by parapet and trenches, later during the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights obtained ownership of a large area south of Heilbronn which would remain owned by that order until German Mediatisation in 1805. Starting in 1268, the built the Deutschhof there as one of its residences. After the demise of the Staufen dynasty, King Rudolf I returned city status to Heilbronn in 1281, in addition to the advocate he put a council in place that was headed up by a mayor. Around 1300, the first city hall was erected in the market place, the Neckar privilege gave the city the right to modify the flow of the river in 1333, which meant it now had the right to construct dams, harbors and mills
5.
Kassel RegioTram
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The RegioTram is a 184-kilometer tram-train light rail system in Kassel, Hesse, Germany. Kassels tram-train system follows the Karlsruhe model, and has been in operation since 2007. The operator of the RegioTram network was, until December 2013, RegioTram mbH, in addition, the Nordhessische Verkehrsverbund is involved in the organization of RegioTram. Since 9 December 2013, Kassels RegioTram is operated by a consortium of Kasseler Verkehrs-Gesellschaft, the implementation of the RegioTram project includes various interlocking measures to improve local public transport in Kassel. The core component of the Kassel RegioTram project is a newly created link between the two systems at the Kassel Hauptbahnhof. The development of the required to allow for a 30-minute headways on all lines will be implemented by 2014 at the earliest. Kassel is served by the four lines of the RegioTram system, RegioTram operates using 28 tramcars from Alstom RegioCitadis delivered in 2004. Similar vehicles of the model are also in use on RandstadRail in the Netherlands. Preliminary operations started on 10 June 2001, initially with six borrowed Saarbahn tramcars, thus, the previous regional railway timetable was now being served by the new vehicles. RegioTram operation with 30-minute headways was realized, RegioCitadis type vehicles manufactured by Alstom in Salzgitter were delivered in July 2004, and took over the operation on this line on 8 May 2005, the borrowed Saarbahn tramcars were then returned. This route is now served by RegioTram Line 3, starting on 29 January 2006, the first RegioTram operations began on the Kassel tram rail network itself. The hybrid RegioTram vehicles joined the tram tracks in the core of Kassel on the Lossetalbahn to Hessisch Lichtenau during peak hours. The diesel-electric vehicles used a route over the Waldkappel rail line between Ober- and Nieder-Kaufungen which is not electrified. This meant, in contrast to the trams which served all stops, in August 2007, the switch to the continuous use of conventional tramcar vehicles on this line was made. The former tram-train runs over the railway through Waldkappel were replaced by tram express trips that do not operate at all stops along the route. Starting 1 June 2006, RegioTram operations from Kassel Hauptbahnhof, through Baunatal, Guxhagen and Körle, to Melsungen and this RegioTram Line 5 runs alternately once and twice every hour. Operations between Kassel and Wolfhagen, through Ahnatal and Zierenberg, began on 10 December 2006 on RegioTram Line 4, between 16 September 2007 and the timetable change in December 2007, the RegioTram Line 9 operated in advance from Kassel Hauptbahnhof to Treysa. RegioTram routes in Kassel changed 19 August 2007,16 September 2007 and December 20097 from running to the Innenstadtring in downtown, the full development of the infrastructure to allow for a 30-minute headways on all lines will be implemented by 2014 at the earliest
6.
Alstom Citadis
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The Citadis is a family of low-floor trams and light rail vehicles built by Alstom. An evolution of Alstoms earlier TFS vehicle, most Citadis trams are made in Alstoms factories in La Rochelle, Reichshoffen and Valenciennes, France, and in Barcelona, Spain, also, Gaziantep bought second-hand TFSs from Rouen. The Citadis family includes both partial and fully low-floor trams and LRVs, in versions with three, five, seven, and nine sections, own Russian name according unifying system of rolling stock classification, 71-801. This train type can be built as a dual-voltage or electro-diesel vehicle with various configurations.5 to 5 km, a total of 31 sets have been ordered by the SNCF at an average cost of €3.2 million per train set. Like most trams, Citadis vehicles are powered by overhead electric wires collected by a pantograph. On the networks in France and in Sydney, the switch to conventional overhead wires in outer areas. Another option is to use batteries to store electrical power. The Citadis trams in Nice operate off a set of nickel metallic hydride batteries in two open spaces where overhead wires would be an eyesore
7.
Trams in Kassel
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The Kassel tramway network is a 93. 3-kilometer network of tramways, forming part of the public transport system in Kassel, a city in the north of the federal state of Hesse, Germany. As of 2014, the Kassel tram network is made up of seven regular tramlines, opened in 1877 as a steam tramway from Wilhelmshöhe the Königsplatz, the network has been operated since 1897 by Kasseler Verkehrs-Gesellschaft. The track gauge is 1,435 mm standard gauge, there existed also a narrow gauge network to the Hercules monument. The network was extended gradually into the area, partly as conventional tramways. In the summer of 1870 opened a horse-drawn omnibus line and it was part of an industrial exhibition from 1 June to 5 October 1870. The growth of the city made it attractive to operate a tram which was opened in 1877 by the English company Jay & Comp. With the first two locomotives and four passenger cars they brought visitors to the Royal Palace in Wilhelmshöhe. Soon other vehicles, including made by Henschel were added to the rolling stock. The Kassel steam train is considered to be the first tramway in Germany not pulled by horses, in 1881 the company was taken over by an other company from Berlin which invested into the transformation into an electric tram in 1897. The Hercules Rail was operated separately until 1927 bringing tourists to the Hercules monument, as of 2014, the Kassel tram network is made up of seven regular tramlines. In addition, Kassel is served by the four lines of the RegioTram system, until 190054 railcars were ordered at Van Zypen & Charlier and Crede. From 1955 to 1958 the railcar types 260, 261-288 desigend by Duewag and they were in regular service until 1991. Ten vehicles were given to Gorzow in Poland and later scrapped, other presented railcars are in two Dutch railway museums one in Hanover and one in Kassel. The next generation 301-317 and 351-366 was produced by Wegmann in Kassel in the 1960s, some of them still exist but are not in regular service any more. Kassel database / photo gallery at Phototrans – in various languages, including English
8.
Flexity Classic
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The Flexity Classic is a model of light-rail tram manufactured by Bombardier. Flexity Classic runs on standard gauge 1,435 mm as well as metre gauge 1,000 mm in Essen,1,450 mm in Dresden and 1,458 mm in Leipzig. It is used by a number of German cities, Norrköping and Stockholm, Sweden, in Kraków and Gdańsk, Flexity Classics were chosen to replace heritage trams used on the Glenelg tramline in Adelaide, Australia, as they are a proven design and have low maintenance requirements. The Flexity Classic’s closest competitors are Alstom’s Citadis, the Combino and Avanto from Siemens, in 2006, TransAdelaide now Public Transport Services as part of DTEI began to replace the H Type cars operating on their Glenelg tramway with a fleet of eleven Flexity Classic trams. The first of the new Flexitys was delivered to the Glengowrie depot in November 2005, delivery continued in small batches through 2006, with new trams operating the Glenelg line side-by-side with the H Type in the interim. They have a low floor throughout, except over the bogies. TransAdelaide continues to operate the Flexitys with roving conductors, although these are not now needed for operation of the cars. Unlike the H Type, Flexitys cannot be coupled into two-car sets at busy times, the internal layout is designed to accommodate wheelchairs and large numbers of standing passengers. The relative lack of seating, together with other minor teething problems, resulted in some adverse comments from commuters, the original unit 103 was destroyed during shipping. It is now held in storage at Transadelaides Glengowrie depot storage for spare parts, Bombardier subsequently delivered a replacement 103, and this was the final tram currently to be delivered. 4 more units 112 to 115 are on order and will enter service in a few years. The Flexity Classic XXL model was developed for the Dresden Transport Authority by the German factory Bombardier Transportation in Bautzen and it is 45 m long, runs on twelve axles and has a capacity of 260 passengers with 153 seats. The Flexity Classic XXL has, because of Dresdens altitude differences of 100 metres, the tram has been in service since 2003 and serves tram lines with a high peak load of passengers. The exterior is designed for the Dresden Transport Authority, which owns 43 trams. The Flexity Classic XXL is also in service in Leipzig, Germany with the Leipzig Transport Authority, although the exterior design is customized, the tram offers the same capacity. It has been in service since 2005, the LVB first ordered 12 trams of this type, then exercised an option for another 12 trams in September 2005 and a third batch of 9 was delivered in late 2011/early 2012
9.
Wolfhagen
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Wolfhagen is a town in the district of Kassel, in Hesse, Germany. It is located 12 km southeast of Bad Arolsen, and 23 km west of Kassel on the German Timber-Frame Road, in 1992, the town hosted the 32nd Hessentag state festival. The mayor Reinhard Schaake was elected in 1999, Schaake was reelected in 2005 and 2011
10.
Nordhausen
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Nordhausen is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Nordhausen district and the centre of northern Thuringia. Nordhausen is located approximately 60 km N of Erfurt,80 km W of Halle,85 km S of Braunschweig and 60 km E of Göttingen. Nordhausen was first mentioned in records in the year 927 and became one of the most important cities in central Germany during the later Middle Ages. The city is situated at Zorge river, a tributary of the Helme within the region of Goldene Aue at the southern edge of the Harz mountains. In the early 13th century, it became an imperial city, so that it was an independent. Due to its trade, Nordhausen was prosperous and influential. It was the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt, todays capital, and Mühlhausen, Nordhausen was once known for its tobacco industry and is still known for its distilled spirit, Nordhäuser Doppelkorn. Industrialization accompanied railway construction that linked the cities to major markets in the mid-19th century, in the late 19th century, narrow-gauge railways were constructed in this region through the Harz mountains. In December 1898 the Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railway Company or NWE added a line, the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways are maintained today by local authorities and frequented primarily by tourists. In the early 20th century, this became a center of the engineering, during World War II, the Nazi German government established and operated the nearby KZ Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where 60,000 forced labourers had to work in the arms industry. They were prisoners of war and persons from occupied territories, some 20,000 persons died because of the bad conditions. In April 1945, most of the city was destroyed by Royal Air Force bombings, most of the historic buildings of the city were destroyed, it suffered the most damage during the war of any city in Thuringia. A week later the United States troops occupied the city, followed later by the Soviet Red Army. The city was within the Soviet zone of occupation, and later the territory was known as East Germany, hundreds of German scientists and their families from Nordhausen were among thousands deported to the Soviet Union after the war to work on advanced rocket and other arms engineering projects. Nordhausen is the birthplace of the famous mathematician Oswald Teichmüller, known for his work on the Teichmüller spaces – which were named after him. It is the site of the Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences, the Franks colonized the area around Nordhausen about 800, many place names here have a Frankish origin, discernible by the suffix -hausen. Nordhausen itself is first mentioned in a 13 May 927 document of King Henry the Fowler and he built a castle here, which is traceable between 910 and 1277 and became a centre of the empire during the 10th century
11.
Combino
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The Combino is a low-floor tram produced by Siemens Mobility. The first prototype was produced in 1996 at the Duewag works in Düsseldorf, due to its modular design using standardised components, and the resulting reduced costs, the Combino was for a time one of the most successful tram types. They were sold to 12 jurisdictions and a development was sold to two others. In 2007, a new generation of Combinos was sold to Bern and was known as the Combino XL and this was an updated version of the original design and was intended to correct defects in the original design. Subsequently, the model was renamed and is now known as the Avenio M.14 of these were produced in 2011 with 12 going to Erfurt. The Siemens line has been complemented by a new design of trams called the Avenio, unlike the Combino, it does not have suspended sections but rather two axles under each body section. In essence, it is like a train of two axle cars, as of 2014, the Avenio is on order for The Hague and Munich. Around 500 trams went into service in the cities, Twenty-two trams were ordered by Verona, Italy. The length of the trams varies from 19 metres to a world record 54 metres, all versions are designed to have a 300-millimetre floor height and a 10-tonne axle load. It can be built as a one-way or a two-way vehicle, the only city to receive the DuoCombino was Nordhausen, Germany. They usually take 600V DC overhead power and convert this to 400V 3-phase AC power for the regenerative low wear motors via 3 IGBT PWM inverters, on board controls, lighting and air conditioning run at 24V DC. Torsion forces generated in S-curves were much higher than anticipated, leading to cracks around the articulations between the car modules, subsequently, hairline cracks were found in the joints of the aluminium bodies, which could cause the roof to collapse in the case of an accident. The problem was acute in Combino cars that had run more 150,000 km. These flaws were reported in cities that had adopted the Siemens-Combinos, such as Düsseldorf, Freiburg, Augsburg, Erfurt, Hiroshima, Nordhausen, Basel, Potsdam, Bern, Amsterdam. Siemens launched a process of rebuilding the 454 modules affected. Under this process the Combino modules were reinforced to give an expected 30-year life, in 1997, the public transportation authorities of the city of Potsdam were the first to purchase Combino cars. The advantages of its technology were stressed during the introduction. A total of 48 cars were to be bought through 2009, the order from Potsdam was of great importance for advertising the Combino in other cities
12.
Harz Narrow Gauge Railways
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The Harz Narrow Gauge Railways is a railway company that operates a 1,000 mm metre-gauge network in the Harz mountains, in central Germany. The company was formed after the Second World War as a merger of two earlier companies and it owns about 140 kilometres of track, connecting the principal towns of Wernigerode, Nordhausen and Quedlinburg and several smaller settlements in the area. Much of the network is steeply graded and picturesque, but its most popular destination is the Brocken, the company runs a significant number of its trains with steam haulage, mostly employing 1950s vintage 2-10-2 tank locomotives, hauling traditional open-platform bogie carriages. The company is owned by the various local authorities whose territories it serves. It was owned by the Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway Company or GHE, in the years that followed, the line was extended and the network enlarged. The GHE network included the lines from Gernrode to Harzgerode, Hasselfelde. Because the line followed a section of the valley of the Selke, another pet name was the Anhalt Harz Railway. In 1896 a second company was entered into the commercial register that wanted to build a narrow gauge railway through the Harz. On 22 December 1898 the Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railway Company or NWE opened special services on the line from Wernigerode to the Brocken, the so-called Trans-Harz Railway from Wernigerode via Drei Annen Hohne to Nordhausen was fully opened to traffic on 27 March 1899. After the Second World War the entire network fell within the Soviet Zone of Occupation, the GHE and NWE were subordinated to the East German Deutsche Reichsbahn in on 1 April 1949. Shareholders in the HSB are the districts of Harz and Nordhausen, the communes along the railways, the town of Quedlinburg, the municipality of Tanne and its head office is in Wernigerode, where its workshops and locomotive depot are located. Today the HSB has the longest single network of narrow gauge railway in Germany, with a length of 140.4 km,44 stations. Its trains run daily to a timetable and it more than ten steam locomotives, seven diesel railbuses. The best-known line is the Brocken Railway which is worked by steam locomotive-hauled trains to a scheduled timetable running from via Drei Annen Hohne to the Brocken. Regional services between Nordhausen and Ilfeld, on the hand were transferred to diesel railbuses and trams. In addition the HSB still operates regular goods trains from Hartsteinwerk Unterberg to Nordhausen Übergabebahnhof using diesel locomotives of Class 199.8, on 1 May 2004 a link line was opened in Nordhausen between the Nordhausen Tramway and the Trans-Harz Railway. Since then, the tramway between Nordhausen Hospital and the HSB halt of Ilfeld-Neanderklinik has been worked by electric and hybrid vehicles of the Combino duo class. On the Trans-Harz Railway, motive power is diesel-electric, the trams being equipped with a diesel engine
13.
Standard gauge
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The standard gauge is a widely used railway track gauge. Approximately 55% of the lines in the world are this gauge, all high-speed rail lines, except those in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Finland, are standard gauge. The distance between the edges of the rails is defined to be 1435 mm except in the United States. It is also called the UIC gauge or UIC track gauge, as railways developed and expanded, one of the key issues was the track gauge to be used. The result was the adoption throughout a large part of the world of a gauge of 1435 mm. In North East England, some lines in colliery areas were 4 ft 8 in. All these lines had been widened to standard gauge by 1846, parts of the United States, mainly in the Northeast, adopted the same gauge, because some early trains were purchased from Britain. However, until well into the half of the 19th century, Britain. The American gauges converged as the advantages of equipment interchange became increasingly apparent, notably, all the 5 ft broad gauge track in the South was converted to standard gauge over the course of two days beginning on 31 May 1886. See Track gauge in the United States, snopes categorized this legend as false, but commented that. It is perhaps more fairly labelled as True, but for trivial, the historical tendency to place the wheels of horse-drawn vehicles approximately 5 feet apart probably derives from the width needed to fit a carthorse in between the shafts. Others were 4 ft 4 in or 4 ft 7 1⁄2 in, the English railway pioneer George Stephenson spent much of his early engineering career working for the coal mines of County Durham. He favoured 4 ft 8 in for wagonways in Northumberland and Durham, the Hetton and Springwell wagonways also used this gauge. Stephensons Stockton and Darlington railway was primarily to transport coal from mines near Shildon to the port at Stockton-on-Tees. The initial gauge of 4 ft 8 in was set to accommodate the existing gauge of hundreds of horse-drawn chaldron wagons that were already in use on the wagonways in the mines. The railway used this gauge for 15 years before a change was made to 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge, George Stephenson used the 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in gauge for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, authorised in 1826 and opened 30 September 1830. The success of this led to Stephenson and his son Robert being employed to engineer several other larger railway projects. Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, authorised 1824 and opened 1825, used 4 ft 6 in, Dundee and Newtyle Railway, authorised 1829 and opened 1831, used 4 ft 6 1⁄2 in
14.
Dual gauge
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A dual-gauge railway is a line of track that provides for trains of two separate track gauges. A mixed-gauge railway provides for more than two gauges, but is also a term sometimes used to denote dual-gauge. A dual-gauge track configuration usually consists of three rails, two rails, one for each gauge, plus a common rail--although at times, commonality is not possible. In an ordinary three-rail dual-gauge configuration, the two adjacent outer rails give provide each of the gauges, while the outer rail is common to trains of both gauges operating over it. This configuration is not to be confused with the electric current traction rail or a check or guard rail, in railways, the most important specification is that of rail gauge, the distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of the travel rails. A problem arises when different gauges outside of this tolerance meet one another, in allowing railway tracks of different gauges to share the same alignment, costs can be reduced, and infrastructure shared, e. g. platforms, bridges and tunnels etc. Dual gauge can replace two separate tracks by sharing one common running rail and one of the two outer rails which determine the gauge. However, there are complications and costs involved that may offset the savings. One issue is that points are more complex, and therefore more expensive, arrangements are necessary to ensure trains of both gauges can be safely signalled, track circuits and mechanical interlocking where provided must be operated through the common rail. Also, the rail will have an increased wear and tear over the other separate gauge rails. The following pairs of gauges can be dual-gauged without problem, standard gauge and 1,676 mm,3 ft and 3 ft 6 in, and 5 ft and 6 ft. Standard gauge and 1,600 mm can also be dual-gauged, albeit with lighter, narrow-footed rails and this last combination is of particular historical interest, as it was of strategic significance during World War II. If three-rail dual gauge is impossible, four-rail gauntlet track dual-gauge has to be used, the complications and difficulties outlined illustrate the benefits of standardised railway gauges, where possible. Alternatively the rails may be too light for the loads imposed by broader-gauge railcars, such potential problems can rule out dual-gauge as a feasible option, unless heavier rails are installed. Dual-gauge lines in Java were regauged from 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in to 3 ft 6 in during the Japanese administration in 1942-1943, regauging occurred only on the relatively short Brumbung-Kedungjati-Gundih main line and the Kedungjati-Ambarawa branch line, as the rest of the line was already dual-gauge. In Los Angeles the 3 ft 6 in Los Angeles Railway, the Colorado and Southern Railway had both standard and narrow gauge trackage, and had dual-gauge track between Denver, Colorado and Golden, until 1941. Similarly, a section of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroads Alamosa-Durango Line from Alamosa, the East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company formerly had considerable dual-gauge trackage in its Mount Union, Pennsylvania yard. Alaska and British Columbia are proposing dual gauge,1,435 mm standard gauge and 914 mm, track so that a narrow gauge tourist train and standard gauge ore trains can share the right of way
15.
Light rail
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Light rail, light rail transit or fast tram is urban public transport using rolling stock similar to a tramway, but operating at a higher capacity, and often on an exclusive right-of-way. A few light rail networks tend to have closer to rapid transit or even commuter rail. Other light rail networks are tram-like in nature and partially operate on streets, Light rail systems are found throughout the world, on all inhabited continents. They have been popular in recent years due to their lower capital costs. The term light rail was coined in 1972 by the U. S, Urban Mass Transportation Administration to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany the term Stadtbahn was used to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt the direct translation, however, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead. Light in this context is used in the sense of intended for light loads and fast movement, the infrastructure investment is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system. The Transportation Research Board defined light rail in 1977 as a mode of urban transportation utilizing predominantly reserved, electrically propelled rail vehicles operate singly or in trains. LRT provides a range of passenger capabilities and performance characteristics at moderate costs. Light rail is a generic international English phrase for these types of rail systems, the use of the generic term light rail avoids some serious incompatibilities between British and American English. The word trolley is used as a synonym for streetcar in the United States. A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams except Blackpool after World War II, when these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both the old and new systems. Conventional rail technologies including high-speed, freight, commuter/regional, and metro/subway/elevated urban transit systems are considered heavy rail, people movers and personal rapid transit are even lighter, at least in terms of capacity. Monorail is a technology that has been more successful in specialized services than in a commuter transit role. Due to varying definitions, it is hard to distinguish between what is called light rail, and other forms of urban and commuter rail, a system described as light rail in one city may be considered to be a streetcar or tram system in another. Conversely, some lines that are called light rail are in very similar to rapid transit, in recent years. Some light rail systems, such as Sprinter, bear little similarity to urban rail, in the United States, light rail has become a catch-all term to describe a wide variety of passenger rail systems. There is a significant difference in cost between these different classes of light rail transit, tram-like systems are often less expensive than metro-like systems by a factor of two or more
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Public transport
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Public transport modes include city buses, trolleybuses, trams and passenger trains, rapid transit and ferries. Public transport between cities is dominated by airlines, coaches, and intercity rail, high-speed rail networks are being developed in many parts of the world. Most public transport runs to a timetable, with the most frequent services running to a headway. Share taxis offer services in many parts of the world. Paratransit is sometimes used in areas of low demand and for people who need a door-to-door service, there are distinct differences in urban public transit between Asia, North America, and Europe. In Asia, mass transit operations are run by profit-driven privately owned and publicly traded mass transit. In North America, mass transit operations are run by municipal transit authorities. In Europe, mass transit operations are run by both state-owned and private companies. Public transport services can be profit-driven by use of pay-by-the-distance fares or funded by government subsidies in which flat rate fares are charged to each passenger. Services can be profitable through high ridership numbers and high farebox recovery ratios, or can be regulated. Fully subsidized, zero-fare services operate in some towns and cities, for geographical, historical and economic reasons, there are differences internationally regarding use and extent of public transport. It has 3,400 members from 92 countries, conveyances designed for public hire are as old as the first ferries, and the earliest public transport was water transport, on land people walked or rode an animal. Ferries appear in Greek mythology—corpses in ancient Greece were buried with a coin underneath their tongue to pay the ferryman Charon to take them to Hades, the omnibus was introduced to London in July 1829. The first passenger railway opened in 1806, it ran between Swansea and Mumbles in southwest Wales in the United Kingdom. In 1825 George Stephenson built the Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in northeast England, the usability of different types of public transport, and its overall appeal, can be measured by seven criteria, although they overlap somewhat. These are speed, comfort, safety, cost, proximity, speed is calculated from total journey time including transfers. Proximity means how far passengers have to walk or otherwise travel before they can begin the public transport leg of their journey, timeliness is how long they have to wait for the vehicle. Directness records how far a journey using public transport deviates from the shortest route, an airline provides scheduled service with aircraft between airports
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Rail transport
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Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, also known as tracks. It is also referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a flat surface. Tracks usually consist of rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger. The operation is carried out by a company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway system or produce their own power. Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system, Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. The oldest, man-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC, with Periander, one of the Seven Sages of Greece, Rail transport blossomed after the British development of the steam locomotive as a viable source of power in the 19th centuries. With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution, also, railways reduced the costs of shipping, and allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships. The change from canals to railways allowed for markets in which prices varied very little from city to city. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, and also the first tramways, starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being almost complete by 2000. During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan, other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. The history of the growth, decline and restoration to use of transport can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used. The earliest evidence of a railway was a 6-kilometre Diolkos wagonway, trucks pushed by slaves ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element. The Diolkos operated for over 600 years, Railways began reappearing in Europe after the Dark Ages. The earliest known record of a railway in Europe from this period is a window in the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany
18.
Karlsruhe model
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The Karlsruhe model is a tram-train system which consists tram/light rail trains and commuter/regional rail trains running on the same set of tracks, generally between or outside of urban areas. It was initially developed and implemented in the city of Karlsruhe, Germany by the transit authority. Commencing service in 1992, the system in Karlsruhe has provided a connection between the railway network and the citys local tram network. The whole system is now called the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, passengers may travel from distant towns such as Baden-Baden directly into the city centre of Karlsruhe, bridging the inconvenient distance between the main station and the city centre. For most trips, the number of transfers has been reduced significantly. This model has led to the creation of similar systems in other locations. Zwickau, Germany has reversed the Karlsruhe model by extending Lightweight RegioSprinter diesel trains from the main-line railway onto the street tramway as TrainTrams. Karlsruhe, The Karlsruhe model of a railway system from SURBAN - database on sustainable urban development in Europe by the European Academy of the Urban Environment
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Mulhouse
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Mulhouse is a city and commune in eastern France, close to the Swiss and German borders. Mulhouse is the commune of the 33 making up the communauté dagglomération Mulhouse Alsace Agglomération. Mulhouse is famous for its museums, especially the Cité de l’Automobile, an industrial town nicknamed the French Manchester, Mulhouse is also the main seat of the Upper Alsace University, where the secretariat of the European Physical Society can be found. Mulhouse is the city of an arrondissement of the Haut-Rhin département. Legends mention the origin of the town in 58 BC, and it was part of the southern Alsatian county of Sundgau in the Holy Roman Empire. From 1354–1515 Mulhouse was part of the Décapole, an association of ten Free Imperial Cities in Alsace, the city joined the Swiss Confederation as an associate in 1515 and was therefore not annexed by France in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 like the rest of the Sundgau. Starting in the middle of the century, the Koechlin family pioneered cotton cloth manufacturing. André Koechlin built machinery and started making railroad equipment in 1842, the firm in 1839 already employed 1,800 people. After the Prussian victory in the Franco-Prussian War Mulhouse was annexed to the German Empire as part of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine. The city was occupied by French troops on 8 August 1914 at the start of World War I. The citizens of Alsace who unwisely celebrated the appearance of the French army, were left to face German reprisals, after World War I ended in 1918, French troops entered Alsace. Germany ceded the region to France under the Treaty of Versailles, after the Battle of France in 1940, it was occupied by German forces until returned to French control at the end of the war in May 1945. The towns development was stimulated first by the expansion of the industry and tanning. Mulhouse was for a time called the French Manchester. In consequence, the town has enduring links with Louisiana, from which it imported cotton, the towns history also explains why its centre is relatively small. Two rivers run through Mulhouse, the Doller and the Ill, Mulhouse is approximately 100 kilometres away from Strasbourg and Zürich, it is 350 km away from Milan and about 340 km from Frankfurt. It is close enough to Basel, Switzerland and Freiburg, Germany to share the EuroAirPort international airport with two cities. Medieval Mulhouse consists essentially of a lower and an upper town, the lower town was formerly the inner city district of merchants and craftsmen
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Kassel
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Kassel is a city located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the Kreis of the same name and has 200,507 inhabitants in December 2015. The former capital of the state of Hesse-Kassel has many palaces and parks, including the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel is also known for the documenta exhibitions of contemporary art. The citys name is derived from the ancient Castellum Cattorum, a castle of the Chatti, Kassel was first mentioned in 913 AD, as the place where two deeds were signed by King Conrad I. The place was called Chasella and was a fortification at a crossing the Fulda river. A deed from 1189 certifies that Cassel had city rights, in 1567, the Landgraviate of Hesse, until then centered in Marburg, was divided among four sons, with Hesse-Kassel becoming one of its successor states. Kassel was its capital and became a centre of Calvinist Protestantism in Germany, strong fortifications were built to protect the Protestant stronghold against Catholic enemies. Secret societies, such as Rosicrucianism flourished, with Christian Rosenkreutz’s work Fama Fraternitis first published in 1617, in 1685, Kassel became a refuge for 1,700 Huguenots who found shelter in the newly established borough of Oberneustadt. Landgrave Charles, who was responsible for this act, also ordered the construction of the Oktagon. In the early 19th century, the Brothers Grimm lived in Kassel and they collected and wrote most of their fairy tales there. At that time, around 1803, the Landgraviate was elevated to a Principality, shortly after, it was annexed by Napoleon and in 1807 it became the capital of the short-lived Kingdom of Westphalia under Napoleons brother Jérôme. The Electorate was restored in 1813, having sided with Austria in the Austro-Prussian War to gain supremacy in Germany, the principality was annexed by Prussia in 1866. The Prussian administration united Nassau, Frankfurt and Hesse-Kassel into the new Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, Kassel ceased to be a princely residence, but soon developed into a major industrial centre, as well as a major railway junction. Henschel & Son, the largest railway locomotive manufacturer in Germany at the end of the century, was based in Kassel. In 1870, after the Battle of Sedan, Napoleon III was sent as a prisoner to the castle of Wilhelmshohe above the city, during World War I the German military headquarters were located in the castle of Wilhelmshohe. In the late 1930s Nazis destroyed Heinrich Hübschs Kassel Synagogue, the most severe bombing of Kassel in World War II destroyed 90% of the downtown area, some 10,000 people were killed, and 150,000 were made homeless. Most of the casualties were civilians or wounded soldiers recuperating in local hospitals, Karl Gerland replaced the regional Gauleiter, Karl Weinrich, soon after the raid. The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Kassel at the beginning of April 1945, post-war, most of the ancient buildings were not restored, and large parts of the city area were completely rebuilt in the style of the 1950s
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Interurban
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The interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like light electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. They were prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. Limited examples existed in Europe and Asia, Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, and the cars that ran on the rails. The interurban, especially in the United States, was a cultural institution. Most roads and town streets were unpaved, and transportation was by horse-drawn carriages, the interurban provided vital transportation links between the city and countryside. In 1915,15,500 miles of railways were operating in the United States. For a time, interurban railways were the fifth-largest industry in the United States, by 1930, most interurbans were gone, with few surviving into the 1950s. The term interurban was coined by Charles L. Henry, a senator in Indiana. The Latin, inter urbes, means between cities, the interurban fit on a continuum between urban street railways and full-fledged railroads. George W. Hilton and John F, Due identified four characteristics of an interurban, Electric power for propulsion. Passenger service as the primary business, equipment heavier and faster than urban streetcars. Operation on tracks in city streets, and in areas on roadside tracks or private right-of-way. The definition of interurban is necessarily blurry, there was a large amount of consolidation of lines following initial construction. In 1905 the United States Census Bureau defined an interurban as a railway having more than half its trackage outside municipal limits. It drew a distinction between interurban and suburban railroads, a suburban system was oriented toward a city center in a single urban area and served commuter traffic. A regular railroad moved riders from one city center to city center. The typical interurban similarly served more than one city, but it served a smaller region and made frequent stops. The 1880s and saw the first successful deployments of electric traction in streetcar systems, most of these built on the pioneering work of Frank J. Sprague, who developed an improved method for mounting an electric traction motor and using a trolley pole for pickup
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Alicante Tram
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The Alicante Tram, trademarked as Alicante Metropolitan TRAM, operates in the Spanish city of Alicante and its surrounding area. Like other narrow gauge railways in the Valencian Community, it is run by Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana and it was inaugurated on 15 August 2003 replacing narrow-gauge diesel trains between Alicante and El Campello. There has been a history of urban rail service in Alicante. The tram service began on 13 July 1893 and the network was expanding to Mutxamel, Elche and Crevillent. Since 1903 the trams were carried as well by the power of steam engine, the electrification of tram lines began in 1923. In 1920s and 30s the network was expanded throughout the city and was extensively used in 1940s. In 1950s, due to costs of electricity, trams were gradually losing the competition against growing automobile services. Thirty years later, on 13 March 1999 the trams were back with the inauguration of a route between Plaza del Mar and Albufereta that was extended to El Campello in 2003. The network comprises the lines, L1, limited-stop service from Alicante city centre to Benidorm. In Benidorm it connects with line L9 to Dénia, L2, from the city centre to the General Hospital of Alicante, the University of Alicante and San Vicente del Raspeig. L3, stopping service from Alicante to El Campello, L4, from the city centre to a loop in Playa de San Juan district. 4L, from Alicante port, discontinued 30 June 2013, Puerta del Mar through the site of the former FGV Railway station of La Marina to Sangueta, where it used to connect with Lines L1, L3, and L4. L9, from Benidorm along the coast to Dénia, stopping at other important tourist towns like Altea, services are subject to disruption due to engineering works as the line is prepared for electrification. Lines L1, L2, L3 and L4 share the city centre section between MARQ and the city centre Luceros station. The Mercado station on the segment was opened on 10 May 2007, the underground section has been constructed to continue westward to Estació Multimodal serving the Adif station. Line L2, using the underground stretch as lines L1, L3 and L4. There are plans to extend the tram-train service southwards to Alicante Airport, El Altet, Elche, Gran Alacant, Santa Pola, Guardamar, according to the local press it seems unlikely that any of these extensions will be built in the near future due to lack of funds. Underground stations ground stations overpasses and viaducts Tram Alicante official website Alacant On Rails - Blog about news, updates, and tram project projects in the city of Alicante
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Train stop
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The train stop system comprises two basic components. One is the trip arm mechanism, mounted on the adjacent to the rail. The other is the trip cock, which is connected either directly or electrically to the trains braking system. The trip arm is raised automatically whenever a train should be brought to a halt, when the signalling system determines it is safe for the train to proceed, the motor drives the trip arm down to the lowered position. The time taken for the arm to rise or be lowered is approximately two seconds, the mechanical train stops have been found to be relatively safe with their historic models from the 19th century to be still in use in the 21st century. Because of the quadratic force increments in relation to speed these mechanical systems are restricted to low speed applications and their continued usage can be found in urban rapid transit systems with trains making no more than 100 km/h. Whereas later contactless train stops require a receiver on the train to initiate the emergency stop the mechanical stops have initially been kicking the brakes directly. Because the trip arm may hit the brake lever directly there have been installations that every wagon of a train has a trip cock on each bogie that has brakes. Hence in some installations the trip arm will be folded back to the position only a few seconds after a signal has turned red in order to reduce wear. Because of wear the trip arms for the direction on the same rail will be actuated along with the trip arm for the nominal direction. Like many early systems a mechanical train stop does not inherently control speed, there were accidents where trains had overrun the overlap due to excessive speed. These expensive speed control systems are generally phased out in favour of a cab control computer that can check a braking curve while approaching a signal. If a train tries to pass the signal, the cock on the train strikes the raised trip arm. When the signal indicates it is safe to proceed, the arm is lowered. With a timed train stop, the trip arm stays raised until the train has shunted a track circuit on the approach for a period of time corresponding to a set speed. If the train approaches at a higher than the one that is set. If the train approaches at an equal to or lower than the set speed, the trip arm lowers before the train arrives. Some timed train stops require the driver to acknowledge a stimulus before the arm is lowered on a yellow signal
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Hobart
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Hobart is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. It is the least populated state capital in Australia, founded in 1803 as a penal colony, Hobart is Australias second oldest capital city after Sydney, New South Wales. The modern history of Hobart dates to its foundation as a British colony in 1803, prior to British settlement, the area had been occupied for possibly as long as 35,000 years, by the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe, a sub-group of the Nuennone, or South-East tribe. The descendants of the indigenous Tasmanians now refer to themselves as Palawa, Hobart has experienced both booms and busts over its history. In the later years of the 20th century, migrants arrived to settle in Hobart from Asia. In June 2015, the city had an area population of approximately 221,000. The city is located in the states south-east on the estuary of the Derwent River and its harbour forms the second-deepest natural port in the world. Its skyline is dominated by the 1, 271-metre kunanyi/Mount Wellington, the metropolitan area is often referred to as Greater Hobart, to differentiate it from the City of Hobart, one of the five local government areas that cover the city. The first European settlement began in 1803 as a colony at Risdon Cove on the eastern shores of the Derwent River. In 1804 it was moved to a location at the present site of Hobart at Sullivans Cove. The city, initially known as Hobart Town or Hobarton, was named after Lord Hobart, the British secretary of state for war, the areas indigenous inhabitants were members of the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe. Charles Darwin visited Hobart Town in February 1836 as part of the Beagle expedition, I was chiefly struck with the comparative fewness of the large houses, either built or building. Hobart Town, from the census of 1835, contained 13,826 inhabitants, the Derwent River was one of Australias finest deepwater ports and was the centre of the Southern Ocean whaling and sealing trades. The settlement rapidly grew into a port, with allied industries such as shipbuilding. Hobart Town became a city on 21 August 1842, and was renamed Hobart from the beginning of 1881, Hobart is located on the estuary of the Derwent River in the states south-east. Geologically Hobart is built predominantly on Jurassic dolerite around the foothills interspersed with areas of Triassic siltstone. Both of these areas rest on the younger Jurassic dolerite deposits, before stretching into the areas such as the beaches of Sandy Bay in the south. South of the Derwent estuary lies Storm Bay and the Tasman Peninsula, the Eastern Shore also extends from the Derwent valley area in a southerly direction hugging the Meehan Range in the east before sprawling into flatter land in suburbs such as Bellerive
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Tasmania
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Tasmania is an island state of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is located 240 km to the south of the Australian mainland, the state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of around 519,100, just over forty percent of which resides in the Greater Hobart precinct, Tasmanias area is 68,401 km2, of which the main island covers 64,519 km2. Though an island state, due to an error the state shares a land border with Victoria at its northernmost terrestrial point, Boundary Islet. The Bishop and Clerk Islets, about 37 km south of Macquarie Island, are the southernmost terrestrial point of the state of Tasmania, the island is believed to have been occupied by Aboriginals for 40,000 years before British colonisation. It is thought Tasmanian Aboriginals were separated from the mainland Aboriginal groups about 10,000 years ago when the sea rose to form Bass Strait. The conflict, which peaked between 1825 and 1831 and led to more than three years of law, cost the lives of almost 1100 Aboriginals and settlers. The near-destruction of Tasmanias Aboriginal population has been described by historians as an act of genocide by the British. The island was part of the Colony of New South Wales. In 1854 the present Constitution of Tasmania was passed and the year the state received permission to change its name to Tasmania. In 1901 it became a state through the process of the Federation of Australia, the state is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who made the first reported European sighting of the island on 24 November 1642. Tasman named the island Anthony van Diemens Land after his sponsor Anthony van Diemen, the name was later shortened to Van Diemens Land by the British. It was officially renamed Tasmania in honour of its first European discoverer on 1 January 1856, Tasmania was sometimes referred to as Dervon, as mentioned in the Jerilderie Letter written by the notorious Australian bushranger Ned Kelly in 1879. The colloquial expression for the state is Tassie, Tasmania is also colloquially shortened to Tas, especially when used in business names and website addresses. TAS is also the Australia Post abbreviation for the state, the reconstructed Palawa kani language name for Tasmania is Lutriwita. The island was adjoined to the mainland of Australia until the end of the last glacial period about 10,000 years ago, much of the island is composed of Jurassic dolerite intrusions through other rock types, sometimes forming large columnar joints. Tasmania has the worlds largest areas of dolerite, with many distinctive mountains, the central plateau and the southeast portions of the island are mostly dolerite. Mount Wellington above Hobart is an example, showing distinct columns known as the Organ Pipes
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River Line (NJ Transit)
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The River Line is a diesel tram-train light rail system in southern New Jersey, United States, that connects the cities of Camden and Trenton, New Jerseys capital. It is operated for New Jersey Transit by the Southern New Jersey Rail Group, now that the project is in its operational phase, Bombardier is the only member of SNJRG. The River Line is so named because the path between two cities runs more or less parallel to the Delaware River. During this time, there were 2,869,707 unlinked passenger trips, the River Line was constructed on what originally was the Camden-Bordentown section and the Bordentown-Trenton Branch of the Camden & Amboy Railroad. The lines ran under the C&A name between 1830 and 1871, when the line was absorbed into the Pennsylvania Railroad, ownership proceeded under Penn Central and Conrail until June 1,1999, but the original passenger service had been abandoned in 1963. The path to NJ Transits River Line spanned at least three decades and over multiple planning agencies and this plan was considered unrealistically expensive. The DRPA elected to focus its resources on the most promising corridor, the DRPAs original initial proposal did not include the alignment that became the River Line corridor, but planned to serve Burlington County via the Mount Holly alignment. NJ Transits planning for the Burlington-Gloucester Transit System began in the early 1990s and this study included substantial public participation, fourteen open houses, three advisory committees, and other public outreach. The process found substantial neighborhood opposition to the Mount Holly alignment through Burlington County, county freeholders publicly opposed the possibility, opposition was particularly strong in Moorestown Township, partly because of a potential street-running section. Meanwhile, Gloucester County leaders were largely ambivalent towards the project, Haines, a native of Moorestown, sought the benefits of rail for Burlington County without the disruption to his hometown. Two special studies were commissioned to supplement the alternatives identified in the MIS, the second of these special studies examined the Bordentown Secondary, another Conrail corridor through Burlington County, the alignment of today’s River Line. The parallel NJ Transit local bus on U. S. Route 130 was heavily patronized, since the original intent of the Mount Holly service was to provide transit to the people of Burlington County, the belief was that the new alignment would achieve a similar objective. In November 1996, NJ Transits board of directors approved a rail transit alignment from Glassboro to Trenton with diesel light rail transit cars based on the findings of the Special Study. The entire alignment constitutes the Southern New Jersey Light Rail Transit Study project, the Board also established the Initial Operating Corridor to be the Trenton-Camden corridor. The draft environmental statement was completed in 1998, and the contract with SNJRG was finalized in 1999. Much of the impetus that led to the funding and construction of the River Line was, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. He was in effect the father of the River Line, the entire line was 100 percent funded by the State of New Jersey from its Transportation Trust Fund. No federal capital was expended for this light rail project
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New Jersey
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New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state but the 11th-most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies entirely within the statistical areas of New York City. New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, in the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. New Jersey was the site of decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century. In the 19th century, factories in cities such as Camden, Paterson, Newark, Trenton, around 180 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, New Jersey bordered North Africa. The pressure of the collision between North America and Africa gave rise to the Appalachian Mountains, around 18,000 years ago, the Ice Age resulted in glaciers that reached New Jersey. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind Lake Passaic, as well as rivers, swamps. New Jersey was originally settled by Native Americans, with the Lenni-Lenape being dominant at the time of contact, scheyichbi is the Lenape name for the land that is now New Jersey. The Lenape society was divided into clans that were based upon common female ancestors. These clans were organized into three distinct phratries identified by their animal sign, Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf and they first encountered the Dutch in the early 17th century, and their primary relationship with the Europeans was through fur trade. The Dutch became the first Europeans to lay claim to lands in New Jersey, the Dutch colony of New Netherland consisted of parts of modern Middle Atlantic states. Although the European principle of ownership was not recognized by the Lenape. The first to do so was Michiel Pauw who established a patronship called Pavonia in 1630 along the North River which eventually became the Bergen, peter Minuits purchase of lands along the Delaware River established the colony of New Sweden. During the English Civil War, the Channel Island of Jersey remained loyal to the British Crown and it was from the Royal Square in St. Helier that Charles II of England was proclaimed King in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I. The North American lands were divided by Charles II, who gave his brother, the Duke of York, the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony. James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had remained loyal through the English Civil War, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton, the area was named the Province of New Jersey. Since the states inception, New Jersey has been characterized by ethnic, New England Congregationalists settled alongside Scots Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed migrants
28.
Alicante
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It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 328,648, estimated as of 2015, including nearby municipalities, the Alicante conurbation had 452,462 residents. The population of the area was 757,085 as of 2014 estimates. The name of the city echoes the Arabic name Laqant or Al-Laqant, the area around Alicante has been inhabited for over 7000 years. The first tribes of hunter-gatherers moved down gradually from Central Europe between 5000 and 3000 BC, some of the earliest settlements were made on the slopes of Mount Benacantil. The town of Leuce Akra was then founded by Greek settlers from Marseille around 325/324 b. C, by the 3rd century BC, the rival armies of Carthage and Rome began to invade and fight for control of the Iberian Peninsula. The Carthaginian general Hamilcar Barca established the settlement of Akra Leuka. Although the Carthaginians conquered much of the land around Alicante, the Romans would eventually rule Hispania Tarraconensis for over 700 years. By the 5th century AD, Rome was in decline and the Roman predecessor town of Alicante, however neither the Romans nor the Goths put up much resistance to the Arab conquest of Medina Laqant in the 8th century. The Moors ruled southern and eastern Spain until the 13th century Reconquista, Alicante was finally taken in 1246 by the Castilian king Alfonso X, but it passed soon and definitively to the Kingdom of Valencia in 1298 with King James II of Aragon. It gained the status of Royal Village with representation in the medieval Valencian Parliament and this act cost the region dearly, with so many skilled artisans and agricultural labourers gone, the feudal nobility found itself sliding into bankruptcy. The end of the 19th century witnessed a sharp recovery of the economy with increasing international trade. During the early 20th century, Alicante was a capital that enjoyed the benefit of Spains neutrality during World War I. The Rif War in the 1920s saw numerous alicantinos drafted to fight in the long, the political unrest of the late 1920s led to the victory of Republican candidates in local council elections throughout the country, and the abdication of King Alfonso XIII. The proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic was much celebrated in the city on 14 April 1931, the Spanish Civil War broke out on 17 July 1936. The late 1950s and early 1960s saw the onset of a transformation of the city by the tourist industry. New construction benefited the economy, as the development of the tourism sector also spawned new businesses such as restaurants, bars. When Franco died in 1975, his successor Juan Carlos I played his part as the symbol of the transition of Spain to a democratic constitutional monarchy
29.
Badner Bahn
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The Badner Bahn or Wiener Lokalbahn is a tram-train service in the metropolitan area of Vienna. It runs for 30.4 kilometres between Vienna and Baden, and is operated by the Wiener Lokalbahnen Aktiengesellschaft, the entire Badner Bahn is part of the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region and is one of the most important passenger services owned by WLB. In 2013,35,000 passengers per day used the service, starting from the Vienna State Opera, the service uses the tracks of Viennas tram network as far as the Schedifkaplatz tram stop in the Meidling district. These tracks are owned and maintained by Wiener Lokalbahnen, since 14 December 2014, there is a new train station at the state clinical center in Baden. Despite its addition to the route, the length of a journey could be kept at 62 minutes, most trainsets currently in use are class 100 high-floor units built between 1979 and 1993 by Simmering-Graz-Pauker. 26 of these were ordered, and 2 discharged in 2010 because of problems obtaining replacement parts, although it would be technically possible to use trains consisting of up to three class 100 units, there are currently only single-unit and double-unit trains. Additionally, there are 14 low-floor class 400 units built between 2000 and 2010 by Bombardier in operation, media related to Badner Bahn at Wikimedia Commons Website of Wiener Lokalbahnen
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Vienna
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Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
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Cagliari light rail
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Cagliari light rail, commercially known as Metrocagliari, is a light rail line that serves the town of Cagliari and part of its metropolitan area, in Sardinia, Italy. It was inaugurated in 2008, after the renovation and the modernization of the narrow gauge railway system that operated in the urban area of Cagliari. In February 2015 the line 1 has been extended to the Policlinico-University Campus, line 2 connects Gottardo to Settimo San Pietro. Cagliari had a system between 1893 to 1973. At its maximum extents it had 6 lines, una rete di metrotranvia per lArea Vasta di Cagliari. Accordo di programma per la metropolitana dellArea vasta di Cagliari
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Cagliari
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Cagliari is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliaris Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle and it has about 150,000 inhabitants, while its metropolitan city has more than 431,000 inhabitants. According to Eurostat, the population of the Functional urban area, Cagliari is the 26th largest city in Italy and the largest city on the island of Sardinia. An ancient city with a history, Cagliari has seen the rule of several civilisations. Under the buildings of the city there is a continuous stratification attesting to human settlement over the course of some five thousand years. Cagliari was the capital of the Kingdom of Sardinia from 1324 to 1848, today the city is a regional cultural, educational, political and artistic centre, known for its diverse Art Nouveau architecture and several monuments. It is also the seat of the University of Cagliari, founded in 1607, the Cagliari area has been inhabited since the Neolithic. It occupies a position between the sea and a fertile plain and is surrounded by two swamps. There are high mountains nearby, to people could evacuate if the settlement had to be given up. Relics of prehistoric inhabitants were found in the hill of Monte Claro, krly was established around the 8th/7th century BC as one of a string of Phoenician colonies in Sardinia, including Tharros. Its founding is linked to its position along communication routes with Africa as well as to its excellent port, the Phoenician settlement was located in the Stagno di Santa Gilla, west of the present centre of Cagliari. This was also the site of the Roman Portus Scipio, other Phoenician settlements have been found at Cape SantElia. In the late 6th century BC Carthage took control of Sardinia, Cagliari was a fortified settlement in what is now the modern Marina quarter, with an annexed holy area in the modern Stampace. Sardinia and Cagliari came under Roman rule in 238 BC, shortly after the First Punic War, at other times it was also the Romans chief naval station on the island, and the residence of the praetor. The Romans built a new settlement east of the old Punic city, the two urban agglomerations merged gradually during the second century B. C. to this process is perhaps attributable the plural form Carales. A few years later, when Sardinia fell into the hands of Menas, the lieutenant of Sextus Pompeius, Caralis was the city which offered any resistance. Cagliari continued to be regarded as the capital of the island under the Roman Empire, remains of Roman public buildings were found to the west of Marina in Piazza del Carmine. There was an area of housing near the modern Via Roma
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Chemnitz
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Chemnitz, known from 1953 to 1990 as Karl-Marx-Stadt, is the third-largest city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county, located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is part of the Central German Metropolitan Region. The citys economy is based on the sector and manufacturing industry. Chemnitz University of Technology has around 10,000 students, Chemnitz is named after the river Chemnitz, a small tributary of the Zwickau Mulde. The word Chemnitz is from the Sorbian language, and means stony, the word is composed of the Slavic word kamen meaning stone and the feminine suffix -ica. It is known in Czech as Saská Kamenice and in Polish as Kamienica Saska, there are many other towns named Kamenica or Kamenice in areas with past or present Slavic settlement. An early Slavic tribes settlement was located at Kamienica, and the first documented use of the name Chemnitz was the 1143 site of a Benedictine monastery around which a settlement grew, circa 1170 Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor granted it the rights of an imperial city. In 1307, the town became subordinate to the Margraviate of Meissen, in medieval times, Chemnitz became a centre of textile production and trade. More than one third of the worked in textile production. By the early 19th century Chemnitz had become an industrial centre, in 1913, Chemnitz had a population of 320,000 and, like Leipzig and Dresden, was larger at that time than today. After losing inhabitants due to the first World War Chemnitz grew rapidly again, before the world economic crises, it was supposed that the city would keep on growing and would become a Millionenstadt by incorporating also fast growing smaller towns and municipalities around it. During World War II, Chemnitz contained factories that produced military hardware, 2/3–5 March, USAAF bombers attacked the marshalling yards. 5 March,760 RAF bombers attacked, the headquarters of the auto manufacturer Auto Union were also based in Chemnitz since 1932 and its buildings were also badly damaged. At the end of the war, the companys executives fled and relocated the company in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, the World War II bombings left most of the city in ruins, and post-war, the East German reconstruction included large low rise housing. Some tourist sites were reconstructed during the East German era and after German reunification and it was occupied by Soviet troops on 8 May 1945. After dissolution of the states in the GDR in 1952, Chemnitz became seat of a district, on 10 May 1953, the city was renamed by decision of the East German government to Karl-Marx-Stadt after Karl Marx. GDR Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl said, The people who live here, do not look back and they look with love and devotion to the founder of the socialist doctrine, the greatest son of the German people, to Karl Marx. I hereby fulfill about the governments decision, I carry out the solemn act of renaming the city and declare, From now on, this city bears the proud name and mandatory Karl-Marx-Stadt
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Karlsruhe
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Karlsruhe is the second-largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg, in southwest Germany, near the French-German border. It has a population of 307,755, the city is the seat of the two highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice. Its most remarkable building is Karlsruhe Palace, which was built in 1715, the city lies at an altitude between 100 m and 322 m. Its geographical coordinates are 49°00′N 8°24′E, the 49th parallel runs through the city centre and its course is marked by a stone and painted line in the Stadtgarten. Almost all of these survived until today. The city centre is the oldest part of town and lies south of the palace in the quadrant defined by nine of the radial streets, the central part of the palace runs east-west, with two wings, each at a 45° angle, directed southeast and southwest. The market square lies on the street running south from the palace to Ettlingen, the area north of the palace is a park and forest. The area west of the palace is now mostly residential, Karlsruhe experiences an oceanic climate and its winter climate is milder, compared to most other German cities. Summers are also hotter than elsewhere in the country and it is one of the sunniest cities in Germany, precipitation is almost evenly spread throughout the year. In 2008, the station in Karlsruhe, which had been operating since 1876, was closed, it was replaced by a weather station in Rheinstetten. A variation of this claims that he built the new palace in order to find peace from his wife. Charles William founded the city on June 17,1715, after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, the founding of the city is closely linked to the construction of the palace. Karlsruhe became the capital of Baden-Durlach and in 1771 of the united Baden until 1945, built in 1822, the Ständehaus was the first parliament building in a German State. In the aftermath of the revolution of 1848, a republican government was elected here. Karlsruhe was visited by Thomas Jefferson during his time as the American envoy to France, Jefferson passed to him maps of 12 European towns to consult, one of which was a sketch he had made of Karlsruhe during his visit. In 1860, the international professional convention of chemists, the Karlsruhe Congress, was held in the city. Much of the area, including the palace, was reduced to rubble by Allied bombing during World War II but was rebuilt after the war. Located in the American zone of the post-war Allied occupation, Karlsruhe was home to an American military base, in 1995, the bases closed, and their facilities were turned over to the city of Karlsruhe
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15 kV AC railway electrification
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The 15 kV,16.7 Hz AC railway electrification system is used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. The high voltage enables high power transmission with the lower frequency reducing the losses of the motors that were available at the beginning of the 20th century. In particular, the Gotthard Base Tunnel still uses 15 kV,16.7 Hz electrification, the first electrified railways used series-wound DC motors, first at 600 V and then 1,500 V. Areas with 3 kV DC catenaries used two 1,500 V DC motors in series, but even at 3 kV, the current needed to power a heavy train can be excessive. Although increasing the voltage decreases the current and associated resistive losses for a given power. Transformers on each locomotive are thus required to step high transmission voltages down to practical motor operating voltages, because transformers require alternating current, high voltage electrified railways adopted AC along with the electric power distribution system. The 50 Hz AC grid was established at the beginning of the 20th century. Although series-wound motors can in principle run on AC as well as DC large series-wound traction motors had problems with high frequencies. High inductive reactance of the motor windings caused commutator flashover problems, using a lower AC frequency alleviated both problems. In the German-speaking countries, high-voltage electrification began at 16 2⁄3 hertz, for example, a generator turning at 1,000 rpm would be wound with two poles rather than six. Norway also has two power plants dedicated for railway power with 16 2⁄3 hertz output. This was solved by shifting the frequency slightly away from exactly ⅓ the grid frequency,16.7 hertz was arbitrarily chosen to remain within the tolerance of existing traction motors. Austria, Switzerland and Southern Germany switched their power plants to 16.7 Hz on 16 October 1995 at 12,00 CET. Note that regional electrified sections run by synchronous generators keep their frequency of 16 2⁄3 Hz just as Sweden, low frequency transformers need to have heavier magnetic cores and larger windings for the same level of power conversion. The heavier transformers also lead to higher loads than for those of a higher frequency. This, in turn, leads to increased wear and increases the need for more frequent track maintenance. The Czech Railways encountered the problem of the power handling of lower frequency transformers when they rebuilt some 25 kV AC,50 Hz locomotives to operate on 15 kV AC,16.7 Hz lines. Most other countries electrified their railways at the utility frequency of 50/60 Hz, newer European electrification is mostly 25 kV AC at 50 Hz
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Diesel generator
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A diesel generator is the combination of a diesel engine with an electric generator to generate electrical energy. This is a case of engine-generator. A diesel compression-ignition engine often is designed to run on fuel oil, proper sizing of diesel generators is critical to avoid low-load or a shortage of power. Sizing is complicated by the characteristics of modern electronics, specifically non-linear loads, the packaged combination of a diesel engine, a generator and various ancillary devices is referred to as a generating set or a genset for short. Set sizes range from 8 to 30 kW for homes, small shops and these units, referred to as power modules are gensets on large triple axle trailers weighing 85,000 pounds or more. A combination of these modules are used for power stations and these may use from one to 20 units per power section. In these larger sizes the power module are brought to site on trailers separately and are connected together with large cables, ships often also employ diesel generators, sometimes not only to provide auxiliary power for lights, fans, winches etc. but also indirectly for main propulsion. With electric propulsion the generators can be placed in a convenient position, electric drives for ships were developed prior to World War I. Such a diesel-electric arrangement is used in some very large land vehicles such as railroad locomotives. The expected duty as well as environmental conditions must also be considered, most of the larger generator set manufacturers offer software that will perform the complicated sizing calculations by simply inputting site conditions and connected electrical load characteristics. One or more diesel generators operating without a connection to a grid are referred to as operating in island mode. Operating generators in parallel provides the advantage of redundancy, and can provide efficiency at partial loads. The plant brings generator sets online and takes them off line depending on the demands of the system at a given time. An islanded power plant intended for primary power source of a community will often have at least three diesel generators, any two of which are rated to carry the required load. Groups of up to 20 are not uncommon, generators can be electrically connected together through the process of synchronization. Synchronization involves matching voltage, frequency and phase before connecting the generator to the system, failure to synchronize before connection could cause a high short circuit current or wear and tear on the generator or its switchgear. The synchronization process can be done automatically by an auto-synchronizer module, the auto-synchronizer will read the voltage, frequency and phase parameters from the generator and busbar voltages, while regulating the speed through the engine governor or ECM. Load can be shared among parallel running generators through load sharing, a diesel generator will take more load when the fuel supply to its combustion system is increased, while load is released if fuel supply is decreased
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Mulhouse tramway
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The Mulhouse tramway is a tram network in the French city of Mulhouse in Alsace, France. It commenced service in 2006, and now comprises three purely tram lines, plus one hybrid tram-train line, extensions are currently planned for line 1, from Châtaignier to Bosquets du Roy, and for line 2, from Nouveau Bassin to Jonquilles. The network is electrified at 750 V DC using overhead power collection, services are provided by a fleet of 2732 m long Alstom Citadis 302 trams. Both the network and the trams are operated by Soléa, who operate the citys bus network. The tram-train line runs from Gare Central to Thann, with an extension to Kruth. The line follows the tracks of lines 2 from Gare Central to Porte Jeune. Here it diverges onto a 4.2 kilometres section of new tram track built parallel to the Paris–Mulhouse main line railway as far as Lutterbach. This line, which is a mixture of single and double track, at Lutterbach, a connection is made to the existing railway line to Thann and Kruth. This line has been electrified at 25 kV AC as far as Thann St Jacques and it carries both the tram-train service and an SNCF diesel railcar service to Kruth, which uses the main railway line between Lutterbach and Gare Central. Freight trains also run at night, however no timescales are currently set for this. The tram-train service uses 1236.68 m long Siemens Avanto tram-trains and these units were financed, and are owned, jointly by the Alsace region and the MAA. The drivers come from SNCF and Soléa, the line as far as Lutterbach is Soléas responsibility, with the SNCF taking responsibility from there to Thann and Kruth. Trams in France List of town tramway systems in France Soléa – official website
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Sassari
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Sassari is an Italian city and the second-largest of Sardinia in terms of population with 127,525 inhabitants, and a Functional Urban Area of about 222,000 inhabitants. One of the oldest cities on the island, it contains a collection of art. As Sardinias second most populated city, and the fifth largest municipality in Italy, it has an amount of cultural, touristic. The citys economy relies on tourism and services, however also partially on research, construction, pharmaceuticals. Sassari is located in north-western Sardinia, at 225 metres above sea level, the area rises up on a wide karstic plateau that slopes gently down towards the Gulf of Asinara and the Nurra plain. The abundance of water, with about 400 springs and artesian wells, has made for development of horticulture over the centuries. According to a survey by Weatherwise, Sassari is the city with the fourth best climate in the world. Although Sassari was founded in the early Middle Ages, the area has been inhabited since the Neolithic age, and throughout ancient history, by the Nuragics. In the locality of Fiume Santo is also found a site where an Oreopithecus bambolii. The origin of the city remains uncertain and it developed from the merger of a number of separate villages, such as San Pietro di Silki, San Giacomo di Taniga, and San Giovanni di Bosove. The oldest mention of the village is in an 1131 document in the archive of the Monastery of St. Peter in Silki where is cited a guy named Jordi de Sassaro, Sassari was sacked by the Genoese in 1166. Immigration continued until, in the early 13th century, it was the most populous city in the Giudicato of Torres, after the assassination of Michele Zanche, the latters last ruler in 1275, Sassari became subject to the Republic of Pisa with a semi-independent status. Its statutes of 1316 are remarkable for the leniency of the penalties imposed when compared with the laws of the Middle Ages. From 1323 the Republic of Sassari decided to side with the King of Aragon, in whose hands it remained for much of the following centuries, further attempts made by Genoa to conquer the city failed. In 1391 it was conquered by Brancaleone Doria and Marianus V of Arborea, of the independent Sardinian Giudicato of Arborea, of which it became the last capital. However, in 1420 the city was sold along with the territory for 100,000 florins to the Crown of Aragon, replaced by Spain after 1479 on the joining of the Aragonese. During the period of Aragonese and then Spanish domination the city was known as Sàsser in Catalan language, the Jesuits founded the first Sardinian university in Sassari in 1562. In the same year the first printing press was introduced and the ideals of Renaissance humanism became more widely known, several artists of the Mannerist and Flemish schools practiced their art in the city
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Karlsruhe Stadtbahn
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The Stadtbahn combines an efficient urban railway in the city with an S-Bahn, overcoming the boundary between trams/light railways and heavy railways. Its logo does not include the green and white S-Bahn symbol used in other German suburban rail systems and this idea, known as the Karlsruhe model or tram-train, has been adapted by other European cities. The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn is operated in co-operation by Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft, Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe and Deutsche Bahn, the two urban transport operators, VBK and AVG, operate most services, while DB is responsible for the sections from Pforzheim and Bretten to Bietigheim-Bissingen. As of 2013, AVG quotes the size of the part of the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn system that is not operated by DB as 262.4 kilometres and these lines are electrified at 750 V DC, Stadtbahn Line S2. A combination of tram line sections within urban Karlsruhe and the lines of the AVG, electrified at 750 V DC, Stadtbahn Lines S1. Pure rail operations on DB and AVG tracks, electrified at 15 kV AC, Stadtbahn Lines S31, S32, S-Bahn line S3 between Germersheim, Speyer, Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, Heidelberg and Bruchsal and Karlsruhe is controlled by RheinNeckar S-Bahn, not by the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. It is operated by DB Regio with Class 425 EMUs, Karlsruhe attempted to create of a network of street and interurban tram lines for the development of the surrounding countryside, modelled on the Oberrheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft. However, by the middle of the century there had been little lasting achievement due to the difficult economic times in between. The Alb Valley Railway was connected to the system and electrified as a tramway. The success of the Alb Valley Railway encouraged the Karlsruhe planners in the 1960s to connect the surrounding outskirts by a modern tram/stadbahn system as well. For this it negotiated with Deutsche Bundesbahn to use the Hardt Railway, sharing with the goods traffic. In 1986 and 1989 the Stadbahn was extended north to Leopoldshafen and Linkenheim-Hochstetten and to the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, since the remaining goods traffic was hauled by diesel locomotives, the electrification of the line with the tramway’s 750 V DC system did not cause technical problems. Apart from the Stadtbahn line Hochstetten–Karlsruhe–Alb Valley, a further Stadtbahn line and this line connects the northeast with the southwest suburbs. This line included single-track sections in the streets of the local centres of Blankenloch, Forchheim. This route through the centres was preferred to a route on the edge of these localities or in a tunnel because it was seen as promoting development. Therefore, shared operations over the railway lines was considered, although they were electrified, at least in sections. In 1992, Stadtbahn operations between Karlsruhe and Bretten-Gölshausen started on the Kraichgau Railway, the tram and rail networks were linked by building a connecting line between Durlacher Allee and Grötzingen station. This connecting line also contains the equipment that controls the change between the two electrification systems, the unexpected success of the new Stadtbahn line between Karlsruhe and Bretten led to an accelerated development of the Stadtbahn system in the 1990s
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Zwickau
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Zwickau (German pronunciation, Sorbian, Šwikawa, Czech Cvikov, is a town in Saxony, Germany, it is the capital of the district of Zwickau. Zwickau is situated in a valley at the foot of the Erzgebirge mountains and is within the Saxon triangle, the town has approximately 100,000 inhabitants, but has a regional catchment area of over 480,000 people. From 1834 until 1952 Zwickau was the seat of the government of the region of Saxony. Zwickau, known as the city of automobiles, is the centre of the Saxon automotive industry, well known beyond Germanys borders are car makers such as Horch, Audi, Auto Union, Trabant and Volkswagen. Since 2000 its history has been presented in the August-Horch Museum, the University of Applied Sciences Zwickau trains automotive engineers. The valley of the 166 kilometres long Zwickauer Mulde river stretches from the Vogtland to Colditz Castle at the other end, the Silver Road, Saxonys longest tourist route, connects Dresden with Zwickau. The ADAC City Guide 2005 wrote, The town of Zwickau has transformed itself over the years from a mining town into an elegant Art Nouveau town. Zwickau can be reached by car via the nearby Autobahns A4 and A72, the region around Zwickau was settled by Slavs as early as the 7th century. The name Zwickau is probably a Germanisation of the Sorbian toponym Šwikawa, which derives from Svarozič, in the 10th century, German settlers began arriving and the native Slavs were Christianized. A trading place known as terretorio Zcwickaw was mentioned in 1118, the settlement received a town charter in 1212 and hosted Franciscans and Cistercians during the 13th century. Zwickau was an imperial city from 1290–1323, but was subsequently granted to the Margraviate of Meissen. Although regional mining began in 1316, extensive mining increased with the discovery of silver in the Schneeberg in 1470, because of the silver ore deposits in the Erzgebirge, Zwickau developed in the 15th and 16th centuries and grew to be an important economic and cultural centre of Saxony. Its nine churches include the Gothic church of St. Mary, with a spire 285 ft. high, the church contains an altar with wood carvings, eight paintings by Michael Wohlgemuth and a pietà in carved and painted wood by Peter Breuer. The late Gothic church of St. Catharine has an altar piece ascribed to Lucas Cranach the elder, the town hall was begun in 1404 and rebuilt many times since. The municipal archives include documents dating back to the 13th century, in 1520 Martin Luther dedicated his treatise On the Freedom of the Christian Man to his friend Hermann Muehlpfort, the Lord Mayor of Zwickau. The Anabaptist movement of 1525 began at Zwickau under the inspiration of the Zwickau prophets, after Wittenberg, it became the first city in Europe to join the Lutheran Reformation. The late Gothic Gewandhaus, was built in 1522–24 and is now converted into a theatre, the city was seriously damaged during the Thirty Years War. The old city of Zwickau, perched on a hill, is surrounded by heights with extensive forests, in the Old Town the Cathedral and the Gewandhaus originate in the 16th century and when Schneeberg silver was traded
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Railbus
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Railbuses designed for use specifically on little-used railway lines were commonly employed in countries such as Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and Sweden. Today railbuses are being replaced by modern light DMU railcar designs, british Rail produced a variety of railbuses as a means both of building new rolling stock cheaply, and to provide services on lightly used lines economically. A variety of known as Pacers, which were constructed in the 1980s, are still in common use today. The Great Northern Railway of Ireland produced railbuses at the Railway Works in Dundalk and these were followed after the Second World War by the eventually ubiquitous Uerdingen railbuses which generally ran in pairs and were a predecessor of the modern diesel multiple units. A number of accidents in Germany in the late 1970s involving Schienenbus resulted in the development and specification of larger. The DB Class 628 series exemplifies the contemporary German diesel railcar and this type of car replaced the Schienenbus and locomotive-hauled train consists where possible on branch-line and main-line assignments during the 1980s and 1990s. The Schienenbus has virtually disappeared from regular service, but its rail diesel car successors are prevalent. A new-generation DMUs third in succession after the Schienenbus, are now being ordered by the hundreds by its diversity and the variety of modular design combinations. In 1937 the NSW Department of Railways added six four-wheel streamlined rail buses to serve on branch lines in Cowra. Powered by a Ford V8 engine, they were given the designation FP1 to FP6, when the railbus service wasnt popular, several of the buses became mobile pay cars used to pay railway employees at stations and working on tracks. In December 1941 one of these railbuses was destroyed when dynamite was placed on tracks near Yanderra. The three-man crew of the railbus were killed in the explosion, though £2000 of loose cash was taken, the safe in the railcar could not be opened by the robbers. No one was prosecuted for the offence, the first railbus, FP1 has been restored where it is on display at New South Wales Rail Transport Museum in Thirlmere, New South Wales. Locally manufactured TecnoTren railbuses are in use around Argentina, most notably on the University train of La Plata and they are mostly used in rural parts of the country where the tracks have not yet been repaired and thus cant handle the weight of regular trains. In Queensland, Australia, RailBus service refers to the bus service running parallel to portions of railway lines. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, railbuses are used on less frequented rural lines, most railbuses are based on a former ČSD M152.0 diesel multiple unit, also known as ČD/ŽSR Class 810. Indian Railways operate many Railbuses and amongst it, one runs from Kolar to Bangarpet, a railbus plies between Mathura and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh. Another from kakinada to kotipalli in andhra pradesh, on August 5,2012 the first Batara Kresna Railbus service in Indonesia is launched to accommodate a part of commuter Prameks Train passengers from Solo to Yogyakarta City v. v through Sukoharjo
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Capital MetroRail
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Capital MetroRail is a commuter rail system that serves the Greater Austin area in Texas, and which is owned by the Capital Metro. The Red Line, Capital Metros first and only rail line, the line operates on 32 miles of existing freight tracks, and serves nine stations. After a series of delays, Capital MetroRail was inaugurated in March 2010, daily ridership during the first nine months was approximately 800 riders per weekday, although it had doubled to 1,600 by its first anniversary. Capital Metro added additional runs during midday beginning in mid-January 2011, Capital Metro added Friday evening and Saturday afternoon and evening regularly scheduled service on March 23,2012. Advocates of modern urban rail began calling on the city of Austin to develop a rail system at the height of the 1970s energy crisis. When voters approved Capital Metros creation in 1985, the agency was not only as the new operator of local bus services. The purchase price was $9.3 million, of which $6 million came from a grant from the Federal Transit Administration, $0.6 million came from the City of Austin and $2.7 million came from Capital Metro. On May 20,1998, Capital Metro acquired the City of Austins share in the railroad for $1 million, during the 1990s, Capital Metro faced persistent bad publicity that resulted from dysfunctional management and poor accountability. After years of inaction on passenger rail, the Texas Legislature in 1997 stepped in, in response, Capital Metro drew up an ambitious plan for a $1.9 billion, 52-mile system that included a north-south Red Line and an east-west Green Line. The 2000 proposal was defeated by 2,000 votes, with most of central Austin voting in favor. Capital Metro came back in 2004 with a significantly scaled-down version of its 2000 plan that it hoped voters in Travis County, the 2004 version was approved by 62% of voters in the service area. MetroRail was presented to voters as part of the All Systems Go Long-Range Transit Plan, which also included expanded local and express bus service. The organization at the said they could have the system built by 2008 for a cost of $60 million. About $30 million of that cost, they said, would come from the federal government, however, Capital Metro never officially sought the federal money and revealed in 2010 it has spent $105 million on the systems construction, not $90 million as originally suggested. Additionally, the original 2008 launch date for Capital MetroRail was postponed two years due to safety and construction issues. Service on Capital MetroRail finally began on March 22,2010, because of safety issues, on December 9,2009, Capital Metro terminated its contract with Veolia Transportation and renegotiated a contract with Herzog Transit Services. The line also passes through Cedar Park, northwest Austin, north-central Austin, the annual cost to operate the RedLine is $14.3 million. Although it provides a rail service, MetroRail uses tram-train operation, with semi-frequent services
