Tramways - Advantages, constraints and operation

This study, divided into 3 successive articles, first explains how this mode of transport almost disappeared completely from the urban landscape of certain countries, such as France, Great Britain and Spain, under pressure from the automobile lobby and in the absence of a considered vision of a long-term policy for moving people, in favor of a desire to give absolute priority to automobile traffic.

This article reviews :

• Tramway applications;

• its advantages ;

• the physical constraints of a project, particularly in terms of its integration into the urban fabric, with a review of the various civil engineering solutions currently in use;

• problems related to normal or degraded operation;

• safety rules ;

• driving the trains ;

• links with the centralized control room ;

• passenger information ;

• tramway-specific signage;

• online troubleshooting.

In the 2 other articles [C 4 442] and [C 4 443] , we will discuss :

• supplying the trains with electrical power;

• main modern tramway types in production by European manufacturers;

• the recent emergence of the tram-train concept, a marriage between the city streetcar and the country streetcar;

• the impact of this new means of transport on customer behaviour;

• the general organization of a tramway maintenance workshop.