Which rail transport system is more efficient for a city with a population between 100,000 and 200,000?

Question

heavy rail subway or a light rail metro?

Answer 1

It is one of the light rail systems. The modern ones are by far not as noisy as the old tram systems. There exists in France in a city of similar size (don´t remember the name of the city, sorry) a system on rubber wheels, wich talkes the electricity from underground lines. Those are switched on/off byy the tram in a way, that only the part directely below the tram has electricity. This means no danger to people crossing the street or to cars.

If you are further interested, look into the pages of

www.alstom.fr or com

www.siemens.com

www.caf.com or fr

Those are the main producers of light rail

Hope this helps to convince townhall!

For a wide acceptance, the trains must run every 15 minutes minimum, in peak hours 7.5 minutes!

Answer 2

Trams are best for smaller towns and cities. This is the case in Germany and other European countries.

In Germany the trams run on the road within towns and on reserved tracks between towns or in the suburbs of larger cities.

Traffic lights at junctions are arranged so that they give the trams priority. Also motorists must give way to passengers boarding and alighting. Motorists in Germany seem to accept this without complaint.

Trams are the most efficient urban mass transport carriers and are widely used, even in Germany which has a high level of car ownership. An intensive service combined with high capacity and cheap fares ensures their popularity as a means of getting around.

Underground systems work best for the major cities with populations of around 1 million or more, though these may have light rail on the surface as well, e.g. Cologne, Berlin.

Answer 3

wow, tough call but subways have to be horrendously expensive.

But then obtaining the property to build an entire new line would be almost impossible.

If there is above ground railroad or highway property or transportation corridors that would be the best and most efficient way by far.

Answer 4

Going just on efficiency, I would say a light rail metro is best everytime - it uses less power, is cheaper to install, and has considerably less infrastructure (i.e no platforms, escalators, elevators, etc.) if running at surface street level.

But there are other factors of course - noise nuisance can be greater with a metro, danger to other occupants of the city can also be greater (i.e hitting cars and pedestrians).

When all's said and done, really it depends upon the city and its layout as to what is best.

Answer 5

The Americans make a distinction between "light rail" and "streetcars" (a term that seems to be coming back that describes light light rail running either in street or in medians.)  That's what Fort Collins, Colorado and Fort Smith Arkansas do.

You could also do trolleybuses, works for Dayton Ohio.  

Find more examples here

http://world.nycsubway.org/us/index.html