Why cant trams run on railways other than different gauge or voltage.?

Question

Thinking why they don,t use the dissused railways to improve or even restart tram systems in the UK.

I believe in parts of europe they do utilise the same tracks.

Answer 1

They have. The Tyneside Metro was, I think, the first system to replace  'heavy rail' when British Rail as it then was) wanted to close down the worn out Tyneside local system. Much of the Manchester Metro system also uses former heavy rail lines, as do the West Midlands, Sheffield and Nottigham systems and a small part of Croydon Tramlink. The Manchester system has just received the go ahead to convert lines to Oldham. Remember, however, that tram systems only have an advantage when they run through the city streets, like a bus service, and that is expensive, involving much temporary disruption (as the citizens of Edinburgh are shortly to find out when Princes Street is closed for the building of that city's tram system). Newcastle made the mistake, I think, of going underground, which gioves the inconvenience for passengers of having to go up and down stairs or escalators.

Answer 2

You forgot to mention that trams have different wheel shape, made more for a narrow rail. Top speed about 25 mph.

Answer 3

part or the croydon tram link dos use old rail line from Wimbledon to just before croydon trams in uk same gauge as railway // croydon/Blackpool/ect

Answer 4

Traditionally the wheel profile is different. The tram had a shallow flange and the track was a grooved rail, not so deep so it wasn't a hazard on the street surface. A derailment on the street surface at the low speeds wasn't a really big problem. On a train at higher speeds and on isolated rails (ie with no surrounding road surface) there would be a big problem so the wheel flange was much deeper

Answer 5

There are two ideas here:

1) Extend tram systems or start new ones using the trackbed of disused railways. In fact, most if not all modern tram and light rail schemes already do this. There is nothing new or radical about this proposal, it's the normal way of doing things.

The main limiting factors are: a) is the route still available? (or has the trackbed been obliterated or built over?) and b) does the route go where you want a tram to go? (Most disused lines became disused for a good reason, and a route created for Victorian industrial needs in 1858 isn't necessarily a sensible route for a tram in 2008).

2) Extend or create routes by running trams or light rail trains on the same tracks as conventional trains, i.e. lines that are currently in use. Again this is nothing new, it's used on the Tyne and Wear Metro between Pelaw and Sunderland for example and has been proposed for other schemes.

The main concerns here are a) safety (can metro or tram vehicles withstand a crash with a heavy freight train?) and b) capacity (are there enough spare "paths", or slots in the timetable, to run trams as well as trains?)

Electrical compatibility can be an issue, for example the Tyne and Wear Metro is electrified at 1500v DC overhead, whereas conventional trains use either 25kv AC overhead or 750v DC third rail. If the Newcastle to Sunderland line had ever been electrified at 25kv AC overhead, it would not have been possible to extend the Metro to Sunderland using the existing line. Similarly, the fact that this line is now electrified at 1500v DC eliminates the possibility of conventional electric trains ever using this route in the future - only diesel trains can use the line.

Gauge compatibility is NOT an issue in mainland Britain (all trams and trains use standard gauge, apart from a few preserved narrow gauge lines). It is potentially an issue in Ireland (north and south), where trains use a wider gauge but the trams (in Dublin) use standard gauge.