Trolley-Train Hybrid

[icarus]

Trolley-Train Hybrid Tackles City Streets, Then Speeds to Suburbs
BY KEITH BARRY02.06.146:30 AM

"The city of Sheffield, U.K. is installing the country's first tram-train, a public transit hybrid that can serve both the suburbs and a city's urban core thanks to a special wheel design that can handle both the tight turns and higher speeds.

When it's complete in 2016, tram-trains will run eight miles along the national rail tracks from Rotherham Parkgate to Sheffield, just like a traditional commuter rail line. But instead of stopping at a station at the edge of the city and forcing riders to switch to local transit, when the train gets to Sheffield's center — er, centre — it will seamlessly transition onto the existing rails of the Sheffield SuperTram.

Sheffield's system is a $98 million pilot project to determine whether tram-trains will work in the rest of the U.K. On paper, at least, it seems like a good fit: The tram-train setup not only gives passengers an easier ride downtown, but turns any existing rail right-of-way into a potential light rail system. Maintenance costs are lower for trams, and a tram-train gives transit authorities added flexibility."
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/02/tram-train/



Can anyone say S-line?

[Ocklawaha]

Nice idea and it would work well in the EU.

The rules are different here, we won't allow a tram/streetcar/LRV on the same track at the same time as a 432,000 pound ES44AC locomotive, much less a trio of them.

Rules are being changed and currently this could possibly be done through the Springfield - North Main and maybe the Jacksonville Terminal - Orange Park CSX lines. Both have pretty light traffic and as such a temporal or physical lock out (federal law) of one or the other depending on schedule might be possible.

[tufsu1]

Another name for it is ultra light rail