To be read after Lesson 4

A historic type of urban transportation, the street railway has taken many forms, from a single horse-drawn car to a complex system of strings of cars running above and below the ground. In the typical street railway, electrically powered cars run on tracks laid in the street and share the roadway with other traffic.

The famed cable-car system** in San Francisco, Calif., was among the first mechanical railways. Electric railways replaced most cable systems in the early 20th century. Electric streetcars draw power from a stationary generator. The power is transmitted most commonly by an overhead wire*** through a pantograph. The current passes to the motors, and then returns to the powerhouse by way of the running rails.

A modern variation of the street railway is light rail transit*** (LRT). LRT vehicles operate singly or in short trains of two or three cars. Their tracks may run in the common roadways, but typically the tracks are segregated from traffic except at cross streets and often run in subways or on elevated structures. LRT systems can transport many passengers, accelerate rapidly, and travel at high speeds. The direct operating costs are relatively low; however, the costs of construction and maintenance are fairly high.

Conventional streetcar systems are still used in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, The Netherlands, Eastern Europe, and parts of Canada and South America. In many cities of Europe, Asia, and the United States, however, streetcars have been replaced by diesel-powered buses, subway systems, and LRT systems.

Examples of heavy rapid transit are subways and elevated railways, or combinations of the two, such as the systems found in Chicago, New York, London, Moscow, and Paris. They are electrically powered, on the same principle as the streetcar, except that the cars pick up current from a third rail alongside the running rails instead of from an overhead line. These systems operate in trains of up to ten cars and are completely separated from other traffic. As a result, they can run at high speeds and carry many passengers: heavy rapid-transit systems can transport up to 60, 000 passengers per track, per hour; conventional street railways can move only 2, 000 to 9, 000, and LRT systems only 5, 000 to 15, 000.

Before 1920 (and in some metropolitan areas as late as 1950) it was common for street railway extensions to serve suburban areas, while interurban electric railways joined cities. Today the new LRT and rapid-transit lines continue to run well out into the suburbs. They are the modern suburban and interurban railroads.

In recent years there has been a worldwide renovation of old electric railway systems. In countries such as the United States, Austria, Germany, and The Netherlands, existing lines are being repaired and reequipped. In addition, new LRTsystems have opened in Bonn and Cologne, in Germany; Gö teborg, Sweden; Newcastle upon Tyne, England; Calgary and Edmonton, Alta.; Zü rich, Switzerland; and in a number of cities in the western United States.

In the late 1990s there were more than 325 street railway and LRT systems operating worldwide. Russia had the largest number with 121 lines; Germany had 58; and the United States had 14 LRT lines built or under construction. Traditional mixed-traffic street operation of any significant volume is now found only in a couple of cities in the United States and in parts of Germany, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Egypt, and India.

Notes: *street railway – городская железная дорога

**cable car system – воздушно-канатная дорога

***overhead wire – воздушный провод

****light rail transit – высокоскоростная железная дорога местного значения