Sometimes you see an idea that is so clever you wonder why no one thought of it before. Coventry's proposed very light rail is one of those.
It has been designed from scratch to minimise costs, with the aim being to allow large towns and small cities to have a tram network.
First, it has no overhead wires, but runs on batteries which are fast charging. The tram will be able to run 20 km (12.5 miles) on one charge. Overhead cabling is expensive, and in historic city centres, unsightly.
Second, the track is prefabricated. It is relatively lightweight, and shallower than conventional tram track, designed to be only 11 inches (30 cm) deep. That way the need to relocate cables, water pipes and gas pipelines is minimised or eliminated. The track is made off-site, is seated on prefabricated slabs, and is clipped together; it can easily be moved, or even temporarily lifted to facilitate work on utilities. Constructing the track is the biggest part of building a light rail/tram system. This technique dramatically reduces costs, and also speeds up construction 10-fold. Some new tram networks have taken 10 years to build, with massive disruption while they were being built.
The trams themselves will be lightweight, being made of a mixture of steel, aluminium and composites:
VLR vehicles weigh no more than a tonne per linear kilometre. Hence, whilst a heavy rail vehicle typically weighs 44 tonnes and can carry 100 passengers, a similarly loaded 11-tonne Coventry VLR vehicle carries 50 passengers. This lower weight reduces infrastructure costs which is a key area for driving down railway costs. [Read more here]
The track is where the significant cost savings come in. Sitting beneath today’s roads is a crisscross of utilities – gas, water, internet – which can be extremely costly to relocate. This means traditional urban [light] rail can cost anywhere between £25m and £50m per kilometre – with £100m not unheard of in some city centre locations.The new track, designed from scratch in partnership with WMG and Ingerop, will sit just 30cm into a road surface, minimising the need to move utilities. As a result, Coventry City Council estimates the new track could cost closer to £10m per kilometre to install. [Read more here]
Why a tram network instead of a bus?
In recent years it has been recognised that due to climate change, air quality, and congestion, there needs to be a shift from cars to public transport.
The permanency of rail tracks encourages clustering of housing, businesses, and leisure facilities along urban routes, whilst improved transport links in rural areas help boost productivity and level up disparities. However, such situations do not necessarily generate high passenger numbers so the challenge is for such rail routes to be financially sustainable.
Nick pointed out that recent developments in technology such as lightweighting, batteries, fast charging, 5G, digital manufacturing, and autonomous operation have made a new mode of affordable rail-based transport possible in the form of VLR which “does what it says on the tin.” [Read more here]
The video below shows a test run.
No comments:
Post a Comment