A low-floor tram is a tram that has no steps between one or more entrances and part or all of the passenger cabin. The low-floor design improves the accessibility of the tram for the public, and also may provide larger windows and more airspace.
15-808: The Alstom Citadis is a family of low-floor trams and light rail vehicles built by Alstom . As of 2017, over 2,300 Citadis trams have been sold and 1,800 tramways are in revenue service throughout the world, with operations in all six inhabited continents. An evolution of Alstom's earlier TFS vehicle, most Citadis vehicles are made in Alstom's factories in La Rochelle , Reichshoffen and Valenciennes , France , and in Barcelona , Spain , and Annaba , Algeria . The Citadis family includes both partial and fully low-floor trams and LRVs, in versions with three (20x), five (30x), seven (40x), and nine (50x) sections. It comprises
30-488: A dual-voltage or electro-diesel vehicle with various configurations. The main article provides vehicle and order descriptions. Used as a light rail. 40 m (131 ft 2 + 3 ⁄ 4 in) (NGd99) (116Nd) Low-floor tram A low-floor tram allows accessible level access from curb level platforms. Level access can also be achieved either by using a high-floor vehicle serving high-platform stops. Currently both types are in use, depending on
45-506: A trolley pole . The most popular solution is Alstom's proprietary ground-level power supply ( APS , first used in Bordeaux and subsequently in Angers , Reims , Orleans , Tours , Dubai , Rio , and Sydney ), consisting of a type of third rail which is only powered while it is completely covered by a tram so that there is no risk of a person or animal coming into contact with a live rail. On
60-694: A unique appearance compared to any other trams running at the time, they earned a number of nicknames, including hobble skirt cars, public welfare cars, and sow bellies. Typical floor heights of low-floor trams are 300 to 350 mm (11.8 to 13.8 in), and the Ultra Low Floor tram has a floor height of only 180 mm (7.1 in). For comparison high-floor trams are typically more than 600 mm (23.6 in) and rapid transit using heavy rail trains has floor heights of 800 to 1,200 mm (31.5 to 47.2 in). Two-rooms-and-a-bath car Two-rooms-and-a-bath car (or multi-articulated tram )
75-456: Is a type of tram or streetcar with one or more suspended sections. The shortest examples consist of three sections; so called car bodies. The sections at the ends each have two axles or four wheels. The centre section is suspended between the end sections, spanning like a bridge. The centre section has no wheels and appears to be floating or suspended. In 1892 a patent was registered by inventors Brewer and Krehbiel. The next year one streetcar
90-638: The Kusttrams in Belgium . The most common design of 100% low floor vehicles is the multi-articulated design. This uses short carbody sections for the wheels with longer sections between them. Examples of this are the Alstom Citadis and Combino . A different design was developed by MAN . In 1990 the GT6N was the first 100% low-floor tram. These trams are found in ten German cities (such as Bremen and Munich ) and in
105-475: The Swedish city Norrköping . Other designs are only partially low floor, with high floors over the bogies at the outer ends and single axle bogies under the low-floor centre section. North American light rail type vehicles frequently have a similar configuration but with a centre bogie designed to accommodate a low floor situated under a short centre section. In Vienna, Ultra Low Floor (ULF) Trams can "kneel" at
120-414: The curbside, reducing the height from the road to only 180 mm (7.1 in). Some public transport companies have both low floor and high floor trams. They report that low floor trams have 15% higher maintenance costs for the rolling stock, and 20% higher maintenance costs for the infrastructure on average. Many low-floor trams have fixed bogies which increase track wear and tear, while decreasing
135-465: The following standard variants: Citadis X00: Citadis X01 (First generation): Citadis X02 (Second generation): Citadis X03 (Third generation): Citadis X04 (Fourth generation): Citadis X05 (Fifth generation): Like most trams, Citadis vehicles are usually powered by overhead electric wires collected by a pantograph , but the trams in several places do not use pantograph current collection entirely. Other places, such as Toronto , use
150-552: The need to install special infrastructure. The Citadis trams in Nice operate off a set of nickel metallic hydride batteries in two large open spaces where overhead wires would be an eyesore. This has since been superseded by a supercapacitor -based energy storage system (SRS) which is in use in Rio de Janeiro (alongside APS), Kaohsiung, and along a new line in Nice. The Regio-Citadis can also be built as
165-551: The networks in France and in Sydney, the trams switch to conventional overhead wires in outer areas, but the Dubai vehicles are the first to employ APS for its entire passenger length (although they are still equipped with pantographs for use in the maintenance depot). Another option is to use on-board batteries to store electrical power, allowing brief periods of catenary-free operation without
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#1732848571875180-588: The pivoting bogies. The idea of a low-floor tram dates back to the early 20th century when a number of trolley systems began experimenting with various "stepless" designs. Perhaps the most notable is the Hedley-Doyle Stepless car introduced in 1912 for use on Broadway in Manhattan . A number of other cities also purchased Hedley-Doyle Stepless trams after seeing their success in Manhattan. Since these cars had
195-436: The speed at which a tram can drive through a curve (usually 4–15 km/h (2.5–9.3 mph) in 20 m (66 ft) radius curve). The Škoda ForCity and the newest Alstom Citadis X04 try to counter the effect with pivoting bogies while maintaining 100% low floor design. Prior to the new design, pivoting bogies could only be used under high floors, hence such trams could only be part low-floor, with high-floor sections over
210-443: The station platform infrastructure in existing rail systems. Some systems may make use of former railway alignments where use of existing high platforms is desirable, while others, particularly new systems, may not have the space to site high-level platforms in urban centres. Trams traditionally had high floors, and articulated tram designs evolved with low-floor centre sections. Examples of this design are Amsterdam 11G/12G-trams and
225-480: Was built for Cleveland . Only starting in 1912, a series was built for Boston . The first city in Europe to use this type of tram was Gothenburg : ten were used in service from 1922. Other cities followed but with only one or two pieces: Oslo (1924), Dresden and Leipzig (both in 1928), Amsterdam and Milan (both in 1932). In Milan and later also in other Italian cities several series were put into service. Whereas in
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