106-530: A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in the United States) is a type of urban rail transit consisting of either individual railcars or self-propelled multiple unit trains that run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way . The tramlines or tram networks operated as public transport are called tramways or simply trams/streetcars. Because of their close similarities, trams are commonly included in
212-602: A tram engine in the UK) at the head of a line of one or more carriages, similar to a small train. Systems with such steam trams included Christchurch , New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; other city systems in New South Wales ; Munich , Germany (from August 1883 on), British India (from 1885) and the Dublin & Blessington Steam Tramway (from 1888) in Ireland. Steam tramways also were used on
318-403: A 2006 article, the political scientist Ted Balaker and the urban planner Cecilia Juong Kim stated that public rail transit provides certain benefits for a community but also that the goals of policymakers are not often met. They also note some American economists claim that contrary to popular belief, rail transit has failed to improve the environment, serve the poor, or reduce highway congestion in
424-513: A Vermont blacksmith, had invented a battery-powered electric motor which he later patented. The following year he used it to operate a small model electric car on a short section of track four feet in diameter. Attempts to use batteries as a source of electricity were made from the 1880s and 1890s, with unsuccessful trials conducted in among other places Bendigo and Adelaide in Australia, and for about 14 years as The Hague accutram of HTM in
530-413: A constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping the cable as required. Cable cars are distinct from funiculars (whose cars are permanently attached to the cable) and cable railways (which are similar to funiculars but have rail vehicles that are attached and detached manually). Transit agencies' names for lines do not necessarily reflect their technical categorization. For example,
636-449: A continuation of those on Fourth Avenue; for example, 225 Park Avenue South was originally known as 225 Fourth Avenue. Above 32nd Street, for the remainder of its distance, it is known as Park Avenue, a 140-foot-wide (43 m) boulevard. The address numbers for Park Avenue are reset above 32nd Street; for example, the address 1 Park Avenue would ordinarily have been numbered 461 Fourth Avenue. Between 33rd Street and 40th Street ,
742-555: A gas explosion . Eight people were killed and many others were injured. In 2019, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority provided funding for repairs to the roof of the Grand Central Terminal train shed. The train shed is located under Park Avenue and surrounding streets from 43rd to 57th Street, and the repairs to the train shed's roof involved reconstructing parts of Park Avenue. In August 2024,
848-441: A relatively-low capacity and frequent stops; however, modern trams have a greater passenger capacity than traditional trams. Passengers usually board at the street or curb level, but low-floor trams may allow level boarding. Longer-distance lines are called interurbans or radial railways . Modern trams also operate as self-propelled trains coupled through a multiple unit instead of individual trams and are often included within
954-694: A similar technology, Pirotsky put into service the first public electric tramway in St. Petersburg, which operated only during September 1880. The second demonstration tramway was presented by Siemens & Halske at the 1879 Berlin Industrial Exposition. The first public electric tramway used for permanent service was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It
1060-455: A switched network. A funicular is a cable-driven inclined railway that uses the weight of descending cars to help pull the ascending cars up the slope. The term funicular derives from the Latin word funiculus , the diminutive of funis , meaning 'rope'. A cable car, in the context of mass transit, is a system using rail cars that are hauled by a continuously moving cable that runs at
1166-654: A terminal for the New York Central at 42nd Street, the Grand Central Depot , opened in 1871. But the tracks laid to the new terminal proved problematic. There were originally no grade-separated crossings of the railroads between 42nd and 59th Streets. As such, they required railroad crossings along Fourth Avenue, which resulted in frequent accidents; seven people died within 12 days of the Hudson River Railroad's move to Grand Central. In 1872, shortly after
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#17328521898411272-910: A well-known tourist attraction . A single cable line also survives in Wellington (rebuilt in 1979 as a funicular but still called the " Wellington Cable Car "). Another system, with two separate cable lines and a shared power station in the middle, operates from the Welsh town of Llandudno up to the top of the Great Orme hill in North Wales , UK. Hastings and some other tramways, for example Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden and some lines in Karachi , used petrol trams. Galveston Island Trolley in Texas operated diesel trams due to
1378-601: Is a rail-based transit system that has higher capacity and speed than a tram, usually by operating in an exclusive right-of-way separated from automobile traffic, but it is not, unlike rapid transit, fully grade-separated from other traffic. Light rail also generally operates with multiple-unit trains , rather than single tramcars. It emerged as an evolution of trams/streetcars. Light rail systems vary significantly in terms of speed and capacity and range from slightly improved tram systems to systems that are essentially rapid transit but with some level crossings. The term "light rail"
1484-1145: Is a railway in which the track consists of a single rail, as opposed to the traditional track with two parallel rails . The term possibly comes from 1897, from German engineer Eugen Langen , who called an elevated railway system with wagons suspended the Eugen Langen One-railed Suspension Tramway (Einschieniges Hängebahnsystem Eugen Langen). A commuter rail, regional rail or suburban rail system operates on mainline trackage, which may be shared with intercity rail and freight trains . Systems tend to operate at lower frequencies than rapid transit or light rail systems but tend to travel at higher speeds, have more widely spaced stations and cover longer overall distances. They have high passenger capacities per single train. Though many European and East Asian commuter rail systems operate with frequencies and rolling stock similar to that of rapid transit, they do not qualify as such because they share tracks with intercity/freight trains, or they have at grade crossings. For example, S-trains are hybrid systems combining
1590-457: Is a wide term for various types of local rail systems providing passenger service within and around urban or suburban areas. The set of urban rail systems can be roughly subdivided into the following categories, which sometimes overlap because some systems or lines have aspects of multiple types. A tram , streetcar , or trolley system is a rail-based transit system that runs mainly or completely along streets (with street running ), with
1696-731: Is continued on the other side of the river in the Bronx . In the Bronx, Park Avenue begins at East 135th Street in the Mott Haven neighborhood. The entire avenue is divided by Metro-North's own right of way in the borough. Between East 135th Street to East 173rd Street, Park Avenue is one way only in either direction in most sections. North of East 173rd Street it is a two way avenue continuing to Fordham Plaza where it ends. The following institutions are either headquartered or have significant business presences on Park Avenue: In north-south order: Metro-North Railroad 's Grand Central Terminal , serving
1802-802: Is named the "Underground" and is commonly nicknamed the "tube". Systems in Germany are called "U-Bahn", which stands for Untergrundbahn ("underground rail"). Many systems in East, Southeast and South Asia like Taipei , Chennai and Singapore , are called "MRT", which stands for "mass rapid transit". Systems that are predominantly elevated may be referred to as "L", as in Chicago , or "Skytrain", as in Bangkok and Vancouver . Other less common names include "T-bane", which stands for "tunnelbana" (in Scandinavia, literally tunnel track ) and "MTR" (mass transit railway). A monorail
1908-597: Is sometimes known as "heavy rail" to distinguish it from light rail. Both heavy and light often refer to the capacity and sometimes to investment costs. In most parts of the world, such systems are known as a "metro", short for "metropolitan", which is itself short for " Metropolitan Railway ", the first such system in the world. The term "subway" is used in many American systems, as well as in Glasgow and in Toronto . The system in London
2014-572: Is still in operation in modernised form. The earliest tram system in Canada was built by John Joseph Wright , brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright , in Toronto in 1883, introducing electric trams in 1892. In the US, multiple experimental electric trams were exhibited at the 1884 World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana , but they were not deemed good enough to replace
2120-542: Is the most common term especially in Americas, but German systems are called Stadtbahn , which translates to "city railway". Additionally " tram-train " systems are called Regionalstadtbahn and " semi-metro " systems are called U-Stadtbahn or U-Strab . A rapid transit system is a railway , usually in an urban area , with high passenger capacities and frequency of service and (usually) full grade separation from other traffic, including other rail traffic. It
2226-727: Is the sole survivor of the fleet). In Italy, in Trieste , the Trieste–Opicina tramway was opened in 1902, with the steepest section of the route being negotiated with the help of a funicular and its cables. Cable cars suffered from high infrastructure costs, since an expensive system of cables , pulleys , stationary engines and lengthy underground vault structures beneath the rails had to be provided. They also required physical strength and skill to operate, and alert operators to avoid obstructions and other cable cars. The cable had to be disconnected ("dropped") at designated locations to allow
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#17328521898412332-473: Is used to refer to various methods of providing faster bus services and the systems that use it have similar characteristics to light rail . Guided buses are buses capable of being steered by external means, usually on a dedicated track or roll way that excludes other traffic. Some cities experimenting with guided bus technologies, such as Nancy , have chosen to refer to them as 'trams on tires' ( rubber-tired trams ) and given them tram-like appearances. In
2438-410: The 6 and <6> trains, while the 14th Street-Union Square station is served by the 4 , 5 , 6 , <6> , L , N , Q , R , and W trains. The following bus routes serve Park Avenue: No buses run along Park Avenue in the Bronx, although Fordham Plaza Bus Terminal
2544-685: The Bleecker Street Line until its closure in 1917. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , had its Sarah Street line drawn by horses until 1923. The last regular mule-drawn cars in the US ran in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas , until 1926 and were commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1983. The last mule tram service in Mexico City ended in 1932, and a mule tram in Celaya, Mexico , survived until 1954. The last horse-drawn tram to be withdrawn from public service in
2650-686: The Chrysler Building and other prestigious office buildings; luxury apartment houses along Park Avenue; and an array of high-end hotels that included the Marguery , Park Lane, and Waldorf Astoria . In 1929, New York Central built its headquarters in a 34-story building (now called the Helmsley Building ), straddling Park Avenue north of the terminal. The Park Avenue Viaduct reroutes Park Avenue around Grand Central Terminal between 40th and 46th Streets, allowing Park Avenue traffic to traverse around
2756-498: The Commissioners' Plan of 1811 . From 14th Street to 17th Street , it forms the eastern boundary of Union Square and is known as Union Square East ; its southbound lanes merge with Broadway south of 15th Street, and the thoroughfare divides into two distinct portions in the one-block section between 14th and 15th Streets. From 17th Street to 32nd Street , it is known as Park Avenue South . Address numbers on Park Avenue South are
2862-853: The Green Line in Boston is referred to as a subway although it is mostly made up of above-ground portions. Conversely, the Docklands Light Railway in London , C Line in Los Angeles , and some metro lines in China are referred to as "Light Rail" but qualify as rapid transit because they are fully grade-separated and provide a high frequency of service. Many cities use names such as subway and elevated railway to describe their entire systems, even if they combine both methods of operation. Slightly less than half of
2968-776: The Harlem Line , Hudson Line , and New Haven Line , is at 42nd Street and Park Avenue. The MNR's Park Avenue main line runs along Park Avenue in both boroughs between Grand Central and Fordham station , with stations in between at 125th Street , 162nd Street , and Tremont Avenue . The New York City Subway 's adjacent Grand Central–42nd Street station serves the 4 , 5 , 6 , <6> , 7 , <7> , and S trains. The IRT Lexington Avenue Line additionally runs under Park Avenue and its extensions from 41st to 8th Streets. The 33rd Street , 28th Street , 23rd Street , and Astor Place stations are served by
3074-695: The Helmsley Building (also referred to as the New York Central Building or 230 Park Avenue). The IRT Lexington Avenue Line runs under this portion of the street. Once the line reaches Grand Central–42nd Street , it shifts east to Lexington Avenue . As Park Avenue enters Midtown north of Grand Central Terminal, it is distinguished by many glass-box skyscrapers that serve as headquarters for corporations and investment banks such as Société Générale , JPMorgan Chase at 270 Park Avenue and 277 Park Avenue , UBS at 299 Park Avenue , Citigroup at 399 Park Avenue , Colgate-Palmolive , and MetLife at
3180-877: The Lamm fireless engines then propelling the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city. The first commercial installation of an electric streetcar in the United States was built in 1884 in Cleveland, Ohio , and operated for a period of one year by the East Cleveland Street Railway Company. The first city-wide electric streetcar system was implemented in 1886 in Montgomery, Alabama , by the Capital City Street Railway Company, and ran for 50 years. In 1888,
3286-657: The London Underground 's tracks, for example, are actually underground. The New York City Subway also combines elevated and subterranean stations, and the Chicago "L" and the Vancouver SkyTrain use tunnels to run through central areas. A bus shares many characteristics with light rail and trams but does not run on rails. Trolleybuses are buses that are powered from overhead wires . Vehicles that can travel both on rails and on roads have been tried experimentally but are not in common use. The term bus rapid transit
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3392-536: The New York and Harlem Railroad built in the 1830s, just a few years after the adoption of the Manhattan street grid . The railroad's right-of-way at ground level forced foot and carriage traffic onto either side of the tracks. Later on, the railroad was run through an open cut tunnel under Murray Hill , which was then covered with grates and grass between 34th and 40th Street in the early 1850s. A section of this "park"
3498-692: The Richmond Union Passenger Railway began to operate trams in Richmond, Virginia , that Frank J. Sprague had built. Sprague later developed multiple unit control, first demonstrated in Chicago in 1897, allowing multiple cars to be coupled together and operated by a single motorman. This gave rise to the modern subway train. Following the improvement of an overhead "trolley" system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires by Sprague, electric tram systems were rapidly adopted across
3604-783: The West Midlands Metro in Birmingham , England adopted battery-powered trams on sections through the city centre close to Grade I listed Birmingham Town Hall . Paris and Berne (Switzerland) operated trams that were powered by compressed air using the Mekarski system . Trials on street tramways in Britain, including by the North Metropolitan Tramway Company between Kings Cross and Holloway, London (1883), achieved acceptable results but were found not to be economic because of
3710-1200: The 1850s, after which the "animal railway" became an increasingly common feature in the larger towns. The first permanent tram line in continental Europe was opened in Paris in 1855 by Alphonse Loubat who had previously worked on American streetcar lines. The tram was developed in numerous cities of Europe (some of the most extensive systems were found in Berlin, Budapest , Birmingham , Saint Petersburg , Lisbon , London , Manchester , Paris , Kyiv ). The first tram in South America opened in 1858 in Santiago, Chile . The first trams in Australia opened in 1860 in Sydney . Africa's first tram service started in Alexandria on 8 January 1863. The first trams in Asia opened in 1869 in Batavia (Jakarta), Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) . Limitations of horsecars included
3816-691: The 1894-built horse tram at Victor Harbor in South Australia . New horse-drawn systems have been established at the Hokkaidō Museum in Japan and also in Disneyland . A horse-tram route in Polish gmina Mrozy , first built in 1902, was reopened in 2012. The first mechanical trams were powered by steam . Generally, there were two types of steam tram. The first and most common had a small steam locomotive (called
3922-420: The 1980s. The history of passenger trams, streetcars and trolley systems, began in the early nineteenth century. It can be divided into several distinct periods defined by the principal means of power used. Precursors to the tramway included the wooden or stone wagonways that were used in central Europe to transport mine carts with unflanged wheels since the 1500s, and the paved limestone trackways designed by
4028-475: The Australian state of Queensland between 1909 and 1939. Stockholm , Sweden, had a steam tram line at the island of Södermalm between 1887 and 1901. Tram engines usually had modifications to make them suitable for street running in residential areas. The wheels, and other moving parts of the machinery, were usually enclosed for safety reasons and to make the engines quieter. Measures were often taken to prevent
4134-456: The British newspaper Newcastle Daily Chronicle reported that, "A large number of London's discarded horse tramcars have been sent to Lincolnshire where they are used as sleeping rooms for potato pickers ". Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century, and many large metropolitan lines lasted into the early 20th century. New York City had a regular horsecar service on
4240-742: The Entertainment Centre, and work is progressing on further extensions. Sydney re-introduced trams (or light rail) on 31 August 1997. A completely new system, known as G:link , was introduced on the Gold Coast, Queensland , on 20 July 2014. The Newcastle Light Rail opened in February 2019, while the Canberra light rail opened on 20 April 2019. This is the first time that there have been trams in Canberra, even though Walter Burley Griffin 's 1914–1920 plans for
4346-565: The Irish coach builder John Stephenson , in New York City which began service in the year 1832. The New York and Harlem Railroad's Fourth Avenue Line ran along the Bowery and Fourth Avenue in New York City. It was followed in 1835 by the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in New Orleans, Louisiana , which still operates as the St. Charles Streetcar Line . Other American cities did not follow until
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4452-650: The MetLife Building. From 47th to 97th Streets, the tracks for Metro-North Railroad 's Park Avenue main line run in the Park Avenue Tunnel underneath Park Avenue. At 97th Street, the tracks come above ground, rising onto the other Manhattan structure known as the Park Avenue Viaduct. The first street to pass under the viaduct is 102nd Street; from there to the Harlem River the railroad viaduct runs down
4558-429: The Netherlands. The first trams in Bendigo, Australia, in 1892, were battery-powered, but within as little as three months they were replaced with horse-drawn trams. In New York City some minor lines also used storage batteries. Then, more recently during the 1950s, a longer battery-operated tramway line ran from Milan to Bergamo . In China there is a Nanjing battery Tram line and has been running since 2014. In 2019,
4664-434: The North Sydney line from 1886 to 1900, and the King Street line from 1892 to 1905. In Dresden , Germany, in 1901 an elevated suspended cable car following the Eugen Langen one-railed floating tram system started operating. Cable cars operated on Highgate Hill in North London and Kennington to Brixton Hill in South London. They also worked around "Upper Douglas" in the Isle of Man from 1897 to 1929 (cable car 72/73
4770-462: The Romans for heavy horse and ox-drawn transportation. By the 1700s, paved plateways with cast iron rails were introduced in England for transporting coal, stone or iron ore from the mines to the urban factories and docks. The world's first passenger train or tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway , in Wales , UK. The British Parliament passed the Mumbles Railway Act in 1804, and horse-drawn service started in 1807. The service closed in 1827, but
4876-412: The Second Street Cable Railroad, which operated from 1885 to 1889, and the Temple Street Cable Railway, which operated from 1886 to 1898. From 1885 to 1940, the city of Melbourne , Victoria, Australia operated one of the largest cable systems in the world, at its peak running 592 trams on 75 kilometres (47 mi) of track. There were also two isolated cable lines in Sydney , New South Wales, Australia;
4982-558: The UK at Lytham St Annes , Trafford Park , Manchester (1897–1908) and Neath , Wales (1896–1920). Comparatively little has been published about gas trams. However, research on the subject was carried out for an article in the October 2011 edition of "The Times", the historical journal of the Australian Association of Timetable Collectors, later renamed the Australian Timetable Association. The world's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg invented and tested by inventor Fyodor Pirotsky in 1875. Later, using
5088-410: The UK took passengers from Fintona railway station to Fintona Junction one mile away on the main Omagh to Enniskillen railway in Northern Ireland. The tram made its last journey on 30 September 1957 when the Omagh to Enniskillen line closed. The "van" is preserved at the Ulster Transport Museum . Horse-drawn trams still operate on the 1876-built Douglas Bay Horse Tramway on the Isle of Man , and at
5194-427: The United States. They also claim economists are somewhat more optimistic about rail transit's impact on economic development. Fourth Avenue (Manhattan) Park Avenue is a boulevard in New York City that carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx . For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to
5300-504: The address numbers of Park Avenue South continued from those on the remaining section of Fourth Avenue. The Pan Am Building (now MetLife Building), in between the Park Avenue Viaduct's legs north of Grand Central Terminal, was opened in 1963. In September 2007, the Metro-North Railroad reached an agreement with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) to install pedestrian traffic signals along Park Avenue between 46th Street and 56th Street. The two sides had feuded over
5406-508: The advantages over earlier forms of transit was the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on steel rails, allowing the trams to haul a greater load for a given effort. Another factor which contributed to the rise of trams was the high total cost of ownership of horses. Electric trams largely replaced animal power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Improvements in other vehicles such as buses led to decline of trams in early to mid 20th century. However, trams have seen resurgence since
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#17328521898415512-436: The broader term light rail ; however, they differ in that trams frequently share the platform with vehicular traffic and do not have signal priority. The term "tram" is used in most parts of the world. In North America, such systems are referred to as "streetcar" or "trolley" systems. In Germany, such systems are called Straßenbahn , which literally translates as "street train" or "street railway". A light rail system
5618-458: The building and over 42nd Street without encumbering nearby streets. The western (now southbound) leg of the viaduct was completed in 1919, but congestion developed soon after the viaduct's opening, so an eastern leg for northbound traffic was added in 1928. The developer Henry Mandel acquired the lots on the eastern side of Fourth Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Street in 1923 under the name "One Park Avenue Corporation". To ensure his corporate name
5724-455: The busiest tram line in Europe, with a tram running once per minute at rush hour. Bucharest and Belgrade ran a regular service from 1894. Ljubljana introduced its tram system in 1901 – it closed in 1958. Oslo had the first tramway in Scandinavia , starting operation on 2 March 1894. The first electric tramway in Australia was a Sprague system demonstrated at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition in Melbourne ; afterwards, this
5830-434: The capital then in the planning stage did propose a Canberra tram system. In Japan, the Kyoto Electric railroad was the first tram system, starting operation in 1895. By 1932, the network had grown to 82 railway companies in 65 cities, with a total network length of 1,479 km (919 mi). By the 1960s the tram had generally died out in Japan. Two rare but significant alternatives were conduit current collection , which
5936-457: The car up the hill at a steady pace, unlike a low-powered steam or horse-drawn car. Cable cars do have wheel brakes and track brakes , but the cable also helps restrain the car to going downhill at a constant speed. Performance in steep terrain partially explains the survival of cable cars in San Francisco. The San Francisco cable cars , though significantly reduced in number, continue to provide regular transportation service, in addition to being
6042-402: The cars to coast by inertia, for example when crossing another cable line. The cable then had to be "picked up" to resume progress, the whole operation requiring precise timing to avoid damage to the cable and the grip mechanism. Breaks and frays in the cable, which occurred frequently, required the complete cessation of services over a cable route while the cable was repaired. Due to overall wear,
6148-565: The characteristics of both rapid transit and commuter rail systems. Generally, S-trains share tracks with mainline passenger and freight trains, but the distances between stations and the service headway resemble metro systems. Automated guideway transit systems tend to operate with medium passenger capacities. Larger systems span a variety of conceptual designs, from subway-like advanced rapid transit (ART) systems to smaller (typically two to six passengers) vehicles known as personal rapid transit (PRT) which offer direct point-to-point travel along
6254-510: The city government began soliciting bids for the reconstruction of Park Avenue's median between 46th and 57th Streets. The project was to include additional plantings, benches, and concessions. The road that becomes Park Avenue originates at the Bowery . From Cooper Square at 8th Street to Union Square at 14th Street , it is known as Fourth Avenue , a 70-foot-wide (21 m) road carrying northbound traffic. At 14th Street, it turns slightly northeast to align with other avenues drawn up in
6360-408: The city's hurricane-prone location, which would have resulted in frequent damage to an electrical supply system. Although Portland, Victoria promotes its tourist tram as being a cable car it actually operates using a diesel motor. The tram, which runs on a circular route around the town of Portland, uses dummies and salons formerly used on the Melbourne cable tramway system and since restored. In
6466-449: The classic tramway built in the early 20th century with the tram system operating in mixed traffic, and the later type which is most often associated with the tram system having its own right of way. Tram systems that have their own right of way are often called light rail but this does not always hold true. Though these two systems differ in their operation, their equipment is much the same. Urban rail transit Urban rail transit
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#17328521898416572-414: The combined coal consumption of the stationary compressor and the onboard steam boiler. The Trieste–Opicina tramway in Trieste operates a hybrid funicular tramway system. Conventional electric trams are operated in street running and on reserved track for most of their route. However, on one steep segment of track, they are assisted by cable tractors, which push the trams uphill and act as brakes for
6678-493: The developers of that building sued to reverse the appellate ruling. The New York Court of Appeals , the state's highest court, reversed the appellate ruling in February 1928. Bacon contemplated bringing up the matter with the United States Supreme Court , but she ultimately relented, changing her address to "Park Avenue at 34th" by 1930. In 1927, the medians on Park Avenue north of Grand Central were trimmed to add one lane of traffic in each direction. This project eliminated
6784-430: The downhill run. For safety, the cable tractors are always deployed on the downhill side of the tram vehicle. Similar systems were used elsewhere in the past, notably on the Queen Anne Counterbalance in Seattle and the Darling Street wharf line in Sydney. In the mid-20th century many tram systems were disbanded, replaced by buses, trolleybuses , automobiles or rapid transit . The General Motors streetcar conspiracy
6890-409: The east. Park Avenue's entire length was formerly called Fourth Avenue ; the title still applies to the section between Cooper Square and 14th Street . The avenue is called Union Square East between 14th and 17th Streets , and Park Avenue South between 17th and 32nd Streets . Because of its designation as the widest avenue on Manhattan's East Side, Park Avenue originally carried the tracks of
6996-476: The eleven intersections and the renovation of the sidewalks and streets around Grand Central to prevent rainwater from seeping into the tunnel. Car traffic in this area had been controlled by traffic lights on a pole at each intersection in the middle of the median, instead of the usual four from each direction, resulting in a relatively high rate of pedestrian injuries. Additional traffic lights and pedestrian signals had not been added because this area of Park Avenue
7102-446: The engines from emitting visible smoke or steam. Usually the engines used coke rather than coal as fuel to avoid emitting smoke; condensers or superheating were used to avoid emitting visible steam. A major drawback of this style of tram was the limited space for the engine, so that these trams were usually underpowered. Steam trams faded out around the 1890s to 1900s, being replaced by electric trams. Another motive system for trams
7208-428: The entire length of cable (typically several kilometres) had to be replaced on a regular schedule. After the development of reliable electrically powered trams, the costly high-maintenance cable car systems were rapidly replaced in most locations. Cable cars remained especially effective in hilly cities, since their nondriven wheels did not lose traction as they climbed or descended a steep hill. The moving cable pulled
7314-439: The fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for day in and day out, and produced prodigious amounts of manure, which the streetcar company was charged with storing and then disposing. Since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. In 1905
7420-428: The issue since 1982, when Penn Central controlled the Park Avenue Tunnel. In 1997, the NYCDOT commissioner stated that signals would be installed during an upcoming phase of reconstruction in the Grand Central area. The $ 35 million project, whose cost was split between Metro-North and the city, was approved by the MTA Board later that month. It called for the installation of 12 pedestrian signals and 8 traffic signals at
7526-444: The late 19th and early 20th centuries a number of systems in various parts of the world employed trams powered by gas, naphtha gas or coal gas in particular. Gas trams are known to have operated between Alphington and Clifton Hill in the northern suburbs of Melbourne , Australia (1886–1888); in Berlin and Dresden , Germany; in Estonia (1921–1951); between Jelenia Góra , Cieplice , and Sobieszów in Poland (from 1897); and in
7632-401: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was one particular hazard associated with trams powered from a trolley pole off an overhead line on the early electrified systems. Since the tram relies on contact with the rails for the current return path, a problem arises if the tram is derailed or (more usually) if it halts on a section of track that has been heavily sanded by a previous tram, and
7738-757: The leftmost northbound lane descends into the Murray Hill Tunnel . North of 40th Street, the center lanes of Park Avenue rise onto an elevated structure that goes around Grand Central Terminal and the MetLife Building (formerly the Pan Am Building), carrying each direction of traffic on opposite sides of the buildings. The bridge, one of two structures in Manhattan known as the Park Avenue Viaduct , returns to ground level at 46th Street after going through
7844-542: The median and lit up on the first Sunday in December at Brick Presbyterian Church . On May 5, 1959, the New York City Council voted 20–1 to change the name of Fourth Avenue between 17th and 32nd Streets to Park Avenue South. The renaming, along with a ban on overhanging signs along the newly renamed Park Avenue South, was intended to improve the character of the avenue. Unlike with the earlier renamings of Park Avenue,
7950-534: The middle of Park Avenue. Park Avenue in Manhattan ends north of 132nd Street, with connections to the Harlem River Drive . The flowers and greenery in the median of Manhattan's Park Avenue are privately maintained, by the Fund for Park Avenue. The begonia was specifically chosen by the Fund's gardeners because there is no automatic watering system and the floral variety is resilient under hot sun rays. The avenue
8056-460: The most expensive real estate in the world. Real estate at 740 Park Avenue , for example, sells for several thousand dollars per square foot. In October 1937, a part of the Murray Hill Tunnel was reopened for road traffic. Efforts to promote a Grand Park Avenue Expressway to Grand Concourse in the Bronx were unsuccessful. A tradition was introduced in 1945 as a memorial to American soldiers killed in action, whereby Christmas trees are placed in
8162-570: The name change, but Mayor John Hylan vetoed the move in April 1925. This prompted Bacon to appeal the decision to the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division , which overturned Hylan's veto in November 1927, on the basis that the extension of Park Avenue to 32nd Street had been made for the benefit of a developer. Mandel's development at 32nd Street was thus known as 461–477 Fourth Avenue, and
8268-522: The necessity of overhead wire and a trolley pole for street cars and railways. While at the University of Denver he conducted experiments which established that multiple unit powered cars were a better way to operate trains and trolleys. Electric tramways spread to many European cities in the 1890s, such as: Sarajevo built a citywide system of electric trams in 1895. Budapest established its tramway system in 1887, and its ring line has grown to be
8374-489: The north, descended into the Park Avenue Tunnel at 96th Street and continued underground into the new depot. As part of the project, Fourth Avenue was transformed into a boulevard with a median strip that covered the railroad's ventilation grates. Eight footbridges crossed the tracks between 45th and 56th Streets, and there were also vehicular overpasses at 45th and 48th Streets. The boulevard north of Grand Central
8480-523: The oldest operating electric tramway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram was opened near Vienna in Austria. It was the first tram in the world in regular service that was run with electricity served by an overhead line with pantograph current collectors . The Blackpool Tramway was opened in Blackpool, UK on 29 September 1885 using conduit collection along Blackpool Promenade. This system
8586-490: The opening of Grand Central Depot, New York Central owner Cornelius Vanderbilt proposed the Fourth Avenue Improvement Project. The tracks between 48th and 56th Streets were to be moved into a shallow open cut , while the segment between 56th and 97th Streets, which was in a rock cut, would be covered over. After the improvements were completed in 1874, the railroads, approaching Grand Central Depot from
8692-402: The pedestrian path on the medians, as they became much narrower. The median was extended by one block from 96th Street to 97th Street in 1941, creating the only remaining median on Park Avenue with a pedestrian path and seating. In the 1920s the portion of Park Avenue from Grand Central to 96th Street saw extensive apartment building construction. This long stretch of the avenue contains some of
8798-567: The poor paving of the streets in American cities which made them unsuitable for horsebuses , which were then common on the well-paved streets of European cities. Running the horsecars on rails allowed for a much smoother ride. There are records of a street railway running in Baltimore as early as 1828, however the first authenticated streetcar in America, was the New York and Harlem Railroad developed by
8904-528: The suburban tramway lines around Milan and Padua ; the last Gamba de Legn ("Peg-Leg") tramway ran on the Milan- Magenta -Castano Primo route in late 1957. The other style of steam tram had the steam engine in the body of the tram, referred to as a tram engine (UK) or steam dummy (US). The most notable system to adopt such trams was in Paris. French-designed steam trams also operated in Rockhampton , in
9010-493: The tracks to accommodate electric trains. Overpasses would be built across the open cut at most of the cross-streets. The new electric-train terminal, Grand Central Terminal , was opened in 1913. After the electric trains were buried underground, the area around Park Avenue in the vicinity of Grand Central was developed into several blocks worth of prime real estate called Terminal City . Stretching from 42nd to 51st Streets between Madison and Lexington Avenues, it came to include
9116-544: The tracks. Siemens later designed his own version of overhead current collection, called the bow collector . One of the first systems to use it was in Thorold, Ontario , opened in 1887, and it was considered quite successful. While this line proved quite versatile as one of the earliest fully functional electric streetcar installations, it required horse-drawn support while climbing the Niagara Escarpment and for two months of
9222-416: The tram and completing the earth return circuit with their body could receive a serious electric shock. If "grounded", the driver was required to jump off the tram (avoiding simultaneous contact with the tram and the ground) and pull down the trolley pole, before allowing passengers off the tram. Unless derailed, the tram could usually be recovered by running water down the running rails from a point higher than
9328-460: The tram loses electrical contact with the rails. In this event, the underframe of the tram, by virtue of a circuit path through ancillary loads (such as interior lighting), is live at the full supply voltage, typically 600 volts DC. In British terminology, such a tram was said to be 'grounded'—not to be confused with the US English use of the term, which means the exact opposite. Any person stepping off
9434-424: The tram, the water providing a conducting bridge between the tram and the rails. With improved technology, this ceased to be an problem. In the 2000s, several companies introduced catenary-free designs: Alstom's Citadis line uses a third rail, Bombardier's PRIMOVE LRV is charged by contactless induction plates embedded in the trackway and CAF URBOS tram uses ultracaps technology As early as 1834, Thomas Davenport ,
9540-518: The tunnel roof, the project was delayed for several years. The project had been estimated to cost $ 200,000 per intersection in 1994. As part of the new agreement, Metro-North designed a way to anchor the traffic signals in the deck and tunnel roof. Pedestrian signals and gantry-mounted traffic signals were installed at these intersections in July 2010. On March 12, 2014, two apartment buildings near 116th Street , 1644 and 1646 Park Avenue, were destroyed in
9646-803: The wider term light rail , which also includes systems separated from other traffic. Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than main line and rapid transit trains. Most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph sliding on an overhead line ; older systems may use a trolley pole or a bow collector . In some cases, a contact shoe on a third rail is used. If necessary, they may have dual power systems—electricity in city streets and diesel in more rural environments. Occasionally, trams also carry freight . Some trams, known as tram-trains , may have segments that run on mainline railway tracks, similar to interurban systems. The differences between these modes of rail transport are often indistinct, and systems may combine multiple features. One of
9752-403: The winter when hydroelectricity was not available. It continued in service in its original form into the 1950s. Sidney Howe Short designed and produced the first electric motor that operated a streetcar without gears. The motor had its armature direct-connected to the streetcar 's axle for the driving force. Short pioneered "use of a conduit system of concealed feed" thereby eliminating
9858-522: The world's first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle tramcar at an assembly facility in Qingdao . The chief engineer of the CSR subsidiary CSR Sifang Co Ltd. , Liang Jianying, said that the company is studying how to reduce the running costs of the tram. Trams have been used for two main purposes: for carrying passengers and for carrying cargo. There are several types of passenger tram: There are two main types of tramways,
9964-399: The world. Earlier electric trains proved difficult or unreliable and experienced limited success until the second half of the 1880s, when new types of current collectors were developed. Siemens' line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train , limiting the voltage that could be used, and delivering electric shocks to people and animals crossing
10070-665: Was a case study of the decline of trams in the United States. In the 21st century, trams have been re-introduced in cities where they had been closed down for decades (such as Tramlink in London), or kept in heritage use (such as Spårväg City in Stockholm). Most trams made since the 1990s (such as the Bombardier Flexity series and Alstom Citadis ) are articulated low-floor trams with features such as regenerative braking . In March 2015, China South Rail Corporation (CSR) demonstrated
10176-489: Was accurate, Mandel asked the New York City Board of Aldermen to move Park Avenue's southern terminus to 32nd Street. The change went into effect on December 1, 1924, and address numbers along Park Avenue were changed accordingly. The previous house numbered 1 Park Avenue was occupied by Martha Bacon, widow of diplomat Robert Bacon , who led the opposition to the renumbering. The Board of Aldermen summarily overturned
10282-485: Was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. This was the world's first commercially successful electric tram. It drew current from the rails at first, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. In Britain, Volk's Electric Railway was opened in 1883 in Brighton. This two kilometer line along the seafront, re-gauged to 2 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 825 mm ) in 1884, remains in service as
10388-481: Was installed as a commercial venture operating between the outer Melbourne suburb of Box Hill and the then tourist-oriented country town Doncaster from 1889 to 1896. Electric systems were also built in Adelaide , Ballarat , Bendigo , Brisbane , Fremantle , Geelong , Hobart , Kalgoorlie , Launceston , Leonora , Newcastle , Perth , and Sydney . By the 1970s, the only full tramway system remaining in Australia
10494-498: Was later renamed Park Avenue in 1860. Park Avenue's original southern terminus was at 34th Street, and the newly renamed Park Avenue was given its own house-numbering system separate from that of Fourth Avenue. The address 1 Park Avenue was assigned to a house at 101 East 34th Street, at the northeast corner of Park Avenue and 34th Street. The Harlem Railroad was later incorporated into the New York Central Railroad , and
10600-572: Was located directly atop the roof of the Park Avenue Tunnel, with the street being 8 inches (20 cm) above the roof in some locations. Because the roof was 18 to 24 inches (46 to 61 cm) thick, there was not enough room to provide a foundation for the traffic poles without puncturing the structure. Due to the high cost of making these upgrades, and the lack of cooperation between the New York City Department of Transportation and Metro-North, which had opposed any solution that would modify
10706-484: Was renamed Park Avenue in 1888. A fatal collision between two trains occurred under Park Avenue in 1902, in part because the smoke coming from the steam trains obscured the signals. The New York state legislature subsequently passed a law to ban all steam trains in Manhattan. By December 1902, as part of an agreement with the city, New York Central agreed to put the approach to Grand Central Station from 46th to 59th Streets in an open cut under Park Avenue, and to upgrade
10812-545: Was restarted in 1860, again using horses. It was worked by steam from 1877, and then, from 1929, by very large (106-seat) electric tramcars, until closure in 1960. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was something of a one-off however, and no street tramway appeared in Britain until 1860 when one was built in Birkenhead by the American George Francis Train . Street railways developed in America before Europe, due to
10918-565: Was tested in San Francisco , in 1873. Part of its success is attributed to the development of an effective and reliable cable grip mechanism, to grab and release the moving cable without damage. The second city to operate cable trams was Dunedin , from 1881 to 1957. The most extensive cable system in the US was built in Chicago in stages between 1859 and 1892. New York City developed multiple cable car lines, that operated from 1883 to 1909. Los Angeles also had several cable car lines, including
11024-615: Was the Melbourne tram system. However, there were also a few single lines remaining elsewhere: the Glenelg tram line , connecting Adelaide to the beachside suburb of Glenelg , and tourist trams in the Victorian Goldfields cities of Bendigo and Ballarat. In recent years the Melbourne system, generally recognised as the largest urban tram network in the world, has been considerably modernised and expanded. The Adelaide line has been extended to
11130-410: Was the cable car, which was pulled along a fixed track by a moving steel cable, the cable usually running in a slot below the street level. The power to move the cable was normally provided at a "powerhouse" site a distance away from the actual vehicle. The London and Blackwall Railway , which opened for passengers in east London, England, in 1840 used such a system. The first practical cable car line
11236-801: Was widely used in London, Washington, D.C., and New York City, and the surface contact collection method, used in Wolverhampton (the Lorain system), Torquay and Hastings in the UK (the Dolter stud system), and in Bordeaux , France (the ground-level power supply system). The convenience and economy of electricity resulted in its rapid adoption once the technical problems of production and transmission of electricity were solved. Electric trams largely replaced animal power and other forms of motive power including cable and steam, in
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