There is no doubt that modern rail and road based transit systems can meet most of the core expectations of users. In some cases, passengers' needs are however contradictory to what systems are traditionally able to accommodate, such as the combinations of high commercial speeds and short distances between stops and of high speed rural lines and direct access to city centre streets. Tailoring transit systems around customers' needs involves overcoming boundaries between systems traditionally distinguished, such as railways and tramways, and to combine elements of both. (The same applies to rail and bus systems, where recent guided bus applications combine both bus and tramway elements). Transit systems with light and heavy rail features have become quite popular in recent years and are good examples of: how to use modularity to tailor systems; how to identify suitable cost-effective technologies; and how to design systems around desired services (rather than vice versa). Meanwhile, some 20 such systems are operating or seriously considered world wide, with a wide range from full integration of light and heavy rail to just converting (used or disused) railway corridors to create tramways. It is obvious that there is a range of success factors common to these systems such as: providing direct links between city centres and suburbs; increasing the number of stops and reducing their distances to customers' doorsteps; facilitating usage of modern, lightweight rolling stock; and allowing greater flexibility to adapt to different environments. The essential success factor may however be cost-effectiveness, with affordable mass-produced products combined in intelligent ways, complemented by a smaller number of purpose designed elements. Today, all such elements are available from different suppliers on a competitive basis, to be combined to provide tailored systems and to deliver design criteria with adequate sustainability for future extensions. The presentation gives an overview of which customers' expectations can be addressed by such systems, how elements can be used to tailor transit systems, and which success factors can be derived from recent experience. Examples shown include systems where light rail is extended into heavy rail (which is the common approach) as well as a system where the opposite took place, with heavy rail sharing a tramway right of way in the inner city. For the covering abstract see ITRD E124693.
Samenvatting