TEDA Modern Guided Rail Tram - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

TEDA Modern Guided Rail Tram is a Translohr

Translohr

Translohr is a guided bus system manufactured by Lohr Industrie of France. It is used in Clermont-Ferrand, Tianjin, Padua and in the mainland Mestre district of Venice in Italy. Translohr runs on rubber tires and is guided by a single central rail....

Light Rail

Light rail

Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...

system in Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area

Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area

Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area , commonly abbreviated as TEDA is the main free market zone in Tanggu District in Tianjin, China. It was formed in late 1984 and currently has more foreign businesses in it than all of Shanghai....

. It is a modern, high speed rubber tired tram system, both first in China & Asia.

Tianjin

Tianjin

' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...

once had a conventional steel-wheeled tramway network. The system gradually expanded and reached its peak in 1933 with 116 tramcars. But like most cities around the world during the sixties & early seventies, the tram service was abandoned in 1972.

Trams returned in Tianjin in 2006. Commercial service started in 2007. Unlike standard tramway, the Translohr rubber-tired LRT system was chosen.

History

After abandonment of the tram network in 1972, gasoline

Gasoline

Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...

or diesel-powered vehicle

Vehicle

A vehicle is a device that is designed or used to transport people or cargo. Most often vehicles are manufactured, such as bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trains, ships, boats, and aircraft....

s such as bus

Bus

A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

es, taxi

Taxicab

A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...

s, and private automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

s started choking the streets. Like most Asian countries, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

suffered many problems, including pollution

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...

, gridlock

Gridlock

The term gridlock is defined as "A state of severe road congestion arising when continuous queues of vehicles block an entire network of intersecting streets, bringing traffic in all directions to a complete standstill; a traffic jam of this kind." The term originates from a situation possible in...

, and a sudden increase in population

Population

A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...

etc. Increasing population

Population

started increasing urbanization

Urbanization

Urbanization, urbanisation or urban drift is the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. The United Nations projected that half of the world's population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008....

of Tianjin, thus more motor vehicles clogged the streets and increased pollution

Pollution

and worsened gridlock. Metro construction started 2 years before the tramway closure. However, it took 14 years to complete the first line as the construction was interrupted greatly by an earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

and lack of workers. The city was suffering from congestion unheard of in the days of trams and it needed more metro lines, and fast, but construction costs were high. It was not possible for Tianjin in a short period. Another solution was needed. To solve the problem in a cheaper way, they decided to build an elevated rail system in eastern Tianjin, but although it was cheaper than metro, construction of elevated tracks and stations were also costly. So elevated rail also wasn't the permanent solution. Many cities around the world like Tunis

Tunis

Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

, Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

and Pyongyang

Pyongyang

Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...

were building LRT systems, and like them, Tianjin also planned for the return of trams.

In the 1990s the government looked for a way to decrease pollution as soon as possible. Looking many cities around the world, the decision was made to reinstate trams in Tianjin. By then number of cars & buses had increased uncontrollably in Downtown Tianjin, so opening a tramway system were not possible there. The transport authority decided to construct the LRT network in the Tianjin Economic Development Area in eastern side of the main city at Tanggu district.

Construction began in 2005 and the 7.86 km (4.9 mi) long line was opened to the public in 2007, making it the first modern LRT system in mainland China. The cost of the line is about 190 million yuan. The line is operated by Binhai Mass Transit

Binhai Mass Transit

The Binhai Mass Transit is one of two rapid transit systems in Tianjin, the other being the Tianjin Metro. Binhai Mass Transit is a rapid transit line that serves the Binhai New Area and TEDA...

. The total investment 500 million yuan, of which an engineering test-line 190 million yuan (excluding vehicles). At last, the LRT started running in Tianjin in 2007, and quickly became popular.

The new system was chosen for TEDA

Teda

The Teda are a Toubou people who live mostly in northern Chad, but is present also in Libya, Niger and Nigeria. They speak Tedaga, a Nilo-Saharan language, and are very close ethnically and culturally with the Daza. They likely number more than 50,000, and are Muslims....

because moving from "point A" to "point B" had become slow and difficult with the increase in road traffic. The TEDA industrial zone has been Tianjin's fastest developing area.

Timeline

1972 - Abandonment of original tram network.

2005 - Construction of rubber tired LRT started.

2006 - First test run.

2007 - Opened to pulic on May 10, 2007 .

Practical Info

Total length - 8 km
Opened - 10/5/2007.
Operating hours - 5:30 A.M. to 12 Midnight.
Frequency - 3 minutes.

Fleet

The LRVs for the line were manufactured by Translohr

Translohr

of France. All LRVs are low floor, fully air conditioned, and can run high speed. Each LRV has three sections (Translohr STE 3) .

Stations

TEDA City Centre & North of College District are the two termini.

Number	Station Name	Chinese Chinese character Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...	Transfers	Area
TEDA MGRT (天津开发区导轨电车一号线)
T01	TEDA	泰达	Jinbin Line 1 — 116	Tanggu
T02	First Avenue	第一大街
T03	Second Avenue	第二大街
T04	Third Avenue	第三大街
T05	Fourth Avenue	第四大街
T06	Fifth Avenue	第五大街
T07	Sixth Avenue	第六大街
T08	Seventh Avenue	第七大街
T09	Ninth Avenue	第九大街
T10	Tenth Avenue	第十大街
T11	Eleventh Avenue	第十一大街
T12	South of College District	学院区南
T13	College District	学院区
T14	North of College District	学院区北

Map

Alignment

The LRT route runs on unreserved tracks, mostly in the middle of the road. It crosses many numerical avenues of TEDA & connects north to south of College district. All stops have island platforms.