Bucharest Light rail
The Bucharest light rail (Romanian: Metrou uşor or "light metro") is a light rail transit system in Bucharest, Romania.
Operated by the Regia Autonomă de Transport București (RATB), the municipal public transit operator, the service is technically similar to a light rail and not to a light metro system.
History
Light rail use more modern rolling stock than trams and also run on separate designated corridors for faster travel times.
The first line (41) was opened in 2002, and runs through the west part of the city (from FC Steaua Bucureşti's Ghencea stadium in the south-west, to the Casa Presei Libere in the north).[1] (41) tram line is single on its route, meeting other lines only at the end, the 42 route at Piața Presei Libere and the 47 route at Ghencea.
While not exactly light rail, tram lines 32 and 21 can be considered as being light rail due to their low waiting times and sometimes superior speed. 32 is single until Calea Ferentari where it meets 8 for a short distance and 23, and 27, 7 and 47 from 11 iunie until its end at Piața Unirii. 21 is mainly single on its route, sharing the line with routes 5 and 16 from Piața Sfântul Gheorghe to Strada Paleologu. At Bucur Obor (Șoseaua Colentina), it meets for a short distance route 36. From Obor to the other end, it is single. Parallel lines are Trolleybus 66 route until Fundeni and Bus 143 from Bucur Obor until Baicului.
1 is sometimes considered light rail. This line is a ring type line, but it is not exactly light rail, since between Calea Vitan and Şura Mare the line is not even modernized. It can be considered light rail on Şoseaua Progresului and New Basarab Passage, but the line is far from being actually a light rail. It meets at least 5 other lines during its course, and the gap between 2 trams is quite long compared to 21, 32 and 41.
See also
References
- ↑ First line (in Romanian)