I was surfing YouTube and a thumbnail caught my eye. There was a modern tram, but I was only seeing one rail in the picture. I clicked it to watch the video, and it is in fact a single rail tramway that rides on rubber tires!! This is intriguing - especially when you consider the potential benefits. Rubber meets road = better traction for hills, single rail would mean easier infrastructure set up (I'd assume?) This really blurs the lines between bus and train I think, and I like it!! Cheers -Mike
Neat. The centerline is the guideway at far less cost the track. No cross ties, ballast, gauging. Just pop the guide slot into the pavement and be on your way.
Looks neat, but has - if you can believe Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translohr - rougher riding and higher maintenance costs than your usual tram.
Being a tire guy for 20+ years, those look like a nightmare to replace tires on, not to mention the weight of those. Must be some heavy duty rated tires.
Hadn't thought about what basically amounts to loaded tractor-trailers running along the same path all day long day after day, wearing down the path. Comfort issues can be fixed with improved suspension and I imagine they'd have a lift system or pit to make tire changes easier. Also learned from the wiki that Bombardier has a similar system - where they been hiding these things?? I wonder if a design tweak to balance most of the load to the rail could help with the erosion. Cheers -Mike
When you consider that a set of mediocre tires for my mid-sized sedan can run upwards of $400 and I get about 38,000 miles on them . . . Yes, I tried more expensive tires at $600 for a set and managed to get 40,000 miles at best. And yes again, I know there are people that have to shell out close to or more than $1,000 if they want new tires for their car, truck or SUV.
