Richard's Tram Blog

Monday, September 01, 2014

DALIAN NEW LRV EXTENSION ROUTE 202 ON 25 AUGUST 2014

Route 202 is to have an LRV extension out to the distant suburbs of Dalian. We caught tram 202 to the end of the route to try and find the LRV and were turned off the tram a few stops from the end of the route. We caught a local bus which follows the route as far as the depot and then turned off into an area of new 'posh' housing. We looked at the depot and then decided to walk along the side to see if there was any sign of the new LRV tracks etc. After a short distance we were then confronted with tall hoardings and had to follow these with occasional glimpses through the gaps of some trackwork. We walked about 1.5-2 miles in 30+ degrees C and eventually found a viaduct with the roofs of some cars showing and a station in the distance - that's dedication for you! (On our return we found a free shuttle bus between tram terminus and LRV station!). The current LRV service is between Cai Da Ling and Lushunxingang hourly, and takes 52 minutes running time.

Route 202 at the current terminus

Route 202 approaching terminus

The depot with a 1927 tram in view

Tops of LRV cars just visible on the viaduct

Road sign which spurred us on to keep walking!

Cai Da Ling Station the current terminus at the City end.

The single journey ticket costs CNY7, which is expensive comparatively to the CNY1 or 2 on the trams

Spare cars lined up on the viaduct outside Cai Da Ling station

View of the station. As can be seen the service is lightly used at the moment.

LRV arriving from Lushunxingang end

Builders plate

SHENYANG 24 AUGUST 2014

Shenyang has a new tramway built for the 12th Chinese National Games and opened in August 2013. There is 70km of tramway with routes 1, 2, 3 and 5 in operation (although route 3 was not operating on the day we were there). Route 4 is in the planning stage and route 6 is under construction. There are 30 trams built by Changchun - 20 of these are 100% low floor, the other 10 are 70% low floor and all have super capacitors and run in areas with no overhead.

Interior shot showing ticket machines and paper transfer tickets

Interior shot showing 100% low floor design

Route 5 in super capacitor mode on way from Airport

Route 5 in the city centre

Route 2


Route 5 with yet another area of apartment buildings en route to the Airport. (We were amazed by the amount of new building along the route to the airport and many new wide roads crossing the route with very little traffic at present.

Sunday, August 31, 2014

BEIJING ON 18 AUGUST 2014

I have recently been on a visit to China and Pyongyang, DPRK, which was very interesting and enjoyable. Most people are aware I am not a trolleybus fan, but had to hide my scruples on this holiday - and they can be useful when air-conditioned (the temperature was 34 degrees C) and going in the right direction.

Trolleybus on route 6 among the traffic

Trolleybus overhead

Trolleybus without traffic in the way - don't know how that happened!

Saturday, August 30, 2014

MANCHESTER PROGRESS 27 AUGUST 2014 - Frank Bagshaw

Progress in Manchester in preparation for the Second City Crossing and re-vamping of Victoria Station where trams are using the “southern” single line. Two photos taken on August 27^th looking both east and west.

Also view in Rochdale of trams in the town centre.