Editing Conduit current collection (section)

[[File:Washington, D.C. Aerial view of a street corner2.jpg|thumb|Conduit for current collection between the rails of [[streetcars in Washington, D.C.]], 1939. Washington installed the system in 1895<ref name="White1968">{{citation |title=Public Transport in Washington before the Great Consolidation of 1902 |author=John H. White, Jr. |journal=Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. |date=1966 |volume=66/68 |issue=46 |pages=216–230 |jstor=40067257 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40067257}}</ref> and it remained in operation until 1962<ref name="Boorse2005">{{citation |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0361198105193000107?journalCode=trra |title=Directly and Indirectly Reducing Visual Impact of Electric Railway Overhead Contact Systems |date=January 2005 |doi=10.1177/0361198105193000107 |author=Jack W. Boorse |journal=Transportation Research Record |volume=1930 |issue=1|pages=57–61 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>]]
'''Conduit current collection''' is an obsolete system that was used by some electric [[tram]]ways to pass [[electric current|current]] to streetcars via a "conduit", a small tunnel under the roadway. Modern systems fall under the term [[ground-level power supply]].

The system is primarily composed of a channel, or conduit, excavated under the roadway; the conduit is positioned either between the running rails, much in the same fashion as the cable for [[Cable car (railway)|cable cars]],<ref name="Williams2004" /> or underneath one of the rails; a car is connected to a "plow" or "plough" that runs through the conduit and delivers power from two electric rails at the sides of the conduit to the car's electric motor.<ref name="Schatzberg">{{citation |url=https://ia600807.us.archive.org/23/items/technologiespowe00alle/technologiespowe00alle_djvu.txt |title=Culture and Technology in the City: Opposition to Mechanized Street Transportation in Late-Nineteenth-Century America |author=Eric Schatzberg |year=2001 |publisher=MIT Press}}</ref> Plows were manually attached and detached from cars as they switched rail lines.<ref name="Williams2004">{{citation |url=https://dewi.ca/trains/conduit/ploughs.html |title=London Trams: current collectors (ploughs) |author=Dewi Williams |year=2004}}</ref>

Conduit current collection systems were implemented as early as 1881 with the [[Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway]].<ref name="Colley2014">{{citation |url=https://oro.open.ac.uk/54876/1/690467.pdf |title=Electrifying the streets: the surface-contact controversy in give English towns 1880-1920 |author=Gerry Colley |date=November 27, 2014 |doi=10.21954/ou.ro.0000d65c}}</ref>{{Rp|Appendix I}} It proved to be much more expensive, complicated, and trouble-prone than overhead wires. When electric street railways became ubiquitous, conduits were only used in those cities that did not permit overhead wires, including [[London]], [[Paris]], [[Berlin]], [[Marseille]], [[Vienna]], [[Budapest]], [[Prague]], [[Manhattan]], and [[Washington, D.C.]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Post | first = Robert C. | title = Urban Mass Transit: The Life Story of a Technology | publisher = Greenwood Press | date = 2007 | pages = 45–47 | isbn = 978-0-313-33916-5}}</ref> The [[Bordeaux]] and Washington conduit systems remained the last in operation until being decommissioned in 1958<ref name="Baggs" /> and 1962,<ref name="Boorse2005" /> respectively.

For decades, "catenary-free" systems such as conduit current collection were not reintroduced because they didn't meet modern safety standards.<ref name="Baggs">{{citation |url=https://dcstreetcar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Section-D-Part-2-281-498-pagesred.pdf |title=Wire-Free Traction System Technology Review |author=J Baggs |publisher=[[Edinburgh Tram Network]] |section=5.1 Ground Level Power Supply |date=March 9, 2006}}</ref> Modern systems, called [[ground-level power supply]], use a segmented rail flush with the surface of the road instead of a conduit, and the rail segments are only powered when an appropriate vehicle is over them. [[Alstom APS]] was the first modern commercial ground-level power supply system, first installed commercially in [[Bordeaux]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Third-rail trams across the Garonne |work=[[Railway Gazette International]] |date=February 1, 2004 |url=http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/10/third-rail-trams-across-the-garonne.html |access-date=May 2, 2008 |archive-date=April 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100426115224/http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/10/third-rail-trams-across-the-garonne.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=alaps>{{cite web |url=https://www.alstom.com/our-solutions/infrastructure/aps-service-proven-catenary-free-tramway-operations |title=APS: Service-proven catenary-free tramway operations |publisher=Alstom |access-date=2020-11-29 |archive-date=2020-11-29 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129173728/https://www.alstom.com/our-solutions/infrastructure/aps-service-proven-catenary-free-tramway-operations}}</ref> The French government reports no electrocutions or electrification accidents on any tramway in France from as early as 2003<ref name="accidents-2003-2010">{{citation |url=https://balise.documentation.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/docs/Balise/0065/Balise-0065470/TW_Rapport%20annuel_2010_V2.pdf |title=ACCIDENTOLOGIE DES TRAMWAYS - Analyse des évènements déclarés année 2010 - évolution 2003-2010 |author=Service Technique des Remontées Mécaniques et des Transports Guidés - Division TramWays |date=November 2011}}</ref> until as recently as December 31, 2021.<ref name="accidents-2003-2010" /><ref name="2010-2020">{{citation |url=https://www.strmtg.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/1_-_accidentologie_tramways_2020_-_strmtg.pdf |title=Accidentologie « tramways » – Données 2020 |author=Service Technique des Remontées Mécaniques et des Transports Guidés - Division TramWays |date=October 19, 2021}}</ref><ref name="2013-2022">{{citation |url=https://balise.documentation.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/docs/Balise/0065/Balise-0065942/Rapport_annuel_TW_2022_V1.pdf |title=Rapport annuel 2022 sur le parc, le trafic et les événements d’exploitation tramways  |author=Service Technique des Remontées Mécaniques et des Transports Guidés - STRMTG |date=December 19, 2023}}</ref>