Editing Light rail (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Trams|Light rail in North America|PCC car|Interurban}}
[[File:CTA Skokie Swift, Skokie, IL in May 1964 (25819535271).jpg|thumb|Skokie Swift service in 1964]]
The world's first electric tram operated in [[Sestroretsk]] near [[Saint Petersburg]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], invented and operated on an experimental basis by [[Fyodor Pirotsky]] in 1880.<ref>C. N. Pyrgidis. Railway Transportation Systems: Design, Construction, and Operation. CRC Press, 2016. p. 156</ref><ref>Ye. N. Petrova. St. Petersburg in Focus: Photographers of the Turn of the Century; in Celebration of the Tercentenary of St. Petersburg. Palace Ed., 2003. p. 12</ref> The first tramway was the [[Gross-Lichterfelde tramway]] in [[Lichterfelde (Berlin)|Lichterfelde]] near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Gross Lichterfelde Tramway was the worlds first electric tramway |url=https://www.mediastorehouse.com/fine-art-finder/artists/unknown-artist/gross-lichterfelde-tramway-worlds-first-electric-27992980.html |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=Media Storehouse Photo Prints |language=en-US}}</ref> It was built by [[Werner von Siemens]] who contacted Pirotsky. It initially drew current from the rails, with [[Overhead line|overhead wire]] being installed in 1883. The first [[interurban]] to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hilton |first1=George W. |title=The electric interurban railways in America |last2=Due |first2=John F. |date=2000 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-4014-2 |edition=1. paperback print |location=Stanford, Calif |pages=8–9}}</ref>

An early example of the light rail concept was the "Shaker Heights Rapid Transit" which started in the 1920s, was renovated in 1980-81 and is now part of [[RTA Rapid Transit]].<ref name="RTiA">{{cite book |last1=Middleton |first1=William D. |title=Metropolitan Railways: Rapid Transit in America |date=2003 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-34179-2 |pages=146, 147 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=foSEPTUE7NMC |language=en}}</ref> When the suburban rail [[Highland branch]] in Boston was converted to operation with regular trams (PCC cars) in 1959, creating an early type of [[Green Line D branch|light rail line]], passenger numbers rose quickly.<ref name=dana>{{cite magazine |title=Riverside Line Extension, 1959 |magazine=Transportation Bulletin |publisher=Connecticut Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society |date=October 1960 – July 1961 |first=Edward |last=Dana |issue=65}}</ref>{{rp|8}} In 1964 [[Yellow_Line_(CTA)#The_Skokie_Swift|the Skokie Swift]] service started operating, it helped to model later US light rail systems.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sisson |first=Patrick |date=2017-09-18 |title=When Chicago's Yellow Line was the future of urban transportation |url=https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/9/18/16324488/cta-yellow-line-chicago-skokie-history |work=Curbed Chicago |quote=Data collected from the initial experiment was used to design other light rail systems across the country...}}</ref>

===Postwar===
Many original tram and [[Streetcar|streetcar systems]] in the [[United Kingdom]], [[United States]], and elsewhere were decommissioned starting in the 1950s as subsidies for the car increased. During the 1940s both Leeds and Glasgow added new lines to their tram networks, both with a light rail like exclusive alignement.<ref name="LURS">{{cite book |last1=Skelsey |first1=Geoffrey |title=Brussels Metro to Grow As Pre-metro Shrinks |date=2018 |publisher=London Underground Railway Society}}</ref> And yet, Britain abandoned all its tram systems, except for [[Blackpool tramway|Blackpool]], with the closure of [[Glasgow Corporation Tramways]] (one of the largest in Europe) in 1962.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thetrams.co.uk/tramsinuk.php|access-date=26 December 2009|title=Trams in the UK|first=Peter|last=Courtenay|website=thetrams.co.uk|year=2006}}</ref>

[[File:Edmonton LRT testing commerical c.1978.jpg|thumb|Testing a German LRV for the Edmonton LRT]]
===Emergence===
Although some traditional trolley or tram systems continued to exist in the US and elsewhere, the term "light rail" has come to mean a different type of rail system as modern light rail technology has primarily post-WWII West German origins. After World War II, Germany retained many of its streetcar networks and some of these evolved into model light rail systems (''[[Stadtbahn]]en''). With the exception of [[Hamburg, Germany|Hamburg]], all large and most medium-sized German cities maintain light rail networks.<ref name="Bottoms">{{cite conference|first=Glen|last=Bottoms|title=Continuing Developments in Light Rail Transit in Western Europe|publisher=[[Light Rail Transit Association]]|year=2000|conference=9th National Light Rail Transit Conference|location=Portland, Oregon|url=http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/circulars/ec058/15_01_Bottoms.pdf|access-date=26 December 2009}}</ref>

The concept of a "limited tramway" was proposed by American transport planner H. Dean Quinby in 1962. Quinby distinguished this new concept in rail transportation from historic streetcar or tram systems as:<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Quinby |first=Henry D. |date=January 1962 |title=Major Urban Corridor Facilities: A New Concept |journal=Traffic Quarterly |publisher=Eno Foundation for Highway Traffic Control |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=242–259 |via= |hdl-access=free |hdl=2027/uc1.$b3477}}</ref>
* having the capacity to carry more passengers
* operating with "three-section, articulated" transit vehicles
* having more doors to facilitate full utilization of the space
* faster and quieter in operation

The term ''light rail transit'' was introduced in North America in 1972 to describe this new concept of rail transportation.<ref name="Thompson" /> Prior to that time the abbreviation "LRT" was used for "[[Light metro|Light Rapid Transit]]" and "[[Light metro|Light Rail Rapid Transit]]".<ref>{{cite book |last= Wright |first= Gerald |date=Fall 1972 |title= Light Rapid Transit – the Immediate Answer for Edmonton |location= Edmonton, Alberta |publisher=The University Practicum in Rapid Transit – [[University of Alberta]] Extension Service}}</ref> An attempt by [[Boeing Vertol]] to introduce a [[US Standard Light Rail Vehicle|new American light rail vehicle]] in the 1970s was proven to have been a technical failure by the following decade.

=== Early systems ===
[[File:Ostrava, Stadler Tango NF2 č. 1733 View from Tieto Towers.jpg|thumb|Ostrava tram stop with pedestrian underpass.]]
Prior to the systems in North America, besides Germany a few regions in Europe developed light rail like tram transport as early as the 1960s. Besides [[Gothenburg tram network|Gothenburg]], several cities in Central and Eastern Europe executed plans to modernise tram systems, notably in [[Trams in Ostrava|Ostrava]].<ref name="ACE21">{{cite journal |last1=Khairullina |first1=Elvira |title=Trams in the European Socialist countries in the 1960s and 1970s: from crisis to impetus. Soviet Union and Czechoslovak Socialist Republic |journal=Arquitectura Ciudad y Entorno |date=2021 |volume=16 |issue=46 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353073533_Trams_in_the_European_Socialist_countries_in_the_1960s_and_1970s_from_crisis_to_impetus_Soviet_Union_and_Czechoslovak_Socialist_Republic |access-date=25 March 2025}}</ref>

The first of the new light rail systems in North America began operation in 1978 when the Canadian city of [[Edmonton, Alberta]], adopted the German [[Siemens-Duewag U2]] system, followed three years later by [[Calgary, Alberta]], and [[San Diego, California]]. The concept proved popular, with there now being numerous [[list of United States light rail systems by ridership|light rail systems in the United States]] and [[List of North American light rail systems by ridership|in North America]].

In Britain, modern light rail systems began to appear in the 1980s, starting with the [[Tyne and Wear Metro]] from 1980 and followed by the establishment of the [[Manchester Metrolink]] in 1992 and the [[South Yorkshire Supertram|Sheffield Supertram]] from 1994.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Butcher |first=Louise |date=25 January 2012 |title=Railways: light rail schemes |url=https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN03307/SN03307.pdf |access-date=24 July 2024 |publisher=House of Commons Library |page=2}}</ref>