Arkansas Encyclopedia
On This Day in History
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A bus shares many characteristics with light rail, but does not run on rails. Trolleybuses are buses that are powered by overhead wires. Railbuses, vehicles that can travel both on rails and on roads, have been tried experimentally, but are not in common use. The term bus rapid transit is used to refer to various methods of providing faster bus services, but the systems which use it are usually more equivalent to light rail than to rapid transit. Some cities experimenting with guided bus technologies, such as Nancy have chosen to refer to them as 'trams on tyres' (rubber tyred trams) and given them tram-like appearances. Trams are systems that runs mainly or completely along streets, with low capacity and frequent stops. Passengers usually board at street- or curb-level (but low-floor trams and level boarding platforms may be used). These can be called trams, streetcars, or trolleys, while the longer-distance lines which have now mostly vanished were called interurbans or radial railways. Light rail is a relatively new term, as an outgrowth of trams/streetcars. Speeds are usually higher, and articulated vehicles may be used to increase capacity. Note that some systems called light rail have most or all of the characteristics of rapid transit and may be better placed in that category, while others are essentially trams referred to as light rail for political reasons. |