Trivia: Longest tram in the world.

[busestrains]

I am not sure if this should go in the international section or tram section of the forum but as it is about international services i have put it here. But feel free to move it if this is the wrong section.

I am trying to find out what are the longest trams in the world?

There are actually two different questions as it depends how you define longest so i am interested in both:

1. What is the longest individual tram in service?

2. What is the longest tram formation in service?

So i am interested in the answers to both of these.

For part 1 my guesses would be one of these perhaps:

• Budapest Hungary - Here they run nine section CAF Urbos trams.

• Dublin Ireland - Here they run nine section Alsthom Citadis trams.

It is difficult to find the exact measurements of these trams so if anyone knows that would be great.

For part 2 my guesses would be one of these perhaps:

• Paris France - Here they run two five section Alsthom Citadis trams attached (so ten sections total) on the T2 route.

• Sydney Australia - Here they run two five section Alsthom Citadis trams attached (so ten sections total) on the L1/L2/L3 routes.

• Denver Colorado USA - Here they run a mixture of Siemens SD100 and Siemens SD160 trams which can all run in formations of 1/2/3/4 units depending on the service and the time of day. So the services that run as four units attached are very long.

• Salt Lake City Utah USA - Here they run a mixture of Siemens SD100 and Siemens SD160 and Siemens S70/S700 trams which can all run in formations of 1/2/3/4 units depending on the service and the time of day. So the services that run as four units attached are very long.

• Seattle Washington USA - Here they run a mixture of Kinki Sharyo Mitsui LRV and Siemens S70/S700 trams which can all run in formations of 1/2/3/4 units depending on the service and the time of day. So the services that run as four units attached are very long.

Again it is difficult to find the exact measurements of these trams so if anyone knows that would be great.

I would be interested to hear if anyone knows which of these are the longest or if you know of any other longer trams in operation anywhere?

 

[mwmbwls]

I don't lnow the answer but can suggest a contender:

Alstom to deliver 66 additional Citadis trams to Casablanca in Morocco

Casa Transports has chosen Alstom to provide tramways for Casablanca lines 3&4

www.alstom.com

 

[DanNCL]

My guess for 1:
Combino Supra in Budapest - 8 sections, but each section is longer than a section on the 9 section CAF trams

My guesses for 2:
Type T in Vienna - though used on what is considered to be a U Bahn line (U6), these vehicles are actually trams. Each is 27m long and run in formations of up to 4 units.
Type U5 in Frankfurt - as with the Vienna example these are trams running on lines designated as U Bahn, and run in formations of up to 4 units.

 

[DanielB]

For 2: The CAF Urbos trams in Utrecht are commonly used in formations composed of a 5-car and 7-car unit, adding up to 74 metres of tram with a capacity of around 500 passengers (which provides a capacity of ~ 6000 passengers per hour on the core section served by routes 20, 21 and 22). See this factsheet specifying the exact lengths.
Within the Netherlands these are the longest tram consists in service. The RegioCitadis on RandstadRail in The Hague/Zoetermeer comes close, though two coupled units there are about 2 metres shorter.

 

[Austriantrain]

The Üstra in Hannover runs 75m-tram consists (three units, coupled).

As to the longest vehicles, according the German Wikipedia (which of course is not 100% reliable) it’s the 56m-long CAF Urbos in Budapest (the Budapest Combinos are 54m).

 

[fandroid]

It depends on what you mean by tram. The longest street running trams I have seen were those 75m ones in Hannover. Just to confuse matters there are, of course, street running trains (loco + coaches) such as those on the RhB in Chur

 

[themiller]

Have you consulted Jane’s World Railways? A valuable research tool for the curious.

 

[DanNCL]

For 2. I can beat the Hannover and Utrecht examples.

80m formations (2x 40m trams) have sizeable sections of street running in Stuttgart.

100m formations (4x 25m trams) in Frankfurt operate under tramway regulations, but don’t actually run directly mixed with other traffic - line U5 which is the only U Bahn line in Frankfurt that does run directly mixed with other traffic runs up to 75m formations (3x 25m trams)

 

[busestrains]

Thank you for all the replies so far. That is interesting to hear. There is a lot of long trams mentioned that i was not aware of. I have done a lot of digging and found out some of the exact lengths of some of them:

PART 1 (longest individual trams):
• 59.4m - Dresden Germany - Freight Tram (five section tram)
• 55.9m - Budapest Hungary - CAF Urbos (nine section tram)
• 54.7m - Dublin Ireland - Alsthom Citadis 502 (nine section tram)
• 53.9m - Budapest Hungary - Siemens Combino Supra (six section tram)

PART 2 (longest formations used):
• 117.6m (4x29.4m units) - Siemens S70/S700 - Salt Lake City Utah USA
• 117.6m (4x29.4m units) - Siemens S70/S700 - Seattle Washington USA
• 115.6m (4x28.9m units) - Kinki Sharyo Mitsui LRV - Seattle Washington USA
• 109.2m (4x27.3m units) - Bombardier Type T/T1 - Vienna Austria U6
• 99.2m (4x24.8m units) - Siemens SD100/SD160 - Denver Colorado Utah USA
• 99.2m (4x24.8m units) - Siemens SD100/SD160 - Salt Lake City Utah USA
• 74.0m (1x32.9m+1x41.1m units) - CAF Urbos - Utrecht Netherlands
• 66.8m (2x33.4m units) - Alsthom Citadis 305 - Sydney Australia L1/L2/L3
• 66.8m (2x33.4m units) - Alsthom Citadis 305 - Casablanca Morocco
• 64.4m (2x32.2m units) - Alsthom Citadis 302 - Casablanca Morocco
• 64.4m (2x32.2m units) - Alsthom Citadis 302 - Rabat Morocco
• 64.4m (2x32.2m units) - Alsthom Citadis 302 - Tunis Tunisia
• 64.4m (2x32.2m units) - Alsthom Citadis 302 - Paris France T2

Germany is an interesting one as they have some of these Stadtbahn systems which are sort of like a cross between a U Bahn (Metro) and a Strassenbahn (Tram) and some run partly on the street on some run entirely separated. So it is difficult to know whether to classify them as trams or not. But if they are trams then certainly a lot of these seem to run in very long formations.

 

[Austriantrain]

Thank you for all the replies so far. That is interesting to hear. There is a lot of long trams mentioned that i was not aware of. I have done a lot of digging and found out some of the exact lengths of some of them:

PART 1 (longest individual trams):
• 59.4m - Dresden Germany - Freight Tram (five section tram)
• 55.9m - Budapest Hungary - CAF Urbos (nine section tram)
• 54.7m - Dublin Ireland - Alsthom Citadis 502 (nine section tram)
• 53.9m - Budapest Hungary - Siemens Combino Supra (six section tram)

PART 2 (longest formations used):
• 117.6m (4x29.4m units) - Siemens S70/S700 - Salt Lake City Utah USA
• 117.6m (4x29.4m units) - Siemens S70/S700 - Seattle Washington USA
• 115.6m (4x28.9m units) - Kinki Sharyo Mitsui LRV - Seattle Washington USA
• 109.2m (4x27.3m units) - Bombardier Type T/T1 - Vienna Austria U6
• 99.2m (4x24.8m units) - Siemens SD100/SD160 - Denver Colorado Utah USA
• 99.2m (4x24.8m units) - Siemens SD100/SD160 - Salt Lake City Utah USA
• 74.0m (1x32.9m+1x41.1m units) - CAF Urbos - Utrecht Netherlands
• 66.8m (2x33.4m units) - Alsthom Citadis 305 - Sydney Australia L1/L2/L3
• 66.8m (2x33.4m units) - Alsthom Citadis 305 - Casablanca Morocco
• 64.4m (2x32.2m units) - Alsthom Citadis 302 - Casablanca Morocco
• 64.4m (2x32.2m units) - Alsthom Citadis 302 - Rabat Morocco
• 64.4m (2x32.2m units) - Alsthom Citadis 302 - Tunis Tunisia
• 64.4m (2x32.2m units) - Alsthom Citadis 302 - Paris France T2

Germany is an interesting one as they have some of these Stadtbahn systems which are sort of like a cross between a U Bahn (Metro) and a Strassenbahn (Tram) and some run partly on the street on some run entirely separated. So it is difficult to know whether to classify them as trams or not. But if they are trams then certainly a lot of these seem to run in very long formations.

Vienna (line U6) should not be included in that list. It has no street running and is a pure metro line.

(The vehicles themselves do run „ECS“ over tram lines to the Vienna main workshop, but not as full-length four-car sets).

 

[DanNCL]

Germany is an interesting one as they have some of these Stadtbahn systems which are sort of like a cross between a U Bahn (Metro) and a Strassenbahn (Tram) and some run partly on the street on some run entirely separated. So it is difficult to know whether to classify them as trams or not. But if they are trams then certainly a lot of these seem to run in very long formations.

The Stuttgart and Frankfurt examples I gave both have street running. Pretty sure Hannover does too.

Vienna (line U6) should not be included in that list. It has no street running and is a pure metro line.

(The vehicles themselves do run „ECS“ over tram lines to the Vienna main workshop, but not as full-length four-car sets).

I think it depends how you interpret the question. I mentioned U6 in Vienna on the basis that the vehicles themselves are trams, rather than the route. But if the question is specifically for formations that have street running then yes Vienna should be left off.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

*tongue-in-cheek answer*
Surely once GNER added a ninth trailer to their HST sets, that would have taken the record? HSTs were nicknamed "trams" by crews I believe.

 

[MarcVD]

Do trailers count ? In that case, a belgian SNCV consist of old made of one type S with 3 trailers in tow slightly exceeded 60 m... Such consists were quite frequent on lines radiating out of Brussels and Antwerp.

 

[MarcVD]

Another example of the above...

 

[43096]

Just to confuse matters there are, of course, street running trains (loco + coaches) such as those on the RhB in Chur

Like this one at Chur Stadt. From memory it was two locos and ten coaches.

 

[Fireless]

Germany is an interesting one as they have some of these Stadtbahn systems which are sort of like a cross between a U Bahn (Metro) and a Strassenbahn (Tram) and some run partly on the street on some run entirely separated. So it is difficult to know whether to classify them as trams or not. But if they are trams then certainly a lot of these seem to run in very long formations.

Considering that about all systems on the longest formation list are similar, it would be very unfair not to include them as long as they are regulated by the BOStrab (german regulations for the construction and operation of trams) and not fully grade seperated (to keep out the definitively full metro systems like Berlin or Munich).

Some german entries for the long formation list that haven't been mentioned yet:
Düsseldorf: 112 m (4x Duewag B80) but only in the tunnel during carnival
Düsseldorf: 84 m (3x Duewag B80) with on-street running during special events at the stadium or exhibition centre
Bielefeld: 68 m (2x Heiterblick Vamos or Duewag M8D+MB4+M8D) with on-street running on metre gauge in normal service