october 2015

Light Rail Transit (LRT) and tramway systems are in operation in 388 cities, the majority of which in Europe (206) and Eurasia (93), followed by Asia (41) and North America (36). Germany and Russia alone feature 123 systems (31% of total). This represents 2,300 lines for a total of 15,600 km of track. Together, LRT carries ap-

statistics brieflight rail in figuresworldwide outlook

proximately 13.6 billion passengers every year (45 million daily). Regions like the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) and Asia are developing new infrastructure at a fast pace, while Africa and South America are starting to consider LRT as suitable solution, complementary to metro and Bus Rapid Transit.

light rail transit around the world

1

2

a remarkable renaissance

While tramways were running in a large number of cities in the then developed world in the 1920s and 1930s, many systems were scrap-ped in the post-World War II period. Since the early 1980s there has been a revival with LRT systems opened in 42 cities between 1985 and 2000 and in another 78 since 2000. To date, 850 km of track infrastructure are under construction and another 2,350 at the plan-ning stage.

new systems in operation 1985-2015

265275285295305315325335345355365375385395

1985

-86

1987

-88

1989

-90

1991

-92

1993

-94

1995

-96

1997

-98

1999

-00

2001

-02

2003

-04

2005

-06

2007

-08

2009

-10

2011

-12

2013

-14

2015

Tota

l num

ber o

f LRT

syst

ems

TunisBu�aloNantes Hong Kong

Tuen Mun

ParisRouenStrasbourg

DallasBirminghamSaarbrückenSalt Lake City

PortoDublinBarcelona

MadridSevilleTianjin

FlorenceShanghaiAdanaMashhad

AlgiersRabat

Dubai

Addis Ababa

Listed cities are non-exhaustive examples: 25 of 121 new systems

+45%

1 Note that two recently opened systems have been temporarily closed down due to the economic downturn and insufficient patronage.

patronage

With over 13.5 billion journeys per year (see map), LRT represents 3% of the number of public transport passengers worldwide.

The most used systems are found in Budapest (396 million passengers per year), Vienna (363 million), Bucharest (322 million), Prague (317 million) and Saint Petersburg (312 million).

lrt systems with the highest number of annual passengers (millions)

396363

322 317 312264 252

210 205 204

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

Buda

pest

Vien

na

Buch

ares

t

Prag

ue

St. P

eter

sbur

g

War

saw

Mos

cow

Colo

gne

Züric

h

Zagr

eb

what is light rail?

Light Rail covers a wide range of mainly surface rail systems with en-hanced service quality in terms of frequency, speed and reliability; pleasant design for stations and vehicles and advanced IT. Further-more, given the higher capacity, Park and Ride facilities are used around stations. However, as opposed to fully fledged metros, LRTs are not entirely segregated from individual traffic.

With its broad definition and wide-ranging scope of performance, LRT is versatile and suited to carry out various functions in the mobility pattern of cities. It can work as classical (modernised) tramways with extensive street-running sections and priority measures, as a new lar-gely segregated LRT, as quasi-metro rapid transit, or in specific cases as tram-train. LRT can form the public transport backbone in a city, but it can also serve as a feeder to higher capacity metros or commu-ter railways; it can provide radial access from outskirts to the Central Business District, or orbital connectivity between suburbs.

The countries which reflect most this renaissance since 1985 are the USA (23 systems), France (22 systems), Spain (16 systems1 ) and Tur-key (8 systems).

A number of older systems have been closed down in the same period, mainly in the former Soviet Union (8 systems), Romania (4 systems) and Egypt (1 system).

3

infrastructure

In parallel to the increase in the number of systems, many cities have invested to expand their network. Today there are 15,618 km of track infrastructure and around 32,245 stations/stops. This translates into an average distance between stops of 484 m.

The longest systems are found in Melbourne (245 km), Saint Peters-burg (240 km), Cologne (193 km), Berlin (192 km) and Katowice (183 km).

longest lrt networks (km of track)

On a continental scale, LRT networks can be characterised by their respective average line length and distance between stations, as shown below. This relates to typical geographical and urban shapes and layouts of human settlements in cities (housing, CBD, jobs, recreatio-nal etc.): the sprawling nature of American cities contrasts with the more compact nature of cities in Europe, Asia or Eurasia. The average distance between stations is typically half of that of metros and re-flects a functionality of serving the territory more densely, particularly in the cases where most stations are at grade level.

The low average line length also require some explanation: the linear kilometres collected represent (physical) track length. However, as many lines share (part of) the alignment, the average length depicted below is lower than the actual distance between termini.

245 240

193 192 183 181178 172

156 151

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Melb

ourn

e

St. P

eter

sbur

g

Colo

gne

Berli

n

Kato

wice

Mos

cow

Vien

na

Mila

n

Buda

pest

Lodz

lrt network characteristics

If we compare LRT patronage to network size, we can identify the most intensely used networks (annual passengers per km of available infrastructure). The top 5 are: Hong Kong Tuen Mun, Istanbul, Tokyo, Sarajevo, and Zagreb.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

Sout

hAm

erica

Nor

thAm

erica

Eura

sia

MEN

A

Euro

pe

Asia

Pacifi

c

WO

RLD

Line

leng

th (k

m)

Inte

rsta

tion

dist

ance

(m)

990 926 485551 527 435 406

9.9km

14.4km

5.2km

6.2km

7.0km

7.1km

6.7km

Interstation distance (m) Line length (km)

busiest lrt networks (thousands of annual passengers per km of track)

4,8134,294

3,920 3,8403,517

2,826 2,808 2,771 2,538 2,475

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

Hon

g Kon

gTu

en M

un

Istan

bul

Toky

o

Sara

jevo

Zagr

eb

Jeru

salem

Züric

h

Brno

Buda

pest

Hon

g Kon

gtra

m

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fleet

The world fleet is slightly above 36,000 Light Rail Vehicles. The age structure of the fleet varies significantly between continents and countries. In Western Europe and North America, LRVs will on ave-rage be below 20 years, as systems were recently opened or major fleet renewal has taken place. Eastern Europe is in a transition phase, while Eurasia is the continent with the oldest average age and where investment in fleet renewal is the most needed.

If we assume a useful life of 35 years, it would mean that in excess of 1,000 tram and light rail vehicles need to be produced every year for mere fleet renewal. Analysis of production figures between 1987 and 2014 suggest that only around 400-450 LRVs and trams are rolled out each year. In addition there is the second hand market and the business of LRV refurbishment. Nevertheless, these statistics point out to a worrying ageing of assets, at least in some parts of the world.

largest lrt fleets (number of Vehicles)

methodology

Data collection: the data for this statistics brief was collected over a one year period, between summer 2014 and summer 2015. The fi-gures presented reflect the latest year for which data was available.

Infrastructure: track refers to the rail infrastructure for LRT running in both directions.

Lines: Number of lines in the LRT network; branch lines are conside-red when the branch infrastructure is proportionately relevant with regards to the length of the full line.

Vehicle fleet: only motorised LR vehicles which cannot be decoupled were considered, using the following rules: rigid unarticulated short tram = 1LRV; articulated tram = 1 LRV; a multi-articulated longer tram = 1 LRV; any unit operated in double traction = 2 LRVs.

920 919833

612526 520 500 481 481 455

0100200300400500600700800900

1,000

Prag

ue

Mos

cow

St. P

eter

sbur

g

Buda

pest

War

saw

Vien

na

Melb

ourn

e

Mila

n

Buch

ares

t

Yeka

terin

burg

This is a publication of the International Association of Public Transport. UITP has over 1,400 member companies in 96 countries throughout the world and represents the interests of key players in this sector. Its membership includes transport authorities, operators, both private and public, in all modes of collective passenger transport, and the industry. UITP addresses the economic, technical, organisation and management aspects of passenger transport, as well as the development of policy for mobility and public transport world-wide.

For further information please contact: LRT Laurent Dauby, Laurent.dauby@uitp.org, UITP statistics Mircea Steriu, mircea.steriu@uitp.org.