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Translohr is arubber-tyred tramway system, originally developed byLohr Industrie of France and now run by a consortium ofAlstom Transport andFonds stratégique d'investissement (FSI) asnewTL,[1] which took over from Lohr in 2012. It is used inParis andClermont-Ferrand, France;Medellín, Colombia; andVenice-Mestre andPadua in Italy.[2] In June 2012,Alstom Group and theStrategic Investment Fund acquired Translohr for €35 million.[3]
The Translohr system is more like atram orlight railway than abus ortrolleybus. Unlike other guided bus systems, including the similar but incompatibleGuided Light Transit system developed byBombardier Transportation, Translohr cars must permanently followguide rails that they cannot divert from, like traditional steel-wheeledrail vehicles.
The guide rail automatically guides the vehicle, with a driver who stops and starts, accelerating and braking when needed. Power is provided byoverhead wires and collected with apantograph in the same way as a tram. The vehicle carries internalbattery packs for use on non-electrified sections of the route.
There are two main designs for the vehicles: the bi-directional STE series, and the unidirectional SP Prime series. They consist of three to sixarticulated sections like a conventional tram, with a length from 25 to 46 metres (82 ft1⁄4 in to 150 ft 11 in) long and2.2 metres (7 ft2+5⁄8 in) wide. Their net weight is 23–44 tonnes (22.6–43.3 long tons; 25.4–48.5 short tons), depending upon the number of car sections.
As TranslohrLRVs cannot run without a guide rail they are not classified as buses; those used on the Clermont-Ferrand network do not need to havelicense plates.
| Country | City | System name | Opening | Length | Number of stops | Number of vehicles | Vehicle type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 China | Shanghai | Zhangjiang Tram | 1 July 2009 | 9.8 km (6.1 mi) | 15 | 9 | STE3 | Closed in May 2023[4] |
| Tianjin | TEDA Modern Guided Rail Tram | 6 December 2006 | 7.86 km (4.9 mi) | 14 | 8 | STE3 | Trams in Tianjin (Closed in June 2023) | |
 Colombia | Medellín | Ayacucho Tram | 15 October 2015[5] | 4.3 km (2.7 mi) | 9 | 12 | STE5 | |
 France | Clermont-Ferrand | Clermont-Ferrand tramway | 14 October 2006 | 15.4 km (9.6 mi) | 34 | 25 | STE4 | |
| Paris | Île-de-France tramway Line 5 | 29 July 2013 | 6.6 km (4.1 mi) | T5: 16 | 17 | STE3 | Line 5 and 6 ofÎle-de-France tramway 20.6 km (12.8 mi) | |
| Île-de-France tramway Line 6 | 13 December 2014 | 14 km (8.7 mi) | T6: 21 | 28 | STE6 | |||
 Italy | Padua | Trams in Padua | 24 March 2007 | 10.3 km (6.4 mi) | 25 | 20 | STE3 | |
| Venice | Trams in Mestre | 19 December 2010 | 18.9 km (11.7 mi) | T1: 23 T2: 14 | 20 | STE4 |
The 14 km (8.7 mi) Châtillon–Viroflay Line inParis cost €27.4m per km, including infrastructure, improvements of theright-of-way, and the purchase of 28 STE6 vehicles.[6] In addition, due to thetyres constantly running over the same area of road, there is significant erosion of the roadway; this has already happened with the Bombardier Guided Light Transit system, resulting in extensive repairs at significant cost to the operator. This adds to already high running costs. Providingroll ways, as used byrubber-tyred metros, embedded in theroad surface might have been useful. Ride quality is also said to be poor, little better than a bus[citation needed], due to the four-wheeled design, whereastrams have trucks (bogies) withshock absorbers orsprings.
TheTianjin system suffered aderailment on 20 August 2007, three months after its inauguration.[7] There were five derailments onPadua's new installation in 2007 before its inauguration,[8] and one on 22 April 2010[9] due to a misaligned switch.[10]
Wheresnowfall is an issue this system may not be practical: since the guide rail forms the return leg of the electrical circuit, accumulation of ice and snow on the rail could cause intermittent power interruptions to the vehicle. Also, as the guide wheels support almost no weight, snow packed into the flangeways or atop the rail by road traffic may cause the wheels to lose grip and become slippery. Since the guide wheels each grip the guide rail at a 45-degree angle and thus are at 90-degree angle to each other, the risk of the guide wheels being lifted completely off the rails is minimal.
Critics of the system also point out that Translohr is a proprietary system subject tovendor lock-in, requiring purchase of any further vehicles from Lohr Industrie.[8][11] This may no longer be a problem after thepatents expire if other manufacturers produce compatible vehicles.[citation needed]
Several lines under construction or already built were eventually abandoned or shut down due to planning changes and operational difficulties. For example,L'Aquila, which started demolition work in 2013;[12][13]Latina, which purchased new vehicles in 2016 but did not put them into operation because the infrastructure was not completed;[14][15]Shanghai Zhangjiang Tram, which was demolished shortly after it stopped running on 1 June 2023;[16][17] andTEDA Modern Guided Rail Tram which shut down on 1 June 2023, and was to be demolished.[18][19]
Media related toTranslohr at Wikimedia Commons