Where would you build a tram train system?

Omg, finally! I live in Karlsruhe and absolutely love this system. I can walk 100 meters to a tram stop and 45 minutes later I'll be in the Black Forest or various other cities without having to change once. It's also worth mentioning that in many years, Karlsruhe is designated as the most bicycle friendly city in Germany. Especially for students it's a great system because you can also rent bikes for free, which are widely available here.

It is worth mentioning, that the Karlsruhe Model is called the Chemnitz Model in the East of Germany, so this city might also be worth a look. The main advantage of the Karlsruhe Model is that it makes living in towns and villages around Karlsruhe much more comfortable, which in return reduces housing prices in the center (a bit). You can live in a village with a tram station and your children can easily drive into the city for shopping or to party on their own, I would even go so far and say that the number of students who still live at home somewhere in the region is a bit higher in the universities of Karlsruhe because of this. This system decreases the difference between the city and the surrounding province, and this solves a lot of the problems that many cities have today.

I actually work as a student worker in the main workshop of the Karlsruhe Tram Company. So it was quite nice to see them here. :) My dad is also one of the drivers on the tram train.

I live in Bruchsal, which is a smaller town close to Karlsruhe, and my mother's family has lived in the area for a long time. That is why I want to tell a little story about why the tram system in Karlsruhe is so great to have. When my mum was out of school in 1958 and was training for a job, she had to go to Karlsruhe once a week in the late afternoon for specific classes (that's part of vocational training here in Germany). The classes ended at nine pm and she and the others from Bruchsal had to hurry to the train station afterwards to catch the train home, because there was only one train an hour and if they missed it (because the teacher had spoken too long, for instance), they had to wait for one hour. When I was a kid, we were often taking the train to Karlsruhe once a year with our class for a trip through the Karlsruhe Zoo (which, incidentally, is just across the street from the main train station). At that time, the regular frequency of trains was still one hour, so our teachers (and usually one or two parents) had to herd us across the street, into the station, to the rails, and up the right stairs in time to catch the train or we'd be stuck there for an hour (with the kids going everywhere, stressing the adults out completely). When I went to uni in Karlsruhe, the tram system was already implemented. At that time, trams were every 20 minutes, which is a much better rate than one hour. I could switch trains in the morning in Durlach (another town that's basically part of Karlsruhe) and get off right at the uni (there's two viable stops, depending on where on the premises you need to be). Now, there's a tram to Karlsruhe from Bruchsal and back about every ten minutes. It's so easy to get there without having to worry about missing 'that' specific train. So I missed that one? Not a problem, the next one will be here in ten minutes, it might even already wait at a platform and I can go in and take a seat and wait in peace. Not to mention that the prices aren't too high and thus it's also a viable way to get to Karlsruhe just for a shopping trip or to meet with friends or to go to the theatre or do something else in your spare time. I love the trams.

This is sort of like a modern incarnation of the Interurban. Crazy that we used to have tons of systems like this in the US if you go back 90-100 years ago. These would be a great to see as functioning like "commuter rail" in more smaller cities of 100K - 300K or similarly as lines that connect between radial mainline routes, such as SEPTA's Norristown High Speed Line, which may be considered one of 2 remaining interurban lines in the US.

Calling Karlsruhe a "small city" is so weird to me. For German standards I would call it a normal sized one (if not a relatively big one)

Kassel, a city that's similar in size to Karlsruhe, also has tram trains in addition to its regular city wide tram network. They also use diesel/electric trams for sections of railway that don't have any overhead power. There's also a small tunnel under the Hauptbahnhof that links the tram network with the mainline railway.

It’s really cool to someone outside of Germany talk about my hometown. I think it’s quite an oversight that many people associate transit concepts only with very large cities. Because the majority of people doesn’t live in those. We only have 4 cities in Germany with more then 1mio inhabitants, Karlsruhe is somewhere around rank 20 in German cities, there are quite a few that could implement similar systems, while the systems of Munich or Berlin are just much too expensive for most. So talking about systems for midsized cities is actually very interesting in my opinion, because it affects way more people then those in the few metropolis. Growing up with this system being the norm, I often wonder why so few cities of comparable size have something like this. I think you got the benefits and prerequisites of the system quite well. It’s certainly not a perfect situation for large cities, but I think it’s one of the best solutions for midsize cities I know. I really like people have been starting to take notice of what we have here. It’s just really convenient and I can do pretty much any trip with max 1 transfer, which is quite nice.

1:54 did you know that the Universities of both Karlsruhe and Waterloo offer degrees in traffic planning? And that the two work together with a exchange program?

Norway's biggest city is barely 600,000 people but still has a pretty good bus, tram AND subway service. There is always /some/ kind of stop nearby to get you where you want. And it's easier than driving through the city center.

Have you heard of the Saarbahn? It's a similar system in the Saarbrücken area. Its coolest aspect (IMHO) is that it runs into neighbouring France! So you can board a tram in Saarbrücken, Germany, and get off a train in Sarreguemines, France, and it's a one-seat trip.

It's interesting that to a north American guy Karlsruhe is a small city, I am German and I think it is pretty big. I think it is no surprise, but a necessity for a city the size of Karlsruhe to at least have a decent tram network and I am a bit ashamed for my hometown of Kiel (~250.000) to not have a tram network.

One of the lines is so long that the tram trains need more than 2 hours for one direction. Toilets are installed on board of these trains. They are rolling through the Murg valley. I used this line for a hiking tour along a long- distance trail called "Murgleiter": As I returned by tram train every evening to the same hotel, no heavy luggage had to be carried. The landscape in the Black Forest mountains is breathtaking, the train service absolutely reliable and free of extra cost for tourists (tourist have to pay a small daily tax but are entitled to free transport on short-distance trains and busses). It was a wonderful experience of nature, culture and railway technology. At this single-track line, signals and switches are operated so quickly that at a crossing, the waiting train starts to accelerate even before the oncoming train has stopped at the platform! Also intresting: an inclination of 5 % beteeen Baiersbronn and Freudenstadt, which requires rolling stock equipped for safe operation on this section.

Hungary just opened its first Tram Train and it runs from Szeged to Hódmezővásárhely. It uses dual mode vehicles that run on overhead catenary wires while within city limits and runs on diesel while running in between the cities. Szeged has an even smaller population than Karlsruhe at about 160,000 and Hódmezővásárhely at a mere 44,000. It has since been quite the success.

Nice video, now I'm taking the S2 to the public indoor swimming pool. Cheerio.

Karlsruhe used to have an old railway station of 1843 closer to the center, which became too small and had a lot of level crossings, so it was decided to build a new station further south, opened 1913 (still in operation today). This means however that a lot of commuters have to change into trams and for some relations changing at the central station is not convenient. The Albtalbahn has already been an old private railway converted to a DC-electrified interurban tram, which made Karlsruhe a convenient spot to try out the first multi-system tram-trains.

The cities of Chemnitz (Saxonia) and Kassel (Hessia) also mafe their own (type of) tram-train networks. It should be mentioned both cities are even smaller then Karlsruhe with up to 244k/204k residence.

I basically squealed with exitement when I saw the video title and thumbnail, because I had never expected (but sometimes wished for) an RMTransit video on my hometown and it's transit system considering you usually talk about much bigger cities. Some additions: The speciality in dual-mode trains isn't only the electrification (750V Dc vs 15kV AC), but also in the wheel design, as tram tracks and switches are designed differently than the ones from mainline railroads, because the tram versions need to be able to be recessed in the street. So the wheels have a special profile which allows them to work on both. Also, in germany there's two different sets of laws/rules on how to operate trains (the EBO ) and trams (the BOStrab), and since these tram-trains are both, they have to fulfill both requirements, the drivers have to be trained to be both tram drivers and train operators, and there's certain points in the system on which legally, the tram turns into a train (or vice versa) because it changes from operating according to the BOStrab to operating according to the EBO. And the change in power sytem doesn't necessary allign with the change between EBO and BOStrab, to make things even more confusing. It's a fascinating and complex system, but really easy to use, as none of the above-mentioned stuff is of relevance to passengers. I just find it interresting ;D

Another interesting Tram Train system is the so-called "Badener Bahn", which connects Vienna to Baden (Lower Austria) and stops in many smaller towns along the way. In the Lower Austria part it essentially works as an LRT and once in Vienna it uses the same tracks and stops as the city's trams! Currently in the works is the tram line between the swiss City of Lausanne and the town of Renens, which are part of the same urban area. In a second phase it will evolve into a true tram train, as it will extend further into the country side. I am really looking forward to it!

In Nordhausen (40000 Inhabitants), Germany there is also a Tram Train in operation. The interesting thing about it is that it operates on narrow-gauge railway, connecting to the HSB network, the largest operated narrow gauge railway network in Germany. As far as I know it is the only of its kind world wide

Great video and thank your for featuring our city and our system. Two sidenotes though: If you want to read more about it, the system is actually called the "Karlsruher Modell" and it's inspired many cities to look into similiar options with regard to their public railway solutions. SECONDLY and more importantly: One of the main motivations for implementing this system was "umsteigefrei in die Region", meaning "getting into the region without changing lines". You just hop into a Stadtbahn (tramtrain) at a run-of-the-mill inner-city stop (while it is a tram), it leaves the city and becomes a train and half an hour later you hop out being in the centre of another city where it operates as just another tram without ever changing lines - this is one of the reasons this system became so popular.

It is also interesting, that they change from double trains to partial trains (?) to have service even in villages. So for example, the S31/S32 will run as one train with one driver most of the time. But in Ubstadt, the train is split and a second driver takes the rear train to another valley (S31 to Zeutern - Odenheim, S32 to Kraichtal - Menzingen). The tracks there are single tracks with dedicated places to let the other direction through. That is no problem, because the service intervall is low in these less populated areas. And it is cheap to build and operate.

have you ever heard of the kusttram? it’s a 67 kilometer tram line running along (pretty much) the entirety of the Belgian coast

Another region to look at is The Hague/Rotterdam/Zoetermeer in The Netherlands. HTM tram lines 3 and 4 run as trams within Den Haag (with a city centre tunnel and viaduct). Then they get interlined with the Rotterdam Metro Line E with dual-height platform stations. Then they run as a train out to Zoetermeer on a repurposed rail line. Within Zoetermeer the trams have a completely grade-separated right-of-way. It's a very interesting system.

The city of Zwickau also has Tram Trains. But in reverse. Trains made for heavy rail have been equipped with turning signals, brake lights and other fancy stuff needed for a tram. Thing here is that the trains wich turn into a tram are diesel powered and do not stop on most of the tram stops

New Jersey's Riverline Light Rail (from Camden to Trenton) is very similar, but uses diesel rolling stock. Speaking of that, you should do a video on New Jersey Transit, because it is uniquely run at the State level.

Wow, I was really close to this girl online from Karlsruhe a few years ago. This was a pretty big project back then. She would send me random pictures and videos of construction sites knowing how interested I was in transit and infrastructure in general.

We have metro-train in athens. Trains from athens line 3 can thru run to the AC power suburban railway to go to the airport. The services're run by the metro, but the rails and station are owned by ose

gotta say even tho I love the Karlsruhe network, I got a few friends there and I regularly visit and use the system it has two criticized disadvantages (not too huge in comparison to the benefits the system brings) 1. long journeys, like from Waldbronn to the city centre (Marktplatz) or from Gaggenau to idk the ZKM (cinema) or especially on the S2 from let's say Spöck to the city centre take ages and you might really be faster off biking due to a lot of stops, and yes, while the stops a request stops, due to the network's success, especially during rushhour, the train stops everywhere 2. in the outskirts of kalrsruhe (the tram-train sections) the service pattern are really weird and random, as you can't really remember whether there's gonna be a train or not if you're not starting your journey from one of the bigger stations: while for example on the S8 the standard headway might be half-hourly, that only means that from Gaggenau, there's gonna be a train every half hour, if ur starting ur journey one stop further - the service patterns get pretty random..

Here's some very big news your well done feature just missed, since they were announced today: A consorrtium of six tram-train operators in Germany and Austria, under the leadership of the Karlsruhe based operator VBK, just announced the order of up to 504 new tram-train compositions. For Stadler Rail, the manufacturer, this is the biggest order ever received worth up to 4 billion Euros. The order includes maintenance for up to 32 years. While the common order will bring costs down for the six operators located in Southern Germany and Austria, and while there will be some common features like the number of cars (3) and air conditioning, the Stadler citylink tram-train model selected will still be personlised by the individual operators. For example the liveries will all be different of course, more suprisingly also the entry heights and number of doors. The operator AVG will include toilets and bike hooks into their version, the two Austrian operators in Linz and Salzburg will feature luggage racks.

Yes, Karlsruhe proper has a population of around 300.000. However, the metropolitan region is home to more than a million people.

by German standards anything beyond 100k inhabitants is rated as large city, with Karlsruhe having a rather decent size and population; However in an international context that's rather a scale of small to medium sized city indeed. There are so many local approaches to efficient public transit; In the city I grew up all local public transit is carried out by buses - 100% bus service, no tram, no tram train, no subway, no commuter rail. But they want to rebuild a tram system; Although I like trams it just doesn't make sense in that city due to the size of the streets, lack of space and busy services. Some through-going bus stops (no hubs) are served by more than 20 different bus lines right now

I'm literally watching the video while sitting in the tram 4 to Waldstadt. Also an interesting thing to note: I'm from Chemnitz (other city in Germany) and they essentially mimicked the "Karuher Modell"

We have tram trains here in Sheffield, UK. They are very good. We need more!

An important factor for Karlsruhe were lots of un- or underused rail tracks as leftovers from the 1920ies and 1950ies. The Stadtbahn Karlsruhe re-activated existing track, which already had lots of infrastructure around which just had to be re-activated or reverse-purposed. There were the 100 year old stations, there were the dams and cuts to have a level track, there were little towns and villages which once had a train station and where the road network was adapted to quickly get from the municipal center to the trains. There were right-of-way and train operating licenses and other legal precedent to be used. This made creating new lines or extending existing ones quick, albeit not necessarily easy, as the old infrastructure was widely in neglect, never adapted to modern standards and modern signalization, but at least, a good part of the work was already done by the grand-parents.

Have ridden the Karlsruhe network, can confirm it's a great ride. I think a decent place to build a Tram-Train network in North America would be Madison, WI. Comprable population to Karlsruhe, with plenty of good, branching, pre-existing rail corridors out to nearby smaller towns with significant populations within the economic/cultural sphere of Madison. The downtown of the city itself is on a narrow isthmus, making it ideal for an S-Bahn style 'Stammstrecke', either on the pre-existing rail on the southern side, or as a central tunnel. Add to this a generally liberal population, relatively dense urbanism relative to the midwest for much of the town, and a large student population, I think it would make a lot of sense.

I love Karlsruhe! Have visited many times, it's a great place. Really love the tram network there, easily my favorite in the world.

I rode the tram trains in Karlsruhe back in 1985 and back in 2018. I enjoyed the trips to Heilbronn & Freudenstadt without having to change trains and they were fast & smooth. I thought of Rapid transit Interurbans in which if you stay on the train long enough, you would leave the city you were in, then the train speeds up, going to the next city, which could be miles away and has frequent stops there.

The region of Mannheim-Heidelberg-Ludwigshafen in the same state as Karlsruhe, just a bit to its north, has a pretty large tram system with at least one tram-train connecting MA-HD.

The metro/tram/train system in Karlsruhe is one of the most amazing system in the whole world. Being there and taking a tram in the city street that directly take me to another city was amazing.

From personal experience I can say that Karlsude trams are awesome. Actually, the city is medium size for the region, not small, and a regional transportation hub.

One issue that is worth mentioning as well is the training required for the drivers, and the potential safety pitfalls. Trams and trains are two entirely different cans of worms from a regulation standpoint _(trains run under the AEG - the "general railroad law", following the regulations of the EBO - the "railroad construction and operation regulation", whereas trams run under the PBefG - the "passenger transportation law", which also applies to busses and the like, following the regulations of the BOStrab - the "construction and operation regulation for streetcars")._ That means different signalling systems, different protocols, and sometimes even entirely different operational concepts. Drivers need to be trained for both, not an easy feat. This became very apparent when I did my rail traffic controller apprenticeship and did practice in Kassel, where they have a similar concept.

The only French city to use the Tram Train concept as it should ben the German way is Mulhouse (check out the awesome train musem there, it's worth a video and you can go there by tram from train station as well, tram line 3 if memory serves, it wasn't in service yet when I went to the museum ten years ago so I had to take a bus), the Mulhouse-Tann line uses the line 3 tram line tracks until it comes to the old Tann line that has been remade for the occasion. The Train museum station is, if I'm not mistaken the last urban station. Mulhouse and Strasbourg are from the Alsace region that was German for a part of the their existence and mainly during train network development in late 19th Century, trains run on the right side as in Germany, so it is even easier for trams that also run on the right side in France, they don't have to switch track. Paris uses tram trains as fast trams or more like light rail, albeit they are on a National network line, they have seperate tracks (not to disturb other trains so that defeats the tram train concept a bit) and have no interaction with the tram network at all. Only T4 has an urban tram branch and yet, it is only run by the T4 trams and no local line. The Siemens Avanto seem not to work properly on that line (mainly because the crew of Noisy le Sec Workshop is notoriously bad at their work, all rolling stock maintained there is in poor condition, RERs, regional trains an d tram trains altogether, TGVs have their own workshop) and work very well in Mulhouse, of course. So the Citadis Dualis was chosen for the T4 branch. The Citadis Dualis is notoriously known for its brakes problems and has plagued every tram train line in France. The Paris T11Express line drivers went on strike for an entire year because of this, leading to a very poor service on that first year, after years of delays in the works. Nantes and Lyon have some tram train lines but they are used more as regional lightrail since they never venture on local tram networks. Nantes seeks its Tram trains to become a RER network by the 2030, for now two lines terminate at the central station but in time, more lines will be built and some will go through the station, creating a real RER network. The approach shown by the French government is pretty much to push for such a concept of "budget" RER network with tram train rolling stock in secondary cities. Strasbourg is the French city to use its urban trams the right way with interconnected lines to form a coherent network. The other cities use their trams as independant lines on their on tracks like independant metro lines (except Montpellier which decided to add a ring line using other lines tracks and the network was built in such a way that many of the work in the city center proper was done when constructing the second line back in 2006, line 2 had a terrible service to cover all those tracks but was thankfully temporary until line 3 opened to rationalize service). Line 5 is currently in the works and they have plans for two new lines and plan to even add tram trains to the network but I think they will be in the Nantes fashion, more like regional light trains than anything else. Reims small network uses a common section of tracks in the city center for its two lines and has connections built for future extensions. St Etienne and Marseille were the only French cities to keep part of their tram network after every other city destroyed theirs. One of Marseille lines uses the same tunnel that the old tram, the Noaille tunnel, escept now trams are larger so there can be only one track instead of two inside the tunnel... Nantes was the first French city to reintroduce tram as a transport option for their citizens, every other cities wanted to keep busses or build metros, it was the time when metros were seen politically as Right Wingers and Trams as Left Wingers, because trams being less expansive... Metros were for rich cities. Nantes wanted a metro but the new Socialist mayor of the time said it was too expansive and went for a tram instead. To his credit though, Nantes soil is absolutely terrible to build a metro into (kinda like St Petersbourg, forcing builders to dig it very deep, at least 30m if not more ! So for a small city like Nantes it was too much. Although when you see the secondary cities development in the last decaded and that Nantes seems to be the place to go now, building a metro wouldn't be out of the question, but Nantes bourgeois towncenter inhabitants with all those 18th century buildings wouldn't want viaduct Copenhagen metro in front of their dorrstep... And for now the tram network seems to hold on. Nantes was also the first to introduce BusWay as a budget tram. (although efficient bus system was brought in Paris region also for budget reasons as the TVM line that should have been a fully grown tram from the get go in my opinion since it was included in the Grand Tram project... Grenoble took the bait of Nantes and reintroduce the tram as well just after and Paris region did the same in the 90s. All those three use TFS trams at first. The first iteration of a modern tram by Alstom, most are now being replaced by either Citadis trams or Urbos3 from CAF. Some like Bordeaux, also run by the Right built a tram and went for the 1900 Parisian approach, no overhead wires in the city center, leading Alstom to reinvent the Ground Power feeding system, APS 'for Alimentation Par le Sol), something that made the Orleans mayor want the same for the second line going through the old city center near the cathedral. But the political stupidity doesn't stop there. Some towns like Rouen, driven by the Right most of the time also went for a tram but as trams were politically Left, they called their tram the "Metrobus" because reasons. I HATE politics. They usually take the wrong decision or make the wrong compromise instead of letting an expert commity do its own thing the Singapor way. As for Karlsruhe, I think they arrive at the most they can do with tram trains now. If they build more tunnels, they really should go for small metros... the Copenhagen way. The tram train concept is the sherry on the cake for small cities until they grow so much that the concept isn't enough anymore. Some cities see tram train as light rail is seen in the US and build those not interconnected lines the Parisian way just for budge reasons when they should have been building a metro instead... The other line in Paris region to be close to the concept is the T2 line, using an old line sold to RATP by SNCF, they turned it into a fast tram that was extended in the streets since them (and it brings all sorts of problems and is now saturated and will be even more when Metro line 15 first part opens in 2025, until the Grand Paris ring line 15 is extended not before 2030s... It is the only line in France to use Multiple Unit urban trams when the concept of Tram train didn't exist. Nowadays, the Dualis would have taken this line had it been opened now. The original plans had it connected to the Petite Ceinture disused line for further connectivity into the South of Paris but, thanks to those idiot politicians, the project was thrown to the bin and as the section is now blocked by a new building's foundations near Porte d'Orléans such a concept is now impossible (Paris mayor let that "mistake" happen just because of corruption... facepalm) The thing isn't really impossible but would require works to replace the pillars by arches and that would be quite expansive... Had the original project been realized, we would have a real metro line by now going from La Défense to Porte de Vincennes but politicians prefer what is visible so they preferred to make the T3 tram on the boulevard.

The Szeged-Hódmezővásárhely (Hungary) tramtrain "solves" the platform height issue with 2 high (+55cm) and 2 low (+30cm) door. In the city all the doors are opening, the lower 2 on level and the 2 high a step above. On the outer section only the 2 high door opens on level. Inside the train the floor has a ramp between the different floor heights.

Wow! What an amazing network. Germany is so on my bucket list of places to visit in a few years when I retire.

I was in Karlsruhe for a layover a week ago and I found that the tram-trains not only share the rail corridor with mainline trains, but in many places, they share the actual tracks themselves. I found that to be pretty wild.

Sheffield actually has a tram-train service: it goes from the Cathedral stop in the city centre which is conveniently already a terminus then takes the same route as the yellow until its penultimate stop then goes to Rotherham. The Siemens-Duewag trams used don't meet TOPS specifications so Stadler Citylinks were purchased for this exact purpose.

Another oddity of the Karlsruhe system is that on S6 (and S8, I think), there are request stops (on the railway line section) where boarding is only possible through the very first door because the platform is basically smaller than a bus stop (I would estimate it around 5m long). Just a platform big enough to fit a shelter and a ticket machine. On the southern end of S6 there is also the shortest tram "network" of Germany, as the last two stops of the line are tram stops: 700m of tram track through the town centre of Bad Wildbad (population of around 10.000).

in my hometown we are in the way of building a tram-train system and the first route opened increased the ridership in comparission to the old railway operator by 800% which is up to today one of the biggest increases of one single corridor in all of Germany (where I live). also we plan to double our tram Network just to get the needed tram-train Links to the outer regions. And i love this system because its so fun to ride and explore the little towns outside the main city without having the time consuming search of parking.

My home city, Pittsburgh is a perfect candidate for a stop-bahn with it's rail corridors and current lrt system plus we already have a centercity tunnel

Why we consider public transit expensive and not compare it to the cost of moving similar numbers of people via the automobile (and all associated costs) is beyond me. I'm not certain the information you have at your disposal, but finding aggregated costs for automobiles is oddly challenging (it's as though comparable figures are intentionally being withheld). But understanding true costs and comparing them with public transit would make a FANTASTIC resource and video. Done comprehensively, it could be go viral among the public-transit-proponent community.

There's one Tram Train line in Sheffield, UK since 2018, running from Rotherham on the National Rail network and then switching to the Sheffield tram network to terminate at Cathedral Square in central Sheffield.

As someone from cologne I have to say: Karlsruhe was not the first! Kinda The German Stadtbahn had it's first Stadtbahn train line in the 1950s, operating on both the BOStrab (tram traffic rules) and EBO (mainline rail), though with only 1 electrification system (750/800V). The lines are used by both the Stadtbahn and freight train, but not mainline rail. Also, those shared tracks are not owned by DB, but HGK, the local freight operator The cologne Stadtbahn also connects to Bonn (which has its own tram/Stadtbahn system) with two shared lines

A tramtrain network in germany know one really talks about is the tram network of Chemnitz in eastern Germany. It stretches far out to smaller towns and uses also the train tracks. It‘s also one of the first train trams in Germany. It‘s definitely worth to check it out.

Finally a video from my home town. Pretty good job!

At 13:07 you mention the differences between S-Bahn and Tram Train Networks, but funnily enough the Tram Trains are operated under the German S-Bahn Branding. So even though our S-Bahn here in Frankfurt is a wildly different type of system, they are practically the same from a regular commuter’s perspective.

I grew up close to the S4 approx. 20km from Karlsruhe and going to other cities and using public transport was so strange because there was tram and train which was basically the same for me 😄

Trams are the best public transport system. I live in Switzerland where narrow gauge trams are common and despite being a car guy I still like to take the tram from time to time.

Here in Germany we have many Tram-Trains-Systems. The bigest is in Karlsruhe with 400 Km. Chemnitz, Saarbrücken, Kassel, Zwickau, Nordhausen and the Tram-Trains between Heidelberg-Mannheim-Ludwigshafen und Bad Dürkheim. Greetings from Berlin/ Germany. Sven

I'm glad you made a video about the Karlsruhe Tram-Train. In 2021 I visited many cities in Germany and I never understood why I had to switch from tram to train, because at home, the tram is the train. So greetings from Baden and remember, It's T-Time.

There's an awesome YT channel with cab rides from a Swiss train driver who also drives tram trains on winding mountain lines. Those videos are a great excample of the flexibility of a lighter rail system in more adverse terrain and its capability of serving smaller villages without too much cost.

This reminds me of the Saarbahn, which is a tram train line in Saarbrücken that actually crosses the border to France. So an international tram train, I honestly love it

In Essen there's a pretty interesting system, where standard gauge high floor Stadtbahn services run with narrow gauge trams on the same track. At tje moment these trams are high floor with folding stairs, so they can use the high floor platforms of the Stadtbahn. But in 2 years we want to have low floor trams on this route so parts of the platforms get lowered.

The power supply issues and floor height are by no means the only technical differences between typical light rail and heavy rail vehicles. Both wheel profiles and crash resistance are significant issues to be overcome. Mixed operation of tram-trains and heavy rail trains- particularly freight trains, typically requires all vehicles using the line to be equipped with some form of automatic train protection system (for example the European Train Control System ETCS) to minimise the chance of the risk of collisions from vehicles passing red signals. This can significantly increase the cost of a Tram-train scheme, depending on which main line railways they are proposed to operate over.

I went to university there, graduating 27 years ago. That's when the discussion about building the city tunnel started. We have pretty long planning cycles in Germany.

In the German city Chemnitz they use two types of tram trains for connecting small cities like Aue, Stollberg and Mittweida to Chemnitz. One tram train, the Variobahn 6NGT-LDZ, is fully electric and uses 600 V DC within the city and 750 V DC outside the city. The tram train type no. 2 is the Citylink made by Vossloh. It also uses the 600 V DC within Chemnitz, but when they switch over to the rails of the Deutsche Bahn at Chemnitz main station they will use a combination of a diesel engine and a generator to power the electric motors. They can also use the 750 V DC, when they operate the line of the Variobahn.

Wow, this has me thinking Waterloo region needs to keep building the ion! Beyond phase 2 to cambridge, a line serving the southeast and connecting it to Kitchener GO would be useful

My town, the city of Lyon in France also features a tram-train line, line T3, which uses train tracks from an old abounded train line, converting most stations into tram station at the same time. The tracks have been expanded to link the city main train station to the city airport, it is ~13km long and covers the distance in around 15 to 20 minutes.

Thumbs up from Karlsruhe

I live in Den Haag in the Netherlands and we also have a kind of tram train. Some normal trams in the city are connected to a regional line to Zoetermeer that used to be a trainline. The project is called RandstadRail and it’s basically a big lightrail project in this region!

I love the System and Ride it every day, nice Video

The Karlsruhe tram system (designed by my friend Dr. Ludwig in the 1970s) goes way beyond Karlsruhe, so it is not just a tram for a "small city", as you state, but a network for an entire region with close to a million people.

I think you messed up your multiplication factor :) Toronto is only about 10 times larger than Karlsruhe based on citizens, or 3 times by area. Also noteworthy that you call Karlsruhe a small city, but to us Germans it's already a big city. In Germany, the official definition for small cities (Kleinstadt) is 5k-20k citizens, medium city (Mittelstadt) is 20k-100k citizens, and large city (Großstadt) starting at 100k citizens. These definitions originally come from the International Statistical Institute. Thank you for your content!

Just today a big order of tram-trains for different German and Austrian operators (incl. Karlsruhe) from Stadler Rail was announced!

Thanks for making this video!

I grew up in Mulhouse, a bitter further South in the Rhine valley, and we've followed this model quite a bit :) we have three tram lines, one of which has half of its service as tram-trains all the way to the entry of a valley in the Vosges, and there are plans to make a second one, this projected one actually bringing rail service back to the biggest urban area in Alsace to have lost it! Gotta say, even though I don't live there any more, I was pretty pumped to see such a plan in the works!

Amazing content! Thank you so much for this video and talking about my city Karlsruhe :)

really cool to actually hear someone talk about this, we even have something similar here in Chemnitz with the "city bahn" lines which i use everyday.

Vienna also has a amazing Tramtrain called "Badnerbahn" which connects Vienna and Baden bei Wien.

A tram train eh? That sounds like it would solve the problem of what to do with the Mascouche line between where it will meet up with the REM de l'Est and the main REM line when the REM de l'Est inevitably gets expanded to Mascouche, or to Terrebonne with the Laval branch of the REM main line going to Mascouche.

one thing that isn't noticeable online unless you're there is how large these tram-trains are. They are brilliant but quite imposing in the city centre compared to standard trams.

Great Video!

My favourite tram system! Visited in 2009 and rode all the lines. Hope to visit (from Australia) again some time.

I live near Karlsruhe for me its normal but i never fought that its so special.

Vienna has one interesting line (Wiener Lokalbahn - WLB, called Badener Bahn) that's not quite a tram train, but more like a regional tram, since it's not grade-separated in some places outside of the city. In the city it operates along with other trams. I think there should be more of it to connect the city better to it's surroundings outside the city limits.

Is Karlsruhe really so small from your point of view? In Germany everything above 100 000 residents is considered a big city and usually also has got a tram network.

Tram-Trains aren't a new idea at all. Many passenger rail networks actually started out as mixed tram/heavy-rail operations. Think of e.g. the "Interurban" networks in the US. Or basically any turn-of-the-century "Localbahn" in Europe. Karlsruhe just became a role model in the late 1980s when it explicitly favored this model over a full Stadtbahn or Metro, while other German cities abandoned their existing tram networks. Here in Vienna/Austria we've had a similar system for almost 150 years: the "Badner Bahn", which runs as a tram in Vienna, but then continues overland (sharing the tracks with freight traffic in some areas) to the small town of Baden ~30km south of Vienna, where it becomes a tram again (and originally linked into the - now long defunct - local tram network around Baden). This line has been continuously operating since 1873! Historically there also was an interurban line linking Vienna and Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia ~50km to the east), which - while having dedicated tracks in Vienna - also ran as tram in Bratislava's network (albeit somewhat out of place, as it used standard gauge and the Bratislava tram is meter gauge). Operation started in 1914 and was shut down with the 'iron curtain' after WW2. Today the S-Bahn S7 to Wolfsthal uses the old alignment.

Thank you for this great video on this really complex transit system. The opposite example is also to be found in Germany: The Rhein-Ruhr area is much larger, denser and higher populated but those independent cities next to each other (like Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg) have been failing to connect their tram or even bus routes into an integrated network for decades. Nearly every city has its own poorly financed transit department and sometimes even within one city there are different modes of tram, tram-train or premetro, that are not interoperatable. The silver lining is the ongoing implementation of the Rhein-Ruhr-Express (RRX), a regional express train network with S-Bahn style service between a few of Gemanys largest cities (Cologne - Düsseldorf - Duisburg - Essen - Dortmund) in addition to the already existing Rhein-Ruhr S-Bahn network. Maybe the RRX is worth a video on how you can invent high frequency regional rail service on (mostly) existing rail lines :-)

In Newcastle (Australia) a tram-train approach may have been able to keep regional rail in the city centre. Maybe it still could, with the new city centre trams continuing on the existing SMR coal tracks to various Hunter Valley cities.

It is always useful to see how other places in the world seek solutions to problems that many cities/regions face. Sheffield in England also has a tram train line, which uses the 2 level platform solution at Northern Rail stations. It is a much more limited operation on the heavy rail network than Karlsruhe, but interesting none the less. The triangular junction with the steel bridge and steep grade heading into town is a wonderful place to enjoy trams. And Sheffield railway station is almost next door for added variety.

My hometown of Frankfurt is also planning a Tram-Train Ring line (or for now only half a ring) In this case most of the line will be DC electrified, and a small branch line (6 km long) will be converted from AC to DC. Overall with two and a half branches. The half branch is portion working, so one of the 3 coupled EMUs will be decoupled, to serve the half branch.

Boston's green line is another great example of a tram train. Their new green line extension is going to be awesome!

The Stadtbahn in Cologne (1Mio) and Bonn (350k, Former capital) is also quite interesting: Lines 16 and 18 go through a City center tunnel in Cologne, then use main line railways (but with 750V DC) and then go through ANOTHER city center tunnel in Bonn :D

You should try to cover the Heidelberg/Mannheim area system!

This is really interesting, it's what some of the Welsh Valleys are getting and definitely will be an improvement over the current heavy rail route.

Zürichs about to get the Tram Train experience too with the new Limmattalbahn being built. shares track with both a narrowgauge branchline and the city centre trams, and just liek Karlsruhe runs on combination wheels and 600V DC to 1200V AC

I'm exited for this video since I'm going to Karlsruhe in April. I've heard and read a lot about the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn and I'm exited to test them out including the newbuilt citytunnel.

I absolutely love the convenience of the Budapest tram system. If I remember correctly it is one of the world’s most extensive networks, and with its high frequency it is easy to get around town. It’s not the most modern system, but it is getting updated. Seeing the long 4 and 6 tram cars is a beautiful sight in the city center.

It's funny, when taking the TGV from Karlsruhe to Paris you will share the tracks for some kilometres with a Tram :D