DART Light Rail is a light rail system in Dallas, Texas and its suburbs owned and operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit. The system comprises 90 miles (140 km) between its four lines — the Red Line, the Blue Line, the Green Line, and the Orange Line. Its is the longest light rail system in the United States. As of the fourth quarter of 2014, the system has an average weekday ridership of 101,800, making it the largest light rail system in the Southern United States by ridership, and the seventh largest in the United States by ridership. The system utilizes 163 light rail trains manufactured by Kinki Sharyo, with all trains being converted to "Super" LRVs which feature level boarding and higher passenger capacity.
As of January 2016, following lines are currently active:
Light rail or light rail transit (LRT) is urban public transport using rolling stock similar to a tramway, but operating at a higher capacity, and often on an exclusive right-of-way.
There is no standard definition, but in the United States, where the terminology was devised in the 1970s (from the engineering term light railway), light rail operates primarily along exclusive rights-of-way and uses either individual tramcars or multiple units coupled to form a train.
A few light rail networks tend to have characteristics closer to rapid transit or even commuter rail; some of these heavier rapid transit-like systems are referred to as light metros. Other light rail networks are tram-like in nature and partially operate on streets. Light rail systems are found throughout the world, on all inhabited continents. They have been especially popular in recent years due to their lower capital costs and increased reliability compared to heavy rail systems.
Definition
The term light rail was coined in 1972 by the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA; the precursor to the Federal Transit Administration) to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany the term Stadtbahn (to be distinguished from S-Bahn, which stands for Stadtschnellbahn) was used to describe the concept, and many in the UMTA wanted to adopt the direct translation, which is city rail (the Norwegian term, bybane, means the same). However, the UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead.Light in this context is used in the sense of "intended for light loads and fast movement", rather than referring to physical weight. The infrastructure investment is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system.
VTA Light Rail (reporting mark SCCT) is a light rail system serving San Jose, California and its suburbs in Silicon Valley. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or VTA, and consists of 42.2 miles (67.9 km) of network comprising two main lines and a spur line on standard gauge tracks. Originally opened in 1987, the light rail system has gradually expanded since then, and currently has 62 light rail stations in operation on the three lines. VTA operates a fleet of 99 Kinki Sharyo Low Floor Light Rail Vehicles (LFLRV) to service its passengers. The system's average weekday daily ridership as of Q1 2015 is 34,200 passengers,; the greatest daily average recorded over a month was 37,536 in June 2008.
Current service
Lines
VTA operates 42.2 miles (67.9 km) of light rail route on 3 lines. There are 4 major corridors of light rail which the lines run on. The first and most important is the Guadalupe Corridor in South San Jose along CA-87 north to Tasman Station, which runs through Downtown San Jose and the business areas of central and North San Jose. It is serviced by two lines, making frequency along this corridor around 7.5 minutes. Other corridors include the Tasman East/Capitol Corridor in East San Jose, the Mountain View/Tasman West corridor in Northwest Silicon Valley, and the Winchester corridor, which services communities in Campbell and West San Jose. Frequency along these corridors are around 15–30 minutes.
The Sacramento Regional Transit District, commonly referred to as RT, is the agency responsible for public transportation in the Sacramento, California area. It was established on April 1, 1973, as a result of the acquisition of the Sacramento Transit Authority. In addition to operating over 60 bus routes with connecting bus service in the Sacramento area covering 418 sq mi (1,082.6 km2), RT also operates a large light rail system. It is currently the eleventh busiest light rail system in the United States.
In addition to the city of Sacramento, RT serves much of the northern portion of Sacramento County which includes the incorporated cities of Citrus Heights and Rancho Cordova. The unincorporated areas of Sacramento County under the RT service area include Arden Arcade, Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Florin, Gold River, North Highlands, Orangevale, Rio Linda and Rosemont. The system formerly provided express bus service between Downtown Sacramento and Elk Grove until the mid-2000s when that city took over bus operations under the newly created E-tran. It also provided contracted bus service to neighboring Yolo County (covering West Sacramento, Davis and Woodland); those routes and operations were later taken over by Yolobus after its formation on January 3, 1982. In both cases, e-tran and Yolobus have retained the RT assigned route numbers for their routes as they continue to service Downtown Sacramento.