Comment by danpalmer
1 day ago
They operate in completely different scenarios. They’re the same shape, but they’re a different set of hardware, constraints, accessibility, need to be scheduled in a different way to account for traffic, different safety concerns, different signalling systems, different distances, different surroundings.
Again I sorta see what you mean, but feel you’re massively over simplifying this.
I mean trams basically are street-running trains. The light rail/heavy rail distinction is more one of weight and size than actual issues.
Ceci n'est pas une tram: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kMUANU9H6aw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber-tyred_metro and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_bus also exist.
(For me, the big thing about trams and trains and subways, etc is that the track is a kind of social construct - the track tells me that eventually a vehicle will come for me - no need to really worry about timetables, etc. A bus, a bus may come, maybe it won't. It's all psychoillogical but it's there the same.)
Maybe another analogy:
A tram is a golf cart or ATV A train is a highway bus
They have different applications and contexts in which they operate, even if they have core similarities
The fundamental operational principle is different. Trams operate (typically, on street running sections) on sight - they are responsible for monitoring traffic, and stoping if necessary. Contrast with the block-based approach used for trains, especially in combination with Euro-style positive train control systems.
A tram is just a bus running on smaller, steel, roads.