Ok, What Is Streetcar?

Our local paper, in a recent article, defined this slim difference:  Streetcars don't have right of way at traffic lights; light rail does.  Don't know how accurate that is, or whether there is more to it.

From Webster:

 Streetcar: ....a vehicle on rails used primarily for transporting passengers and typically operating on city streets.

Also:  trolley or tram

Streetcar (or streecar in Pittsburghese) is a short for street railway car

"Light Rail" is a foolish description of a street car / trolley car / commuter train system. I have seen light rail in factories, mines, docks, warehouses, amusement parks, museums, and shopping malls. What is light rail? 125 lbs/ft, 50 lbs / ft, 90 lbs / ft? "Light Rail" sounds like a government contrivance.

According to the article by Craghead and Kelly in December, 2012 TRAINS magazine (P.8):"...Streetcars, like light-rail vehicles, operate on rails and are powered by overhead wires. The resemblance to light rail ends there, as streetcars typically operate on city streets, are rarely separated from other traffic, and are not given traffic-signal priority over other vehicles . These attributes make them less expensive to construct and less disruptive to vehicular traffic....". 

"Light Rail" is a perfectly adequate decsription for new transit sytems.  Simple and to the point.  It's better than "People Mover," which makes me think of a fork lift more than anything else...  "Trolley" could be used, but that indicates the past more than the present or future.

Plus the rail IS lighter than what BNSF, NS, etc. are using.  "Light Rail" also lets folks know they're not going to see 100 car freight trains barreling down their streets or transit dedicated urban right of way.

A distinction has to be made some how.  Back in the old days, the distinction was "Steam Road," "Interurban" and "Street Railway."  The last two were sometimes lumped together as simply as "Traction" or "Electric Traction."

Rusty

The NJ Transit Hudson light rail operates on city streets and right of ways.

Actually, it refers to the vehicles, not the rail itself. Modern transit systems that fit the description of Light Rail which I'm familiar with use the same 136 lb/yd. (Not ft.) rail as most class 1 main lines.

"Light Rail" is a term of art adopted in the early 1970s to describe new medium capacity rail transit systems where the main characteristics of such systems include the ability to operate at grade and/or on grade separated rights of way.  The term differentiates these systems from "heavy rail", the common term used to describe high capacity completely grade separated systems such as the New York or Washington subway systems. 

 Remember, in the early seventies, the remaining streetcar systems in the US were on the verge of extinction.  Streetcars were viewed with disdain; they were thought to be old fashioned and competed for valuable street space with the automobile.  Nevertheless, the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (now the FTA) saw the wisdom in preserving the few systems remaining, especially those with major sections of exclusive right of way such as Boston, Pittsburgh, etc.  Light rail gave a futuristic twist to these systems and created a framework in which to build the dozens of new systems that have emerged since then.

Emphatically...Light Rail (and Heavy Rail) have NOTHING to do with the weight of the rail.  The terms denote a general system capacity relative to each other, and nothing more!

"Streetcar" is simply one end of the light rail spectrum.  The notion of streetcars has become popular for a number of reasons, mostly having to do with their ability to stimulate real estate development and to attract tourism.  They often provide a valuable shuttle service in the places where they are installed.  Rarely do they offer high speed long haul trips typically associated with heavy rail or new light rail systems.

X2000

Interurban is a term that gets highly mixed up! Interurban passenger cars were designed for going between two major cities; like Philadelphia and Allentown or Philadelphia and Reading PA.

Street cars could run down the center of a city street.

Trolleys were usually run on one side(right hand side) of the street.

Traction ment hill climbing like in Pennsylvania, the Pennsy RR had a traction RR on Mt. Penn in Reading PA, before the Durea drive car hill climb event.

Traction may also have been used in logging on hills, took a lot of switch-backing to run a logging train.

Pike's Peak has an excellent example of a traction RR.

Lee F.