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Got this from another poster on another site since he defined it better than I could.
Light Rail refers to rail systems with rapid transit-style features that usually use electric rail cars operating mostly in private rights-of-way separated from other traffic but sometimes, if necessary, mixed with other traffic in city streets. Light rail vehicles are never mixed with freight trains. They also usually have about two cars and carry a much smaller capacity.
Heavy Rail > A rapid transit, metro(politan), subway, underground, or elevated (railway) system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with high capacity and frequency, and which is grade separated from other traffic always in their own right-of-ways. Metro lines never run down city streets.
Put it this way. Atlanta and Dallas has roughly the same amount of miles in rail. Atlanta has heavy rail and Dallas has light rail. About 65,000 to 70,000 people ride the rail daily on the Dallas LRT system. In Atlanta, 250,000 people ride the the rail daily. Dallas is doubling it's system and will have over 90 miles of rail servicing mostly the Dallas area and it will probably jump to 120,000 daily riders. Still wouldn't reach Atlanta's numbers.
Basically the main difference is Heavy Rail carries more and has it's own ROW where as LRT doesn't at times and does not carries as many people. LRT would work as a main rail system for cities I mentioned earlier. I don't think it's the only option if you're a metro like Houston or Dallas. I think they are the only metro areas over 5 million w/o heavy rail systems.
Metro lines never run down city streets? I beg to differ.
Of course the Subway: being undergorund it is isolated from both the elements and city traffic. Buses get stuck in traffic, elevated/ground level trains fall prey to snow, thunderstorms, hurricanes. History of London and Berlin teaches that Subway can be also used as shelter in case of emergencies. No other form of transportation in is more convenient, quicker and dependable than Subway.
I agree that subways are one of the best ways to get around. In the case of Miami though, they were forced to build their heavy rail system elevated and at-grade. Miami has high water levels underground, so imagine if a hurricane were to come and flood the underground railways which would most likely already be flooded from the high water levels. Water + electricity = never a good thing. I like elevated trains anyway though, it gives you a more scenic view. Really though, I like subways and el's .
That Chicago El train is running above the street, not on it. The trains never cross the roadway at grade. That's the basic difference between heavy rail and light rail, which also allows heavy rail trains to be longer. You're constrained in how long of a street space a light rail station to take.
The best type of transit is the one that best combines speed, reliability, safety, convenience, and cost effectiveness along a given corridor. There's no one right answer. Heavy rail for Wilshire Boulevard, BRT for Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.
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