Abstract:
For more than 110 years, the use of overhead wires to power streetcars and light rail vehicles (LRV) has been considered unsightly and undesirable. Despite repeated attempts at inventing a wireless system, overhead trolley wire or catenary systems have been adopted as the only practical long-term solution. However, in recent years, new technological developments of a variety of alternative embedded switched contact continuous power transmission systems such as APS, Primove, and TramWave, as well periodic power transmission systems such as flywheels, batteries, supercapacitors, or hybrid combinations of these energy storage devices are at last offering a practical alternative to overhead systems. In this paper, the latest off-wire system developments are examined with particular attention to practical application to new streetcar or LRVs. From these comparisons, the authors can conclude that practical alternatives to overhead wires for light rail systems are rapidly becoming proven and commercially available.
