Stadtbahn Duisburg Hauptbahnhof 1905300952

A premetro is a

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

way or light railway which includes segments built to

rapid transit Rapid transit or mass rapid transit (MRT), also known as heavy rail or metro, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. A rapid transit system that primarily or traditionally runs below the surface may be c ...

standards, generally as part of a process of conversion to a

metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

-standards railway usually by the construction of

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

s in the central city area.

History

The first city to carry a portion of a streetcar line through the city center in a tunnel was

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, in 1893, with its Noailles subterranean station (see

Marseille tramway The Marseille tramway (french: Tramway de Marseille) is a tramway system in Marseille, France. The city's modern tram network now consists of three lines, serving 32 stations and operating over of route. The current, modern Marseille tram networ ...

). It was initially operated by horse-drawn wagons. The next prominent example was the

Tremont Street subway The Tremont Street subway in Boston's MBTA subway system is the oldest subway tunnel in North America and the third oldest still in use worldwide to exclusively use electric traction (after the City and South London Railway in 1890, and the Bud ...

(1897) in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, today part of the

MBTA Green Line The Green Line is a light rail system run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) in the Boston, Massachusetts, metropolitan area. It is the oldest MBTA subway line, and with tunnel sections dating from 1897, the oldest subway ...

. These early tunnels were intended solely to reduce streetcar congestion on surface streets, not for later conversion to metro service. Several early streetcar tunnels, including the Steinway Tunnel and

East Boston Tunnel The Blue Line is a rapid transit line in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, one of four rapid transit lines operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). It runs from Bowdoin station in downtown Boston under Boston Harbo ...

, were later converted to metro operation. However, the small

loading gauge A loading gauge is a diagram or physical structure that defines the maximum height and width dimensions in railway vehicles and their loads. Their purpose is to ensure that rail vehicles can pass safely through tunnels and under bridges, and ke ...

, tight curves, and steep grades of the streetcar tunnels required smaller metro cars than otherwise desirable. The modern premetro concept ''

Stadtbahn ' (; German for "city railway"; plural ') is a German word referring to various types of urban rail transport. One type of transport originated in the 19th century, firstly in Berlin and followed by Vienna, where rail routes were created that co ...

'' began in 1960s

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, as rising traffic congestion due to auto ownership led to the construction of new transit systems. Rather than building costly metro lines immediately, some cities built only the downtown tunnels. They could be used by existing tram lines in the short term, with the intention of full metro conversion later - hence "pre-metro". The idea spread to other European countries in the 1970s, especially

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, where such systems were explicitly named premetros.

Examples

Buenos Aires PreMetro The Premetro is a light rail line that runs along the outskirts of Buenos Aires, connecting with the Buenos Aires Underground line E, at Plaza de los Virreyes station and then to General Savio, with a short branch to Centro Cívico. It opened ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Antwerp Pre-metro The Antwerp Premetro is a network consisting of lines 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 15 of the Antwerp Tram system. It is a metre gauge system which runs underground in the city centre and further out on surface lines, which are mostly separated ...

Brussels Pre-metro The tram (or streetcar) system in Brussels, Belgium is the 16th largest tram system in the world by route length, in 2017 providing 149.1 million journeys (up 9.5% on 2016) over routes 140.6 km in length. In 2018, the Brussels tram syste ...

Charleroi Metro Charleroi Metro (french: Métro de Charleroi; previously known as the ''Charleroi Premetro'' (french: Métro léger de Charleroi)) is a light rail network in Belgium, consisting of a loop line around central Charleroi and three branches toward ...

* Vienna Pre-metro in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Trams in The Hague The Hague Tram ( nl, Haagse tram) is a tram network forming part of the public transport system in and around the city of The Hague in South Holland, the Netherlands. Opened in 1864, as of 2018 the network has twelve tram lines, three of which we ...

* Nanhai Tram Line 1 in

Foshan Foshan (, ), alternately romanized as Fatshan, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. The entire prefecture covers and had a population of 9,498,863 as of the 2020 census. The city is part of the western side of the ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

References

{{reflist, 30em Light rail Tram transport Rapid transit

History

Examples

See also

References