Arizona Rail Passenger Association
Watch Your Language
(This document is also available in PDF
format.)
Often times, our credibility and authority in communicating with others
is judged by our ability to speak the language of a specific industry. The
transportation industry, like any other industry, has its own language.
Speaking the language will not only help us communicate more effectively with
those in the transportation industry with whom we hope to have credibility and
respect, but also the policy and decision makers whose interests we would like
to gain.
In the realm of rail transportation, there exist several standard
definitions for many of the terms which might otherwise seem confusing. For
example, heavy rail and commuter rail are two different modes, and the phrase
high speed is used only for systems designed for speeds in excess of 124 mph.
These definitions are provided by
The American Public
Transit Association (APTA).
- AUTOMATED GUIDEWAY
- An electric railway operating without vehicle operators or other crew
on board the vehicle. (Example: Vancouver's Sky Train)
- COMMUTER RAIL
- Railroad local and regional passenger train operations between a
central city, its suburbs, and/or another central city. It may be either
locomotive-hauled or self-propelled, and is characterized by multi-trip
tickets, specific station-to-station fares, railroad employment practices, and
usually only one or two other stations in the central business district.
(Examples: San Diego's COASTER and Los Angeles' METROLINK)
- HEAVY RAIL
- An electric railway with the capacity for a heavy volume of traffic,
and characterized by exclusive rights-of-way, multi-car trains, high speed and
rapid acceleration, sophisticated signaling, and high platform loading.
- HIGH SPEED RAIL
- A rail transportation system with exclusive right-of-way which serves
densely traveled corridors at speeds of 124 miles per hour and greater.
(Example: French TGV)
- LIGHT RAIL
- An electric railway with a light volume traffic capacity compared to
heavy rail. Light rail may use shared or exclusive rights-of-way, high or low
platform loading, and multi-car trains or single cars. (Examples: San Diego
Trolley and Portland's MAX)
- MAGNETIC LEVITATION (Mag-Lev)
- A rail transportation system with exclusive right-of-way which is
propelled along a fixed guideway system by the attraction or repulsion of
magnets on the rail and under the rail cars.
- MONORAIL
- An electric railway in which a rail car or train of cars is suspended
from, or straddles, a guideway formed by a single beam or rail. Most monorails
are either heavy rail or automated guideway systems.
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