Rubber-Tyred Metros

Trains with rubber tyres provide higher traction and a smoother ride. They are found in a good bunch of monorails and subways around the world.

France has been the pioneer, starting with experimental rubber-tyred railway trains as early as 1929. In 1946, tyre manufacturer Michelin has patented a steel-belt rubber tyre (or 'tire' in American English). It was used from 1951 in experiments on the Paris Metro, leading to regular service on metro line 1 from 1956 till today.

The engineers in Paris came to the conclusion that the rubber-tyred system had three times the adhesion of steel-on-steel systems and could significally reduce vibrations and noise for passengers and neighboring residents alike. The bogies in Paris' metro trains do not only have rubber-tyred wheels but also backup steel wheels and rubber-tyred horizontal guiding wheels. Trains run on a concrete surface with auxiliary steel rails. The reason that not the entire Paris metro network has been converted to rubber-tyred operation was the costly retrofitting of the horizontal guidance infrastructure.

The rubber tyre has been adapted in several metro systems around the world, following the Parisian success story. Monorails also mostly have rubber wheels and rubber horizontal wheels, beginning in 1962 with the Alweg monorail in Seattle. Here's a list of cities with rubber-tyred urban transit lines. People movers and monorails apart from urban transit are not listed.

Hong Kong (SI, WI lines, planned)
Kobe (Port Liner and Rokko Liner)
Lausanne (line m2)
Lille
Lyon
Marseille
Mexico City
Miami (Downtown people mover)
Monterrey
Montreal
Osaka (Nanko Port Town Line)
Paris (lines 1, 4, 6, 11, 14)
Rennes
Santiago
Singapore (LRT lines)
Taipei
Tokyo (Yurikamome line)
Toulouse
Turin
Yokohama (Kanazawa Seaside LRT)

Advantages of rubber tyres:

They are said to be quieter than steel wheels (not always true — but the sound may be more pleasant and the ride smoother).
Gradients can be steeper (better ability to climb).
Less wheel slip (important in automated systems).

Downsides of rubber tyres:

Higher energy consumption.
Higher wear (rubber tyres have to be replaced frequently).

	Paris Model of a rubber-tyred bogie in the Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris.
	Paris Line 6 train departing from Pasteur station. Listen to the sound of a rubber-tyred metro. Length: 24 sec.
	Lille Automated metros often have rubber tyres to avoid wheel slip.
	Montreal Blue Line train departing from Outremont station. Length: 22 sec.

Photos and videos by M. Rohde. Page updated 24 May 2008 (database entries may be more recent).

Reference

Dufour, Marc: The principle behind the rubber-tired metro.
Krischer, Reinhard: Alweg-Bahn. Technik, Geschichte und Zukunft der legendären Einschienenbahn. Transpress 2003.
Wikipedia: Rubber-tyred metro.

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