Tucson, Arizona gets first tramway

Urban transport operator RATP Dev, through its RDMT subsidiary, has inaugurated its first tramway service in the US. The 3.9 mile long Sun Link Tucson Streetcar began operation in Tucson, Arizona, on 25 July, connecting the University of Arizona campus to the Mercado District, Arizona Health Sciences Center, the city’s main shopping artery, downtown Tucson and the convention centre. The tramway offers connecting services with the Tucson bus station and Tucson’s extensive bus network. RATP Dev will o
July 29, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

Urban transport operator 4223 RATP Dev, through its RDMT subsidiary, has inaugurated its first tramway service in the US.

The 3.9 mile long Sun Link Tucson Streetcar began operation in Tucson, Arizona, on 25 July, connecting the University of Arizona campus to the Mercado District, Arizona Health Sciences Center, the city’s main shopping artery, downtown Tucson and the convention centre. The tramway offers connecting services with the Tucson bus station and Tucson’s extensive bus network.

RATP Dev will operate and maintain the line under a three-year contract from the City of Tucson Department of Transportation with options for up to eight years. RDMT also carried out the preparatory phase prior to operations ranging from technical trials to hiring and training staff.

“Our goal is to combine our detailed field knowledge thanks to the strong local presence of RDMT with the acknowledged expertise of RATP Group to offer customers the best possible service”, Steve Bethel, general manager of the Sun Link Tucson, RDMT-Tucson.

“This launch is particularly important and symbolic for RATP Dev because it is the first streetcar that we put into service in the United States,” commented Mathieu Dunant, CEO of RATP Dev America. “The inauguration, which comes just few weeks after the launch of our sightseeing activity in New York, confirms the dynamism of our development on the US market.”

Related Content

  • February 28, 2013
    Advanced controllers standing out in A crowd
    TransCore has been helping New York City’s Department of Transportation (NYDOT) with its ITS efforts since the early 1980s, via various consultancy services contracts. The company is currently working for the city under an IDIQ (indefinite quantity) contract and a separate ITS maintenance contract. According to TransCore vice president Bob Rausch, who has witnessed much of New York’s ITS development, the three main ‘building blocks’ of the city’s ITS infrastructure have developed simultaneously over recent
    Read More
  • June 27, 2018
    A streetcar named...reliable
    When Atlanta’s streetcar project had some issues, Siemens helped to solve them – but started out by just listening, says Chris Maynard, the company’s head of rail services. It’s funny how often niggling problems can be a warning sign that there are bigger issues requiring attention – and not so funny how things can escalate if you don’t pay attention to them. With that in mind, Siemens was hired as service provider for the Atlanta Streetcar system - four vehicles operating on a two-mile loop in downtown
    Read More
  • June 17, 2016
    Brooklyn eyes Bogota’s BRT system
    David Crawford considers the increased interest in bus rapid transit and looks that the latest trends. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is gaining an increasingly high profile in the US public transport agenda, for two main reasons. One is the potential for ‘trains on wheels’ to save substantially on installation costs as compared with other modes such as underground metros or light-rail transit. Another, highlighted in the case of New York City, is the value of having a rapid surface-based alternative available whe
    Read More
  • August 5, 2020
    Keolis wins Stockholm e-bus extension
    €500 million deal means Swedish contract will run to mid-2026
    Read More

Highlighted Content