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.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Bringing AI into ITS: Artificial realities
    May 21, 2025
    AI can have a positive transformative effect on transportation safety and efficiency – but if you want creativity you still need a person, says Huawei
    Read More
  • California’s MTC expands Cubic Clipper card contract
    April 24, 2014
    California’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has awarded Cubic Transportation Systems a US$7.5 million add-on contract to expand the Clipper card fare payment system to more than a dozen suburban transit agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area. The system, which Cubic delivered and operates, will enhance travel options for commuters in parts of the East and North Bay. Under the updated contract, Cubic will install and configure Clipper fare collection equipment on all East Bay and North Bay o
    Read More
  • US eyes European model for Illinois toll road upgrade
    May 30, 2014
    David Crawford welcomes the adoption of European-style ITS technology by the US. The Jane Addams Memorial Tollway in Illinois, US is well on the way towards becoming a ‘smart traffic corridor’, taking full advantage of active traffic management (ATM or ‘managed lanes’) technology that originated in Europe. It is one of the first American toll roads to do so; preliminary work began in 2014 and will continue through to 2016. Jane Addams is one of four toll roads operated by the publicly-owned Illinois State T
    Read More
  • The problem of mass transit ridership post-Covid 19
    June 9, 2020
    Several pillars of Mobility as a Service – notably public transit, ride-share and micromobility – are under pressure as ridership plummets.
    Read More

Highlighted Content