Tampere light rail
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The Tampere light rail is a public transport system to be built in Tampere, Finland. Studies on the viability of a light rail system in Tampere have been conducted since 2001 as parts of regional plans for public transport alongside heavy rail and bus solutions. In November 2016 the Tampere city council approved the plans to construct the 330-million-euro system, aiming at 2021 completion for the first phase (city centre to Hervanta and TAYS) and 2024 for the second (city centre to Lentävänniemi).
Unlike Turku, another Finnish city that is planning a new light rail system (see Turku light rail), Tampere has not had a previously existing tram or light rail system. The construction of a tram system in Tampere was seriously studied between the years 1907 and 1929, but left unrealised due to the high price of constructing such a system.
The intermediary TASE 2025 report published in 2007 recommended the creation of a light rail system running alongside major roads linking central Tampere to the suburbs of Vuores and Hervanta in phase 1 (by 2015), Lielahti and Lentävänniemi in phase 2 (2015–25), with links to Koilliskeskus, Ojala-Lamminrahka and Pirkkala in phase 3 (after 2025). In addition to the light rail system the study recommended the creation of a commuter rail line utilising pre-existing railroad lines as well as improvements into pre-existing bus connections in areas not covered by either rail option. According to these recommendations the initial parts of the light rail system would be opened in 2015. Although technically a light rail system, the system proposed in the TASE 2025 is referred to in Finnish as katuraitiotie, "street tramway", as opposed to the term pikaraitiotie, literally "rapid tramway", which is a commonly used word for all kinds of light rail systems in Finnish, but which has been used almost exclusively for TramTrain-esque systems with a tunnel in the city centre in Tampere.
The length of the proposed light rail system would be 17.6 kilometres (10.9 mi) in phase 1, 24.2 km (15.0 mi) in phase 2 and 43 km (27 mi) in phase 3. The total cost of the system would be €298 million. The light rail system is projected to make approximately €10 million of yearly profit, whereas the current all-bus based system generates average losses of €10 million every year. A subsequent intermediary report submitted on 5 March 2009 proposed four different alternatives for the future development of public transport in Tampere, all of which included the realisation of a light rail system. The initial phase in all four alternatives was the same, but the precise routes and lengths of the subsequent extensions were different. The map in this article is based on the first alternative presented in the 5 March 2009 report.
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Wikipedia