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Here's a public transit model a lot more cities need to know about.
It's the #Karlsruhe Stadtbahn. It runs tram-trains, in this metro region of one million in #Germany, near border with #France.
Outside town, they run as standard commuter trains. Inside town, they operate as trams (streetcars)鈥攏o need to change mode.
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The system goes back to 1957. The real innovation was connecting inner-city tram lines with old freight lines outside the city, allowing "through-running."
This rural-urban service reminds me of the electric Interurbans, once common in the US.
Here's the map of the Karlsruhe region's rail transit network.
There's more history in this article:
There are plans to allow the tram-trains to carry cargo, as they did in the past.
I wrote about the advantages of using trams and other surface rail modes to carry cargo in this HIGH SPEED dispatch:
https://www.highspeed.blog/death-to-the-sledgehammer-flyswatter/
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