Generally speaking, they’re simply different names for the same thing, that different people have used in different places and times. Trolley is an old American term that’s not used much anymore anywhere except Philadelphia. Streetcar is an American term that’s used more today. Tram is a European term.

Lifting the handle of the trolley jack draws oil into the pump cylinder. Lowering the handle of the trolley jack pushes pressurised oil to the main cylinder. As the pressurised oil lifts the main piston, it causes the arm and saddle to extend, lifting the vehicle. …

Without a dedicated lane, a streetcar can’t really run much faster than a bus under ideal conditions. And since unlike a bus, a streetcar can’t shift out of its lane to avoid an obstacle, in real-world circumstances it’s likely to move slower than a bus.

Quality of Service: Streetcars are more comfortable than buses. The vehicles are much more spacious, the ride is smoother because the rails are embedded in the street, and the vehicles tend to be much quieter as streetcars run on electricity rather than diesel.

New light rail systems average 17.2 miles per hour, and the fastest at-grade system operates at 18.2 miles per hour. This same “slow speed” Old Wives’ Tale is picked up and re-articulated in a variety of forms by anti-rail zealots across the country.

A cable car (usually known as a cable tram outside North America) is a type of cable railway used for mass transit in which rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed.

Cable cars are often misidentified as ‘trolleys’, but that term refers specifically to the trolley pole used by streetcars to get power from an overhead wire (hence streetcars are often called trolleys, correctly). Cable cars use no overhead wire, and have no trolley poles.

Cable Cars have no engine or motor on the cars themselves. There, powerful electric motors (originally a stationary steam-powered engine) drive giant winding wheels that pull cables through a trench beneath the street, centered under the cable car tracks (that’s what’s in that slot between the tracks).

A cable car cabin in the Italian town of Cavalese fell some 200 metres (660 ft) down a mountainside, then skidded 300 feet (91 m) before coming to a halt in a grassy meadow. In the fall the three-ton overhead carriage assembly fell on top of the car, crushing it.

A cable car is a vehicle for taking people up mountains or steep hills. It is pulled by a moving cable.

aerial tramway

A gondola lift is a means of cable transport and type of aerial lift which is supported and propelled by cables from above. It consists of a loop of steel wire rope that is strung between two stations, sometimes over intermediate supporting towers….Gondola lift.

A ropeway is a system by which goods or passengers are transported along a rope or cable. When referring to the naval lifting device, a ropeway is supported at either end by structures called sheers or gyns. A sheer is an inverted V-shaped structure formed by two poles that are lashed together at the point of the “V”.

A ropeway is based on the principle of continuous movement. As such, it is a closed system which does not require energy to move its dead weight. Ropeways only require energy to overcome mechanical friction and to move uneven payloads on the uphill/downhill sides.

A ropeway is a form of naval lifting device used to transport light stores and equipment across rivers or ravines.

Advantages and Drawbacks

• Structural efficiency. Ropeways are tensile structures – structures loaded primarily in tension – which makes them inherently more efficient than structures with significant bending and compressive loads.
• Economy.
• Ability to handle large slopes.
• Low footprint.
• Safety.

The cable car, the invention of Andrew Hallidie, was introduced in San Francisco on Sacramento and Clay streets in 1873. The cars were drawn by an endless cable running in a slot between the rails and passing over a steam-driven shaft in the powerhouse.

Croatian Fausto Veranzio

Cable transport is a broad class of transport modes that have cables. They transport passengers and goods, often in vehicles called cable cars. The cable may be driven or passive, and items may be moved by pulling, sliding, sailing, or by drives within the object being moved on cableways.

The Air Line cost £60m to build, part-paid for with £36m of sponsorship from Emirates coming in over nine years and an £8m grant; add on £6m a year operating costs and it’s clear that this piece of infrastructure needs to attract more regular travellers.

300ft

This full automation offers the promise of unmatched reliability and efficiency levels; current systems boast reliable less-than-one-minute (LT1M) wait times between vehicles. Cable transit systems can be built and maintained for a fraction of the cost of typical light rail systems.

Most lift cables have redundant cables so if the main cable snaps, the redundant cables hold the weight. Except that since you are down one cable, the whole system comes to a halt and people have to be rescued because it is too dangerous to keep the lift moving without the redundant cables.

Today, San Francisco’s cable cars are one of two National Historic Streetcar Landmarks in operation (New Orleans’ St. Charles streetcar line is the other), and both the continued operation and minimum level of service of our cable cars are locked into San Francisco’s City Charter.

The possession of a streetcar line became essential for a growing town or small city, and the larger city streetcar systems extended their lines farther and farther out into the suburbs. Many European cities constructed highly efficient streetcar systems, and the electric car became the chief means of urban transport.