Light rail in North America

Light rail car at Unidad Deportiva station on the Guadalajara light rail system, the busiest LRT system in North America
Calgary's CTrain is North America's second-busiest LRT system
The Toronto streetcar system is the third-busiest LRT system in North America with 8 routes in mixed traffic and 3 in reserved lanes
Los Angeles Metro L Line trains in Pasadena, California, North America's fifth-busiest LRT system
Light rail vehicles on Boston's Green Line, the sixth-busiest light rail system

Light rail is a commonly used mode of public transit in North America. The term light rail was coined in 1972 by the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA; the precursor to the U.S. Federal Transit Administration) to describe new streetcar transformations which were taking place in Europe and the United States. The Germans used the term Stadtbahn, which is the predecessor to North American light rail, to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt the direct translation, which is city rail. However, in its reports, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead.[1]

  1. ^ Gregory L. Thompson (2003), Defining an Alternative Future: Birth of the Light Rail Movement in North America, Transportation Research Board, http://trb.org/publications/circulars/ec058/03_01_Thompson.pdf