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The first US third-rail powered city railway in revenue use was the 1895 Metropolitan West Side Elevated, which soon became part of the Chicago 'L'. In 1901, Granville Woods, a prominent African-American inventor, was granted a U.S. patent 687,098, covering various proposed improvements to third-rail systems. This has been cited to claim that ...
Both overhead wire and third-rail systems usually use the running rails as the return conductor, but some systems use a separate fourth rail for this purpose. In comparison to the principal alternative, the diesel engine , electric railways offer substantially better energy efficiency , lower emissions , and lower operating costs.
A 675 V DC third rail (Top Contact) system was used. [19] Electrification was later changed to 11 kV 25 Hz overhead catenary, when the PRR electrified its mainline to Washington, D. C. in the early 1930s. Third rail is still installed in the East River Tunnels in order to provide power the LIRR trains.
Modern European systems predominantly make use of bottom or side contact power rails. There are numerous urban rail systems, including these running mostly in tunnels, which do not use third rail at all. Such systems can be found in Asia, which may have been influenced by the overhead power supply formula followed by Tokyo Metro after 1960
The third rail system resulted, not surprisingly, in a number of accidents. It also resulted in a decree from the Connecticut Supreme Court on June 13, 1906 forbidding the use of third rail electrification within the state. [2] The New Haven was forced by this decision to design their main line electrification system using overhead catenary.
Converted to 25 kV 50 Hz as a test bed for the future main line electrification system South London line: London Victoria to London Bridge: 1909–1928 Converted to 660 V (later 750 V) DC third-rail supply 8 kV: 25 Hz Germany: Karlsruhe: Alb Valley Railway: 1911–1966, today using 750 V DC 10 kV Netherlands: The Hague – Rotterdam: Hofpleinlijn
U.S. rail tracks are typically too old to handle the speed of new train technology. The limits of the rails can reduce the effectiveness of the train speeds, sometimes by more than 100 mph.
The Caltrain Modernization Program (CalMod), sometimes referred to as the Caltrain Electrification Project, was a $2.44 billion project which added a positive train control (PTC) system and electrified the main line of the U.S. commuter railroad Caltrain, which serves cities in the San Francisco Peninsula and Silicon Valley.