Page "Light rail" Paragraph 16

The difference between British English and American English terminology arose in the late nineteenth century when Americans adopted the term " street railway ", rather than " tramway ", with the vehicles being streetcars rather than trams.

Some have suggested that the Americans ' preference for the term " street railway " at that time was influenced by German emigrants to the United States ( who were more numerous than British immigrants in the industrialized Northeast ), as it is the same as the German term for the mode, Straßenbahn ( meaning " street railway ").

A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams except Blackpool after World War II, seven major North American cities ( Toronto, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Newark, and New Orleans ) continued to operate large streetcar systems.

When these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both the old and new systems.

Since the 1980s, Portland, Oregon has built all three types of system: a high capacity light rail system in dedicated lanes and rights-of-way, a low capacity streetcar system integrated with street traffic, and an aerial tram system.