APS or Ground-level power supply

Ground-level power supply , also known as surface current collectionand Alimentation par Sol(APS) is a modern method of third-rail electrical pick-up for street trams. It was invented for the Bordeaux tramway, which was constructed from 2000 and opened in 2003. Currently, this is the only place it is used but there were and are proposals to install it elsewhere.

Ground-level power supply is used, primarily for aesthetic reasons, as an alternative to overhead lines.

APS uses a third rail placed between the running rails, divided electrically into eight-metre segments with three-metre neutral sections between. Each tram has two power collection skates, next to which are antennae that send radio signals to energise the power rail segments as the tram passes over them. At any one time, no more than two consecutive segments under the tram should actually be live.

In summer 2006, it was announced that two new French tram systems would be using APS over part of their networks. These will be Tramway d'Angers and Tramway de Reims, with both systems expected to open in 2011. A couple of months later, another French city was added to the list, this being Orléans, which will use APS on a section of its second tram line. The planned Al Sufouh Tramway in Dubai will use APS.

source : wikipedia

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