Streetcars-trams-light rail

I have a correspondent who insists that a streetcar with tracks in Martin Luther King Avenue SE would not work. The Overhead Wire commented in another entry, mentioning the Siemens Combino Ultra streetcar, and the fact that it can include up to 9 sections. A link in his blog has some youtube videos of the system in Budapest.

But there are other links to other videos, including this one from Ulm. I think that it shows that you don't need a lot of space on the street for a streetcar system to work.

The Combino Ultra is interesting because I guess it isn't a light rail, but a streetcar, although I am not sure because it appears that in Europe, they use the term tram to refer to both streetcars and light rail systems. (Heavy rail is equivalent to the WMATA subway system. Light rail exists in Baltimore and is heavier than streetcar systems but lighter than heavy rail. The track bed is less deep, depending on the weight of the vehicle, streetcar needs a 12 inch deep trackbed. This is why it's cheaper to install than other forms of rail vehicles.)

This video is from Ulm.