Disadvantages
In addition due to the tires running over the same spot in the road there is a significant rutting of the roadway; this has already happened on Bombardiers's GLT, resulting in extensive repairs at significant cost to the operator. This could be considered to add to the already high running costs. Ride quality is also said to be poor, not much of an improvement on a bus, due to the four-wheeled design, whereas trams have trucks with shock absorbers.
Translohr has suffered some derailments. The Tianjin system suffered one derailment on 20 August 2007, three months after its inauguration. There were five derailments on Padua's new installation in 2007 before its inauguration and one in 2010.
Critics of the system can also point out that unlike a conventional tramway, Translohr is a proprietary system, meaning that once having installed it, a city would face difficulties in buying vehicles from any manufacturer other than Lohr Industrie. A standard tramway, on the other hand, can easily accommodate vehicles from multiple suppliers; Strasbourg, for example, recently chose the Citadis tram from Alstom to supplement its existing Bombardier Eurotram fleet.
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