|
|
| Re: American Railcar gone (1005695) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > SubChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: American Railcar gone |
|
|
Posted by Jersey Mike on Sun Nov 21 21:55:20 2010, in response to Re: American Railcar gone, posted by AEM-7AC #901 on Sun Nov 21 19:28:13 2010. It's bit disingenuous to call the vehicles that Will advocates for us to use to be "light rail" in this context given that they're mainline vehicles overseas. You may view them as a "light rail", but they're still considerably different from the Stadtbahnwagen stock or Citadis units roaming around the streets of Western Europe.Our trolleys are European light rail, our light rail is European heavy rail and our heavy rail is a European loading gauge problem. While you're focused on the classic American commuter rail setup, I'm far more interested in running what amounts to be a S-Bahn. In other words, a station like Highland would have a full blown platform with level access and 4 tph offpeak. The S-Bahn is basically an American style light rail system such as DART. Those systems have long had a problem with an inefficient use of capitol dollars. They are basically heavy rail metro systems without the grade separation or fare control. It's great that it can save some money over a full blown Subway, but they are far more costly than a commuter rail system. European rail transport has operated over the decades as a giant make work project funded by excessive fuel taxes. Their model is one to avoid, not emulate. If we built lines with stations like one sees on SEPTA or the 47 Library we could restore service on more routes for the same money. OTOH, it requires you to have a conductor on board to sit there and babysit the one door that opens up. I'd like to move away from multiple person train operation. Besides, as a former Hempstead Branch rider, dwell times suck when you're waiting for two or three people to make their way into that forth car that can reach platform, nor is it easy for some people to open up the heavy storm doors used between cars. You can always use POP, that is not the problem. The problem is needing to have a 6-8 car train for the morning rush or sports event and being limited to three MU sets because that is how big your platform is. When the Conductor takes the ticket he can inform the person needing to detrain at a small station where they need to be and make another announcements to that end. System policy can inform passengers that if they are not present in the cars that open they will miss their stop. |
|
|
|