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Post by stvfishy on Aug 3, 2010 21:16:21 GMT -8
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Post by lmtengs on Aug 3, 2010 21:27:01 GMT -8
I thought that the C-Train was a ground-level LRT? These new ones look much like our SkyTrain. I like how your new SkyTrain/C-Train bridge sections have some nice modern design features added on. It's not much at all, but a few indented squares along the sides are much nicer than our featureless tracks that we have here in MetroVan.
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Post by stvfishy on Aug 7, 2010 17:10:16 GMT -8
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Post by stvfishy on Aug 17, 2010 20:37:39 GMT -8
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Post by stvfishy on Aug 30, 2010 22:31:20 GMT -8
SW Calgary LRT Construction Crossing 14 St   Any bird watchers out there? I'm thinking Paragrin Falcons are common in Calgary... right???   High quality movie posted on another forum forum.skyscraperpage.com/showpost.php?p=4966481&postcount=1242[/IMG][/center]  interesting - no stopping the trains...  Raising the last segment for this span  |
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Post by Northern Exploration on Sept 12, 2010 11:25:03 GMT -8
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Post by lmtengs on Sept 12, 2010 11:52:09 GMT -8
The people who perished in the accident were indeed sitting in the upper deck. The driver is currently in hospital being treated, and the accident actually occured yesterday, not today en-route from Philadelphia to Toronto.
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Post by fargowolf on Sept 12, 2010 16:27:12 GMT -8
It's rare for such an accident to happen here, given the fact that there aren't that many double decker busses in N. America. The last accident of this type, involved a regular motor coach in Seattle (area), where the driver was following the sat-nav device if I remember rightly.
In the UK, it's more common and an awareness campaign was run to make drivers aware of low clearances and double decker busses. They even intentionally ran a bus with a camera on the top deck at the rear) into a low railway overpass.
FYI... The only double decker busses that operate in BC as part of the Provincial Transit system, are in Kelowna and Victoria.
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Post by lmtengs on Sept 12, 2010 17:29:04 GMT -8
an awareness campaign was run to make drivers aware of low clearances and double decker busses. They even intentionally ran a bus with a camera on the top deck at the rear) into a low railway overpass. Here's a tube of that very bus crash: |
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Post by Northern Exploration on Sept 13, 2010 11:37:38 GMT -8
We have the obligatory double decker tour buses that both have a roof on the upper floor and ones that are open for summer sightseeing. I saw one of the weekend chock full of people in plastic disposable rain gear braving the rain. It was driving through Yorkville, full of tourists, gawking to see if they could catch sight of the many stars here for the film festival  . We also have double decker Scotish buses that run commuter highway service for GO Transit (same model as Victoria and Seattle). Drivers are given a no go list that is mostly residential streets where wires and not overpasses are an issue. Out in the country I imagine there are lost of possible overpass issues with older construction. |
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Post by Northern Exploration on Sept 29, 2010 7:38:32 GMT -8
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Post by Kahloke on Apr 25, 2011 21:04:58 GMT -8
For all you light rail fans, I grabbed a couple of photos of Sacramento's Light Rail system last week. It's a pretty extensive network - reminds me of Portland's light rail.   |
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Post by stvfishy on May 17, 2011 1:00:22 GMT -8
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Post by lmtengs on May 17, 2011 14:49:35 GMT -8
It wouldn't be the first time it was undertaken, there's already a transit-tram in place in Portland, Oregon, to get up the mountain to a university campus: www.portlandtram.org/ |
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Post by Kahloke on Aug 19, 2013 8:27:06 GMT -8
And there are the east cost pictures, starting by DC's metrorail, which boosts an incredible ridership given the fact that it has stations everywhere the tourists and the commuters want to go. The main chunck of track is underground, and all underground stations have a similar design shown there:  Capitol South Station by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr Trains run in 2, 4, 6 and 8 car onfiguration (although 2 and 4 car trains are extremely rare) indicating that cars are semi-permanently coupled together. The models of cars all look the same and have the same interior layout but are manufactured by several companies including Breda, which is also the manufacturer of the old Seattle dual-mode buses, some of which are now the 60-foot trolleys. Here is one of the metro cars entering a underground station:  Orange Line Train Approaching Capitol South Station by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr I thought the Metro Rail system was quite efficient. We used the Blue and Orange Lines extensively when we were there a couple of weeks ago. Our Hotel was in Arlington (chosen because of the price and proximity to the Metro Lines) about a block from the Rossyln Metro Station. The Metro system reminded me a lot of the BART system in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Metro trains looked to be about the same vintage, too. One of the more interesting things I discovered about DC's Metro stations are the really long escalators in some of their stations. The station we used the most, Rossyln, has a 207ft long escalator, the longest one I have ever been on, for sure, and the first time I saw it, it kind of freaked me out a little. Over the 2 days we were there, I got used to it. I figured that must be the longest escalator in the system, but I was wrong. apparently, Wheaton Station on The Red Line has the longest continuous escalator in the United States at 230 feet long, and a rise of 115 feet, according to Wikipedia. I did not see that one, but the Rosslyn Station Metro escalator isn't that much shorter. |
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SolDuc
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West Coast Cyclist
SolDuc and SOBC - Photo by Scott
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Post by SolDuc on Aug 19, 2013 9:17:31 GMT -8
I thought the Metro Rail system was quite efficient. We used the Blue and Orange Lines extensively when we were there a couple of weeks ago. Our Hotel was in Arlington (chosen because of the price and proximity to the Metro Lines) about a block from the Rossyln Metro Station. The Metro system reminded me a lot of the BART system in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Metro trains looked to be about the same vintage, too. One of the more interesting things I discovered about DC's Metro stations are the really long escalators in some of their stations. The station we used the most, Rossyln, has a 207ft long escalator, the longest one I have ever been on, for sure, and the first time I saw it, it kind of freaked me out a little. Over the 2 days we were there, I got used to it. I figured that must be the longest escalator in the system, but I was wrong. apparently, Wheaton Station on The Red Line has the longest continuous escalator in the United States at 230 feet long, and a rise of 115 feet, according to Wikipedia. I did not see that one, but the Rosslyn Station Metro escalator isn't that much shorter. Our hotel was also along the Blue and Orange lines so we used those a lot. However, when I was there two years ago for a class trip, our hotel was at the Court House station, just one station after Rosslyn on the Orange line. One day after some kind of game all trains lines ended up being crowded and we had to go from foggy bottom to courthouse. Both Orange and Blue line trains were crowded but the blue were less, so we took a blue to Rosslyn and took a taxi to our hotel from there. I must say that the escalator struck me by its length. Back when we were there last month we had to go pick up some family at Dulles so we took the 5A bus from Rosslyn and I was again amazed by the length of the escalator and amused my the elevator in between the two escalators. |
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Post by Mike C on Aug 19, 2013 9:46:43 GMT -8
Great takes, SolDuc. Last September, I too visited DC. The closest station to our hotel was L'Enfant Plaza, which made things quite convenient, as all lines except Red service that station. It was also within walking distance of Union Station, which meant an easy traverse back and forth to New York on the Acela. Our experience on WMATA was... interesting. Pentagon station was wrapped with ads for Lockheed Martin's role in the drone program, and clustered with No Photography signs. We also found that, after hours, they would close various entrances and exits to stations, with little to no signage - this became frustrating when we had to walk through a deserted part of town to get to our hotel after 11 PM. The escalators never really surprised me personally, as our Granville SkyTrain station in Vancouver has the longest escalator in Canada...  |
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Post by Kahloke on Aug 19, 2013 10:42:24 GMT -8
Back when we were there last month we had to go pick up some family at Dulles so we took the 5A bus from Rosslyn and I was again amazed by the length of the escalator and amused my the elevator in between the two escalators. We did the same thing to get out to Dulles for our return flight. I must say, that worked out pretty well. It was another reason I picked the hotel we stayed at. I had done the research ahead of time and realized that we could catch the 5A right there. Eventually, you'll be able to take MetroRail to Dulles on the new Silver Line. It looked like they were making good progress on the tracks when we rode out to Dulles on the bus. |
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Post by Kahloke on Sept 6, 2013 18:11:07 GMT -8
In amongst my boxes of old stuff, I ran across this postcard of a BART train in Oakland in the 1970's - a pretty cool find, actually, as BART was pretty new when this postcard was issued. Look how short the train is. BART trains are much longer these days.  |
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Sept 14, 2013 11:15:00 GMT -8
Photos of light trains in Portland and Seattle: These photos are to compare light rails system in North America.  419 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr S-70. I love the design of these cars because they look sharp and look good.  309 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr Type 3 of the SD-600 for MAX.  [/url] 222 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr Type 2 of the SD-600 for MAX. SD-600 are the most common type of train on MAX.  105 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr Must be paired with low floor train to meet ADA. A link trains as seen from I-5.  138 and 151 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr |
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Sept 30, 2013 17:35:06 GMT -8
Some photos of Portland streetcars: I find these photos proof that the Streetcar is becoming more common again.  004 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr  007 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr  005 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr  022 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr  023 by Awesome cheese, on Flickr I think Vancouver should be the second city in Canada to bring the streetcar back. The first Canadian streetcar system which is longest streetcar network in North America which is in Toronto; this system has been operating from 1861. The system is using the modern streetcar that where build in 1977 (CLRV) and the 1987 (ALRV) which are being phrased out with Flexity Outlook, which are currently being tested by TTC. |
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SolDuc
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Post by SolDuc on Sept 30, 2013 18:53:12 GMT -8
It is indeed true that the streetcar (and transit) era is somewhat coming back. As freeways run out of space to expand and that parking space gets rarer and more expensive, people use more transit. In fact more than 50% of Downtown Seattle workers don't use a SOV to get to work, and of those I think 43% use transit (includes ferries), which is quite impressive. Of course this is for Downtown Seattle and most other employment centers in the area have a much lower. I found myself taking pictures of Seattle's South Lake Union Line again back in late August, so I've got a few pics to share: Here's a tail-on shot of 301 while it was stopped at the Lake Union Park station:  Seattle Streetcar Inekon 12 Trio #301 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr 303 got rid of the Olbiteride wrap so I met Joe, the new wrap as well:  Seattle Streetcar Inekon 12 Trio #303 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr The Lake Union Park Station is the only one of the route that has trains for both directions and is built on streetcar ROW. Here's the station without any trains there:  Lake Union Park Station, South Lake Union Streetcar by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr One of the things that intrigues me the most was how Streetcar wire meets the Trolley wire (which happens several times throughout the route. In fact the streetcar wire goes next to the trolley until there is another wire picking up in the middle and then goes over the other trolley wire to continue its course. This should be more explanatory:  How trolley and Streetcar meet by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr Seattle is also building its second streetcar line, the First Hill streetcar. Most track construction is done or will be by the end of the year with an expected start of service before summer 2014. Its main goal is to make up for the First Hill LINK station that could not be built, but it serves more areas than that. Hopefully one day we'll get the central connector running on 1st Avenue connecting the SLU and FH lines. Here's the completed trackwork on Jackon Street in Pioneer Square:  First Hill Streetcar Construction: Jackson Street by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr |
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Post by Mike C on Oct 9, 2013 17:08:29 GMT -8
Discussion and photos for other transit services in North America.
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Post by Blue Bus Fan on Oct 9, 2013 19:09:08 GMT -8
Discussion and photos for other transit services in North America. Can we please separate USA and Canadian Public Transit because this thread may get to mix up. |
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Post by Mike C on Oct 9, 2013 19:56:14 GMT -8
Discussion and photos for other transit services in North America. Can we please separate USA and Canadian Public Transit because this thread may get to mix up. I don't think there are enough posts in this area to warrant two separate threads. |
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interesting - no stopping the trains...
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