International Transit Services - Photos and Discussion

[Neil]

From yesterday's Province.

[fargowolf]

The current ferry across the River Clyde, is a landing craft type vessel, having only a ramp at the bow. It can carry about 50 passengers, as well as two mid-size cars, making it Scotland's smallest car ferry service.

Just found a couple of stories on the BBC website:

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8473322.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7662476.stm

[Mill Bay]

Feb 11, 2010 15:50:05 GMT -8 Neil said:

From yesterday's Province.

My dad just showed me a demonstration video of this Amphi-bus. It's pretty amazing, when you think of the possibilities such a bus could have. I hope Coastal Link was taking notes on this one. However, something tells me it might not be very practical for operation in the open waters we generally have around here. Oddly enough, it's intended to replace a conventional ferry crossing (sniff ) and local residents have already launched a petition to save the ferry.

[D'Elete BC in NJ]

Apr 22, 2011 12:36:37 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

In Cuba, public transit is much more of a dependence to the people than it is here. Whenever you see a transit bus, no matter how far out of town it is, it's full to the brim with people.
They don't seem to follow one standard paint scheme on their buses either.

Did you happen to see any of the Camels? They were supposed to be phased out, but I would be suprised if they weren't still in use in some capacity.

[lmtengs]

Apr 25, 2011 6:56:03 GMT -8 D'Elete BC in NJ said:

Apr 22, 2011 12:36:37 GMT -8 @lmtengs said:

In Cuba, public transit is much more of a dependence to the people than it is here. Whenever you see a transit bus, no matter how far out of town it is, it's full to the brim with people.
They don't seem to follow one standard paint scheme on their buses either.

Did you happen to see any of the Camels? They were supposed to be phased out, but I would be suprised if they weren't still in use in some capacity.

This is not one of my photos, but yes I did see a few camels. I believe this was the model I saw:
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f8/Camel_bus_in_Havana.jpg/800px-Camel_bus_in_Havana.jpg

[FNS]

From FijiVillage.com:

Safety briefs compulsory on buses

Publish date/time: 15/09/2011 [07:38]

fijivillage.com/?mod=story&id=150911218fb3cf1789f1f2891b9093

Safety briefs on all intercity buses are compulsory from tomorrow.

That is the directive from the Land Transport Authority who said all intercity buses especially with glass windows will be required to provide emergency briefs to passengers before commencing the journey from tomorrow.

Following two incidents where 12 people lost their lives in Malaqereqere few years back and a recent incident where a bus caught fire while on its way to Suva, this is being taken to ensure the safety of passengers especially during a long journey.

Land Transport Authority Chief Executive Officer Naisa Tuinaceva said this will become mandatory and will be something similar to instruction provided on an airplane.

Meanwhile, work is also being done to formalise a training program to make fire safety training compulsory for all PSV drivers.

Story by: Praneeta Deo

[lmtengs]

Found a link to this news story while thumbing through a grammar blog that I so devotedly read every few days:
(the article was linked in a post regarding the interchangeability of the words 'transport' and 'transportation')
www.npr.org/2011/09/02/140047235/in-cuba-women-often-prefer-thumbing-a-ride

Cuba's capital, Havana, has good public safety and terrible public transportation. That has led to a curious form of travel, especially for young women in the city: urban hitchhiking.

At major intersections, women climb in and out of strangers' cars, commuting to work or running errands in a way that would be almost unthinkable in any other Latin American capital.

There aren't enough cars in Havana for Friday-afternoon rush hour to create traffic jams. But it is a peak time for hitchhiking. At a stoplight along the oceanfront Malecon Boulevard, there are two dozen or so young women trying to coger botella as it's called in Cuban parlance. It literally means "grabbing a bottle," after the universal thumbs-up hitchhiking sign. Only no one here uses thumbs anymore. Instead, when cars pull up, smiling women lean in to ask drivers for rides. Some practically force their way into cars, even to travel just a few blocks up the street.

Chaotic Public Transportation

Art teacher Karenia Cintra hitchhikes to and from work every day.

"It's so much easier than waiting for the bus, or paying for a taxi," she said. "Sometimes you meet really nice people. There's nothing weird or risky about it."

Many Americans used to travel this way, and still do in places with informal car pools like Washington, D.C., or San Francisco. Most Latin American cities are too dangerous for getting around this way. But in Communist-run Cuba, there's little violent crime, a lot of cops and a kind of neighborly solidarity born of hard times. It also helps for young Cuban women asking for rides that the majority of drivers are men.

What Cuba doesn't have, of course, is a functional public transportation system.

For years, Havana's streets were clogged by widely despised "camel" buses, huge modified cargo containers with a sunken midsection dragged along by a semi truck. They have been replaced by a new fleet of articulated buses from China. But they aren't any more comfortable than the camels when they're packed to the gills and roasting in the tropical heat.

Sometimes, they're so stuffed that the doors can't close and passengers are riding down the street hanging off the sides. For Cubans who don't have a car or bike and can't walk to their destination, the only other options are a costly taxi or to "grab a bottle."

Hitchhiking A Dependable Option

Gisel Marquez said she'd rather try her luck asking for rides under the hot sun than suffocate on a sweaty bus.

"There's no other choice," she said. "There's no public transportation that runs often enough or you can depend on."

Elsa Gonzalez is another hitchhiking urban commuter, riding around each day with total strangers. She says it's always best to look for single male drivers, preferably in state-owned vehicles, like delivery vans or work trucks. They're supposed to carry passengers if they have the space.

"Female drivers don't give rides as often," Gonzalez explained in Spanish. "If it's a couple, you also have to be careful, because you don't want to make anyone jealous."

"When it's two men," she said, "that's even better."

Gonzalez said she recently went to visit her brother in Miami but didn't dare travel around this way. Everyone's in such a hurry, she said, and there are so many cars driving so fast, even if most of them only have one person.

Sort of a 'be thankful for what we have' moment.

[SolDuc]

I had to do a transit post after my France trip, but also after my East Coast trip, so I'll kill two birds with one stone and do a large post with both.

I'll start with my France post:
Many French cities have extensive rail networks and apart from very large towns the rail norm is tramway. You might say that it is in fact a streetcar but while it does run in the streets, it runs in its own ROW with at-grade crossings, which is pretty much light rail (not Seattle light rail, regular light rail).
One of the most widely used model of trams for those networks are the Citadis series, manufactured by Astlom. Those are avaliable in several lengths in order to adapt to capacity needs. The main advantage is that the low floor covers all the passageways and that only the seats are on high-floor sections. They do not opere in coupled pairs but can be if needed to.
Here in Valenciennes, the model is the 302, which is slightly longer than the Seattle Link cars (~100ft/30m) and are broken down into five sections, as you can see here:

TransVilles Alstom Citadis 302 #01 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

The two ends and the middle section are for seating (on high floor with the bogies under) while the two mid-sections are for the doors with no seats at all.

The Stations are nice and you are permitted to cross anywhere as long as there is no train which makes them more pedestrian friendly, especially in the city center where the tramway runs in its own street as you can see here:

Hotel de Ville Station, Valenciennes Tram by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

And just for fun here is the end of a car, taken while it was stopped at the station from the tail end:

TransVilles Alstom Citadis 302 #18 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Hoever, if the rail network is very developped, the bus network is less, but there are still some buses which generally offer only low-frequency peak-only routes. Here is a classical Renault bus which can be found in several cities throughout France:

Transvilles #036 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

However, the city of Douai is an exception to this rule and it has built a bus line along its own ROW with magnetic guidage underneath the roadway which is supposed to guide the bus, thus requring no driver. However for some reason the software to run the buses is not ready yet so the buses are operated by drivers. Local people don't necesarly feel good about the buses, and are not for other lines as the ROW is extremely wide (it took out all street parking after construction and can only be made of concrete, as in-between-the-rails grass as present in other tramway systems is not possible. Here is one of those buses, in downtown Douai:

Eveole #903 (supposed-to-be driverless bus) by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

The brief intermission in between the two parts of my post is brought to you by some transit pictures from my ferry trip on July 23rd...
Lets start by a Kitsap Transit trio of spirits of mobility, ready to take commuters home from Seattle at the Winslow ferry terminal:

Kitsap Transit Abroc Spirit of Mobility #7016,7017, 7002 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Then it will go back in time to a 35' Gillig Phantom on the Klahowya:

KCM Gillig Phantom 35' #3190 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Then another driving out of the Tilikum on the 7:15 out of Vashon:

KCM Gillig Phantom 35' #3187 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

A Rapid Ride Coach at Fauntleroy:

KCM New Flyer DE60LFR #6055 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

And later that day, while waiting for my bus on 2nd Avenue I photographed many buses inculding one of Metro's older D60s, soon to be the only high-floor articulated buses left in the fleet:

KCM New Flyer D60 #2443 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Then some DE60LFs, like this one heading south on 2nd:

KCM New Flyer DE60LF #2810 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

And finally a newer Orion VII which have started to replace some Phantoms on several routes:

KCM Orion VII #7049 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Here is one of ST's D60LFRs assigned to Community Transit, with roof fins:

Sound Transit New Flyer D60LFR #9580C by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

And here is the newer version of the D60LFRs, without roof fins:

Sound Transit New Flyer D60LFR #9801K by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Here is one of the Double talls, or Enviro 500s:

Comminity Transit Alexander Dennis Enviro 500 #10813 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

And finaly a New Flyer D40i, which is very rarely seen on Downtown Seattle Commuter routes:

Community Transit New Flyer D40i #25410 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

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

To coplete the metro service, WMATA has some buses, and is planning several streetcar lines to fill in the gaps left my the metro routes.
Here is a New Flyer D40LF, on a route to Mt Rainier (gosh, that must be a really long bus ride!)

WMATA New Flyer DE40LF #2332 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Here is one of the few 60-foot buses that WMATA operates:

WMATA Neoplan AN-460A #5311 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Here is one of the D40LFRs (without roof fins) in the express paint scheme:

WMATA New Flyer D40LFR #6113 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Here is one of the DE40LFAs (the A standing for advanced). The LFAs are easily recognizable by their one-piece windshield instead of the usual two-piece windshield:

WMATA New Flyer DE40LFA #6314 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

The Newest additions to the Metro fleet are some XDE40LFs.

WMATA New Flyer XDE40LF #7107 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

Out on the other side of the Potomac river, and farther south is Fairfax county, which operates the fairfax connector, with some D40LFRs, like this one:

Fairfax Connector New Flyer D40LFR #9619 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

On this post will also be a few pictures from Williamsburg, starting with this D35LF from WAT:

WAT New Flyer D35LF #250603 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

The Colonial Williamsburg association also operates a fleet of Orion VIIs between their visitor center and various historic buildings in the town, like this one:

Colonial Williamsburg Orion VII #0632 by SolDuc Photography, on Flickr

[Mike C]

Discussion and photos for transit systems outside of North America.

[Neil]

Someone has taken to putting their own signs up in the London Underground. Some of this stuff is really hilarious.

fotozup.com/fake-signs-in-london-underground/

[paulvanb]

Building on Guy's France transit items - here is a photo the transit system in Caen. In the downtown district they have a dedicated laneway with light rail/bus combination.

[SS San Mateo]

Overcrowded bus in Havana, Cuba.

[timmyc]

Some shots from my trip to Hong Kong!

Taken with the Nokia Lumia 930.

Hong Kong transportation by TimmyC62, on Flickr


Hong Kong transportation by TimmyC62, on Flickr


Hong Kong transportation by TimmyC62, on Flickr

[compdude787]

Nov 23, 2014 6:00:13 GMT -8 timmyc said:

Some shots from my trip to Hong Kong!

Taken with the Nokia Lumia 930.

[pics]

Dat panning though! Nice shots.

[timmyc]

Thanks! Hard to do without a vertical stabilizer, but worth trying multiple shots for.

[paulvanb]

Just because I am missing Paris...

paris-54 by paulvanbuekenhout, on Flickr

[Kahloke]

Here are a few pics I took of London's Underground, known colloquially as "The Tube", when I was there a couple of weeks ago. We used it to get almost everywhere in London and the surrounding areas.  It's a vast network, and super efficient.  Where we stayed was close to the Bayswater station, which is serviced by London's oldest lines, Circle and District.  Queensway station also wasn't too far from where we stayed, serviced by the Central Line.  We ended up using that more than I would have thought due to service disruptions on the Circle and District Lines.  At least there were options.

Earl's Court station with a District Line train at the platform.  "Mind the gap between the train and the platform".  Yes, that is a thing.  They announce it at every stop, and for good reason.  London Underground dates back to the 1860's, so some of the older platforms do not exactly align with the newer trains.  The platform at this station aligns pretty well, but some places you have to step up a bit to get on the train.


Bayswater Station, near where we were staying.  This is another District Line train


Inside a Circle Line train.  This was early in the morning so it was as empty as we ever saw.  Most of the time the trains were pretty full, and at peak rush hour, it was an absolute crush of people on the trains


A Central Line train at Lancaster Gate.  Here you can see where "mind the gap" is relevant.


Central Line in motion - don't remember which station

[dave2]

May 3, 2019 13:52:58 GMT -8 Kahloke said:

Here are a few pics I took of London's Underground, known colloquially as "The Tube", when I was there a couple of weeks ago. We used it to get almost everywhere in London and the surrounding areas.  It's a vast network, and super efficient.  Where we stayed was close to the Bayswater station, which is serviced by London's oldest lines, Circle and District.  Queensway station also wasn't too far from where we stayed, serviced by the Central Line.  We ended up using that more than I would have thought due to service disruptions on the Circle and District Lines.  At least there were options.

Earl's Court station with a District Line train at the platform.  "Mind the gap between the train and the platform".  Yes, that is a thing.  They announce it at every stop, and for good reason.  London Underground dates back to the 1860's, so some of the older platforms do not exactly align with the newer trains.  The platform at this station aligns pretty well, but some places you have to step up a bit to get on the train.


Bayswater Station, near where we were staying.  This is another District Line train


Inside a Circle Line train.  This was early in the morning so it was as empty as we ever saw.  Most of the time the trains were pretty full, and at peak rush hour, it was an absolute crush of people on the trains


A Central Line train at Lancaster Gate.  Here you can see where "mind the gap" is relevant.


Central Line in motion - don't remember which station

Your last photo is of the Jubilee line, based on the destination sign displaying "Stanmore". Bond Street Station, interchange to the Central Line sign is visible.

[Starsteward]

A couple of comparisons between the London 'tubes' and Vancouver's 'Sky-Train' system if I may:
The London system's tunnels appear to be totally enclosed which make for a brighter and cleaner look to them as compared to our dark dirty tunnels.
The platforms appear to be a bit wider. When the 'Canada Line' was built the stations and platforms were horribly underbuilt and unfortunately the design
does not allow for much if any expansion.
I would agree that the 'gap' between the platform and the entrance to the carriages is a bit concerning and would definitely pose problems for folks using
wheelchairs or other wheeled devices.
The interior of the cars seem to be quite a bit wider and longer than the ones used in the Vancouver system.
Those minor grievances aside, here's hoping that the impending expansions in Surrey and Vancouver, (please take the plunge and build the Broadway extension
all the way to UBC as the costs of construction are Never going to become lower over time), will continue to take thousands of vehicles off the Greater
Vancouver road system.(And that is another discussion for another day).

[Kahloke]

May 3, 2019 22:26:51 GMT -8 dave2 said:

Your last photo is of the Jubilee line, based on the destination sign displaying "Stanmore". Bond Street Station, interchange to the Central Line sign is visible.

Oops. You are correct. We rode on several Tube lines, including the Jubilee (obviously), so I kind of lost track of when and where we were when I took that photo.