[PRCo] Re: Milano

[Fred Schneider]

My impressions of the Hague wee that, here was a city the size of Pittsburgh,
and they only needed slightly over 100 artics and, then, a small number of
surviving PCCs to provide all principal service.  Its a crude analogy but lots
of private right-of-way and high speed crack-the-whip mentality got a lot out of
their cars.

On the other hand, over in Amsterdam, their cars were slow and had to be slow
because it had to be impossible to teach motorman that a controller wasn't
simply an on - off switch.  It always confounded  me how a motorman in
Amsterdam, with one continuous sweep of the hand, could release brakes, hit a
rotary gong, and reach for power ... and how fast little old women ran once they
heard the gong next to them.

Helping to speed service in Holland was (is?) a national policy, well understood
by motorists, that being hit by a tram was absolute evidence that you didn't
belong on the tracks in the first place, that no excuses fit the situation, and
that you would be assessed any damages to the tram for being on the tracks.  And
I don't care if the tracks were paved to keep down the dust.

We Americans always thought we did it right, until we saw how Europeans ran
public transport.

John F Bromley wrote:

> In my experience all Milano drivers have the hand equivalent of leadfoot.
> There was a reason for high maximum speed and, as far as they were
> concerned, it was for their pleasure.
>
> The same was true of PCC cars in the Hague.  If you've never ridden the back
> platform on a two-car train on a 90 degree curve you have yet to live.  This
> passion for speed continues on the pseudo-PCC articulateds.  Ride the rear
> and prepare for crack the whip.  And, those suckers are dead quiet,
> especially on the grass-covered right of way along the 8 line down from
-- Trailing quotes stripped by Listar --