[PRCo] Re: Milano

[John F Bromley]

Amsterdam drivers believe that their tram is the entire world and you'd
better get the hell out of the way because they don't have time for you once
it begins moving.  They don't have electric reverberating gongs for
nothing - they're to dispense raw fear!!


----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Schneider" <fschnei at supernet.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2002 4:20 PM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Milano


>
> 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 --
>
>