[PRCo] Re: [PRCo]

Thu Dec 4 15:48:11 EST 2008

Here's what I watch.
Hankai Electric Tramway, 4:07, includes one of the few streetcar crossovers in Japan. Yes, they run old tech equipment, but there is frequent PRW and the streetcars have the track to themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBNVj2R7vic

Nagasaki Electric Tramway, 0:39

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Pjg_wAb-4&translated=1

Welcome to the land of the platform ticket.  A minimum fare ticket gets you on the platform and puts cash in the railway's coffers.  When equipment is retired, like JR's Series O bullet trains, commerative runs sell out very fast and the platforms are overwhelmed with ticket buying fans. Just watch out for the step ladder and tripod crews!

Pika-rail has almost daily additions to his collection of Osaka area electric railways.  The videos are in focus, often pick up the platform annoucements, the camera remains still and there is a description in English of the location.

http://www.youtube.com/user/pikarail

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92B4cSaVUG0 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgjVpktLxO4

The Tokyu Ikegami line in Tokyo.  Three car trains running every 6 minutes during the mid-day. Numerous level crossings, high platform stations on a line with tramway origins. The first two videos take you from end to end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y25Cetb9OF8   8:48

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlYLHvsRAO0   5:32

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyLXlQ5Hs5k  0:32

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yomCnPZ_zHM&NR=1  0:28

Bill Robb

More modern light rail from YouTube.......

Regarding Ed's comment that some of this stuff is tedious.  If it  
was really good
high definition photography, Carl Shultz would be selling DVDs under  
the Transit
Gloria Mundi name.  Or John Bromley would be squirreling away  
Margaret's work
until he finds someone to pay him for her good high resolution  
stuff.  Much of this
is low-resolution done with cell phones.  Remember, you get what you  
pay for.
It's free and its an education into all that new stuff that's out there.

And here is what started the North American light rail revolution.
Way up north in Edmonton, Alberta....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt2m6iM0ACE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47gJP0ON6p4&feature=related

In addition to Edmonton, the Siemens U2 cars went without bid to San  
Diego
and Calgary.  Pittsburgh bid and bought them.

One of the more impressive systems in North America is Calgary's C- 
Train.
The city itself is stunning.  In 1940 there were only 90,000 people  
living out
there on the desolate cold prairies and that had risen only to about  
100,000
when the trolleys quit in 1950.  Then oil was discovered.  Then the  
first light
rail line opened, Calgary's population had risen to about 600,000.    
Today?
The city contains just under a million people and the metro area has  
about
1.15 million.  Imagine guys ... go west into the desolation of  
Montana.  Turn
right, go north about a hundred miles and suddenly you are in a huge  
city
again.    The newest extension to the northwest is powered by a wind  
farm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OigWwr-ClLY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1hJ3CmPVw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAQAmraRFSA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKVSear9Akw&feature=related

Then in the late 1970s San Diego Trolley built a line from the San  
Ysidro
section of the city to downtown San Diego.  It was the right line  
built first in
a city with a rapidly expanding population.  It got the Mexicans from  
Tijuana
downtown to shop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O18F-jKLR-8

When the newer SD8s arrived, they were air-conditioned.  Then the older
cars were retrofitted so they could run back away from the ocean breezes
on the newer lines.  Note the roof pods added to the older U2s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYgo97XUqoQ&NR=1

San Diego done by a German fan... more variety than some of the
American stuff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-2d4Dp36B0&feature=related

Los Angeles could not make up its mind what it wanted to use ...
heavy rail or light rail or bus rapid transit so that equipment
  is not interchangeable.  The Red Line subway from Union Station to
  Universal City is entirely heavy rail.  You'll see my old buddy of 45
years, Bill Middleton narrating on one of these strips.  The subway cars
are identical to those you find in Baltimore and Miami.  The Blue,  
Green,
and Gold lines use light rail equipment.  Then we also have a bus way
to El Monte and another bus way in the San Fernando Valley, which the
promoters have pronounced successful.  They would probably be more
successful as rail.  The subway total is about 130,000 riders /  
weekday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If-rX-mwbko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gViwUa2G3uw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPtPQPGlbyI&feature=related

The Blue Line (downtown to Long Beach, a recreation of the old
Pacific Electric line) hauls about 75,000 a day ... these are all 2007
numbers).

San Francisco opened the Third Street line in January 2007.
Market Street Railway substituted buses for cars on that street in
1939.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na6m83KlRBU&feature=related

The F line opened on Market Street in 1995 and the Embarcadero
in 2000.  I looked for a PCC in Pittsburgh paint or a the Pittsburgh
4000 that they have but there isn't a shot of that among the three
pages of YouTube videos on the F line.  But how about this one of
a PCC in Cleveland paint passing one in Birmingham colors in front
of the Ferry Building?  And if you love PCCs, you can cycle through
all the pages of flicks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rposR2mFPd0

Now to the state capital: Sacramento.

Look at the first few seconds of this and then move on to the next  
flick.
You can see the light rail car in the old SP station in Sacramento,  
which
was one of the last two extensions of the network.  You can come in
from San Francisco or Fresno on the train and go home on the streetcar.
But you don't need to count all the cars on the freight train.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcjGpv5vhJI

The next one is much quicker and also Sacramento.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xPeik0mL0k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yjE_MQbSxk&feature=related

Unfortunately, when you have the ability to broadcast your own face,
there are people who use it to broadcast accidents like this mess on
the VTA light rail system in San Jose.  I would describe this city as
a collection of suburbs containing nearly one million people all looking
for an anchor.  It probably has the lowest patronage per car mile of
any of the new light rail systems because there really isn't much of a
downtown.  The last one shows how the northwest end of VTA will be
metamorphosed when the new high speed rail opens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-BXSt3oaTY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wVG-ZKWZ-M&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRj4kdQDrwk&NR=1

Portland, Oregon, a very dynamic and livable city ... a growth area.
The city itself has gone from 373,000 when the trolleys quit in 1950
to a population of 529,000 in 2000.  The region has probably grown
even faster.  I had very warm fuzzy feelings for the future of Tri-Met
when Frits van Dam told me their people were in the Hague to see how
to make the system work in advance of its opening.  And they did make
work ... it works very well.  MAX, in 2007, hauled over 106,000 people
a day.  There are two separate trolley companies ... TriMet's MAX with
the high floor Bombardier cars is a regional operation.  Portland  
Streetcar
is city owned; it runs the Skoda low-floor cars.  I love the video  
of the
musicians on the LRV ... it is simply "so Portland."  I cannot think of
another city where I could count tens of thousands of people in a down-
town park just having fun on the 4th of July.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_WBEpUJUMU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7Z5L_273y0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5-GlooFib4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAxt5lTsxGE&feature=related

Tacoma, Washington has a short light rail line using Skoda cars ...  
needs
no more than two cars at a time.  Line is about two miles long.  It  
was
intended as a feeder for commuter trains between Tacoma and Seattle.
Burlington Northern refused to add any southbound morning - northbound
evening trains so the trolley became useless.  No fare is charged.    
It serves
as a connector between parking lots at a stadium at the edge of town and
offices downtown.  It is owned by the same people who will bring you  
the
Seattle - Seatac Airport light rail line next year, and which will  
then be
extended to Tacoma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAd2_fsnPFM

Seattle's SLUT line opened last year.  I haven't see it yet.    
Cannot comment
other than, like Portland, Seattle is a growth city.  It also has an  
incredibly
small black population (8%) and from 1990 to 2000 ranked among the  
cities
with the largest white population growth in the U. S.  (And do not  
count the
messenger as racist.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2xAhYf3Ays

When LYNX opened, it doubled the system patronage in Charlotte in
one year.  By the way, little Charlotte, North Carolina is now about
twice as large population-wise as the shrunken city of Pittsburgh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-BXSt3oaTY&feature=related

Phoenix is supposed to open two days after Christmas this year.  I plan
to go see it in March.  The YouTube video shows equipment testing
this fall.  By the way, the population of Phoenix today is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZPuX1YPeBQ&feature=related

The whole new world isn't just light rail either.

Consider Tren Urbano in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  By the way, the subway
portion is very short ... only one station.  If my memory is  
working, it is at
the university.  The rest is all at grade or elevated.  Beautiful  
operation.
Worth the cost of the plane fare for a winter vacation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hbq6KnaE-Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50eB1FkfHJE

Just a beautiful publicity flick of Puerto Rico with nice music.  You  
want to
go there to see and enjoy more than the subway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ser2KjtTs4Y&feature=related

Who would have believed, when Washington opened the first Metro line
in 1976 that it would end up becoming the second busiest urban rail
network in the United States, surpassing even Chicago?  They are up
around a million riders on a weekday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZwBMgLJbQI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BL7MBEZynk&NR=1