[PRCo] Re: Sound Transit - SEATAC line etc

richard allman allmanr at verizon.net
Thu Jun 10 19:49:46 EDT 2010


no street running in Edmonton, John-all prw except few grade crossings. RICH


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Swindler" <j_swindler at hotmail.com>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Cc: "Philip Craig" <philgcraig204 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 8:43 AM
Subject: [PRCo] Re: Sound Transit - SEATAC line etc


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> Well, of course I care, Fred.  (:>)
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> This is what??  your 3rd or 4th Circle trip??
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> Concerning Edmonton no longer having those 17 Duwag cars from late '70s, 
> does Edmonton use salt on their streets in the winter??  Perhaps the 
> underframes were starting to rust.
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> There is another fleet from that era that will be around for awhile - make 
> that two fleets.  The Kawasaki cars on the Broad St. subway are going thru 
> a retrofit to replace the GE cam controllers with Kiepe chopper controls 
> similar to the PCC2 cars.  And I've heard comments that PATCO is planning 
> another general overhaul of their cars.
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> The National Geographic cable channel will feature SEPTA tonight.
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> Likewise no plans to replace the Kawasaki LRVs, although there may be some 
> fleet shrinkage.  Several days ago 9017 plowed into a stopped LRV at 
> elmwood and 72nd at about 20 mph.  Both will be candidates for major 
> structural work.
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> Cheers
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> John
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>> From: fwschneider at comcast.net
>> Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2010 00:10:41 -0400
>> Subject: [PRCo] Sound Transit - SEATAC line etc
>>
>> For those who care....
>>
>> I looked at both Seattle lines yesterday ... SLUT (now called the Seattle 
>> trolley) and Sound Transit's line from Seattle down to the SEATAC (or 
>> Seattle-Tacoma) Airport.
>>
>> I don't want a bunch of reply all messages going to the wrong people so 
>> everything is sent out blind this time.
>>
>> The SLUT line (it was originally called the South Lake Union Trolley 
>> until someone realized how the acronym could be pronounced) has three 
>> unnumbered Skoda cars, the red one, the purple one and the orange one and 
>> the run two of them. It results in about a ten minute headway. Was it 
>> worth building? Probably not but it makes the city a little cleaner. I 
>> was amazed by the number of tourists just riding it because it was there. 
>> And you can get pictures of the monorail left over from the 1968 World's 
>> Fair in the same picture if you get lucky.
>>
>> The Sea Tac line ... well, it is slower than the express buses were 
>> because it goes all around Robin Hood's barn for political reasons. 
>> Instead of going due south from downtown to the airport along Airport Way 
>> (essentially the way the interurban did that was torn up in 1928), it 
>> turns east and tunnels under Beacon Hill so that it can serve the 
>> neighborhood on the east side of Beacon Hill. That takes it a mile out of 
>> the way. Why? Hint. The street it follows is called Martin Luther King, 
>> Jr. Blvd. Oh, the neighborhood must be full of blacks? No. It was been 
>> gentrified. It is full of Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans but not blacks. 
>> Then when it gets down to the area near the airport it turns toward the 
>> airport and totally misses a huge shopping center that makes South Hills 
>> Village look like nothing. Instead there is a bus route that serves the 
>> mall and everything around it ... the mall and the peripheral businesses 
>> cover an area about 3/4s of a mile east-wes!
>> t by several miles north-south and you can't get there by light rail ... 
>> a huge interchange where I-5 and I-405 come together separate the mall 
>> from the car line. In spite of that, the load factors on Saturday were 
>> around 80% with two trains with about 50% turnover in route. I was told 
>> by the local who was with me .... Josh Coran who works for Talgo ... that 
>> that was pretty typical. That would point to somewhere between 40,000 and 
>> 50,000 riders on a weekday ... they have 7 1/2 minute headways in the 
>> peak and 10 minute bases. Sunday is 15 minutes. Imagine what it would be 
>> if it had a shopping center branch?
>>
>> I also saw the new Canada line in Vancouver this trip ... that's the 
>> subway from downtown to LuLu Island ... splits as soon as you cross onto 
>> the Island into two branches, one to serve Richmond proper as an elevated 
>> on concrete piers and the other to reach the Vancouver airport. This gets 
>> into the territory that was served by British Columbia Electric Railway's 
>> last interurban line about 50+ years ago. Today its jammed with people. 
>> Base headways on weekdays? About five minutes on each branch, half that 
>> on the main trunk. They could reduce the headways if they lengthened the 
>> trains ... they are only running two car trains.
>>
>> I also saw Edmonton's new University line for a few minutes last Sunday 
>> ... was amazed that all the cars they bought in 1980 are now gone or at 
>> least they don't run on Sunday if any are still around. The U-2 design 
>> was still used in San Diego last year. I see this week if San Diego is 
>> still using them. I've heard nothing to the contrary.
>>
>> Portland, Oregon ... well, that's where I am tonight. I can see the 
>> southern terminal of the new Clackimus line from the hotel room. If the 
>> Oregon Mist clears tomorrow, I'll take a few pictures before heading for 
>> the Golden State.
>>
>> One last thought. I did see an old friend in Seattle on Friday. I picked 
>> up William D. Middleton at his nursing home ... loaded his wheel chair 
>> into my Volkswagen ... took him to breakfast ... drove him down to the 
>> airport and back so that he could see the Seatac line ... had lunch with 
>> him. By then Bill was pretty tuckered out and needed a nap. But he thinks 
>> he can recover from his falls and regain the use of his legs. He has the 
>> computer in his room and ready to start on the next book at age 82.
>>
>>
>>
>
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