[PRCo] Transit Happenings (Not Necessarily PRCo)

Wed Jul 9 17:31:05 EDT 2014

Fred

The miraculous expansion of tramway networks in France has been slowed somewhat by election of conservative mayors in several cities who have axed plans for new lines.  But that does not detract from your thesis.  And the new mayor in Paris is very pro tram.

Back in the good ole USofA, when mentioning Texass you left out San Antonio, which has a plan and some money--but anti-streetcar advocates are trying to get the issue put onto the November ballot in hopes of killing it.  The "Streetcar Vote Coalition" is comprised primarily of suburbanites who want the allocated money spent on new roadway construction in their precincts.  We shall see what happens there.  There is also agitation for a tramway in Ft. Worth but it has not progressed beyond hopes and ideas at this time.  OTOH Austin has a LRT line, albeit DMU operated, and is looking to expand same.   Houston will open two more lines before the year is out.  Yeah, whodathunkit in Texass!

Dwight
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Fred Schneider 
  To: Western PA Trolley discussion 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2014 5:05 PM
  Subject: Re: [PRCo] Transit Happenings (Not Necessarily PRCo)

  Additional comments follow this … original message was moved to the top for clarity.   Yes, Herb, I liked the Jerusalem pictures.   

  On Jul 8, 2014, at 8:54 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:

  > 
  > Next, I was watching all the "happenings" in Jerusalem on CNN and noticed
  > that one of the streets shown in the broadcast had tracks and overhead
  > wire. Who would have guessed that Jerusalem had streetcars. Check out the
  > photos attached. Also, who would have guessed that it snows there. I worked
  > in Saudi Arabia, which is pretty much in the same area, and it was always
  > hot.
  > 
  > 
  > -- 
  > Herb Brannon
  > 
  > http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment.jpg 
  > 
  > http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0001.jpg 

  > http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0002.jpg 

  > http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0003.jpg 

  And now what Fred has to broadcast.   :<)

  Whoda thunk it?   The world is moving in places we cannot go because we might have to do it in all states at once and the politicians cannot do that.  For example, we cannot have high speed rail because we need it in California, Texas and the Northeast Corridor but the politicians cannot give out the federal money unless you can also give it to Idaho, Wyoming and North Dakota and they sure as the devil don't need high speed trains.   

  Herb,   a lot of the rest of the world is using light rail today because it doesn't use oil.    Jerusalem has had that system for more two and half years.  

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Light_Rail

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91wWmvJ6kWg    

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqys0ge339c

  My favorite example of where the world is going today is France, which was one of the first nations to go modern and get rid of those noisy, old, ugly streetcars.   Most of their systems were gone by the end of the 1930s ,,, Paris included.   Only tiny operations remained in Lille and St. Etienne by the era when most of us began shooting pictures.   Today?   Why there are 26 systems in 25 cities in France,.   The population of France is about 64 million --- just about the same as California and Texas put together.   Can you imagine 25 cities in Texas and California with trolleys today?   We're not even close!    (We have them in Dallas, Houston, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles and the BART system in the East Bay and a funded proposal to bring cars back to El Paso.)

  The first one is in Caens, in Normandy.  Is it a bus or a trolley?   Well, it is fixed guideway using a single rail.   So we have a pantograph and a rail return for power.   But the cars ride on rubber tires.   OK, Not our way of doing it but it works for them and it doesn't waste as much oil.   Because of rolling friction, the tires probably require more energy than steel wheels on steel rails.   On the other hand, it probably stops as fast as a bus if stupid fool walks out in front of it while texting.    Guys, I'm looking for the good and the bad, not just an argument that it doesn't look like something we worship.

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiGrBzH9WTE

  And here is a more conventional two rail operation in Nice down on the Cote du Azur (the Azure Coast)   Makes the sounds you want.   Fantastic artistic photography … one of the best videos I've seen of trams.   The chap who shot it deserves a pat on the back. Damed if it doesn't make me want to go there and dine on a bowl of Bouillabaisse.     (Only the French know how to make that fantastic fish stew.)   

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQMHv_gYf-g

  Italy had cars in Trieste, Turin, Genoa, Milan, Rome and Naples when I first visited that country in 1961.   Today?   Twelve cities.   Most of us might go to Florence (Firenze), Italy to look at the art musums.  I think I want to go back to see the new light rail cars.

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKv8GSSrETY

  The United Kingdom?   This was a lot like France.   In 1960, the time of my first visit, all that was left were a three lines in Glasgow, the downtown and promenade lines in Blackpool, Grimsby and Immingham, a little bit of Sheffield, and the Isle of Mann.  G&I and Sheffield disappeared before the army sent me home a year later and Glasgow was gone by 1962, leaving only the promenade line in Blackpool and the Isle of Mann.   Today?   Nine cities!

  Tyne-Wear Metro started the revolution in Britain     

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuI7Nmst0MM

  Nottingham was next.   Three more lines are now on the drawing board.

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd2wmx2Fk2o&list=PLMeK7Eqknvg5QmkS8uuqCmdLsMHFUzkZs

  A test train in Edinburgh, Scotland last fall:

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7inHmbJgZ1E

  And the USA and Canada has gone from about 15 cities in the mid 1960s to 59 this summer when Tucson opens.  An e-mail landed on my computer this morning announcing that DART will open its line to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport on August 18th.   Nine other systems in the US and Canada are under construction or being designed.

  But all is not perfect.    Two new operations have closed … Galveston closed allegedly because of a hurricane and Memphis allegedly because of fires.  I think that in both cases the management is attempting to find excuses to shut down tourist or heritage operations that were losing money hand over fist and it is much easier to blame the loses in Galveston, where it only hauled 100 riders a day, on a storm that really didn't damage the system.  In Memphis, if you are only moving 3300 riders a day on three lines, maybe two accidental fires that might have been motorman error can be blamed on old cars and the cost of new ones could just be too much.   

  What is the latest complete line in the USA?   The GREEN LINE from Minneapolis to St. Paul which opened 

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou7fH_IjhfE

  On Jul 8, 2014, at 8:54 PM, Herb Brannon wrote:

  > 
  > Next, I was watching all the "happenings" in Jerusalem on CNN and noticed
  > that one of the streets shown in the broadcast had tracks and overhead
  > wire. Who would have guessed that Jerusalem had streetcars. Check out the
  > photos attached. Also, who would have guessed that it snows there. I worked
  > in Saudi Arabia, which is pretty much in the same area, and it was always
  > hot.
  > 
  > 
  > -- 
  > Herb Brannon
  > 
  > http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment.jpg 
  > 
  > http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0001.jpg 

  > http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0002.jpg 

  > http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140708/486f14ba/attachment-0003.jpg 

  -------------- next part --------------
  An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
  URL: http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140709/19923962/attachment.html 
  _______________________________________________
  Pittsburgh-railways mailing list
  Pittsburgh-railways at mailman.dementix.org
  https://mailman.dementix.org/mailman/listinfo/pittsburgh-railways

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.dementix.org/pipermail/pittsburgh-railways/attachments/20140709/fbc87b9a/attachment.html 