Monday’s Friday Reads – 15 March 2021

On By In COVID, Friday Reads, Logistics, Roads, Trams/Streetcars/LRT, Tube lines

• TfL’s Lane Rental scheme for utility works expanding (IanVisits)

• Which is London’s fastest Underground line? (OnLondon)

• Karlsruhe transforming last mile logistics with trams (RailFreight)

• Can Amtrak Joe revolutionize US public transport? (NewRepublic)

• If rush hour dies, does mass transit die with it? (Slate)

• Buster Keaton travels across Canada by rail: short film (NFB)

• The tide is higher and we’re holding on (Wired)

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7 comments

  1. It’s funny that the OnLondon article doesn’t mention the word “dwell” once.

    Because if you measure it (as I have, of course) all of the Underground trains have very similar acceleration and run speeds, but differ greatly in the amount of time they are forced to wait at platforms, especially (see Slate article) in the things-formerly-know as peaks.

  2. “…all of the Underground trains have very similar acceleration and run speeds…”
    Is that true? Subjectively, the acceleration on the Victoria line seems significantly higher than the older eg Bakerloo line stock? Haven’t tried any measurement, but certainly feels that way.
    At a tangent, the scheme used on the Glasgow Subway, with quite noticeable inclines on the approach and exit to / from stations seems quite a neat way of conserving energy (and thus reducing heat) which I’m surprised the Victorian engineers never adopted in London.

  3. B&T The use of down slopes departing stations and up slopes approaching stations was implemented on the Central line which opened in 1901. The Central line platforms were extended in the 1930s and it’s possible to see transitions to the slopes on some of these platforms. The principle was extended to all tunnel sections thereafter as far as ground conditions and the juxtaposition of other lines allowed – even today with Crossrail which had some very tight constraints underground.

    The ATO operated Victoria, Central, Jubilee and Northern have the highest acceleration rates, and the Victoria line has the highest braking rates. In the article, only the Central line and Victoria line had ATO at the time of the 2006 survey and the Victoria line system (and fleet) was rather old at the time. The modern ATO systems on the lines mentioned all aimed at the standard principles of metro operation: accelerate as hard as possible to line speed. Keep at line speed until the braking point for the next station and then brake as hard as possible. Where recovery time is built into the timetable and the train is on time, the top speed between stations or coasting will be implemented to “use up” the recovery time. This provides the facility to “catch up time” if the train is a little late.

  4. B&T
    The Vic-line trains are, indeed faster, with good acceleration & often further between station-stops.
    However, many tube stations are, indeed, built on the “hump” principle, notably on the Vic & Central lines … though that can be awkward if you move a station, such as … British Museum >> Holborn Kingsway.

  6. @ B&T 17Mar 1421

    The Central Line was built in this way with the tunnels rising to the platform to aid braking and then falling away again to aid acceleration.

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