Friday Reads – 20 July 2018

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20 comments

  1. The LA Times article doesn’t seem to be accessible in Europe. One gets this message:

    “Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.”

  2. I note with some concern that the two key politicians in New York are still arguing like alley cats and are refusing to fund / endorse Mr Byford’s plan to rebuild the MTA and improve the subway and buses. Probably just as well Andy has opted for the “slap head” haircut as it means he won’t know whether the monumental stress of trying to reform NYC’s transport network has made his hair fall out.

    I always liked him when he was at LU and am sure he’ll give this his best shot but I do worry about New York’s residents, visitors and politicians having the patience to see things get a bit worse in the short term and to then be able to endure the slog to rebuild things and get new ways of working introduced and trains, track and signals working properly. We’re sort of used to it in London and there’s that British “shrug your shoulders and get on with it” attitude. New York doesn’t have that as the article clearly points out towards the end.

    The poisonous politics in New York are what needs sorting but I don’t get any sense that anyone has the desire or political bravery for the necessary restructuring of power, control and finances and revised governance and accountability that might bring some sense to things. The other horrible aspect is that the system seems to be riddled with politically motivated corruption and incompetence. Not good and that is what may cause Mr Byford to fail and become a casualty. One man can’t fight that sort of entrenched power broking.

  3. Just to add alongside the Amsterdam archeology article that the North South Metro line opens on Sunday 22 July 2018. There is a large scale restructuring of the transport network with rationalisation and rerouting of tram lines and a large scale removal of “tunnel” bus services from North Amsterdam. For those who might be interested you can download the current and future network maps from the gvb.nl website to give a comparison. As a long time visitor (but not in recent times) to Amsterdam it’s a pretty monumental change so I am trying to refresh my very rusty Dutch languge skills to see what’s changing.

    Interestingly GVB are not promising a trouble free transition. They are saying there may be problems with travel information provision, real time info, breakdowns and even whole line shutdowns!! They do promise though to fix problems quickly and learn the right lessons. Wonder if we will get such refreshing honestly and realism about Crossrail?

  4. @cent-trente

    Thanks for letting me know. I have replace the link to a similar one that should be visible worldwide. Do let me know should this not be the case. LBM

  5. That gvb.nl website is a revalation. Interactive map showing as many or as few routes and modes (bus/tram/metro/ferry) as you want. Paper versions available too, they say (obviously those are not interactive……..). TfL could learn a lot from looking at it.

  6. @ Timbeau – GVB have long been very good at that sort of thing. I’ve got maps going back decades from my various visits to Amsterdam. And yes the website is good – it made me realise how badly off we are now in London if a new railway was to be launched that resulted in lots of bus route changes and the public needed to be told about it. Not that that is due to happen anytime soon. No, no, no, (cough Crossrail), no. 😉

    I confess I was a bit upset to see quite so much tram route rationalisation in this weekend’s changes. The 16 disappears entirely and two lengthy bits of its route are abandoned entirely – one without any replacement. The 14 tram is also changed and the long standing link between Damrak and Nieuw Zuids Voorburgwal is broken at Dam Square. Other long standing routes are broken or changed. I know why they’re doing this (to give more E-W tram links to the Metro) but it seems a bit brutal when the N-S Metro line is one very specific alignment that still retains parallel tram services but corridors away from the Metro are losing services, links and frequency. I can only assume there are financial or other reasons for some of the changes. I’ll have to relearn the tram network when I visit again at some point.

  7. @WW: If you need help with the Dutch translations, just drop me a note…

  8. Friend of mine says the new Amsterdam line is very busy today with lots of people checking it out see what it’s like.

    The big day is tomorrow when all the bus and tram changes are implemented

  9. @Graham F

    Ironically, there are at least two sections of the tram network that do run underground. One being a pilot metro tunnel being subsequently put into use by trams (with several stations, and within which trams use left hand running due to island platforms and the trams only having doors on the right), and the other being several tunnels and viaducts on lines to/from the airport.

    The other main transport mode in Zurich – the S-Bahn also has numerous, relatively long tunnels, including those leading to three separate sets of underground platforms at Zurich HB.

    So to say that Zurich’s residents don’t travel underground is somewhat misleading to say the least.

    One other interesting mode of transport used extensively in Zurich are bi-articulated trolleybuses – I imagine the stuff of Boris Johnson’s nightmares (at least back when he was Mayor)

  10. … left hand running. I wonder if anyone considered letting trolleybuses use the Kingsway tunnel tram stops by passing to the right of the island platforms…

  11. I don’t know if right hand running was considered, but the prototype Kingsway trolleybus had doors on both side of the platform

    https://farm5.static.flickr.com/4728/27316252479_34b0e937c3.jpg

    (In the subway, tram passengers boarded and alighted from the driver’s end of the tram)

    No 1379 had a trial run through the tunnel on August 13th 1939. It ran on its battery as the subway was electrified on conduit. The experiments identified several problems – the batteries were barely sufficient to get the vehicle, even when empty, to do a round trip through the tunnel. In service, much bigger batteries would be needed. as overhead electrification was probably not possible within the headroom. Clearances were also very tight for a trackless vehicle. In the circumstances, right hand running – with the drivers on the wrong side of the vehicles – would have been very risky.

    Further experiments planned for the next month were cancelled due to problems encountered by the Poles* and by the time those were resolved expansion of the trolleybus network was off the agenda.

    *their country was invaded

  12. @Malcolm – I understood that the offside doors on 1379 were to enable it load on the island platforms, not for r/h running (which would have been a nightmare operationally).

  13. Yes of course. I knew about the experimental offside doors, and presumably a fleet of trolleybuses so-equipped would have followed any subway trolleyfication decision. It was just that the Amsterdam information prodded me into a random thought that there might have been an alternative. But I agree that it would have been awkward operationally, to say the least.

  14. Malcolm – many a word spoken in jest.

    Boston trolleybuses which serve the Harvard (former tram) tunnel have offside doors, for use in the tunnel, as its configuration means platforms cannot be located on the bus’s nearside. Since this means passengers do not pass the driver when boarding on outward trips, payment is made when leaving the vehicle.

    The one-time guided trolleybuses in Essen I think were fortunate in serving only underground stations with double islands, so they could always be routed into a track with a platform on the correct side.

    However, Adelaide’s guided O Bahn bus system serves island platforms by crossing over directions at each end of the station (in unguided mode).

  15. @Graham/Malcolm

    Yes, that is what I meant – the double-sided platform on 1379 was to allow the centre platforms to be used without the need for right hand running.

    In the event, the tunnel remained in use right to the end of trams in London, and was never converted for trolleybus use.

    If you believe the Goon Show, the last tram of all was entombed down there, with its driver, Henry Crunch.

  16. Fascinating stuff. Just to keep up with the wrong-side theme, Wikipedia indicates that on Sundays, diesel buses standing in for Boston trolleybuses use the other tunnel, what with them not having offside doors. Actually this is somewhat unclear, due to strange mixtures of compass direction, and should in any case be treated with some W-circumspection. But it does help to confirm my belief that the real world is far more bonkers than Terry Pratchett could possibly have imagined.

  17. Timbeau
    Henry CRUN

    Malcom
    Where did you think Pterry, of glorious memory got his ideas FROM, then?

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