Because of grade crossing and a number of accedents have occured.
Have fun with your trains
vsmithNot to mention people using the bus lanes as a short cut or just driving on them by mistake.
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http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-valley-rail-20140712-story.html
Hopefully a LR upgrade will come to pass. In the meantime, the buses seem to be well patronized. Grade crossing incidents have calmed way down since the early 'driver training' period in 2005. Metro has plenty of Orange Line videos if you care to watch:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0D8E1D87131BEA1A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH8e3_w8owA&list=PLli3M8RkN4llDMhrjKFf5GQB0WypYShP6&index=3
The extension to Chatsworth, which follows the original SP ROW, opened on 30 June 2012.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGMFLW5BBtg
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Yep If they had RR Crossing Gates like a real railroad this would not be so much of a problem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWkPVkNN5_0&list=PL0D8E1D87131BEA1A&index=5
It's not that bad, however, the weakness of the buses is that they can only hold so much capacity before bunching up. I'm quite sure that this would get an LRT conversion within the next decade or so.
I spend a lot of time reading Metro documents and there is no funding planned for a conversation of the Orange Line into a light rail line. The Orange Line has about 25k boardings daily. Metro rail and bus ridership is shown on the link below.
http://www.metro.net/news/ridership-statistics/
It works about as well as it can. The number of (busy) street crossings and terminal space at North Hollywood are pretty strict limits on capacity. Light rail would increase capacity per vehicle without a huge impact on cross traffic. I think a turnback at North Hollywood coule be put in the same space as the bus loop. There aren't a lot of good places for substations along the right of way.
Why do substations have to be on the right of way? Why do they need a lot of substations?
Don't have to be. If it is expensive to construct substations, use larger and more feeder cable, with the balance of expense of feeder cable and that of the substations determining the spacing. Substations can be in underground vaults, even vaults under the tracks, or even on bridges spanning the tracks.
The number of substations required is based on the amount of current required to operate the line. Assuming that the current is low-voltage direct current, subs need to be about 3-5 miles apart. Voltage drops due to resistance in the wiring become an issue if the substations are further apart.
Mapquest tells me the route is less than 19 miles, so that's 6 or 7 substations if CSSHEGEWISCH is right. Does anybody disagree with him? So how big do the substations need to be, and is daveklepper correct that they "can be in underground vaults, even vaults under the tracks, or even on bridges spanning the tracks"? If so, I don't see substations as a big concern.
By the way, let's get back to the original post, "Because of grade crossing and a number of accedents have occured.". How is that unique to busways? I already mentioned my own NJ Transit Riverline, which in my opinion has few grade crossings, at least compared to countless other light rail lines, such as Houston, Philadelphia's suburban Media and Sharon Hill lines, all of Boston's light rail, just to name a few. Are we to conclude that those don't "work well at all"?
Well high speed busways need the same gate protection that trains do. Pittsburghs 3 1/2 busways are grade seperated so its not much of a issue. Orange Line has many crossings at grade. The NJ Camden Riverline is a Class 2 freight railroad under FRA Jurisdiction
All the Orange Line crossings are protected by traffic signals. This isn't any different from the Gold Line Eastside Extension light rail line. There was a study to put gates on the MGLEE, but it was purely politically motivated. It would have put road traffic on 3rd Street at a standstill and the cost would have been comparable to grade separation.
As far as safety goes, the Blue Line is the most dangerous one in LA. It may have more fatalities than any line in the USA. That didn't stop Metro from putting MGLEE and Crenshaw partially in streets.
MGLEE ? sorry but what is that?
FROM MY DIM MEMORIES OF RIDING THE LINE, MOST OF THE BLUE LINE IS GRADE SEPARATED. DO MOST OF THE INCIDENTS OCCUR ON THE STREET RUNNING PORTION IN LONG BEACH?
CCHEG: SUBSTATIONS CAN BE FARTHER APART IF THERE IS HEAVIER OR MORE, REALLY PARALLEL, FEEDER CABLE. THE THREE AND A HALF RULE IS NOT SET IN STONE. OF COURSE DOUBLING THE VOLTAGE, GOING TO 1500VOLTS, ALLOWS DOUBLING THE DISTANCES WITH THE SAME FEEDER CABLE, OR NONE. HEAVY USE REQUIRS FEEDER CABLE. WITH LIGHT TRAFFIC, THE CATENARY ITS ITS OWN FEEDER. A FOUR TRACK HEAVY SUBWAY LINE AT 600 VOLTS MIGHT REQUIRE A SUBSTATION EVERY HALF MILE
SO MODIFYING YOUR STATEMENT, THE NUMBER OF SUBSTATIONS REQUIRED IS BASED ON THE AMOUNT OF CURRENT REQURIED TO OPERATE THE LINE AND THE RESISTANCE DROP PER UNIT DISTANCE FOR THE CATENARY OR THIRD RAIL AND THE PARALLEL FEEDER CABLE IF ANY.
@daveklepper, there are only a few grade separations on the Blue Line.
sigengrAs far as safety goes, the Blue Line is the most dangerous one in LA. It may have more fatalities than any line in the USA. That didn't stop Metro from putting MGLEE and Crenshaw partially in streets.
@trackrat888, MGLEE appears to be short for 'Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension' and I've only seen this acronym used in this post!
"@trackrat888, MGLEE appears to be short for 'Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension' and I've only seen this acronym used in this post!"
Trackrat- Oh now I see
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