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5 part transit rail series concludes: Updated 7-28-07

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5 part transit rail series concludes: Updated 7-28-07
Posted by xaxnar on Wednesday, July 11, 2007 7:16 PM
(This was originally posted as Ongoing rail series at Daily Kos)

Excuse me if this has already been referenced anywhere in the Trains.com forums, but there is an on-going series on passenger rail - rail transit over at Daily Kos. Lots of good pictures and links to rail systems around the world, with discussion of how they work. If you've been scared away from Daily Kos by fear-mongering from Bill O'Reilly at FOX news, rest assured that these articles are pretty straight forward and educational in nature. I thought I'd post about it here. That being said....

WARNING: The pictures, videos and rail system maps to be found in this series may whet your appetite for foreign travel, make you demand new scale models for your layouts instead of yet another Hudson or GP-38, make you think seriously about adding some catenary to your existing layout, and expose you to a whole new world of railroading almost entirely unknown to Americans.

Part 1 is here
Local Rail (1)
Part 2 is here
Local Rail (2/5): Rapid transit
Part Three is up
Local Rail (3/5): Subways, metros and RER
Part 4 is here
Local Rail (4/5): Light Rail, Tram-Bus
Part 5 is here
Local Rail (5/5): Light Metro, Tram-Train, Conclusion


If you haven't been to Daily Kos before, it is a very active community devoted to progressive politics and associated topics. That happens to include discussion of rail policies in the U.S. Anyone is welcome to read postings and comments; register at Daily Kos (no charge) and you can post and comment as well. There's lots of interesting passenger rail info in the series so far, along with pictures, maps, and possibly even occasional video.

Let me quote from the start of Part 1:

"Local rail (1)
by Jerome a Paris [Subscribe]

Sun Jul 08, 2007 at 06:31:35 AM PDT

This whole diary was written by European Tribune front pager DoDo, who works in the railway industry in Hungary, and posts on DailyKos as Daneel. He should be around in the comments, as well as BruceMcF who has long been writing on rail issues on dKos.

BruceMcF introduced us to various local transport modes as potential 'recruiters' for high-speed rail. Pursuing most of these is worth on its own, for local traffic. This diary expands on one of these: local rail. As the Recruiters diary indicated, local rail is just one alternative, but it should be the backbone of any decent public transport system.

Jerome a Paris's diary :: ::

If you think about rail, don't think in lines: always think in networks, even if a line built will be part of one only in decades. What's more, coordination with other modes of transport, or even work hour schedules, is essential. But just in public transport, it's not one shoe fits them all. Different kinds of public transport, even of local rail, are best for differing kinds of travel. Think of them less as alternatives, more as different levels, all superimposed and linked up, say these seven:

high-speed rail,
express rail,
normal stopping trains,
rapid transit,
metro (subway/elevated),
light rail,
buses.

In this five-part series, I will chart the four distinct categories of local rail (nos. 3-6 on the list): describe their specialities, differing best uses, and some newer developments. In the real world, however, the category boundaries are rather blurred. What's more, different locales use a bewildering array of rail terminology. But, there are also some ingenious ideas truly mixing the 'basic categories': three of these will be described, too.

This series can also be viewed as a general guide as to what kind of projects local initiatives could aim for, and tries to give examples around the world that can be used as model for supporters and argument against opponents."

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