I Hope Every One is Safe

To all my readers:

   I hope that everyone is safe and special thanks to the doctors, nurses and others that put themselves in harm's way,  including bus and tram drivers and metro personnel worldwide.  This virus was off the radar and we did not see it coming.  It will have very strong effects on the things that are discussed in this blog.  After recovery,   it is hard to predict what will happen in a particular city or country.   For New York City and the subway system, and streetcar proposals for Brooklyn and Queens,  we can ask ourselves the following questions:

1.   Will ridership eventually go back to normal?  Or will people avoid rapid transit because the virus is out there before a vaccine is developed?
2.  Will people who have a choice will avoid living in big cities in order to stay off rapid transit?
3.  With the current crisis in New York State and New York City, will money be available for the new waterfront streetcar and other rapid transit expansion projects?
4. Will millions of commuters switch to bikes and other devices in order to avoid rapid transit?
5. How can we be the advocate for streetcars and light rail if the public is turning away from mass transit usage.
6. Now that millions are able to work from home on their computers, what will this mean for raid transit usage?
7. New York City will do anything to abandon a rapid transit line.  If a particular line has specially weak ridership after recovery, will an outside line be on the chopping block?
8. What will happen to express services and experimental services,   such as the two "F Expresses" that run from Coney Island specially if the ridership is no longer there?
9. Will the proposed expansion of the 2nd Avenue subway be abandoned if ridership levels get very low?

These and other questions I have for New York City.   I wonder what the situation is in other large cities.   Not everyone can run to an isolated area.   Before a vaccine is developed, will New Yorkers that did not get the virus yet pack into crowded subway cars?   And if the state and city are out of cash,  how can the subway be maintained and operated?   Will lack of maintenance cause more passengers to abandon the subway and bus routes?

Well that is all for now.

Be safe everyone

Tramway Null(0)

IRT Brooklyn Line Near the Portal

Hi Folks:  In subchat, there was a conversation about the middle track at the portal east of Utica Avenue.   I found by accident this trackmap published by the New York Division Bulletin from their July , 1991 edition  (Vol . 34 Number 7).  This is from an article titled "IRT Brooklyn Line" by Bernard Linder.    The map appears on page 4 and is shown above in the top right corner.  Notice the the middle track connects with both the upper and lower levels east of Utica Avenue and the stub tracks extends somewhat east of the portal.

Mexico City to invest 4 billion pesos in Elevated Trolleybus Line

  Sorry folks,  I cannot copy the link but the Mexico City government is looking at building an elevated trolleybus line.   The elevated trolley bus line will be of concrete construction over a street and will use a fleet of 35 trolleybus who get their power by overhead wire.   The line will link important transit centers.

  I think that this is just great!   As a transit buff, as a child,  I always wondered what an elevated line for street cars and or trolleybus would look like?   Various cities in the United States,  had short streetcar elevated lines.  Boston has a small section and I believe there we several out west like Kansas City.   These were traditional wooden platform and steel elevated lines.   What about a elevated trolleybus line?   Would it look like the Third Avenue El in Manhattan with instead of having tracks it would have wooden boards as a floor supported by iron work?  The Mexico City line looks like a modern grade separated elevated highway with supports for the trolleybus wires.
It looks interesting.   I believe that Mexico City is getting their fleet renewed with Chinese trolleybuses as well.   I wish them lots of luck and in New York City you hear crickets about interesting plans.

Tramway Null ()

Berlin to Experiment with a new In Motion Charging Trolleybus System

Hi Folks:

 Sorry for being away.  Not much happening in New York City.   I came across in  Urban Transort Magazine  that the City of Berlin is about to build a brand new trolleybus system with overhead wires using the concept of "In Motion Charging".  Berlin currently does not have a trolleybus system and I believe that this is significant.   The article was an editorial and was dated March 3, 2020.   The conversion of some diesel bus lines will be in the Spandau district.   This is significant because it recognizes that some busy bus lines cannot depend on battery power alone at this stage of technology.  These trolleybus discussed for Berlin will have at least 50% of their route under wire and the rest in battery mode.  For some reason,  I could not copy the link or any pictures from this magazine to show you.

Here in New York City the picture is not pretty.   The subways and other public places have been taken over by the homeless and crime is increasing.  Despite having a city agency to deal with the homeless, the problem is getting worse.  Crime is beginning to increase again.  No new subway routes are under construction and the plans that do exist, do not get implemented.  New subway cars are planned or under construction but they will be R-160 or R-179 look a likes. Some units being built will have open gangways.  Basically, the cars have fewer seats and of course, no seats near a widow.   When the R-46 and R-68 cars are retired,  there will not be a single car left in the system with a seat near a window.   No cars being built will feature a railfan window.  The new cars being built, I believe the R - 210 will be very similar to the R-160 or R-179,  The front of the new cars may show a destination sign,  something that was missing and taken away from subway cars for many decades.   The R- 32 and R-38 had destination signs,  but they were eliminated in a re-building process.  In the 1970's and 1980's,  in many car classes, the brains at the TA covered up or eliminated the front destination sign.  Any side destination sign made from plastic that was back lighted were also eliminated during the period or the bulbs were not replaced after burning out.  Remember when many IRT and BMT car classes had green lighted signs at first like the R-27-30, R-32, R-38, R-16, R-14 and all of the IND  R1-9's?   As the R1-9's were retired, years before, the TA simply did not replace the light bulbs in the destination and  route cabinets on the sides of each car.

So long for now.

Tramway Null(0)

Some Comments about Various Topics

Hi Folks:

 No  so much has been going on in the New York City regarding the topics mentioned here in this blog.  Regarding Route 15 Girard Avenue in Philadelphia, I found out the the reconstructed PCC cars running there  are 15 years old and that parts are wearing out.  The parts are unique and are hard to replace.  This may give SEPTA the excuse to pull the plug.  If standardized cars are ordered from a manufacturer, the problem of parts become less problematic.  Regarding in motion charging for trolleybuses and battery buses in cold environments,   I read today in subchat that the recovery time to recharge a battery bus in cold weather is much longer than in warm weather.  If a transit authority orders pure battery buses and in cold weather recovery time is longer, more buses are required and it becomes inefficient.  Of course, trolleybuses do not have this problem  It would be ironic that the battery buses replacing the trolley coaches in south Philadelphia could not function as well.  I believe the remaining trackless trolley lines in north Philadelphia are also in danger.   There does not seem to be an idea in the transit management field world wide that trolleybuses with in motion charging is superior to pure battery buses.   I do not see many brand new in motion trolleybus systems being established.   What happened to planned systems in Montreal Canada and Spokane, Washington?


A reader asked if CAD files can be used in making climate maps.  I never worked with CAD files before but in ARCGIS mapping programs,  geo-referencing another map into an target map,  CAD files can be used, according to their literature.

Ciao:

Tramway Null(0)

Bad Rumors From Philadelphia Regarding Rt. 15

Hi Folks:

  According to some writers from Subchat,  a source states that SEPTA is having trouble getting parts for their reconstructed PCC cars on Girard Avenue.  One source asked " How come San Francisco does not have trouble getting parts for their PCC streetcars?   Once service is temporarily suspended, it is possible that you could kiss service good bye, just like route 23- Germantown Avenue.  Since it is not clear yet if battery buses are successful,  I would say, salvage the overhead and convert it to trolleybus and buy in motion charging trolleybuses, if the streetcars have to go.  Remember what I said ages ago:  If Philadelphia did not have a trolley subway and private right of way running, Philadelphia would today be without streetcars for several decades already, just like New York.

SEPTA did not come out with an official statement yet about service on the number 15.

October 31, 1956 Again

 When streetcar service stopped on October 31, 1956, service on the McDonald Avenue branch ended as well.   In the picture above,   I am sorry, I lost the reference, a south bound PCC car is about to cross Cortelyou Road and McDonald Avenue.  In the foreground and above and perpendicular to the picture is the wooden support for the B-23 Cortelyou Road trolleybus which also ended on the same day.  The car shown, may make a short turn at the Kensington Loop on the next street or may go all the way to Coney Island.   PCC cars entered Church Avenue service around 1951  and notice above that the wooden ties are missing to three of the four tracks on the structure.  Through service to Coney Island started on October-November 1954 on the elevated structure above, so this picture can be dated from 1951 to 1954.

In the sixty years plus that Brooklyn lost it's trolleys, trolleys have made a comeback in various forms to even cities that were hostile to them, such as Los Angeles, Paris, London and other cities.   Of the world class cities, only New York and Chicago and some others cannot, will not, or simply cannot bring trolleys back, even for a demonstration line running a few hundred feet.

Many years ago, I posted a video of the Volgograd tram subway from the former Russia.   There, PCC type cares run on the street then descend into a tunnel with nice stations.   I would if I could would build such a line between Brooklyn and Staten Island.   Why not a subway?   I believe  that modern PCC cars can make up the grade on the roadway of the Verazano Bridge.  Thus you would not need to build a billion dollar tunnel.  The line can go underground in Bay Ridge and meet at platform level at one of the "R" stations on 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge for a cross platform transfer.  In Staten Island, the line can run underground like in Volgograd, or private right of way or in the middle of an important but wide street.

Just a suggestion.
Tramway Null