(01-25-2016, 06:32 PM)BuildingScout Wrote: Correct. I don't claim them to be generally inferior technology. What they are not is superior or the "transportation of the future" as it so often claimed.
And why is that? I have yet to see you pose a credible reason why monorail technology is not superior.
Quote:Indeed the Mark VII monorail currently in service was designed to resemble the original Mark I from 1958.
Not really. There are only so many logical shapes you can choose. You have a body up top, and running wheels below. How else would you cover them?
And even if it was, so what? Bob Gurr came up with a great looking train. Why not keep it sexy?
Or do you subscribe to the theory that we must be bland because if people aren't miserable, it's obviously not working properly?
(And I think you mean MK IV, actually - the 1, 2, and 3 look a bit silly. 4-6 (6 especially) were designed to "rapid transit" standards for cities. 7 is just incremented because Bombardier offered it on their own; it's sort of an unofficial designation.)
(01-25-2016, 06:47 PM)plam Wrote: Incidentally, the Zurich trams are not particularly quiet when they turn. I might even say that the trolleybuses are quieter and equally smooth. (Trolleybuses are indeed smoother than regular buses somehow.) The stop spacing of the trams is definitely tram spacing and not LRT spacing; I think I've observed 400m spacings between stops.
Absolutely. Light rail can be (and usually is) notoriously loud in curves. If you think our (ion) trains are going to be silent going around the corners at Benton/Charles or King/Victoria, you're dreaming. I used to live at the Kaufman Lofts, and as much as I would have loved to have trains circling my building on 3 sides (hey, I'm still a rail fan at heart), just get ready for the complaints at wheel squeal every 10 minutes when a train goes screeching through the corner... at 5 km/h. Fixed bogie trams (like ours) are the worst for that, too. Just you wait... you'll see (or hear, rather).
Plam - you're right about trolleybus smoothness - the lack of transmission (fixed gear ratio between traction motor and wheels) mean a very smooth, jerk-free acceleration.