Light Rail Vehicles - LRT, ICTS, Monorail, and more

[KevinL]

All-day GO requires the CN bypass along the 407, and track doubling from Kitchener to Georgetown. All doable in 10 years.

[DHLawrence]

Given an obscene amount of money and the political will to spend it.

[tomh009]

Given an obscene amount of money and the political will to spend it.

For all-day GO service?

[DHLawrence]

For the bypass.

[KevinL]

How obscene of a price are we talking?

[Canard]

Can a mod move this to the GO or HSR thread?

[danbrotherston]

Given that it's already in the early stages, it does seem like something that will be happening.

[Canard]

Progress update from Honolulu of their light automated metro from Hitachi.



It's amazing to me how much of the line looks like it's out in the middle of nowhere. All of the trains have to come apart because they recently discovered cracks in the floor frames.

The decorative patterns in the columns for the elevated guideway are really sharp.

[danbrotherston]

Neat video. Those stations, especially the first few do appear to be in the middle of nowhere, but why go to the added expense of an elevated structure. Seems really wasteful in the middle of a field. Even the one station in the middle of parking lot, is it really worth that cost for the parking spaces under the track? Maybe there's something I don't know, but really have to wonder.

[KevinL]

They seem to have made the conscious decision of 'elevated everywhere', with only their OMSF at-grade. I don't know how much of that is practical and how much aesthetic, but they've stuck to it and put through a very solid and consistent design. I'd love to see some stations closer to completion.

[tomh009]

If it's fully automated, it really needs to be elevated, so then the stations, too, need to be elevated.

[Canard]

Lot of at-grade examples; see OrlyVal example video above on previous page.

[tomh009]

Yes, it's at grade, but it's at an airport, so pedestrians and vehicles cannot access the track. In a city environment we would not see at-grade track, would we? Or do these trains have sufficient smarts to avoid collisions with pedestrians and other vehicles?

[Canard]

No, OrlyVal is a connector that goes through an industrial and farmland area to connect an airport to an adjacent train station.

Obviously in a city it would be elevated (or underground).

Yes, automated metros have safety systems. Many have "coffeepot" laser sensors at stations and along the tracks to detect guideway intrusion (Copenhagen). Some use pressure mats in the stations that aren't equipped with platform screen doors (Vancouver).

[tomh009]

Right. So if the Honolulu system is in the city, it will be elevated. And if it's elevated, then the stations will be elevated, too.