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Heh. I love when some reporter stumbles across something fun to write about and these things go viral. I can now look forward to a week's worth of getting tagged in this on facebook. 
My husband was actually in Chongqing on a university trip last year. He had dinner right underneath the monorail (the world's longest, at that) - but nobody in his group (including him, actually) were interested in going for a ride.
They're in the process of extending some of their trains to 8 cars. It's an incredible system, and really showcases what monorail can do - that no other transportation alternative could. Without monorail, Chongqing would be screwed.
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05-07-2017, 07:29 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-07-2017, 07:31 PM by EdM.)
I happened to be in Detroit this weekend, and just missed the opening of their new streetcar line. I didn't know this was in progress and it had nothing to do with my trip. Wikipedia tells me the line is a scant 5.3km long and has been in the works for a very long time - Detroit's had lots of challenges in recent history, of course.
Rolling stock consists of three-section cars from Brookville Equipment Corporation.The interesting part for me was that large parts of the line are unpowered, and that the powered sections have only a (gently drooping) contact wire -- no messenger. The cars have lithium ion batteries for the unpowered sections. I suppose the fact that speeds are low (it runs in mixed traffic, and takes 24 minutes to travel the 5.3km) means there's less of a requirement for a straight contact wire. Some of the stations had a short (maybe 5m-10m long) overhead electrified metal bar, so the car can recharge somewhat while waiting for passengers to get on or off.
I don't really have a complaint about the OCS here, but it makes for some visual clutter, especially in curves through intersections. The ability to have unpowered curves, transitions from inner to outer lanes, etc. was a stark contrast to some of our turns.
http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/lig...qline.html
http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/colum...101320546/
A video of someone driving part of the line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnExSgb12Io
0:38 is a station with the "recharging bar"
1:00 is the start of a powered section
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It helps that the QLine is completely privately funded.
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We were in Montreal for the weekend and noticed that the Metro has some new cars. The Metro, of course, was built as part of Expo67 and Canada's 100th birthday. This year is Montreal's 375th birthday.
Most cars still look like this:
The new cars look like this:
The new cars are joined from end to end:
A new feature shows where the train is between stations:
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06-03-2017, 07:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-03-2017, 07:29 AM by Canard.)
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A train that runs on virtual railway track was unveiled in China. It seems better than a BRT and is more flexible than an LRT.
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06-03-2017, 08:20 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-03-2017, 08:24 AM by Canard.)
This seems a lot like the system already in place in the Netherlands (and others):
Still, nice to see some new alternatives. CRRC is really expanding their portfolio!
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As I've mentioned before, it's approaching possible to do this without any need to install kind of guidance infrastructure. If you allow a human driver, road-trains of any length could be built today.
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Just heard about this delightful piece of technology - a small single-unit railcar used on a short branch line in England. It uses propane to power a flywheel, which also gets boosted by the brakes, and carries up to 60 people. The Class 139: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_139
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(05-07-2017, 07:29 PM)EdM Wrote: I happened to be in Detroit this weekend, and just missed the opening of their new streetcar line. I didn't know this was in progress and it had nothing to do with my trip. Wikipedia tells me the line is a scant 5.3km long and has been in the works for a very long time - Detroit's had lots of challenges in recent history, of course.
Rolling stock consists of three-section cars from Brookville Equipment Corporation.The interesting part for me was that large parts of the line are unpowered, and that the powered sections have only a (gently drooping) contact wire -- no messenger. The cars have lithium ion batteries for the unpowered sections. I suppose the fact that speeds are low (it runs in mixed traffic, and takes 24 minutes to travel the 5.3km) means there's less of a requirement for a straight contact wire. Some of the stations had a short (maybe 5m-10m long) overhead electrified metal bar, so the car can recharge somewhat while waiting for passengers to get on or off.
I don't really have a complaint about the OCS here, but it makes for some visual clutter, especially in curves through intersections. The ability to have unpowered curves, transitions from inner to outer lanes, etc. was a stark contrast to some of our turns.
http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/lig...qline.html
http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/colum...101320546/
A video of someone driving part of the line: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnExSgb12Io
0:38 is a station with the "recharging bar"
1:00 is the start of a powered section
What a wide road, and yet, still unwilling to dedicate space to transit. Earning it's name motor city.
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I'm currently on a trip to Europe and while most of it is for coasters, I'll be riding some pretty cool trains/monorails/AGT's as well.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Riding the (very awesome, and super-fast) fully automatic Siemens VAL208 "CDGVAL" at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. <a href="https://t.co/yUR0oHqRUc">pic.twitter.com/yUR0oHqRUc</a></p>— iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/881495187347963905">July 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
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07-02-2017, 10:23 AM
(This post was last modified: 07-02-2017, 10:23 AM by Canard.)
Roller coasters. I like many different kinds of things on rails. Riding my 500th tomorrow at Parc Asterix!
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Got it. I have never been on a roller coaster and it's an experience I'll never have (long story, but basically as a young child my well-intentioned parents put me on some rides at the CNE before I was ready to deal with it).
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(07-02-2017, 09:29 AM)Canard Wrote: I'm currently on a trip to Europe and while most of it is for coasters, I'll be riding some pretty cool trains/monorails/AGT's as well.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Riding the (very awesome, and super-fast) fully automatic Siemens VAL208 "CDGVAL" at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. <a href="https://t.co/yUR0oHqRUc">pic.twitter.com/yUR0oHqRUc</a></p>— iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/881495187347963905">July 2, 2017</a></blockquote>
The system in the photo looks pretty interesting. Do I understand correctly from the first photo that, while the system mostly uses guides on either side to steer, it also has the ability to use a slot in the middle of the track to steer through crossovers and switches? If so that’s pretty slick. The thing I’ve always found weird about Montreal’s system is that they have the rubber tires and all, but then they still need just as much steel rail and steel wheels as a conventional system. This system by contrast seems to just need a bit of steel rails at isolated locations, and the infrastructure on the cars is probably just a couple of posts sticking down to engage the rails when present.
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