Public transport pic thread

[Dog Walker]

Just makes me sick to see what other cities are doing and we are not.  An interurban from the beaches to downtown would look like those train pictures from India; people on the roof and sides.

[Bostech]

They should get double decker trains for those in India.

[Lunican]

Or just run longer trains. Talk about unsafe...

[Dog Walker]

Those are older pictures.  A lot of the Indian train system has been upgraded and that kind of sight is no longer common.  The stations remain an absolute sea of humanity and the third class carriages are crowded.

However, somewhere I have pictures (which I will try to find and post here) of the huge Tata buses that are used in the cities in India.  They are totally packed and have led to the development of womens' only buses because of the problem of what the Indian newspapers politely call "gropers".

Being the biggest things on the city streets, they have the absolute right-of-way and all of them have large, ominous looking scrape marks down their sides.  They bull their way through the traffic no matter what.

[Dog Walker]

Bos, height of the tunnels and stations, which date back to the time of the British rule, keep them from running double decker trains.  Until interior air service was privatized in India in the late '90's, the trains were the only reliable way to get around in the interior of the sub-continent at all.  Indian Air, the gov't run interior air service was a farce.  Business people I knew used to fly on an international carrier from Delhi to Bangkok and then on another international carrier from Bangkok to Madras.  It was more expensive, but was reliable and you didn't have to pay bribes to get a seat.

[Bostech]

Indian air?
Do they have people hanging on wings and tail of plane while flying? :-)

[Dog Walker]

No, as a matter of fact, after we paid a bribe to get a seat on the "full flight" that we had booked months before, we discovered that the plane was barely half full.  For most people in India, flying is too expensive and the train is the only way to go and in third class at that.

In our experience the trains were on time and reliable, just not too fast.  We were in second class (open windows, no air conditioning, but padded seats) just pulling into the Delhi station, when a man jumped up from beside the track, held onto the window frame for a moment and snatched a gold chain from the neck of a woman sitting next to the window.  Every man in the car rushed to help her, but it was over so fast there was nothing anyone could do.  If the thief had been caught the on-the-spot justice would have been tough!

[mtraininjax]

Ock - Can you post a picture of NS's new GP 38 that is an ALL BATTERY POWERED unit? There is a nice one in Trains magazine this month.

[Ocklawaha]

Actually it's a BP-4, they only used a frame of a GP-38 to build it. It uses regenerative braking to recharge it's batterys, out of Altoona, it looks like a BROOKVILLE product (an old and small builder suddenly in the big leagues). The engine follows a tradition in that region of experimental locomotives, Norfolk Western and Pennsy's turbines, the Chessie's Jawn Henry, even the Baldwin Centipedes and DT series experiments.

By the way, the famous 999 was a New York Central world speed record holder.

OCKLAWAHA

[stjr]

Here is an entire web site devoted to pictures of "People of Public Transit".  I am sure if you peruse long enough, you will find one to surprise or amuse you: http://www.peopleofpublictransit.com/

[stjr]

JTA's $ky-high-way fantasy as art?  About as bad as the real deal!



Top this for "space age":



Something a little more pleasing to the eye: a public transit greenway.



And, more green:

Could the Emerald Express be the future of public transit in America? That’s what the Virginia tech students who created the concept are hoping. Phil Padilla, Irfan Bhimji, Catherine Crenshaw, Matthew Decker and Aly Moreno designed a passenger rail system that uses the GenSet (GP-38) locomotive as the primary propulsion platform.

From Ecofriend:

    This rail system would be used for both regional and intercity transportation. With a top speed of 100 mph and capacity for 250-350 passengers, the train would provide a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly form of transportation for many people in the state of Virginia and surrounding areas.

    The primary focus of the Emerald Xpress is to offer passengers a holistic brand experience, both on and off the train. The brand experience begins with the exterior design of the locomotive and passenger cars, is carried throughout the interior, and even reaches a personal level through membership cards and accounts. The name Emerald Xpress is meant to reflect the environmentally-friendly characteristics of the train, along with the luxury and comfort it would provide its passengers.

The design emphasizes comfort and convenience, providing passengers with ample storage and power outlets. It’s a pretty slick concept, echoing all of the things that are right about European rail systems.

Fast, efficient, up-to-date public transit may be closer than it seems â€" U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently predicted that high-paying jobs will be available for Americans building high speed rail systems by the end of this summer.

A few friends dropping by?

[mtraininjax]

Thanks!

[Bostech]

[Bostech]

Actual bus in Copenhagen.

[Ocklawaha]

You folks do realize how I'm minding my manners and not flooding this with 304,504,238 photos right?

OCKLAWAHA