Commuter Rail

[The Terminator 0]

ahh...one of my faveroite topics, commuter rail, in fact Commuter rail, at times, seems ti intruige me more than New Yorks subway system!

 

The nearest Commuter rail line by me is the Metro North Railroad, my stop is DObbs Ferry, Metro north, links Rural Dutchess county, suburban Putnum and westchester counties, with The Bronx and Manhattan. Metro north also connects to the Urban Centers of Stamford and New Haven,CT. New Jersey Transit also has a cimmuter rail system that links New York Ciy woth Trenton and Philadelphia, NJT also has 1 line wich connects Atlantic city with Philadelphia.

 

 

 

Metro North Map:

http://www.mta.info/mnr/html/mnrmap.htm

 

 

NJ transit map:

 

 

 

 

 

Whats your commuter rail?

[fivedayrental 0]

metronorth is nice. that is the only way i go whenever i have to go into the city. I usually get a 7 minute drive over to the brewster station since i live in west danbury and go directly into the city instead of 15 minute trip to the downtown danbury station and i'd have to change trains in south norwalk.

[frogface 352]

the nearest to me and one i use: The London commuter rail. The south of the thames has a very extensive network (the reason why there are not many underground lines). The north has a fair amount but a lot of the areas are better covered by Underground which is why there are less lines. For inner city or suburban travel its a great way of getting around but (except for thameslink) on lines go in the centre meaning you have to use the tube

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/downloads/LC_May_x05.pdf

map of the network inside london ^^^

 

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/downloads/LxSE_May_x05.pdf

map of the surrounding area served by commuter trains

 

the majority of those lines are electrified except to the west and some places to the east

 

thankfully most trains are quite modern and most of the old ones are being scrapped or refurbished

 

 

 

 

one thing ive noticed since privatisation, they all come in these garish liveries

[GingerBlokey 30]

Here in the east Commuting barely exists. A few from Yarmouth and Lowestoft to Norwich and alot from Essex, Bedfordshire and Cambridgshire to London. The trains tend to be Class 170 DMUs and Class 317 EMUs. The main London stations for the East are Liverpool Street ('one' Railway) and Fenchurch Street (c2c).



Class 170 DMU at Cambridge


Class 317 EMU at Seven Sisters

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Mine and Frogfaces Personal Fave WESSEX TRAINS!

Please keep to the 800x600 pixels max image size, resized...thanks.

EDIT: i didnt reallise this picture was taken at my Cosham Railway Station BAT

[The Terminator 0]

WOAH!

only a 2 car trainset!

 

Metronorth has at least 6 cars and New Transit has alt least 12 cars!

[AJHAINC 0]

I've used NJ Tranist's North Jersey Coast Line many at time to go between my sister's home and New York City. Its a great line that runs on time and has many interesting views of the shore and city.

On another note, The Dallas/Fort Worth area has the TRE or Trinity Railway Express which is only in its 5th year of operation but is extremely popular. There are many expansion plans for it that will be completed sometime in the next few years (can't wait). Seeing how popular it is, I'm surprised that it took the city and state leaders to realize it.

Here's a picture of a couple of RDCs (Rail-Diesel Cars) The TRE is one of the last railroads in the World that operate that particular class of Diesel passenger car. (for you railfans out there )

Please keep to the 800x600 pixels max imagesize, resized..thanks.
BTW, the building behind the train is the American Airlines Center where my beloved Dallas Stars play !!!

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Date: 8/7/2005 6:21:03 PM Author: The Terminator

WOAH!

only a 2 car trainset!

Metronorth has at least 6 cars and New Transit has alt least 12 cars!

quote> Wessex do have small trains bt the 'South West Trains' trains that call there have 10 car desiro 444 class units.

[frogface 352]

Date: 8/7/2005 6:44:49 PM Author: ILL Tonkso

Date: 8/7/2005 6:21:03 PM Author: The Terminator

WOAH!

only a 2 car trainset!

Metronorth has at least 6 cars and New Transit has alt least 12 cars!

quote> Wessex do have small trains bt the 'South West Trains' trains that call there have 10 car desiro 444 class units.

quote>

those horrible 2 car express sprinters it always feels like 10 people get off and 100 get on and travelling on these is guaranteed to be cramped, sweaty and hot. not an experience to be missed

align=baseline>

 

 

 

[slightlyslack 20]

Metra, the Chicago-area commuter rail system, the third-largest in the United States:

 

http://ktransit.com/transit/uslakes/Chicago/metra/photos/chi-cr-metraup-union-042205-03.jpg align=baseline>

[slightlyslack 20]

Metrolink (Southern California) trains at the yard just outside Union Station in the hills northeast of downtown Los Angeles.  The Golden State Freeway (I-5) is in the background--and yes, it's usually that clogged.

 

http://www.ktransit.com/transit/uscalifornia/losangeles/metrolink/Photos/lax-cr-yards-031804-01.jpg align=baseline>

[Jayayess1190 3]

Septa! of Philadelphia, PA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tunafish 48]

How bout the number one transit system in america

 

BART-Bay area Rapid Transit ( San Francisco, CA)

 

 

 

 

[AEwilly17 0]

Hey my town is on that Metro North Map, the red line in CT running up to Waterbury, i'm in Seymour, tiny tiny little station. I barely ever see trains at it but then again i'm not really in downtown all too often

EDIT: OMG! i just found out you could click on the town and see a pic, hehe, see it is small and those darn lights and wreaths are basically a year round thing, Always X-mas at Seymizzle station.

[cammo2003 20]

Sydney's CityRail is ok, just don't expect the train to arrive on time, or even for it to actually reach its scheduled destination sometimes.

CityRail has a wide variety of stock, much of it aging and soon to be replaced.

sketch diagrams of the rollingstock can be found here:

http://www.cityrail.info/aboutus/trains/index.jsp
(I have used these as they are extremely accurate, and dimensions are included.)

Now, the M, T, C, K, L, R, and S sets run suburban services. The G and V sets run interurban (note, not intercity, as there is no buffet) services, and operate between Central and Kiama (South Coast Line), Lithgow (Blue Mountains Line), and Newcastle (soon to be clipped back to Broadmeadows).

The Southern Highlands (Campbelltown to Goulburn, most services do not extend to Central) are operated by the Endeavours (which are almost identical to the Xplorer trains (which operate higher-speed intercity services, and quite good).

The 620/720 railcars operate Hunter Line services (a regiona l line which for some reason is associated with CityRail.)

As some of you may know, Sydney is a city of 4.2 million people. What you may not know is that it's surrounded by a bunch of cities ranging between about 70,000 (Blue Mountains, though it feels more like a series of mountain villages) to nearly half a million.

Despite this, no premium intercity services exist between Sydney and these cities (which is unfortunate).

Network Maps can be found here:
http://www.cityrail.info/networkmaps/selection.jsp

Major expansions are mooted, with it looking like the Hills line will FINALLY go ahead, though it won't open for more than 10 years...

If you want actual pictures of Sydney's trains and infrastructure, I highly recommend checking out the gallery at Railpage Australia . You can find pics of the networks/trains of other Australian cities here too.

If you just want to read more about Sydney's network find out a bit of Sydney's rail history, there's an extremely extensive article on Wikipedia (mind it's got a lot of off-linked pages..).

[Triborough Bridge 0]

This is the Long Island Railroad (LIRR), the largest in the country

LIRR GM DM30AC. The only diesel on the railroad used for passenger service.

 

 

LIRR Kawasaki C-R (Bilevel Cab Coach) 5010. All diesels run with this cab car. You got to drive the train back, too.

 

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/2774/clipboard019cw.jpg width=773>

LIRR Bombardier M7 (EMU). These are our newest modals

 

http://img173.imageshack.us/img173/7140/clipboard023hn.jpg width=773>

Car: LIRR Budd M1-M3 (EMU). These are the oldest ones used to date. These sets have been around since the mid-70's.

 

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/4266/untitled12vt.jpg width=773>

This is the entire system map

 

 

As for me, I used to live two blocks from Jamiaca Station, the major hub in Queens. Now I live on the Flatbush Avenue line right between Nostrand Av. and E. New York stations. I usually don't need to get on it unless I'm going to my modal railroad club in Farmingdale.

[AJHAINC 0]

do you know what kind of locomotive is in that first picture of the LIRR?

EDIT: I really need to start reading the posts...lol...nevermind...its a DM30AC...sorry for the stupid question

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

A South West Trains London Suburban.

http://www.porterbrook.co.uk/piclib/pics_large/00A.jpg align=baseline>

 

Their Reliable Desiro 444 Electric Unit, in 10 car formation, often found in 5 car formation or coupled with a 450 class to make 9 cars.

 

http://www.railwayscene.co.uk/images/444029-LN-19032005-2.jpg align=baseline>

 

The Smaller Desiro 450 Unit in 4 car formation. (often in 8 car)

 

http://www.therailwaycentre.com/EMU%20photo%20file/450.jpg align=baseline>

 

And heres the Suburban Heavy Rail map for Birmingham, the UK's second largest city.

http://www.centro.org.uk/Rail%20Network/trains/media/mapfull.gif

 

[GingerBlokey 30]

The line from my home station (Great Yarmouth Vauxhall) to Norwich Thorpe we mostly get 1 carrige and 2 carrige DMU Sprinters which are even worse in the summer holidays with all the friggin tourists. 2 a day we get direct services to London Liverpool Street without changing at Norwich these are usually about 15 carriges.

[Triborough Bridge 0]

I know this because I'm a big railfan (and I own both The Getaways): King's Cross is London's Terminal station. So I ask all you Londoners, what goes there? 

[frogface 352]

Date: 8/8/2005 11:19:17 AM Author: engineerisme I know this because I'm a big railfan (and I own both 'The Getaway's): King's Cross is London's Terminal station. So I ask all you Londoners, what goes there?

quote>

unlike most cities London doesnt have one MAIN station but a few Termini. the most famous: kings cross, euston, st pancras, victoria, waterloo, marylebone, fenchurch st, liverpool st

Kings Cross is mainly a intercity terminal for the GNER express trains

 

although you do get commuter services from the suburban terminus

 

as well as trains its famous for homeless people and drug addicts

[mattc005 2]

We have the famous Go-Trains in the Toronto area, which are green-and-white bi-level trains. It was the first system in the world to use these kinds of trains:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/GOtrain.jpg align=baseline>

 

align=baseline>

 

Here's the map (including the Go bus routes)

 

http://gotransit.com/PUBLICROOT/schedule/web-system-map.gif'>http://gotransit.com/PUBLICROOT/schedule/web-system-map.gif align=baseline>

 

It has pretty good coverage (especially with the busses included), but can start to get expensive the further away from Union Station (where all the train lines connect) you are.

 

More info: http://gotransit.com

[ILL Tonkso 1,236]

Frogface: Ah, the Ever Pleasentaries of Inner City britain.

 

Anyway, for comuter services to London fore those living on the isle of wight we have the Island Line connected to Portsmouth by a Fast Cat Ferry.

 

The Portsmouth Terminus at Portsmouth Harbour Station.

 

http://www.gable.co.uk/Portsmouth_Harbour_Station.jpg align=baseline>

The Fastcat.

http://www.wightlink.co.uk/images/headers/travelflag.jpg align=baseline>

 

And Ryde Pier Station, the Island Line uses Ex Tube Trains.

 

http://www.locomania.co.uk/483004_Ryde_Pier_Head_25_10_01.jpg align=baseline>

[aruot 0]

I don't have pictures of my own and so i'm posting link to other sites (don't know if that's legal or not lol)

Next are some images of the Portuguese Railways tains...

 

 

These one are from a high speed train service called alfa pendular

http://www.cp.pt/servicos/alfapendular/images/alfa_apresentacao.gif align=baseline>

align=baseline>

 

 

This is a suburban train of Lisbon

http://64.246.11.82/images/s/sintra_tue_12102004_aag.JPG.32642.thumb align=baseline>

 

 

[Peyres 0]

Don't forget Chiltern Railways serving Metroland. Paddington. Often share much of their route with the Metropolitan Line Northern branch

[mira 0]

well up here in bonnie scotland we have the joys of SPT (Strathclyde Passenger Travel) which is part of scotrail with their horrid maroon and cream trains (although better than the yucky sickly orange that they used to have).  running a mixture of commuter, suburban and intercity trains across Scotland and as far down as Carlisle and Newcastle plus the sleepers to and from London.  But it is a model of how to do it right

 

more info can be found at http://www.spt.co.uk

[halo_lover 1]

It's kinda sad, but I've never bee on one of the SEPTA regional rail lines (I'm from philly, well the suburbs anyway). But I was on the LIRR last time I was in NY. We took the train into manhattan from Huntington (it's on the Port Jefferson branch). Much fun, good system.

[get13 0]

Here are the scottish commuter trains.

This is a scotrail train before it was taken over by first and became first scotrail:


Here is the same kind of train in the new livery:


Here is the same train again but in the spt livery


Here is the newest type of spt commuter train:


Here are the oldest trains used on the glasgow-Edinburgh route:

[The Terminator 0]

those bi-level trains look UGLY, and far too extravagent for a commuter line, double ended M2 or M7 like trains are the way to go for commuter service,, even New Jersey transit trains all have locomotives, they need to modernise, thank god the NJT northeast corridor line is at least electrified.

Hmm, it seems like theres Commuter rail connecting all of the UK!, so can one of the brits tell me if it is possible to get commuter train in London and take it to lets say Birmingham? the only american Commuter rail that I know that links two major cities like that is New Jersey Transit(NY&PHilly).

[mira 0]

yay, thanks for posting those pictures, don't think my words did it justice