HA! Shows how bad our trains are!!

[+Guest]

Watching local news yesterday, and a BRAND NEW train from the new Virgin rolling stock... fell apart. One or more of the couplings disintegrated at Dawlish Warren going into Teignmouth Station.
We had it bad enough with the old trains!

[stp243 8]

it probably was a manufacturing defect, not poor quality.

[beesbees 1]

what is your problerm with the trains? Whenever i go to london, i hardly ever get delayed and they arrive every 3 min, and when i go to bournemouth (about 120 miles away) they occur every 30 min. So look at the service before calling it crap.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Date:6/9/2004 8:03:02 AM
Author:ATPjohn

Watching local news yesterday, and a BRAND NEW train from the new Virgin rolling stock... fell apart. One or more of the couplings disintegrated at Dawlish Warren going into Teignmouth Station.
We had it bad enough with the old trains!

quote>

 

New train + Old coupling= Save money.?

 

 

 

[DuskTrooper 316]

WELL, at least yours dont get smashed into by 42 cars in 5 months!

[frogface 354]

our trains are not bad compared to othe countries but they arnt terrible either, trains are mostly on time. it just happens that news only focuses on the bad points of our train system not the good parts

[vidioman 21]

Just like with the highway, if you are in a train going t\from one side of Canada to the other, you're going to go through Thunder Bay. Well, you could take CPR Nipigon, but there is nothing up there, and it is just for express freight. But passenger trains would have to go through here. Even though we never get those.. stupid cheap morons We get a lot of grain cars up here, all the grain from the west goes here, sits in an elevator, and is shipped away in a few days.

 

-do you have a pic?

-vid

[ApathyNinja 17]

Heh, all rail traffic in my town was shut down the other day because a switching error toppled six tanker cars full of some sort of flammable chemical. That's alright because there's never any passenger traffic out of there anyway.

My favorite rail near-disaster involves some heavy freight travelling through Brooklyn, someone left a switching loco unattended and it started rolling through busy city streets. Naturally, distruction and hillarity ensued. I don't think anyone was killed, that would've been tragic, but it did mess up a couple cars who couldn't see the freight coming (there are no signals along this particular line, railroad employees direct traffic ahead of the stock in normal circumstances) and scared a nun pretty good. Overall an example of gross stupidity.

[DuskTrooper 316]

OK, Our trains in Houston are REALLY GOOD Quality, well built sleek, and beautiful, BUT the maintainace shed is very busy all the time because of the stupid drivers who keep smashing into them.  I don't think Siemens Westinghouse designed them to do that.

[The Terminator 0]

in new york city our trains go evrywhere execpt statan island and parts of queens. nad stations arent that bad even in the south bronx. the stations may be musty and LOOK run down but closer inspection will show you there not. and we still use trains from the 70's and very rarely do they malfunction. and out trains run 24 HOURS A DAY so if your coming home from a party at a club in the village and need to get to your home in the bronx,queens or brooklyn you can it'l onley take about 30-35 minuts(unless you go to the far reaches of the city like southern jamica in queens thats about an hour.

 

NYC SUBWAY IS THE URBAN RAILROAD KING!!!!!!!!

[joexcooldude 1]

Well...at least you have trains (philly has a very bare bones transit system).

[vidioman 21]

Date:6/9/2004 8:48:38 PM
Author:joexcooldude

Well...at least you have trains (philly has a very bare bones transit system).

quote>

Same here (but we are small) we were going to have a subway connecting the 2 downtowns and our major mall (right between them) but then Walmart moved in, and surveyers decided that the swamp the city was built on wouldn't be safe for a subway. I don't really care, though. We don't need a subway. If you know the right street, you can get to the other end of the city in a few minuts.

-even on the expressway, going from the top to bottom of the city takes at least 40 minutes. But you can only go 90Km/h, cause it is the city...

-vid

[Simcitytrainer 3]

I am in marietta and we have a decent trasit system friet mostly in cobb some passinger most passinger rail is in stone mtn.cobb is north west of atlanta and stone mtn is north east of atlanta.

[toxicpiano 125]

hmmmm... the problem is that if we have even a centimetre of snow the entire transport system grinds to a halt. omg snow! lets f**k up the transit system cause its such a rare thing and it might poisen us!

[nealos101 20]

IMHO it could be alot worse... You could have NO transit system at all AND it's snowing 24/7... Get over it, you have it good...

[screamingman12 30]

I for one, am disgusted by the state of the U.S.'s mass transit systems. for example, not only did NYC have one of the world's largest subway systems (it probably went everywhere, but then they closed a lot of stops in the past four or five decades) but it also had an EL-rail system and a tram system (untill GM bought it in the 1950's) here is a picture on the web that shows how much New Yorkers dispised there tram system when it was about to be closed.

 

         

 

     http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/2668/nyctram1vp.jpg align=baseline>

 

[frogface 354]

Date: 1/23/2006 1:44:11 PM
Author: toxicpiano
hmmmm... the problem is that if we have even a centimetre of snow the entire transport system grinds to a halt. 'omg snow! lets f**k up the transit system cause its such a rare thing and it might poisen us!'

quote>
yes but you can imagine the tabloid outrages if we spent millions on the rail network upgrading it just for the sake of a couple days of snow each year. you can't have it both ways

[hym 358]

I can't say anything about the train situation in Europe, but I'm kind of glad that they aren't prevalent in the US.  The cost of implementing and maintaining a viable passanger train network probably would wind up being to much for the transportation companies and the US government would only have to bail them out of bankruptcy.

Date: 6/9/2004 2:22:29 PM Author: DuskTrooper

OK, Our trains in Houston are REALLY GOOD Quality, well built sleek, and beautiful, BUT the maintainace shed is very busy all the time because of the stupid drivers who keep smashing into them.  I don't think Siemens Westinghouse designed them to do that.

quote>

 

Yeah, but weren't the trains hitting the cars because the drivers were making illegal left turns along the tracks.  The trains were smashing into the cars, but I'm not saying it wasn't the train's fault (except for that one guy who got his electric wheelchair clipped).

[Compromise 1]

Date: 1/23/2006 4:14:25 PM Author: screamingman12

I for one, am disgusted by the state of the U.S.'s mass transit systems. for example, not only did NYC have one of the world's largest subway systems (it probably went everywhere, but then they closed a lot of stops in the past four or five decades) but it also had an EL-rail system and a tram system (untill GM bought it in the 1950's) here is a picture on the web that shows how much New Yorkers dispised there tram system when it was about to be closed.

         

    http://img477.imageshack.us/img477/2668/nyctram1vp.jpg align=baseline>

quote>

Worse happened here. Ever heard of the beeching cuts? It was when over a third of Britian's railways were dug up in one large sweep. It has turned out to be a costley mistake.

 

Well here in Hampshire, UK nearly all the trains are on time now and all the old trains have gone, definatley much better than they were.

[frogface 354]

Date: 1/23/2006 5:48:50 PM
Author: Compromise

Date: 1/23/2006 4:14:25 PM Author: screamingman12

I for one, am disgusted by the state of the U.S.'s mass transit systems. for example, not only did NYC have one of the world's largest subway systems (it probably went everywhere, but then they closed a lot of stops in the past four or five decades) but it also had an EL-rail system and a tram system (untill GM bought it in the 1950's) here is a picture on the web that shows how much New Yorkers dispised there tram system when it was about to be closed.

         

   

quote>

Worse happened here. Ever heard of the beeching cuts? It was when over a third of Britian's railways were dug up in one large sweep. It has turned out to be a costley mistake.

Well here in Hampshire, UK nearly all the trains are on time now and all the old trains have gone, definatley much better than they were.

quote>
on the other hand a lot of rural stations were badly sited away from villages, you would expect a good few miles walk to the local station and while that was no problem, today i cant imagine many people who would walk 4 miles to thier local station.
But I do hope more lines are re-opened and park and ride stations could work well i think with buses acting as feeders, there needs to be better intergration with other transport though as its unfeasible to build rail lines everywhere. my local station has buses but the schedule is completely different to that of the trains (so might as well just go the whole way on the bus)
living in sussex the trains seem fine and generally on time without bad weather (even so it is only delayed by a couple minutes at most)
the old trains were actually quite good as they had space for bikes, MUCH more comfy seats but they were getting on a bit (the design of the coaches originates from the steam days ) the new ones are...acceptable

[GAT-X105 3]

A lot of the Manhattan EL's were, or were meant to be, replaced by subways.

Back when the subway was first built, it was a private company, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company. . And the EL's were already there, and were run by a different private company. Eventually, there were the EL's, and 3 subway companies: IRT, Brooklyn Manhattan Transit (BMT) and the Independent, City Owned subway. (IND.) Those companies drove the EL's out of business in Manhattan, and then were unified by the city in the 40s. Many of the 3 systems' stations were on top of each other, or next to each other, so building connetions to allow people to change from one line to another easily, but it took until the 70s or 80s for that to be really extensive.

There were EL's over 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 9th avenues. Today, there are subways under Lexington (west of 3rd ave) 6th, 7th, and 8th aves, and Broadway. There has been a plan for a subway under 2nd avenue since the 20s, but the depression, and WW2, then the loss of emphasis on mass transit in the 50s, then the city's financial crisis in the 70s kept putting it on hold.

Whew...long story.

Also, Amtrak has the potential to be good. It would take a lot of restructuring and work, and money, but I think it IS possible. The current administration seems bent on killing it, though.

[Duke87 1,070]

Well, granted, post-unifiaction, the NYC subway has lost more trackage than it's gained, but it's still the worlds largest.

Trackage removed since unification (completely or almost completely torn down/up):

-3rd Avenue El (Manhattan/Bronx)

-Myrtle Avenue El south of broadway (Brooklyn)

-Fulton Street El (Brooklyn/Queens)

-Culver El between 9th Avenue and Ditmas Avenue (Brooklyn)

-Lexington Avenue El (Brooklyn)

-9th Avenue El (Manhattan/Bronx)

-Jamaica Line Between 121st Street and 168th Street (Queens, some of this was rebuilt in the early 90's)

-South Beach branch of Staten Island Railroad south of Lincoln Avenue (Staten Island)

 

Trackage Abandoned since unification (still existing, but unused):

-Northern branch of Staten Island Railroad (Staten Island)

-South Beach branch of Staten Isand Railroad north of Lincoln Avenue (Staten Island)

 

Trackage added Since Unification (built new or bought):

-Chrystie Street Connection (Manhattan, used by B and D trains)

-63rd Street/41st Avenue Subway (Manhattan/Queens, used by F trains)

-Rockaway Line past Euclid Avenue (Brooklyn/Queens, used by A trains)

-Aquisition of Rockaway railroad trackage (Queens, Used by A and Rockaway S trains)

-Hillside Avenue Line (Queens, Used by F trains 24/7, and some E trains during rush hour)

-Queens Boulevard line past Van Wyck Boulevard/ Jamaica Line from 121st street to Parsons Boulevard (Queens, Used By J,Z, and E trains)

 

[Grobulous 0]

Date: 6/9/2004 10:52:49 AM Author: stp243
it probably was a manufacturing defect, not poor quality.

 

I agree tatally. If a few trains fall apart because of a few damaged nuts and bolts, you just can't go and blame the manufacturer. If it was bad design, you probably would see it recurring over the months and the manufacturer would declare a recall and redesign the train. But the delays? I don't care because it depends on the station you're at.

[Ratieya455 1]

There is no such thing as a passenger train here in Fargo, but with a metro population of around 150,000, you can't expect more than a decent bus line.

Minneapolis, a city of 380,000 in a metro area of 3,000,000, has a whopping 12 miles of passenger light rail, but has approved a line to St. Paul and a commuter rail line that reaches far into a very fast growing suburban corridor between it another metro area. Trains appear to be making a comeback, and that is a good thing. They don't seem to be having any major difficulties with the trains or drivers so far, and half of the current line is on surface streets.

[Ratieya455 1]

There is no such thing as a passenger train here in Fargo, but with a metro population of around 150,000, you can't expect more than a decent bus line.

Minneapolis, a city of 380,000 in a metro area of 3,000,000, has a whopping 12 miles of passenger light rail, but has approved a line to St. Paul and a commuter rail line that reaches far into a very fast growing suburban corridor between it another metro area. Trains appear to be making a comeback, and that is a good thing. They don't seem to be having any major difficulties with the trains or drivers so far, and half of the current line is on surface streets.

A lot of people believe that getting rid of the streetcar system in the Twin Cities was one of the worst mistakes it has ever made. It went everywhere and people really rode it.