Elevated Rail is technically meaningless

[Fantozzi 4,067]

The biggest benefit of elevated rail is – and this it shares with allmost all items in almost all computer games ...

 

... it looks like an elevated rail.

 

There are shooter with shotguns you - thank good - can't really shoot somebody down. There are so called nudepatches for several games, even if - technically - 3D-Objects can't be nude (or the bunch of polygons would be invisible). It's all about to give you an illusion of something.

 

This job – the main job – does elevated rail after all.

[Tarkus 6,932]

Would have made a lot more sense for the game to let GLR trains etc run on regular rail tracks, and not visa versa.  Instead of artificially separating networks that are not separated allover europe.  

 

"You're just not gonna see one train from one network physically hop tracks and start driving on the tracks for another train, but that's something you really don't want."

 

You do see that.  GLR type trains run on heavy tracks allover.  Light rail can go on heavy but not the reverse and this happens. 

 

It depends on how you define "heavy rail".  The way it's typically been used in the SC4 community, it's referred to setups that freight traffic can run on.  This is different than the American Public Transit Association definition, but coincident with the definition other countries.

 

Here's an example.  When TriMet, up in the Portland, OR metro area, built the MAX light rail lines, some of the sections (especially the Blue Line) were built on existing RR right-of-way, but they had to completely tear out the old tracks, replace them, and add catenaries, because the MAX could not run on it.  TriMet also operates the WES Commuter Rail--it actually is heavy rail, uses diesel cars, runs faster than the MAX, and operates on tracks also used for freight.  A similar idea in the Bay Area is Caltrain.  This is more in line with what the "Passenger Train" on the standard Rail tracks is intended to be--commuter rail that runs on the same tracks as freight.

 

Also, if you're wondering why there are Rail paths on GLR, it's a long-standing NAM feature dating back 10 years, and it was done strictly for the purposes of adding U-Drive-It functionality for the light rail trains, though people have certainly abused it over the years.

 

Also here's an interesting bit that hasn't been brought up yet.  El and Subway are originally designed for an above and below ground metro, respectively.  Note that both are completely grade-separated.  Also the train types and how they are powered are technically different, meaning that there is a difference between the GLR and the subway.  Subways and EL are powered by 'third rail' whereas an interurban, tram or GLR is supposed to be powered by overhead catenary wire.  We just don't see the textures and details, but that's typical.  So yes, GLR is the most flexible as it can be transitioned into all 3, but a subway should stay a subway and that line 'shouldn't' mix with a GLR line.  But that's getting really nitpicky with the details.

 

Tell that to the Washington Metro system.  50 miles of underground, 46 miles of at-grade, and 8 miles of elevated rail, and it uses a third rail.  I was a little curious as to the distinctions between rail rapid transit and light rail myself, and it seems that the distinction is primarily made by virtue of the use of right-of-way.  RRT (like the Metro) is exclusively in dedicated right-of-way (ROW), while light rail tends to use a mixture of dedicated ROW and portions sharing ROW with roads, and trams are almost always on shared ROW.  In any case, these are the varieties of rail transit that the Elevated Rail, Subway, and the NAM's GLR are intended to simulate.  A lot of subtle distinctions, but the key factor is that they aren't shared with freight.

 

-Tarkus

[Fantozzi 4,067]

Would have made a lot more sense for the game to let GLR trains etc run on regular rail tracks, and not visa versa.  Instead of artificially separating networks that are not separated allover europe.  

 

"You're just not gonna see one train from one network physically hop tracks and start driving on the tracks for another train, but that's something you really don't want."

 

You do see that.  GLR type trains run on heavy tracks allover.  Light rail can go on heavy but not the reverse and this happens. 

 

The reason why there are so many different track gauges in europe - so trains can't "hop tracks" even between different countries dates back in the early years of last century. Gouvernements simply were afraid the evil enemy could user the own railsystem in case of war. So they wanted to have a different track gauges as the neighbour. This was an aim. 

 

There are many examples (here in germany) where local private transport companys are using the tracks of the national train company and they pay for it (for the use of tracks that are not their own).

 

So there is also an economic aspect. The different transport systems aren't always held by the same company. There are also different companies. They are competitors in the business of transportation. So it happens also in real life that two systems covers the same needs, same lines and try to get the passenger away from the rival company to the own company.

 

As a customer you usally decide - what is faster, what is cheaper. In SC4 this is reduced to the view of a mayor, who has to care for the overall income of the city and that people find their way to the working place. But all in all - it's real life that transport system aren't always suplements to each others but also competitors to each others.

 

The thinking they have to be supplements - that's o.k., for a mayor. But it's an ideal.

[Turjan 1,048]

Nowadays, public transport is handled often enough quite flexibly. I had already posted this example of a single line (not one company, but really only one line) in Vienna public transport in a different thread:
 





Both end parts of the line work like trams, and the center part of the line runs on normal railway tracks. One of the tram sections also includes a signal-controlled tunnel section with four stations. The vehicle uses three different voltages. There's no elevated part involved here, but those also exist in the normal city tram network.

 

So it's more or less a game restricition, plus what has already been said further above that light rail tracks are not always suited for heavy rolling stock, exceptions notwithstanding, as can be seen in the example above.

[monkeywater 910]

 exceptions notwithstanding, as can be seen in the example above.

 

Oh snap!

[Lost Realist 762]

The biggest benefit of elevated rail is – and this it shares with allmost all items in almost all computer games ...

 

... it looks like an elevated rail.

 

There are shooter with shotguns you - thank good - can't really shoot somebody down. There are so called nudepatches for several games, even if - technically - 3D-Objects can't be nude (or the bunch of polygons would be invisible). It's all about to give you an illusion of something.

 

This job – the main job – does elevated rail after all.

 

Not exactly the kind of philosophy that most of the network modding follows as far as SC4 is concerened though.

[Cascadia 0]

I use heavy rail exclusively for all my cities.

Found that light rail is too hard to manage, too difficult to build stations for and difficult to integrate with streets/roads/highways. Im just not good at using light rail,

so i build my cities out of subways, heavy rail, monorail and a few high speed rail stations.

as for elevated rail i found it less flexible than monorail, harder to build around, and difficult to make intersections with streets/corners etc.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Elevated rail and subway are the same system.  There is a provided transition piece.  I use elevated rail for hops across open country that are the extension of the subway system.  Monorail, I reserve for very long jumps between city tiles when I want strictly passenger service.  For mixed traffic I use heavy rail.

[CT14 2,486]

A useful necro thread. Not sure if it's been mentioned but the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) still has a few freight cars in the subway stations, and here's an old picture from Chicago. This entire system (Illinois Tunnel Company etc) was abandoned forgotten until a flood burst into connected buildings.

In Philadelphia, there's an active heavy rail tunnel under the city north of downtown where CSX trains spend a good deal of time underground. More well known is the City Branch, a 15-block, 6-track heavy rail tunnel under Broad Street, decommissioned by 1992: