Transportation Library News
July 2009 Archives
July 22, 2009
State of the New York Subway
The Straphangers Campaign of the New York Public Interest Research Group has released its State of the Subways Report Card for 2009. This excerpt from the Campaign's press release summarizes the methodology of the report:
"The 42-page report is based on an extensive review of official data on subway service, much of which has not been released before on a line-by-line basis. It includes detailed one-page profiles of 22 lines and a Straphangers Campaign MetroCard Rating.
"The profiles show six measures of service, based on recent data from MTA New York City Transit, largely covering the last half of 2008. The measures
are: the frequency of scheduled service; the regularity of train arrivals; mechanical failures of subway cars; chance of getting a seat at the most congested point; cleanliness of subway car floors and seats; and adequacy of announcements."
The evaluation of each subway line is summed up as a "MetroCard rating," a dollar figure that represents a percentage of the current base fare of $2.50. According to the report, the two best subway lines in New York are the 7 (Times Square, Manhattan-Flushing, Queens), with a MetroCard rating of $1.55, and the L (14th St./8th Ave., Manhattan-Canarsie, Brooklyn), with a MetroCard rating of $1.50. The worst subway line is the C (Upper Manhattan-East New York, Brooklyn), with a MetroCard rating of $0.50.
Report cards for previous years can be found on the Campaign's reports and features page.
(Hat tip to the Reason Foundation's Out of Control Policy Blog.)
Amtrak through the eyes of a former Indian railway officer
In perusing some back issues of Indian Railways which have recently arrived in the library, I found a quant article from August 2006 in which a retired railway officer from India has provided a review and comparison of Amtrak to the Indian Railway system, entitled "Travel by Amtrak train in U.S.A. : experiences of a commoner from India."
S. Venkatraman embarked on a 7,000 km coach class journey on Amtrak and recorded his observations as well as some research into Amtrak and how it differs from Indian Railways. His overall evaluation of the Amtrak rail system is positive, and he was impressed by some of the perks Amtrak offers.
He relates this positive impression of Amtrak in enthusiastic phrases such as "Amtrak gives taxi ride[s] for delayed arrivals, wah!"
Amtrak has about 850 stations across America, while Indian Railways has over 7,000 stations throughout the Indian subcontinent. Not surprisingly, these plentiful Indian rail stations are used by a significantly larger percentage of the population than in America. Venkatraman praises the luxury of Amtrak travel as opposed to rail travel in India, but also stresses that Americans seem to greatly prefer air and highway travel to the railroad, in direct contrast to Indian preferences.
This fascinating and amusing article is an outsider's take on the American passenger rail industry and perhaps we should all read it and remember to appreciate an underrated method of travel available to us.
Next stop for the 'L': Pearls of wisdom - Gem of an idea should be copied over here
Chicago Tribune (IL) - Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Author: Mary Schmich
Today, a trio of unrelated thoughts.
1. Riding the "L" is rarely a way to stir the soul or warm the heart, but it could be if Chicago borrowed an idea from the British.
Lately, conductors on London's Tube -- their version of our "L" -- have taken to peppering loudspeaker announcements with quotes from poets and philosophers.
Tube riders hear more than "The doors are now closing" or "The train is momentarily delayed." These days, they're getting quotes from the likes of Jean-Paul Sartre ("Hell is other people.")
Such a program would brighten Chicago's "L" rides too. A few suggestions:
The best way out is always through.
-- Robert Frost
If only we'd stop trying to be happy we'd have a pretty good time.
-- Edith Wharton
Never run after a bus or a man. There will always be another one.
-- Anonymous
July 8, 2009
Urban Mobility Report 2009
The Texas Transportation Institute has released its 2009 Urban Mobility Report outlining trends in traffic congestion in the United States.
Metropolitan Chicago commuters spent on average 41 hours in traffic in 2007, ranking 21st in the nation.
Reaching 200
Railroad History celebrates its 200th issue by honoring other notable 200s, including a pictorial spread on all of the North American locomotives with the road number 200, as well as a piece honoring Abraham Lincoln's involvement in the development of the American rail industry on the 200th anniversary of his birth. Perhaps most interesting, however, is the account of the rail industry's pursuit of 200 kilometer per hour and mile per hour speeds.
In "Reaching 200: high-speed trains at 200 km/h and 300 mph" William D. Middleton examines the history of speed testing of high-speed trains, which remained the fastest mode of travel available well into the 20th century. The earliest trains reached high speeds just under 30 mph in 1828, but speeds tripled within half a century or so, and continued to climb steadily as new technology was introduced.
Middleton focuses on speed records which were achieved during legitimate and organized tests, such as tests in early 20th century Germany in which a Siemens & Halske high-speed electric train reached a speed of 201 km per hour. That, of course, was only a test speed, achieved under perfect conditions. Many more decades passed before trains would routinely reach 200 km per hour operating speeds, and it was even longer before a train would reach speeds over 200 mph. This feat was accomplished in France in 1955, when train BB 9004 reached a speed of 207 mph between Bordeaux and Dax.
The current record for a high-speed train is 356.4 mph, or 574.8 km/h, achieved again in France, this time by the TGV. And many believe that higher speeds are achievable in the near future. Read more about high-speed records as well as other notable 200s in the current issue of Railroad History (http://nucat.library.northwestern.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=2616538)
The good kind of dirt!
The wiki Digital Research Tools (DiRT) http://digitalresearchtools.pbworks.com/ collects information about electronic tools and resources - from image manipulation to data analysis, from mashup creation to data visualization - that can help scholars (particularly in the humanities and social sciences) conduct research more efficiently or creatively. Whether you need software to help you manage citations, author a multimedia work, or analyze texts, Digital Research Tools will help you find what you're looking for. It provides a directory of tools organized by research activity, as well as reviews of select tools in which it not only describes the tool's features, but also explore how it might be employed most effectively by researchers.
The Chicago Parking Story, Continued
Last month, the Active Transportation Alliance published an analysis of the city's 75-year lease of its parking meters, entitled Unrealized Assets: How leasing control of parking meters limits the future of active transport and innovative urban planning. An entry on the Active Transportation Alliance's blog summarizes the report:
"The analysis ... identifies the overarching impact: when the City gave up control of collecting revenue from parking meters, it also gave up all control of the public right of way on any streets with parking meters....
"This limits any potential projects that use streets with metered spaces:
bus rapid transit, bicycle lanes, street festivals, sidewalk expansion, streetscaping, pedestrian bulb-outs, loading zones, rush hour parking control, mid-block crossing, and temporary open spaces. The City's ability to use streets in fresh, people-centric ways is now dictated, controlled and limited by the arrangements and penalties within the parking meters lease."
The Alliance's analysis has prompted an official response from the City of Chicago, disputing many of the claims made in the analysis.
Leonard Gilroy of the Reason Foundation discusses the city's response at the Out of Control Policy Blog.
CTA unveils long hybrid bus
CTA unveils long hybrid bus
Chicago Tribune (IL) - Tuesday, July 7, 2009
The CTA on Monday rolled out the first of 58 new accordion-style hybrid buses purchased with federal economic stimulus funds.
All 58 of the New Flyer buses are scheduled to arrive by the fall, increasing the fleet of articulated hybrid buses to 208 vehicles and helping to save the CTA more than $7 million annually in fuel and maintenance costs, officials said.
The New Flyers are equipped with electrical outlets enabling the batteries on the buses to be charged to operate the auxiliary heater and circulate coolant through the engine block during overnight storage in cold weather.
The technology eliminates the need to keep buses idling when they are not in use, officials said.
The CTA is expected to receive $241 million in stimulus funds. About $50 million is being used for the New Flyers.
The transit agency also is using stimulus grants to rehab older buses and rail cars, and to replace old track on the Blue Line's Dearborn Street subway.
