Berlin Is Bringing Back Subway Trains from the 1950s
citylab.com
citylab.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pic3FnvUrY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvcpy4WjZMs
The half-naked surfer getting into the tram probably looks totally stupid if one doesn't have the context: This is at a place where in summer many people swim downstream in the river and then take the tram for two stops to get back where they started from, which is a place where people surf. (video, tram can be seen at around 5:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Py4lPdvPV5o)
So the video is not quite as stupid as it looks.
Of course you can't get that with public transportation, so I just drive my car.
for me, as a german living in berlin for a long time, these ads are an insult to the people. every criticism is legit and they make fun of it because they are politically controlled, get their money anyway and have absolutely no incentive changing things for the better.
one other example of bvg's utter shit show: their mobile app is quite good and even allows to buy digital tickets in real time. but you can't pay with paypal, stripe, bitcoin or apple pay (granted, apple pay is yet to land in germany). and the most hilarious thing is that the ticket you just bought and paid for is not valid without an ID.
prices rise every year while service does _not_ get better. i could go on and on. this public transport is just a big pile of shit.
The Berlin Wall had cut several railroad lines. When the wall came down, the tracks were quickly reconnected. Both sides had been maintaining them right up to the wall for three decades.
East and West Germany both had area codes, but although they had different country codes, there was no duplication of area codes, allowing an easy conversion to country code 49 after reunification.
There was an elevated line that was cut, and it took several years after the fall of the wall to restore service.
And so the 481 will be replaced by the 483 and 484.
http://www.earthnutshell.com/stopping-all-stations-the-pyong...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagoshima_City_Transportation_...
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/鹿児島市交通局500形電車
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/鹿児島市交通局600形電車
One has been outfitted for sightseeing traffic http://www.kotsu-city-kagoshima.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/kag...
One has been outfitted with bar seating for private events ($200/2 hr) http://www.kotsu-city-kagoshima.jp/wp/wp-content/uploads/201...
There's also the Sparrow Hills station which is a metro station built into a bridge and a fabulous view over the river. The entrance at one end of the bridge leads into the central park.
Other then the noise and really pushy people, I was very impressed by Moscow's metro.
On a side Note:
The Stuttgart S-Bahn's can be found it Tunis.
Has anyone encountered other trains in exile?
I witnessed a mass burglary/theft in the train, my friend to barely hold on to his rucksack.
[1] https://www.visiting-africa.com/africa/tunisia/2010/03/train...
I've never been on it, but I've heard that incidents like that may happen once a year on those lines.
PS: I think it's one of the only trains I saw that doesn't have the "closed-door" safety enabled. You can open the doors while it is on full speed and it doesn't matter.
http://www.streetcar.org/second_melbourne_tram_joins_f-line-...
IIRC old narrow-gauge Spanish trains are being used in San José, Costa Rica as they have opened a small number of train lines in these last 8-10 years.
Canada has carriages originally intended to run overnight services through the Channel Tunnel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightstar_(train)#Via_Rail_Can...
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/pain-in-spain-as-trams-head-to-syd...
Some infos:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/TW_601 (German article w/ picture)
http://fahrtenbuch.uestra.de/601-die-rueckkehr/ (Blog posts with pictures, just throw it in Google Translate)
After a few minutes, I realized it was the faded sticker on the seatback in front of me - it said 'Livvest under setet dykkar' ('Life vest under your seat') in Norwegian - definitely not something you'd expect to see on a flight en route to Pointe-Noire!
I checked the MFG # sign as I left the aircraft, and a few E-mails later I found the plane (A 737-200) had been sold for scrap in 1993 as it no longer complied with relevant noise regulations; it then made its way to the Congo by some dubious route and, to paraphrase the puzzled Boeing customer rep who got in touch - 'As far as we are concerned, the plane is not as much flying as not having crashed yet.'
Aircraft in exile indeed.
That made me think of this; vintage Douglas DC-3 plane in Columbia.
One (dubious) perk of my job is that I get to fly on all sorts of dilapidated airlines all over the world. I have never flown on a DC-3, but have tried its DC-4 and DC-6 siblings on a couple of occasions. They do have a couple of things going for them:
a) Over-engineered to extremes; rather than calculating how much weight could be shed without making a part too fragile, it seems they did the opposite - just how sturdy can we make this and still be able to take off? This approach doesn't get them any fuel economy medals, but as for longevity? Oh-la-la.
b) Very (VERY) simple to work on; simple access to just about anything that matters, very little by way of fancy solutions requiring deep specialist knowledge. As long as you maintain oil pressure, the engines will run.
Also, the economics kicks in here, too - maintaining an airframe properly is cheaper in the long run than having to replace them occasionally after a total loss. Presumably also better for your reputation and recruiting capability.
While chatting with the aircrew of a positively ancient Antonov in the Congo once, I found that a mechanic would come along for the flight. In my naïvety, I asked what he could do in the event of an issue while en route. The first officer shrugged and said 'Not much - but it sure keeps them focussed while working on the plane!'
Crude, but effective.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C2-class_Melbourne_tram
Various tram types were demoed on the Melbourne network in the 2000's - Bombardier Eurotram, Bombardier Flexity Classic (from Adelaide), Siemens CombinoPlus. Ultimately Bombardier got a contract for Flexity Swift/2 derived trams (the E class).
Adelaide also bought six trams from Madrid in similar circumstances
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Adelaide#Citadis_302_...
They are over the design weight and have shoddy brakes so they're downrated from their specified top speed. The increased weight makes them much harsher on the tracks and transmits way more vibration to neighboring houses. The doors have overly complex mechanisms prone to jamming. So do the rising stairs. The air conditioners leak condensation. Overall they get far fewer miles between maintenance windows than they should - by less than half - resulting in a lot more cars stuck in the maintenance yard reducing an already over-stretched capacity.
They also can't be coupled more than two cars at a time (where I'm calling a car the joined halves with the flexible part in the middle). Even if Muni had enough cars they couldn't run three-car trains with the Breda units.
SF finally learned its lesson; Siemens is making the new cars. The first ones should start running end of this year. They can be coupled into 3-4 car trains, have good German engineering, working brakes, etc. Muni will also end up with more of them (~120 in the current fleet, vs 240 in the new one) so there will be a lot more capacity.
http://www.rtands.com/index.php/passenger/rapid-transit-ligh...
How they ended up there I don't know.
but if it saves the authority money then it still is a good move, removes some of the gimmick feeling
The only reason to use something else for transport, like a bicycle, is for political reasons.
Besides the parliament has no power over where subway lines in Berlin are built.
It will certainly come across better to your voters than taking the limo to the train station (Berlin central station is 5 min by foot away from the parliament), which is supposedly a fairly common occurrence.
Before the Brexit mess, several senior members of the British government (and other senior politicians) would cycle to Parliament, and make sure people knew about it.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/bike-blog/2015/dec/2...
It's also a stereotype of particular type of man: living in SW London or around London, 40+, very high income. They used to buy sports cars, but anyone can afford that, much better to spend £4000 on a bike: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/mid-life-crisis-r...
In a couple of years, U55 will also connect to U2 and make it easier from passengers from some eastern districts to reach Main Station. It also will be the tourist line, connecting a lot of tourist sights in central Berlin.
There's a bit of background about the future gap closure here: http://www.projekt-u5.de/en/
2000s equipment, for example, should be just fine, and should last many decades.
Actually they are building the extension, but I'm not holding my breath they'll finish it in 2020, even though they've been building it for a couple of years already.
But yes, there is a lot of different models from different ages, and a lot of them have been refurbished at least once. I'm actually not surprised by this, considering how Berlin is spending billions on a hypothetical airport rather than on its actual trains.
Last time I went to Berlin (Three weeks ago), the papers were baffled to note that among the concerns addressed by the latest series of S-bahn trains, to be phased in shortly, was the doors closing-sound - which has been left unchanged for as long as I can remember (20 years or so.)
:)
Many are made by Bombardier. Bombardier Transportation Global Headquarters is actually in Berlin; see http://www.bombardier.com/en/worldwide-presence/country.germ...
Nevertheless, there are plenty of really old trains still running. Service times of fourty years and more are the rule, not the exception.
Is this different between trains and trams? In Dresden, our rolling stock of trams is between 10 and 20 years old (with half a dozen older trains reserved to cover high load situations), and the tram operator is already loudly thinking about ordering the next generation.
If repairs become too frequent, fewer trains are available for use on any given day, which means not all services can be run.
Old carriages might not meet modern expectations of crashworthiness or fire resistance.
While the bumpy ride is just a nuissance, the noise of those old junkers probably should require everyone to wear heavy hearing protection, if one had to adhere to workplace regulation.
When their crooked boogies start to screech and grind in turns, the noise is physically painful
Since we're talking about Berlin, the new airport had a similar problem: Because of all the delays and problems, the construction permit expired. And it could not just be reissued for the same plans because safety and energy conservation regulations had become tighter in the meantime. As far as I know, parliament extended the construction permit manually to avoid the replanning costs.
(photo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Coche_La... )
Vivarail (http://www.vivarail.co.uk/) are doing almost exactly this in the UK with late-70s London Underground trains, fitting modern electronics and Ford truck engines as generators for the electric motors. I think it's a solid idea.