On Jan 28, 8:10*am, "
wrote:

Nice picture, actually, it reminds me of the older rolling stock that
was still operating in the early 90s on Montreal AMT's Deux-Montagnes Line.

Pictured was a 1931 MU train built for the Reading Company to serve
its Philadephia suburban routes (11kv, 25 Hz). Some trains lasted in
service until 1990--60 years! (Though they had an extensive
rebuilding). Any kid who rode them became a train fan. Being
delivered now are the fifth generation of Silverliners.


I remember hearing that the M1/1a had a feature that once allowed
passengers to open the doors at stations . . .

Does anybody have any information about this or are there any pictures
of it?

The magazine of the Electric Railroaders' Association, "Headlights",
had an excellent big feature article describing the Metropolitan cars
when they entered service. I remember the article included mention of
the passenger control buttons, and it said they may be deactivated on
account of objection from the conductor's union. The idea may have
been to use them only at terminal stations so the door needn't be kept
open during long layovers allowing weather to get into the car.

(I don't remember the date of the issue. I think the ERA will
photocopy and mail out old issues upon request and a fee, this issue
would be worth getting for those interested in those cars.)


This feature is widely used in Europe, I should add. As well, the the
new rolling stock on the London Underground's Metropolitan line has it.

The NJT River Line has it, so that boarding or alighting passengers
may open the doors at station stops or at terminals. I think it's an
illuminated green button, but otherwise it's unmarked. The motorman
has to activate it; sometimes the motorman retains control of the
doors himself.

BTW, the NJT River Line is a more modern platform design--it's higher
than the US "low platform", but not as high as "high platform", so
freights can clear the station. Within the train the car ends above
the trucks are elevated and passengers must walk up steps to get to
those seats. In this way handicapped, bicyclists, and baby strollers
are easily accomodated.

On 28/01/2012 20:23, wrote:
On Jan 28, 8:10 am,
wrote:

Nice picture, actually, it reminds me of the older rolling stock that
was still operating in the early 90s on Montreal AMT's Deux-Montagnes Line.

Pictured was a 1931 MU train built for the Reading Company to serve
its Philadephia suburban routes (11kv, 25 Hz). Some trains lasted in
service until 1990--60 years! (Though they had an extensive
rebuilding). Any kid who rode them became a train fan. Being
delivered now are the fifth generation of Silverliners.


I remember hearing that the M1/1a had a feature that once allowed
passengers to open the doors at stations . . .

Does anybody have any information about this or are there any pictures
of it?

The magazine of the Electric Railroaders' Association, "Headlights",
had an excellent big feature article describing the Metropolitan cars
when they entered service. I remember the article included mention of
the passenger control buttons, and it said they may be deactivated on
account of objection from the conductor's union. The idea may have
been to use them only at terminal stations so the door needn't be kept
open during long layovers allowing weather to get into the car.

They have customer-operated close features on some trains here in
Europe. The Hamburg U-Bahn has them, as do London Overground trains
(Can't reemember in the GOBLin's case, however) London Underground's
Central Line trains are fitted with open and close buttons for customers
but they were disabled a while ago, IIRC.


(I don't remember the date of the issue. I think the ERA will
photocopy and mail out old issues upon request and a fee, this issue
would be worth getting for those interested in those cars.)


This feature is widely used in Europe, I should add. As well, the the
new rolling stock on the London Underground's Metropolitan line has it.

The NJT River Line has it, so that boarding or alighting passengers
may open the doors at station stops or at terminals. I think it's an
illuminated green button, but otherwise it's unmarked.

What about the Newark City Subway or Hudson-Bergen Light Rail? Are the
doors customer-operated?

The motorman
has to activate it; sometimes the motorman retains control of the
doors himself.


Yes, I saw that at major stops on the Bremen tramway -- customers had to
operate doors themselves at all other stops.

I wonder if they do that at East Croydon on the Croydon Tramlink, which
also has customer-operated doors.

Can Croydon Tramlink drivers actually open doors, if they so choose? Or
can they only release them for customers to operate?

There are some places where the driver can only releases the doors for
the customers to open them, one example being certain types of rolling
stock on the Paris Metro.

On 28-Jan-12 14:23, wrote:
On Jan 28, 8:10 am, "
wrote:
[Passenger buttons to open doors] is widely used in Europe, I should
add. As well, the the new rolling stock on the London Underground's
Metropolitan line has it.

The NJT River Line has it, so that boarding or alighting passengers
may open the doors at station stops or at terminals. I think it's an
illuminated green button, but otherwise it's unmarked. The motorman
has to activate it; sometimes the motorman retains control of the
doors himself.

Such buttons seem to be common on "light rail" operations in the US.
The operator has two distinct controls: one to lock/unlock the doors and
another to open/close the doors. If he merely unlocks the doors, it is
up to the passengers to press a button to open the door(s) they wish to
use, which then automatically close again after a short time. This
seems advantageous in unpleasant weather, at lightly-used stations or at
terminals where the train may stop for an extended period.

BTW, the NJT River Line is a more modern platform design--it's higher
than the US "low platform", but not as high as "high platform", so
freights can clear the station.

The River Line uses 55cm platforms. "High" and "low" aren't terribly
meaningful when addressing an int'l audience that may be familiar with a
dozen different platform heights.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "God does not play dice." --Albert Einstein
CCIE #3723 "God is an inveterate gambler, and He throws the
K5SSS dice at every possible opportunity." --Stephen Hawking

On 28/01/2012 21:35, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
On 28-Jan-12 14:23, wrote:
On Jan 28, 8:10 am,
wrote:
[Passenger buttons to open doors] is widely used in Europe, I should
add. As well, the the new rolling stock on the London Underground's
Metropolitan line has it.

The NJT River Line has it, so that boarding or alighting passengers
may open the doors at station stops or at terminals. I think it's an
illuminated green button, but otherwise it's unmarked. The motorman
has to activate it; sometimes the motorman retains control of the
doors himself.

Such buttons seem to be common on "light rail" operations in the US.
The operator has two distinct controls: one to lock/unlock the doors and
another to open/close the doors. If he merely unlocks the doors, it is
up to the passengers to press a button to open the door(s) they wish to
use, which then automatically close again after a short time. This
seems advantageous in unpleasant weather, at lightly-used stations or at
terminals where the train may stop for an extended period.


One advantage to customer-operated doors, of course, is that they help
to save energy.

On 1/28/2012 12:08 AM, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
On 27-Jan-12 20:27, wrote:
On Jan 27, 5:06 pm, "Adam H. wrote:
wrote:
New Jersey's gasoline tax is one of the lowest in the US.

You've said that a couple of times. So is there a statewide property
tax for highway spending?

In NJ, there is a large network of roads maintained by the counties
(500/600 routes), which are covered by property taxes. In contrast,
in Pennsylvania, equivalent roads are usually maintained by the state
covered by the gas tax.

Also, the two major freeways in the state are toll roads, which means NJ
doesn't need to spend gas tax money on them. Freeways cost
significantly more per lane-mile than other roads, so this has to have a
large effect on overall state highway spending.

S


Routes 78, 80, 287, 95, and 295 are not toll roads. There are more than
just the toll roads in NJ.

The last two enormous toll increases (50% in 2008 or 9 and another 50%
in 2011) were supposed to be dedicated to the ARC tunnels. I don't know
where that money's going to go now. Probably to bail out the
transportation trust fund again.

Michael Finfer
Bridgewater, NJ

On 1/28/2012 3:09 PM, wrote:
On Jan 28, 12:08 am, Stephen wrote:

Also, the two major freeways in the state are toll roads, which means NJ

Three toll routes--GSP, NJTPK, and AC Expy.

Also, I understand major interstate river crossings in other places
are sometimes free because they were built as part of Interstates.
Most major interstate river crossings serving NJ are toll. The free
ones tend to be small old restricted bridges, and many are covered by
tolls from other bridges. Further, at the southern NJ seashore,
certain bridges serving the barrier islands are also toll.

Except for the I-95 bridge into PA which is not tolled.

Michael Finfer
Bridgewater, NJ

On 2012\01\28 05:08, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

Also, the two major freeways in the state are toll roads,

Unless I'm mistaken, the term "freeway" is only applied to roads which
are free to use. Tolled roads are called "turnpikes".

On Sun, 29 Jan 2012 00:48:46 +0000, Basil Jet
wrote:

On 2012\01\28 05:08, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

Also, the two major freeways in the state are toll roads,

Unless I'm mistaken, the term "freeway" is only applied to roads which
are free to use. Tolled roads are called "turnpikes".

Freeway means limited access and no at grade intersections as opposed
to expressways which can have traffic lights and at grade
intersections.

Clark Morris

Clark F Morris wrote:
Basil Jet wrote:
On 2012\01\28 05:08, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

Also, the two major freeways in the state are toll roads,

Unless I'm mistaken, the term "freeway" is only applied to roads which
are free to use. Tolled roads are called "turnpikes".

Freeway means limited access and no at grade intersections as opposed
to expressways which can have traffic lights and at grade
intersections.

.. . . except where I live.

On 1/28/2012 9:37 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
Clark F wrote:
Basil wrote:
On 2012\01\28 05:08, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

Also, the two major freeways in the state are toll roads,

Unless I'm mistaken, the term "freeway" is only applied to roads which
are free to use. Tolled roads are called "turnpikes".

Freeway means limited access and no at grade intersections as opposed
to expressways which can have traffic lights and at grade
intersections.

. . . except where I live.

And the New York-New Jersey metropolitan region.