Length is not the only factor in capacity. The low floor LRVs have a lot less flexible interior layout as seen in Toronto, Kitchener, Edmonton etc. which slows down dwell times and leaves less room for standing. You need a longer low floor vehicle to match the capacity of a high floor vehicle...

Yes, thats the big benefit. The Texrail and Silver Line routes in Dallas both use Flirts and TexRail at least interacts with heavy trains. Could get bimode ones that use diesel and overhead wire like in the UK and wire the Airport - Downtown section.

The curves can be managed especially if a train akin to the "FLIRT" being used in Ottawa and the Dallas region (and all across Europe of course) are used - they have smaller "cars" than those used on traditional North American passenger trains. They could also run a frequent electric service...

The research all suggests that "the price" is not fixed. Bad procurements practice, design etc. drives costs up but, it's not a given: https://transitcosts.com/ Tunnels and guideway are riskier, but at grade track on street need not be uber expensive. Alright, then no point in discussing...

Build an at grade non Revenue track south of downtown before the Green Line goes underground connecting to the Red Line? It could be single track down the middle of a street. Clearly if you're trying to be cost effective you are not building underground. AFAIK the Green Line is less than 1km...

Why haven't they built a culvert!

It would be nicer for on street, no doubt. But, you can do on street with high platforms - just need to be more creative with the design. You would need to buy more of course, but less than low floor, since you can pool your spare trains with the existing fleet. You cannot do that if the trains...

Ultimately why using a different train technology doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense. Stations are slightly easier to build yes (most on SE are not going to be in the middle of the road and even if they were a lot of the cost is electrification, trackbed, utilities anyways). I remember the...

No no no, Sydney Metro is replacing the commuter service - the line will be converted so it won’t be using the same infrastructure. Total line rebuild. As was mentioned, we probably shouldn’t be designing the system such that we’d want to move stock between L1 and L2, they are both substantial...

I would suggest the reduction in delays from people on the tracks would be the much bigger savings. Especially for a P3 operator who loses money if they don’t provide reliable service

Making a ton of people make one stop trips is bad, that’s why. STC is already an important node, no reason you can’t divert back north after connecting to it.

Good thing that it will actually be DB running the trains soon enough, and Germany happens to be one of those places

Interesting new Renders on Twitter:

Bringing up a well known case of a system being poorly designed and managed as a reason not to do something that system does is not as convincing as you think. It feels only a step away from "those urban trains are all a boondoggle!". I think it is worth asking why the elevated in Toronto looks...

Roughly 100 meter trains deep underground. Just because they look similar to the streetcars doesn't mean that a train of that size will stop on a dime, streetcars don't!

. . . A multiple unit is just a semi permanently coupled consist - it's normal for some cars to be trailers / cabs and some to be motors. Never implied existing cars were having motors and pantos installed, just that they would be combined with new power cars into mus. Never suggested the ML...

Google around, probably pretty soon? I would guess they can't be built in Thunder Bay if they are going to US? Buy America requires final assembly in the US

The situation with the UP Express is incredibly frustrating, and seems to have a lot with the NS Trains, which we've long known are pretty bad. IIRC that's a big part of why they have never consistently run frequent service with three car trains, even if they did they would probably have 4/18...

They could and probably should run an hourly overnight service, tons of track capacity on the GTS corridor. Berlin and I think Munich run 24/7 S Bahn to the airports.

Actually it is definitely doable, some EMUs (many actually) are composed of a mix of motor and trailer cars - New Jersey Transit is converting their BBD Multilevels into EMUs using new motor and power cars which look similar and pop into existing consists! This would actually be a pretty...