Oren’s Reading List: The World Metro Map

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Ever wonder what it would look like if all the world’s subway networks were shown on a single map?  New York based Collective ArtCodeData made a digital collage showing 214 metro/subway systems totaling 791 lines and 11,924 stations.  The different networks have been interconnected so you can map out a potential route from San Francisco to Sydney.  You can read about this project and find a link to its Kickstarter page at CityLab.

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

Why Take Photos of Transit?

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The “Flxible Metro-B” could be found all over the Washington DC area throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. Now that all these buses have been retired, the only place to “see them in action” is on websites such as this one.

I’m not sure that the question “why take photos of transit” is a burning one in the mind of many people who are reading these words.  After all, if you’re here, there’s a good chance you’re interested in taking or looking at photographs of trains and buses.  However, it is a question I get occasionally and for the benefit of anyone who is curious about why I make a hobby out of this, I’m going to make an attempt at an explanation.

I think I started taking photographs of the trains and buses I rode as a way of documenting what vehicles I had been on.  For example, if I was in New York visiting family, I’d wait for the train to pull out of the station and get a photo of the rear end as it left the station.  It took longer to evolve from getting these simple photographs to getting some of the artsier ones I try for these days, but I think that many transit photographers go through a similar evolution.  Also, at around this time, the Internet was fairly new but I had been exposed to it long enough to find out that there were other people who shared my interest in transportation and who had websites, such as nycsubway.org.  I had a nascent interest in the Internet and building my own website, and figured if others were doing this, I could, too.

The site has grown quite a lot over the years.  If I remember correctly when it started, it had under 300 photos, none of which were from places outside the United States.  Today, Oren’s Transit Page has over 7000 photos from the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, and the Middle East.  There are photos of transit systems and lines that were only dashed lines on a map, such as WMATA’s Silver Line and the Jerusalem Light Rail, and also photos of vehicle models that no longer run in regular service such as the “Redbird” subway cars in New York City, or with paint schemes that are no longer in use.  In the case of the retired vehicles, the photos I have can now serve as a historical record of what used to be.  Based on the thousands of people who turn out to ride the vintage train in New York City each December, I think it is safe to say that other people are also interested in what used to be as well.

Another thing that people who share this hobby enjoy trying to get are rare shots.  Sometimes a city has a vehicle in a special livery to commemorate an anniversary, such as the “silver buses” that Ride On used to commemorate its 25th anniversary.  Other times, you manage to see and get a photo of a bus or train model running on a route where it typically is not found.  It’s sort of a game of hide and seek except your target is moving.

Lastly, as someone who has also developed an interest in photography itself (and not just taking pictures of transit vehicles and facilities), it is challenging to set up shots of subjects that won’t wait for you to get that perfect shot.  Cars and pedestrians can cross between your camera lens and the bus you’re trying to photograph.  Trains have timetables to keep, they aren’t going to stand in a station longer so you can get a good picture or stop short of the usual spot to set up a better shot.  As a photographer, I have to work within these constraints in my attempt to get the shots I want and adjust on the fly if need be.  I don’t necessarily have to do that if I’m taking a photo of a landscape.

Does this explanation help answer the question in the title of this post?  If you’re a transit photographer yourself, do these reasons apply to you or do you have others?  Feel free to answer one or both of these questions in the comment section below.

Bus Photo of the Month: February 2016

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Orion I 914
 

Orion I 914

Location: Campus Road at Central Avenue, Ithaca, NY
Operator of Vehicle:  Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT)
Date of Photo: May 16, 2006

The lone Orion I remaining in TCAT’s fleet might be the Energizer bunny of buses.  This bus was manufactured in 1991 and as of early 2016 at the age of 25, it is still in service.  In a college town such as Ithaca, it is likely that many of 914’s current passengers are younger than the bus itself.  To my knowledge, there is no concrete plan or timeline for when TCAT might retire this bus, which is likely the last Orion I to be in operation anywhere in the United States at this point.

TCAT has operated buses far past their expected 12 year lifespans before.  Orion I 565, which was delivered to the Utica Transit Authority in 1985, remained in service for a mere 21 years.  TCAT’s NovaBUS LFSs and New Flyer D40LFs are 15 and 14 years old, respectively, and their replacements have not been procured yet.  However, it is remarkable that nearly 5 years after the former CU Transit “hammerhead” Orion Is and the other 3 1991 former TomTran Orion Is were retired, that 914 is still rolling.

If you want to get your last ride on an Orion I in, you had better hurry.  With a bus this old, all it takes is one maintenance issue deemed to big to be worth solving to bring about retirement.

To see more photos of TCAT Orion I 914, as well as the other Orion I buses that used to be a part of the TCAT fleet, please click here.

Did you miss the rail photo of the month for February?  If so, you can check it out here.

Rail Photo of the Month: February 2016

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Siemens Combino Supra 2018

Siemens Combino Supra 2018

Location: Széll Kálmán tér (formerly Moszkva tér), Budapest, Hungary
Operator of Vehicle: BKV Zrt.
Date of Photo: May 4, 2011

These trams, which entered service starting in 2006, are among the longest in the world, measuring 177 feet (54 meters) from end to end.  By comparison, a single subway car on the Metrorail in Washington, DC is only 75 feet long.  These cars are quite impressive to see in action, especially on curves, whether watching from the interior as a passenger or from the exterior as a bystander on the street.  These were the first trams to be ordered for Budapest after the fall of communism in Hungary, so while there are plenty of older trams plying the city’s streets, these newer trams are probably the most noteworthy in the Budapest fleet.

To see more photos of the Siemens Combino Supra trams in Budapest, as well as the rest of Budapest’s tram models, please click here.

Check back tomorrow to see the bus photo of the month for February 2016!

 

10 New DC Area Photos Added

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Last night, a handful of photos were added from the DC area to the WMATA Metrorail 6000 Series, WMATA Metrobus New Flyer DE42LFA Buses, WMATA Metrobus New Flyer DE60LFA Buses, WMATA Metrobus New Flyer XDE40 Buses, and WMATA 1997 Orion V Buses galleries.  In addition, there is a new photo in the Amtrak AEM-7 locomotive gallery.

New Arrivals

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Over the course of redesigning Oren’s Transit Page, I was also continuing to travel, take photos, and add them in to the queue to be included in the redesigned website once it launched.  Now that the redesigned website is here, keep reading to find out what new material was added in conjunction with the redesign.  This isn’t an exhaustive list but rather just the “highlights”, there is plenty of new content scattered around the whole site.

NABI 60-BRT 9574 on Main Street at Aliso Street
Los Angeles, CA
July 11, 2014

Starting off in the United States, I traveled to a number of places for the first time in my life in 2014.  I made a Midwest swing in May 2014 that resulted in the creation of sections for Minneapolis-St. Paul (just prior to the Green Line opening) and Kansas City.  After that, in July 2014, I did some long distance Amtrak travel (with some flights in between) and visited Los Angeles and San Diego for the first time.  Also on this trip were stops in Denver (in time for the soft reopening of Denver’s Union Station), Chicago, and San Francisco.  I had passed through Denver before but I had never used or photographed its mass transit prior to that summer.  The stops in Chicago and San Francisco were my first in each city since 2007 and were quite brief, but there are new photos in those sections as well, including my first photos of the CTA 5000 Series cars.

The Washington, DC section now includes photos of some of the newer buses to ply the region’s streets, such as WMATA’s New Flyer XDE40 buses and Ride On’s Gillig Advantage/CNG buses.  On the rail side of things, there is now a gallery for photos of the new WMATA 7000 Series railcars, manufactured by Kawasaki.

PCC 3263 at Capen Street
Milton, MA
May 2, 2011

I last traveled to Philadelphia in 2012 and was able to get a last round of Silverliner II and Silverliner III photos, in addition to my first Silverliner V photos.  I made two trips to Boston, one in 2011 and the other in 2013.  On the 2011 trip, I rode the southern end of the Orange Line for the first time, and both trips included a number of trips on the Green Line and Red Line.  I also was able to get photos from along the Ashmont-Mattapan High Speed Line right of way and of various MBTA buses, including the trackless trolleys, in Cambridge.  Finally, for the first time since Oren’s Transit Page’s initial launch over 15 years ago, there are new photos in the Atlanta section.

There are also new photos from New York City, but due to the immense size of that section, it was decided to leave it “as is” in the old format and add the new photos to the Uncaptioned Photos gallery for now.  The New York section will be updated with the new design as soon as possible.

North of the border, there is a new section for photos from Niagara Falls, Ontario.  My only trip to South America to date was in 2010 so there isn’t anything new in the Brazil and Argentina sections (while Buenos Aires is on my bucket list, I haven’t found the occasion to get myself down there just yet).

Crossing the ocean to Europe, I visited both Hungary and Portugal for the first time.  My stop in Budapest was a layover between flights in 2011 that was measured in hours rather than days, but it was enough time to photograph some of the city’s trams, buses, and trolleybuses and whet my appetite for another trip there that will be longer 13 hours. I spent almost a full week in Lisbon, a city that shares many similarities to San Francisco including the fact that its trams are a tourist attraction in and of themselves, and visited continental Europe’s westernmost bus stop for good measure.

Bombardier Flexity Outlook “Cityrunner” 3069 at Place Royale
Brussels, Belgium
November 21, 2013

In 2008, I unexpectedly found myself with 90 minutes in Brussels due to a missed train connection, which was just enough time to get some transit photos before the next train to my destination came.  In 2013, I was in Brussels yet again, this time for a full 8 hours between flights, so that section has seen some additional expansion including a new gallery for photos of the Belgian National Railway.

Finally, in the Middle East, the Israel section has expanded further and to my knowledge, Oren’s Transit Page’s Israel section is the largest of its kind on any English language website.  The Jerusalem Light Rail opened to passengers just after I began the long process of overhauling the website, so many photos of revenue service along the length of the entire line are now included on the site.  The Metronit bus rapid transit system in the Haifa region opened in 2014, and there are also photos of that.  In addition, there are many new photos of the many bus operators that operate throughout the entire length of the country.

I hope you enjoy exploring the site, whether you choose to browse the new sections, old sections, or a mix of both!  And if you have a favorite section, let everyone know what it is in the comment section below!

 

What is The Travelogue?

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“Eurostar” Class 373 Power Car 3002 at London St. Pancras
May 18, 2008

Today’s launch of the redesigned Oren’s Transit Page also marks the debut of a new section within the website.  The Travelogue will serve as a space for me to create additional content to share with you, the site visitor, beyond my photos and the basic captions that accompany them.  All posts to The Travelogue will also be cross-posted to the new Oren’s Transit Page Facebook page, so if you are a fan of the page and typically catch up on what’s going on in your world via your news feed, you’ll also know when there is something to read in this space.

I expect The Travelogue to evolve over time, based on how much time I have to devote to writing for it and based on the feedback I get from readers such as yourself.  My initial goal is to have one to two posts each week.  Content will likely fall in to the following categories:

  • The Viewfinder:  Since its inception, Oren’s Transit Page has generally just captioned each photo with the train or bus model type, its identification number, the location of the photo, and the date the photo was taken.  This feature will try to tell some of the stories behind the photos, such as why I chased down that specific vehicle, why I chose to take pictures at a given location, or how a photo resulted from more spontaneous circumstances.   It will also highlight significant dates in transit history and other related events of interest.
  • Photos of the Month:  For many years on the old site design, I featured one rail photo and one bus photo on the home page each month.  That feature will continue here on The Travelogue on the first two days of each month with the goal of highlighting not only the selected photos themselves, but also the rest of the photos of that vehicle type.
  • System and Equipment Reviews:  When I travel, I usually make a point to take a ride or two on a given city’s transit system to get a sense of how that system functions in addition to taking photos for this website.  In these reviews, I’ll offer my thoughts on my experience ranging from a transit system as a whole to a specific type of equipment such as the new 7000 Series Metrorail cars in Washington, DC.
  • Oren’s Reading List:  When I come across articles, YouTube clips, or other content that I think might be of interest to and worth sharing with a wider audience, I’ll share it here so you can see it as well.
  • Site Updates:  When new content is added to the website, you’ll know about it by reading The Travelogue.  (The previous update e-mail list will not be used going forward.)
  • Other topics of interest may not fall in to the categories outlined above, but that doesn’t mean I won’t write about them.  For example, in the near future, I plan to write some about the different types of photos that I take (even if the photo at the top of this post appears to be quite simple, its composition is quite purposeful) and what to expect when you take a long-distance Amtrak trip, as these are things I get asked with some regularity and might as well share the answers widely.

All of these post types will permit user comments, and everyone is encouraged to leave feedback on each post and discuss the topics at hand.  In addition, if you have ideas for things that ought to be posted on The Travelogue, feel free to share them with me!

It is also important to note what The Travelogue will not be (at least as of now).  It will not be a place for opinionated commentary about transportation or urban planning issues in general.  It also will not be a place where news and links are posted on a regular basis or where you can find out that agency XYZ is changing routes 1, 2, and 3 next Sunday.  There are plenty of other places on the internet where you can find the former, and you can probably find the latter by browsing through the list of official transit agency websites that I have compiled for each agency displayed on Oren’s Transit Page.

The idea of creating a space to share more than just the photos themselves came up frequently as I was working to redesign my website.  I hope that the additional content that will appear here on The Travelogue satisfies that request and creates a space for some two way interaction between us.

Welcome aboard…again!

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WMATA Breda Rehab 3176 at McLean
McLean, VA
January 20, 2015

After over four years of not adding content to Oren’s Transit Page, I’m excited to welcome everyone to check out not only what has been sitting in my photo queue for all these years, but also my redesigned website!  I hope you like the changes and new features.

I originally launched Oren’s Transit Page in September of 2000.  I had learned some basic HTML and scanned about 200 photos that I had taken from my travels to that point.  Over the years, the site grew to include several thousand photos, but little changed on the backend, and everything remained coded by hand each time there was an update.  I was always more interested in adding new content than rebuilding the interface to bring it up to modern standards.  I was also being hosted on a server that did not support PHP.  However, eventually, things reached the point where an overhaul was needed, and my host had moved me to a PHP compatible server.

The site now runs on WordPress and a variety of “plugins” that developers have created.  Perhaps most notably, NextGen Gallery is now being used to organize and manage all the various different photo galleries.  The move to WordPress will also allow me to upload content faster than before, as photos can come straight off my camera and be uploaded minutes later to the Uncaptioned & Unsorted Photo Gallery.  This gallery is a “holding area” that will allow you to peruse and see photos that have yet to receive captions or be filed in to the appropriate gallery within the site.  I’ll share some of the details about what the new content includes tomorrow.

It was also suggested to me that I create a space to tell some of the stories behind the photos, in addition to the simple captions that appeared on the old version of the site.  This is the purpose of “The Travelogue”, the section you are reading right now.  The Travelogue will also be used to host other features, which will be explained further in a separate post later on today.  You are able to comment on posts to The Travelogue, creating a place where you, the site visitor, can interact with the content that I am sharing on the Internet for everyone to see.

Finally, Oren’s Transit Page now as a Facebook page that you are invited to “like” if you are a Facebook user.  The Facebook page will have links to the content that appears on The Travelogue and other site information that will be delivered straight to your Facebook news feed.  There will also be a special Facebook Page only feature called “Foto Friday”, where I will share some of my non-transit photography that was featured in the “Skyline Terminal” on the old website design.

As is the case with all projects of this nature, there may be some bugs in the website coding or choices I made in the design phase are not as pleasing to your eyes as they were to mine.  Please contact me if you have any suggestions, comments, complaints, or questions.

It’s good to be back.  All aboard!