Oren’s Reading List: 99% Invisible’s Train Set

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Breda MB100 Stock at Colosseo, May 2, 2008

Do you like trains?  You’re here, so the answer to that is probably “yes.”  Do you like podcasts and if so, what are your favorites?  I’m going to go out on a hunch and assume many people reading this have heard of 99% Invisible.  The show’s own website describes the podcasts as “a sound-rich, narrative podcast hosted by Roman Mars about all the thought that goes into the things we don’t think about — the unnoticed architecture and design that shape our world.”  Naturally, this includes many topics related to urbanism, cities, and transportation.

This week’s episode is entitled “Train Set” and features seven short train related topics.  You may be familiar with some of them even before listening to the podcast, such as the publicly staged train crash in Crush, Texas or the challenges of building the Rome Metro (which I’ve written about previously).  It is definitely worth a listen, and you can do that by clicking here (or finding 99% Invisible wherever you listen to podcasts).  

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.

Bus Photo of the Month: May 2022

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Orion V/CNG 5997

Location: Shady Grove Station, Derwood, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Ride On Montgomery County Transit
Date of Photo: March 20, 2009

Earlier this week, I saw some photos posted on social media of Ride On’s new electric buses, manufactured by Gillig.  My understanding is that the buses have been delivered to Ride On but have not yet entered service.  The order, placed in 2021, consists of ten buses that will operate out of the Silver Spring garage.  These ten buses will join four Proterras that have been in service since the fall of 2020.  

Back in 1996, Ride On ordered its first compressed natural gas buses.  These three buses originally featured a green and white livery with a cloud imagery wrap on the windows.  They were later repainted to match the scheme on the 40 foot CNG buses that were delivered in 1999.  While these buses are no longer in service, Ride On has almost exclusively ordered CNG buses for its Gaithersburg Garage since taking delivery of these buses over 20 years ago.

For more photos of Ride On 35 foot Orion V/CNG buses, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: May 2022

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Stanga 7003

Location: Piazza del Risorgimento, Rome, Italy
Operator of Vehicle: ATAC
Date of Photo: January 20, 2008

Rome is quite known for its ancient history, and attractions such as the Coliseum, Roman Forum, Vatican Museums, and more draw millions of tourists to the city each year.  It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that many of Rome’s trams currently in service were built over 70 years ago, and to my knowledge, there are currently no plans to replace them.  While some low floor trams operate on lines 2 and 8 (they are required on the latter due to a lack of turning loops at the terminals), the other lines mostly operate these single ended articulated trams that were commissioned shortly following World War II.

Although the trams might be quite old (dare I say ancient?), the rolling stock for lines A and B of the Rome Metro was constructed in this century.  And the newest line, Line C, is fully automated.  

For more photos of Stanga trams in Rome, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: April 2022

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ABB LRV 5043

Location: Camden Station, Baltimore, MD
Operator of Vehicle: MDOT MTA
Date of Photo: June 16, 2009

On this date in 1992, the Baltimore Light Rail began revenue operations.  The line’s initial segment operated from Timonium to Camden Yards, adjacent to the Orioles new stadium that opened the same day.  Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer advocated for the construction of the line in order to facilitate travel to the new ballpark.  The line was constructed without federal funding, which is a rarity for US rapid transit construction, using the right of way previously used by several interurban streetcar and commuter rail routes, the Northern Central Railway, Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway and Baltimore and Annapolis Railroad.  Service was extended such that by 1997, the system reached its current extent, operating as far north as Hunt Valley and as far south as BWI Airport and Glen Burnie.  There is also a short spur line to Baltimore Penn Station.

Initially, much of the line outside of downtown was single track in order to save money during construction.  This limited service to 17 minute frequencies, so the line was closed down in portions in order to double track it between 2004 and 2006.  The original rolling stock still operates on the line, though it received a mid-life overhaul in the mid-2010s.  Also in 2017, the system was rebranded “Light RailLink” in conjunction with the BaltimoreLink bus network redesign.

For more photos of the Baltimore Light Rail, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: April 2022

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Mercedez-Benz OH 1718L-SB

Location: Avenida 9 de Julio at Vilamonte, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Operator of Vehicle: Micro Ómnibus 45 S.A.
Date of Photo: January 10, 2018

Your eyes are not deceiving you and this isn’t some kind of April Fool’s joke.  This is a bus with “left hand drive” operating in a country where vehicles drive on the right side of the road.  But what is that bus going in the opposite direction doing to the left of the approaching bus (from my angle as the photographer)?  

These buses are traveling along Avenida 9 de Julio, which is considered to be the widest street in the world according to Guinness World Records.  It is about 361 feet (110 meters) wide, with seven general purpose lanes in each direction flanked by a separate two lane street on each side and four bus lanes (two for each direction) in the middle.  The result is a street wider than a typical Manhattan city block that takes several light cycles to cross in its entirety as a pedestrian.

In 2013, the busway, formally known as the Metrobus 9 de Julio line opened.  Unlike the city’s other Metrobus routes, the Avenida 9 de Julio route was constructed with island platforms for its stations rather than side platforms.  This is what necessitates the buses to run on the “wrong” side of the street, as the buses need to be positioned so that the doors on the right side of the vehicle open on to the platforms.  In addition, due to the high volume of bus traffic in the busway, each direction has two lanes so that buses loading passengers can be overtaken by other buses.  Pavement markings indicate where each route is supposed to stop for the benefit of bus drivers and also help to facilitate vehicular movements as buses pull in to and pull away from the platforms.  It is an impressive sight to take in.

For more photos of Metrobus 9 de Julio, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: March 2022

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LAZ 52522 044

Location: Universytetska Street at Sichovykh Striltsiv Street, Lviv, Ukraine
Operator of Vehicle: LKP Lvivelektrotrans
Date of Photo: May 31, 2008

As a followup to yesterday’s post, here is a photo of one of Lviv’s trolleybuses.  The idea of a trolleybus system for the city was first proposed in 1909, but it wasn’t until November 27, 1952 that trolleybuses began operating.  Over the years, nearly 75 miles (120 kilometers) of catenary has been strung and there are over 100 buses in the city’s trolleybus fleet.  

Many of Lviv’s trolleybuses were built by the Lviv Bus Factory under the LAZ brandname.  LAZ was one of the major bus manufacturers of the Soviet Union and was the largest ever industrial company to be located in Lviv.  The company started in 1945 but faced financial difficulties following the collapse of the USSR.  Later engulfed in scandals, the company was seized by the government in 2014 and the site of its factory was put up for auction. 

For more photos of Lviv’s trolleybuses, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: March 2022

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Tatra KT4 1142

Location: Ivan Franko Street, Lviv, Ukraine
Operator of Vehicle: LKP Lvivelektrotrans
Date of Photo: June 1, 2008

It is very difficult to escape news about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine right now.  I visited Lviv in western Ukraine in 2008 on a family origins tour.  From what I’ve read, Lviv has not been the site of any warfare yet, but many Ukrainians are passing through the city as they attempt to escape the country and reach Poland, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from Lviv.  

Unlike the larger cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro, Lviv does not have a Metro system.  The backbone of its public transit system is a tram network that traces its origins to horse drawn vehicles beginning operation in 1880.  The trams have been electrified since 1908.  However, due to the lack of expansion of the system since World War II and difficulties in keeping it maintained, ridership has declined by more than half between 1990 and 2010.  Until 2014, the system was operated entirely by Soviet built trams.  In that year, a Ukrainian-German joint venture delivered eight low floor trams to Lviv, and in 2020, a low floor tram model built entirely in Ukraine entered service.

For more photos of Lviv’s Tatra KT4 trams, please click here.

Rail Photo of the Month: February 2022

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Eidan 500 Series 732

Location: Carlos Pellegrini Station, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Operator of Vehicle: Metrovías
Date of Photo: January 12, 2018

Plenty of attention was given (and deservedly so) to the retirement of New York City’s R32 subway cars during December and January.  Most of the digital ink devoted to the R32’s farewell rides mentioned that these were among the oldest subway cars in the world.  So what cars should get this title?  I’m not entirely sure this is the answer, but Buenos Aires’s Eidan 500 Series cars are certainly in the running.  The Eidan 500 Series cars were built in Japan and entered service on the Teito Rapid Transit Authority (now known as the Toyko Metro) on January 20, 1954.  They ran continuously until July of 1996, at which time most of them were sold to be used on the Buenos Aires Subte, while some others were preserved in Japan.  They remain in service on Buenos Aires’s Line B, alongside other secondhand rolling stock purchased from the Madrid Metro.  

Incidentally, for many years, Buenos Aires was the indisputable winner of oldest subway cars in operation title.  The wooden “La Brugeoise” cars operated for nearly a century on Line A from its opening in 1913 until early 2013.  When they were removed from service after 99 years of service, there was no question that they were the oldest subway cars in use anywhere at the time.  Considering Buenos Aires’s tendency to purchase secondhand rolling stock for the Subte, it is quite possible that this distinction will reside in the Argentinian capital with some frequency.

Are you aware of any subway cars in service that are older than the Eidan 500 Series in Buenos Aires?  If so, post a comment with the subway car type that you think is the world’s oldest currently in revenue operations.

For more photos of the Eidan 500 Series, please click here.

Bus Photo of the Month: February 2022

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New Flyer D60LFR 3314

Location: Forbes Avenue at Bellefield Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: November 27, 2015

Bus Photo of the Month: January 2022

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New Flyer XE40 1001

Location: Friendship Heights Station, Chevy Chase, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: October 24, 2019

The number of electric buses in the United States has been increasing in recent years, and 2022 is only going to continue that trend.  In mid-2021, the American Public Transportation Association estimated that about 1,000 of nearly 73,000 public buses was powered by electricity.  The number of agencies that have purchased electric buses for their fleets continues to rise, and some have committed to only purchasing electric buses in order to make their fleets emission free.  

In the Washington, DC area, WMATA, the largest agency in the region, currently has a single electric bus that entered service in 2016.  Pre-pandemic, it operated during rush hours only on routes in Northwest Washington.  After receiving some public criticism from the likes of the Sierra Club for not adopting a plan to convert the fleet to electric vehicles sooner, in December, WMATA announced a plan to convert its fleet to be fully electric vehicles by 2045.  Ten buses purchased as part of the agency’s Battery-Electric Bus Test and Evaluation Program are expected to enter service at the Shepherd Parkway Division later this year.

WMATA isn’t the only agency with electric buses in the DC area.  DC Circulator has been operating a fleet of Proterra electric buses since May 2018.  Ride On’s first electric buses, also Proterras, entered service in the fall of 2020.  DASH in Alexandria, VA introduced New Flyer XE40s in the fall of 2020 and Proterras during the summer of 2021.  Finally, in Frederick, MD, TransIT purchased five Gillig Advantage low floor buses that were converted to operate using battery electric power in 2016 and an additional four BYD K7M buses in 2020.

Although the upfront cost of purchasing an electric bus is higher than that of a standard diesel or diesel-electric hybrid, electric buses often have much lower maintenance costs.  Therefore, over the life of an electric bus, its “true cost” is lower than that of conventionally powered buses.  

For more photos of WMATA’s New Flyer XE40 Buses, please click here.