Regional Railways – Chaux-de-Fonds–Glovelier line

The La Chaux-de-Fonds–Glovelier line is a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) railway line in the cantons of Jura, Bern, and Neuchâtel in Switzerland.[2] The line was originally built by two companies, the Chemin de fer Saignelégier-La Chaux-de-Fonds and Régional Saignelégier–Glovelier, and has been owned and operated by the Chemins de fer du Jura since […]

Regional Railways – Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand -Nîmes: 303 kilometers, double track to Arvant, single track then to Alès then double track between Alès and Nîmes, diesel traction in total. Another French regional railway which also accommodates several express passenger train routes.

Regional Railways – Tavannes–Noirmont Railway Line

Regional railways are far more important than one would think. Regional railways offer an alternative to road travel and help mitigate the issues of pollution and traffic congestion. Regional railways, unlike buses, do not create the demand for larger roads and highways, which is important in the current era of Global Warming and Climate Change. […]

What is a “Gadgetbahn”

Interesting video and informative. Also the comment about the Hyperloop should also be taken note of. One quibble, I would not call “monorail” a gadgetbahn, rather it is a “niche” transit mode, operating in environments that would be too expensive or awkward for a railway. True monorails are quite rare (Germany’s famous Schwebebahn is a […]

TransLink for Dummies – Updated

TransLink for Dummies ……….. or cutting through the BS about Local Transit. The following is a guide plus definitions. ALM: Automatic Light metro, the fourth marketing name given for the SkyTrain family of light-metros, when Lavalin briefly owned SkyTrain before going bankrupt. ALRT (1): Advanced Light Rail Transit, the second marketing name after ICTS for […]

Des Sain-Bel to Lyon TramTrain

The West Lyon tram-train is a French light rail network, whose ticketing is integrated into the TER Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes service, connecting the center of the metropolis of Lyon to the west of the city The service was partially inaugurated from Lyon-Saint-Paul to Sain-Bel on September 22 and from Tassin to Brignais including the Tassin shunt, Saturday, […]

A Comparrison Of Operating Costs – Revisited

Posted by zweisystem on Sunday, February 20, 2022 The continued misinformation from the usual sources about SkyTrain being cheap to operate, must be again, refuted. When compared to light rail, SkyTrain has cost much more to operate ad maintain. According to TransLink from information in 2020, the operational costs of both the Expo line extension […]

TramTrain – Gaining Momentum

Most people do not know what a TramTrain is. The concept is simple and in earlier times it was called the “interurban”. TramTrain is a modern streetcar or tram, so configured that it can operate on the railway mainline, thus very affordably servicing distant destinations, otherwise far too expensive for an independent tram/LRT line. First […]

The Realities of Subway Mania In Lotus Land: A Repost From 2020 – The Song Remains The Same!

First posted by zweisystem on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 This was posted almost six years ago and the realities of subway construction are today, hitting home. The Broadway Subway, the 5.7 km continuation of the the Millennium Line, first pegged to cost $2.7 billion and open in 2024, has now well passed the $3 billion […]

De-spinning The Spin – The Broadway Subway

First published on July 8, 2022 under the title “The $1.47 Billion Solution”, recent comments about the Broadway subway need clarifying. The following quote sums up the capacity issue for the Millennium Line (Broadway subway). When the programme is fully implemented, the Expo Line will be able to accommodate 17,500 passengers per hour per direction, […]