friedman@uiucdcs.UUCP (06/27/84)
#N:uiucdcs:20600011:000:6909 uiucdcs!friedman Jun 27 12:27:00 1984 Someone recently expressed an interest in subways. I've run across a listing of all the subways in the world, in "Mass Transit" for October 1983. Here's an extract of information on just those in the US and Canada, with some information from other sources included. Note that the definition of a subway is pretty broad: any rail line that runs underground, even for a small distance. So it embraces both "heavy rail" systems like those in New York and Chicago, and "light rail" systems not much different (or no different) from streetcars. Operating systems: Atlanta, Georgia: Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). Serves a metropolitan area of 1.7 million with a standard gauge heavy rail system of 14.6 miles. Eventually planned to total 51.8 miles. Expecting delivery of 60 cars from Hitachi of Japan [these might have been delivered by now, I don't know]. About 70,000 daily trips. Baltimore, Maryland: Maryland Mass Transit Administration (MTA). Serves about 1.7 million people with a standard gauge heavy rail system, the Baltimore Metro. An initial 7.7 mile, 9 station section opened November 21, 1983; a 5.8 mile extension is planned. Budd built the first 72 cars, of which 58 are on the property; 20 to 28 more are planned for the extension. Cars are 75 feet long and seat 76 passengers, with room for 90 standees. About 83,000 trips per weekday are projected; actual ridership is around 23,000 daily so far. Boston, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA). About 2.5 million population. Both light and heavy rail, standard gauge, 600 V d.c., in four main lines: Green, Red, Blue, Orange. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). Metropolitan area population 6.85 million. Heavy rail, standard gauge, 600 V d.c., 88.5 miles. 7.6 mile Extension to O'Hare Airport is expected to be operational by September 1984. About 400,000 riders per weekday. Budd is building 600 new cars to replace the oldest cars in the fleet, which were built from scrapped PCC streetcar components (and are considered PCCs themselves). Cleveland, Ohio: Regional Transit Authority (RTA). Population 1.9 million in the metropolitan area. Includes 2.9 miles of heavy rail subway [I'm not sure whether that 2.9 miles is the underground section -- it seems too long -- or the whole heavy rail line -- it seems too short], and 12.7 miles of light rail in two lines. The underground section is in the downtown area. About 4.5 million trips per year. New cars for the heavy-rail Red Line are being built by Tokyu (Yokohama, Japan). New cars for the light-rail Green and Blue Lines were recently built by Breda (Italy). Edmonton, Canada: Edmonton Transit. Serves a city of 500,000. Light rail, 600 V d.c., standard gauge, 5.6 miles (1 mile in tunnel). The system opened in 1978. Fort Worth, Texas: Tandy Corp. An unusual, privately owned, short system which links a downtown shopping and office center to a parking lot. The whole line is only 1 mile long, and about 1/4 mile is in subway. The standard gauge system uses 8 St. Louis Car Co. PCC cars. Miami, Florida: Metro Transit Agency. This newest of heavy rail systems opened May 21, 1984. It serves a metropolitan area of 1.4 million. It is included in this list, although I don't think it has any underground portion. The 14.8 southern route is the one now in service; a 19.8 mile northern route is to open in late 1984 or early 1985. Budd built the 136 cars. Projected ridership is 200,000 daily; actual ridership of the southern route was 38,473 in the first full week of service. Montreal, Canada: Montreal Urban Community Transit Commission. Serves a population of 1.9 million with a rubber-tired heavy rail standard gauge system currently 28.1 miles long in three lines. Several extensions are under construction. About 200 million riders yearly. Newark, New Jersey: N. J. Transit. Population 329,000. A light rail system of 4.1 miles, of which about 1 mile is in subway. About 12,000 daily riders. New York City, NY. Metropolitan area population 10 million. Three systems totalling 681.6 miles of track, 222 route miles, 465 stations. (1) New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) city subway system, 30 lines, 223.3 miles, 132.1 miles in subway; (2) Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH), 4 lines, 13.3 miles, 7.1 miles in tunnel, 13 stations; (3) Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority (SIRTOA) [details not given]. Lots of cars are on order: Kawasaki is to deliver 325 in early 1984, Westinghouse Amrail 225 by spring 1986, and Bombardier of Canada 825 by the end of 1987. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Port Authority Transit Corp. (PATCO) and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportaion Authority (SEPTA). Population 4.8 million. Heavy rail, standard and 5 foot 2 1/2 inch gauge, 23.77 miles total. A new tunnel is under construction between the city center and the old Penn Central and Reading suburban systems. A 9.3 mile line to the airport is also under construction. There are also 5 subway/surface trolley lines (broad gauge) which have a 1.8 mile subway section, and share a 4-track section of the Market Street Subway with the heavy rail system. Kawasaki is delivering 125 new cars, which replace cars that are 50 years old. Pittsburg, Pennsylvania: Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT). Serves a population of 2.3 million. A 24.1 mile light rail system, with new construction under way, including a .6 mile tunnel in the city center. San Francisco, California: Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni). Metropolitan area population 4.6 million. The BART system is heavy rail, 5 foot 5 3/4 inch gauge, 72.6 miles, 34 stations, 19.3 miles in subway. Muni operates 5 light rail lines, 20.2 miles, including 5.2 miles in subway. About 56 million riders annually. Toronto, Canada: Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). Population, 2.2 million. Heavy rail, 4 foot 10 7/8 inch gauge, 34.1 miles in two lines, 59 stations, 5.2 miles in tunnel. TTC also operates a light rail system. Construction is under way on a 4.3 mile Scarborough Rapid Transit light rail line. About 204 million riders a year. Washington, DC: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. 2.5 million metropolitan area population. Heavy rail, standard gauge, 39 miles, about 84 million riders annually. Now planned or under construction: Honolulu, Hawaii: Dept. of Transportation Services. Population 890,000. Initial line is proposed to be 7.8 miles long, with 11 stations. Los Angeles, California: Southern California Rapid Transit District (RTD). Will serve a metropolitan area of 7 million. The initial heavy rail line, to be started in 1984, is to be 17.4 miles long. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Dept. of Transportation and Public Works. A 14.3 mile heavy rail system is planned to serve this city of 480,000.
jis@hocsl.UUCP (06/28/84)
According to the broad definition of "subway", viz "any rail line that runs
underground", I guess New York has two more subway systems! They are:
(1) Conrail to between 125th Street and Grand Central Terminal, tracks used by
Amtrak, and MTA.
(2) Amtrak between Jersey Meadows and Sunnyside, tracks also used by
NJT & MTA(LIRR).
Jishnu Mukerji
AT&T Information Systems Labs.
Holmdel NJ.
hocsd!jisessachs@ihuxl.UUCP (Ed Sachs) (06/29/84)
=================================================================== More subways in New York: Don't forget the Long Island Railroad's Brooklyn line (to Atlantic and Flatbush Aves) which has sections of "subway" trackage in the East New York area and near the terminal. The LIRR also uses the Pennyslvania Station tunnels. -- Ed Sachs AT&T Bell Laboratories Naperville, IL ihnp4!ihuxl!essachs
friedman@uiucdcs.UUCP (07/05/84)
#R:uiucdcs:20600011:uiucdcs:20600014:000:915 uiucdcs!friedman Jul 5 10:46:00 1984 Thanks to those who have sent corrections and additions to the list of subway systems I posted. I recently noticed two more systems that include at least some underground sections, and so should have been included. Neither is yet in operation. Buffalo, New York: Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. This system is expected to open in April 1985. It will be 6.4 miles long and will have 12 stations. Most of the system will be underground. Projected ridership is 45,000 daily by 1985. 27 LRVs are being built by Japan's Tokyu Car Corp. of Yokohama. Vancouver, British Columbia: British Columbia Transit (BCT). This new 13.3 mile system is scheduled to open in early 1986; about 1 mile is underground. Population of the metropolitan area is about 1.2 million. Average weekday ridership is projected at 100,000 by 1990. UTDC is to supply 114 ALRT cars, with delivery to be completed by late 1986.
guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) (07/12/84)
> Was it an error in the reproduction, or is the accuracy > of the listings in question? The BART system in the > San Francisco are is a light rail system, not heavy > rail as the transcribed listing indicated. The "State-of-the-art Illustrated Treasury of Rapid Transit Systems and Cars of North America", by James W. Kerr, refers to BART as a heavy rail system. I'm not sure what the "official" definitions of "heavy rail" and "light rail" are (for one thing, it says that the MUNI LRV's have an empty weight of 34 tons, while the BART cars have an empty weight of 30 or 28 tons - then again, it describes most of the Chicago rapid transit cars as being between 22 and 27 tons, so it's not clear empty car weight is the criterion), but the BART system strikes me as a heavy rail system. Guy harris {seismo,ihnp4,allegra}!rlgvax!guy
ed@mtxinu.UUCP (07/12/84)
Was it an error in the reproduction, or is the accuracy of the listings in question? The BART system in the San Francisco are is a light rail system, not heavy rail as the transcribed listing indicated. -- Ed Gould ucbvax!mtxinu!ed
friedman@uiucdcs.UUCP (07/13/84)
#R:uiucdcs:20600011:uiucdcs:20600017:000:2092 uiucdcs!friedman Jul 13 14:08:00 1984 > Was it an error in the reproduction, or is the accuracy > of the listings in question? The BART system in the > San Francisco area is a light rail system, not heavy > rail as the transcribed listing indicated. > Ed Gould > ucbvax!mtxinu!ed Well, I wrote "heavy rail" deliberately, so it's not a transcription error. I don't have my issue of Mass Transit here to check it right now; I'm not certain whether that was taken from MT, or from my head. MT states that the information they published was provided by the transit agencies, so if it is in fact from MT, it should be accurate. Also, I'm not on the spot in San Francisco (I'm in Illinois), but by my definitions of light and heavy rail systems, it is my understanding that BART qualifies as heavy rail. A heavy rail system is typically characterized by heavier construction and cars; higher speeds; usually high-level platforms at discrete stations (as opposed to a streetcar-like system that stops at every corner); and operation on private right-of-way, in subway, or on elevated roadbeds (but not in streets or the dividing strips of wide streets). If I'm not mistaken, all of the above apply to BART. Light rail systems, in contrast, are typically characterized by lighter construction and cars; the speeds are often somewhat slower, at least over portions of the routes in public streets; platforms are often (not always) at ground level; street operation and street center-strip operation often stop at every corner; part at least of most modern light rail systems is on private right-of-way or in subway (I can't recall an elevated one), but not usually the whole line. I don't think the distinctions are all that precise; one can cite examples that cover the spectrum from a pure streetcar line like New Orleans, through lines like San Francisco's Muni and Boston's Green Line, to Toronto's new Scarborough Rapid Transit (usually called light rail, but having a lot of heavy rail characteristics), on up to New York's subway system. It's more or less a continuum, of which New Orleans and New York are the extremes.
phil@amd.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (07/24/84)
> Also, I'm not on the spot in San Francisco (I'm in Illinois), but by my > definitions of light and heavy rail systems, it is my understanding that BART > qualifies as heavy rail. A heavy rail system is typically characterized by > heavier construction and cars; higher speeds; usually high-level platforms at > discrete stations (as opposed to a streetcar-like system that stops at every > corner); and operation on private right-of-way, in subway, or on elevated > roadbeds (but not in streets or the dividing strips of wide streets). If I'm > not mistaken, all of the above apply to BART. All this is indeed true of BART. Exclusive ROW, either elevated with high-level platforms or in subway. -- From Joe's Foo bar and grill Phil Ngai (408) 982-6554 UUCPnet: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra,intelca}!amd!phil ARPAnet: amd!phil@decwrl.ARPA