Surface Metro

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"Light Rail" is just an American rebranding of the term "trolley", "tram" or "streetcar" quite frankly. I ride the most heavily used "Light Rail" system here every day. It runs in the street, at-grade, below-grade, elevated and underground. It is just a small part of a once vast "streetcar" network that existed a hundred years ago. In the 70s they decided to rebrand it as "Light Rail" in order to promote the Standard Light Rail Vehicle made by Boeing-Vertol (which turned into a disaster).

But we're getting away from the original subject is that: In the beta Metro tracks could cross at-grade. If that is being removed, then that still leaves cow paths and dirt alleyways. Those should be cross-able in some fashion, because otherwise you are forced to use elevated or underground to reach all the way out to the scattered suburbs. Most of the maps have enough empty space to make it worthwhile to use ground tracks, if not for the cow paths.

 

[beefers1]

But we're getting away from the original subject is that: In the beta Metro tracks could cross at-grade. If that is being removed, then that still leaves cow paths and dirt alleyways. Those should be cross-able in some fashion, because otherwise you are forced to use elevated or underground to reach all the way out to the scattered suburbs. Most of the maps have enough empty space to make it worthwhile to use ground tracks, if not for the cow paths.

Another option that would've been cool is to build the track at grade but make the road crossing it into an overpass or underpass. That's how it works here in Toronto.

"Light Rail" is just an American rebranding of the term "trolley", "tram" or "streetcar" quite frankly. I ride the most heavily used "Light Rail" system here every day. It runs in the street, at-grade, below-grade, elevated and underground. It is just a small part of a once vast "streetcar" network that existed a hundred years ago. In the 70s they decided to rebrand it as "Light Rail" in order to promote the Standard Light Rail Vehicle made by Boeing-Vertol (which turned into a disaster).

Hmm that's probably true. Still doesn't change the fact that a lot of the aforementioned systems are light rail, not subway, even if they do go underground or elevated for portions. As Benedikt said, it's the technical specifications that make the difference.

 

[Junna]

What's completely separated from other traffic in Frankfurt is the S-Bahn, which uses the tracks of trains but also goes underground in many places. Tram in Frankfurt is completely overground and, like BenediktGer said, sometimes shares it's tracks with the U-Bahn (= Subway) which goes underground AND overground.

Here in Bonn we have the same subway system like in Frankfurt (mixed underground/overground on tram tracks) and no special tram lines, but here it's called "Stadtbahn" ("Cityrail").

Quite confusing...

The Frankfurt U-Bahn is not a true metro, but a hybrid system; that is to say, it has some stations built underground to near- or true metro specifications, but it incorporates tramway characteristics. This is also the case for some of the lines in Brussels, and in Germany, other such Stadtbahn systems in Stuttgart, Hannover, Bonn and so on also exists. Those are not true metros. To save money, and because in some times not that high a capacity was necessary, they were built as what is sometimes called in the context of Brussels a "pre-metro"; a hybrid tramway/conventional metro/subway/underground railway. For those more familiar with North American networks, a comparable system would be the St. Louis Metrolink, which has an underground city-centre tunnel, and there is also such a system in Volgograd, Russia.

A true metro in the German context would be the Berlin, Nürnberg, Hamburg, München and such. Stadtbahns are not metros.

 

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Another option that would've been cool is to build the track at grade but make the road crossing it into an overpass or underpass. That's how it works here in Toronto.

Definitely should be an option. However, from the amount of space it takes to do this, and the sheer density of dirt cow paths in some parts of the map, that basically puts you back up in perma-elevated status until they fix this.

 

[unmerged(243048)]

Definitely should be an option. However, from the amount of space it takes to do this, and the sheer density of dirt cow paths in some parts of the map, that basically puts you back up in perma-elevated status until they fix this.

You know, that you can demolish those dirt paths?

 

[crossmr]

Ah, so there's little chance of me pulling it off in middle of Berlin then eh. Thx dudes.

only on avenues.
This game isn't really made with transit in mind..Which is weird. In most cities, transit is government owned and buildings and streets are often removed or changed if a major transit need comes up. For example in my home town the light rail is combination above/below ground (Travel, all stations above) , but the underground sections and transfer are often handled in the middle of avenues. There is a lot of space in normal cities which isn't present in these cities making it hard to make some of the more interesting transit choices.

 

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Stadtbahn/Light Rail lines would really be fine

Anyway, at least it would be fine if it was possible to build tramway lines as Stadtbahn/Light Rail lines - like in Cologne/Bonn, Hannover, Boston, Wien or Brussels, with underground tracks (maybe limited to the first and second underground level?) and the possibility to build their own bridges over rivers.

And it would be nice if it was possible to combine tramway cars to double vehicle trains (like it is shown in the opening sequence) to get more people transported.

 

[beefers1]

Yeah it would be really cool to build light rail tracks underground. Some cities have underground bus tunnels too. That could make an interesting addition to just a standard subway.

 

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Yup, streetcar/subway terminals underground would be awesome. Problem is, they're not really standard in the world, so each entrance/exit would have to be carefully planned and whatnot. But totally doable though. Maybe the very active modding community for CIM can oblige.

In Toronto, there are plenty of bus/streetcar terminals that are underground, all of them in busy downtown area to eliminate congestion. Both streetcars and buses use the same tunnel and lanes to get underground.

In the video below, it's a streetcar-only tunnel to a subway station. It passes through one small streetcar stop before heading to Union.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnyy-GYeEpk&feature=related
[video=youtube;vnyy-GYeEpk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnyy-GYeEpk&feature=related[/video]

This is St. Clair West station, with below-grade tunnel shared by buses and streetcars alike. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB2JdbN1DlM
[video=youtube;LB2JdbN1DlM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB2JdbN1DlM[/video]

Notice how the streetcar doesn't stop at empty stops when no one is getting off. We should have that option in the game

 

[beefers1]

Awesome videos, mafia. I was about to point out the same thing. Though I had no idea that St. Clair had tunnels as well. On the other hand, a lot of really busy roads like College, Dundas and Queen run streetcars in traffic with no grade seperation. Seattle also has a bus tunnel system where it's free to ride, presumably to make up for the lack of a subway.

 

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Awesome videos, mafia. I was about to point out the same thing. Though I had no idea that St. Clair had tunnels as well. On the other hand, a lot of really busy roads like College, Dundas and Queen run streetcars in traffic with no grade seperation. Seattle also has a pretty cool bus tunnel system where it's free to ride, presumably to make up for the lack of a subway.

I think that a number of bus lines that are very long and tend to get overcrowded and the buses end up getting bunched up together should be replaced by either streetcars or trolleybuses. So all the lines that go from downtown all the way up to Steeles, say 7, should be replaced.

 

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The biggest difference between "light rail" and "tram" is that when light rail in the United States operates in the street, it runs in dedicated lanes, not in the same lanes as cars. So as a game mechanic, you would spend more money on a light rail system (and less than a Metro), in order to put the "tram" in its own lane that no cars can use (cars can cross the street though). You could also make light rail faster than tram but slower than Metro, and allow light rail to leave the street and go underground of be elevated.

That's the point of light rail. It's more versatile than a tram and less expensive than a subway. But it has less capacity and less speed. There is a huge difference and I would love to see this added to the game in DLC.

 

[rsdworker]

the London underground had level crossings but they scrapped not sure if one still left in LU system but asterdam has Metro but line 51 is metro and tram so its has 3rd rail to zuid then changes to overhead - but its still as Metro they have level crossings and also in newcastle metro system - there is level crossings with overhead wires but in mersyrail - there 3rd rail level crossings - power are shut off in level crossing section when crossing is open to traffic but power is back on when crossing is closed
those are Metros

 

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the London underground had level crossings but they scrapped not sure if one still left in LU system but asterdam has Metro but line 51 is metro and tram so its has 3rd rail to zuid then changes to overhead - but its still as Metro they have level crossings and also in newcastle metro system - there is level crossings with overhead wires but in mersyrail - there 3rd rail level crossings - power are shut off in level crossing section when crossing is open to traffic but power is back on when crossing is closed
those are Metros

Holy run-on sentence batman.

 

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In Melbourne - Australia
[video=youtube;fHQDJ1gNCoY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHQDJ1gNCoY&feature=player_detailpage[/video]
[video=youtube;M8NS25wbbms]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8NS25wbbms&feature=player_detailpage[/video]
Tram and Train level crossing. Overhead wires with different voltages. Very interesting. If this can be done, then cow paths should be able to be achieved! lol