New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers

EXTRA! January 2012 – Page 1 Published Periodically P.O. Box 68, Chatham, N.J. 07928-0068 www.NJ-ARP.org

WELCOME TO THE EIGHTH EDITION OF EXTRA!First: A happy new year to our readers! Our feature articles this month contain a Norfolk, VA travelogue richly illustrated with photos by NJ-ARP Vice President Jack May, as well as an interesting high-speed rail article riding aboard a French TGV train along with web links provided by NJ-ARP Morris Rep. Jishnu Mukerji.

As customary, this edition of EXTRA!, has included Web links to transit and rail-related “goings-on” (See below) that we think make interesting reading (and viewing). Our thanks go to NJ-ARP Director Phil Craig for providing some detailed historical information (See page 5) related to the fi rst Web link below – about the San Diego Vintage trolley.

January’s edition of PLUS! will be issued towards the end of the month so we may include coverage of the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail DEIS hearings scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Jan. 24 in Tenafl y. Our entire light rail task force headed by former Assemblywoman Rose Heck will be in attendance as we con-tinue in our years-long efforts to fi nally get the “B” in Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.

DATE SOURCE SUBJECT WEB LINK

08-17 signonsandiego.com Vintage trolley in San Diego http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/aug/17/vintage-trolley-be-unveiled-service-begins-aug-27/

[Editor’s Note: Don’t miss NJ-ARP’s Phil Craig’s interesting take on the San Diego Trolley on Page 5]10-19 Valley Metro Phoenix Valley Metro Ridership Peaks

http://www.valleymetro.org/pressreleases/detail/metro_ridership_peaks_in_september/10-31 theatlanticcities.com Why Tokyo rail systems work so wellhttp://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2011/10/why-tokyos-privately-owned-rail-systems-work-so-well/389/11-15 Chicago Sun Times Chicago Transit Authority okays Credit/Debit Cards to pay fares

http://www.suntimes.com/news/8857969-418/cta-oks-plan-to-pay-fares-with-credit-debit-cards.html11-17 Hartford Courant Hartford gets $567M for 9.4 mile busway

http://www.courant.com/community/new-britain/hc-new-britain-busway-1118-20111117,0,7850362.story11-18 Montreal Gazette Electric, Diesel, Dual-Mode questions in Montreal

http://www.montrealgazette.com/hides+study+electrifi cation+costs/5729315/story.html#ixzz1e6TZ1rZC11-21 theatlanticcities.com DC’s Dupont Circle big underground secret.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2011/11/new-vision-dcs-abandoned-streetcar-tunnels/537/01-03 MBTA (Boston) MBTA proposes steep fare increases & service cuts http://www.mbta.com/uploadedfi les/About_the_T/Fare_Proposals_2012/Finance%20Committee%20Present

ation%20-%20Fare%20and%20Service%20Proposals%20Overview.pdf01-10 Sydney Morning Herald Bye-Bye Sidney Monorail?

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/monorail-likely-to-go-in-tourism-revamp-20120108-1pq81.html

NJ-ARP EXTRA!Editors: Lester W. Wolff and Douglas John Bowen • Production: Lester W. Wolff

Additional reporting for this issue by Phil Crag, Jack May, and Jishnu Mukerji. Photos by Jack May. NJ-ARP EXTRA! is published periodically for NJ-ARP members subscribing to our NEWSLETTER REPORT and PLUS! via e-mail. It contains articles of general interest to rail advocates as well as Web links to such articles and video links. Additional membership benefits are listed in our membership brochure which is available upon request by telephoning us at 201-798-6137, ext. 2, or by writing us at P.O. Box 68, Chatham, N.J. 07928-0068. Additionally, members comments and suggestions are welcomed by telephone and also in writing at lwjm@optonline.net.

THE TIDE ROLLS INTO NORFOLK VIRGINIA By NJ-ARP Vice President Jack May

On Columbus Day weekend NJ-ARP Director Phil Craig and I drove down to Norfolk to visit The Tide, Norfolk’s new light rail line. We left Montclair on Sunday morning, October 9, and stopped at the National Capital Trolley Museum en route. We rode aboard an ex-Toronto PCC car on the museum’s new line, which had been built when Montgomery County appropriated the old site for a new circumferential toll road. The new Visitor’s Center was well laid out and full of interesting displays and vid-eos. One of the two carhouses was open to the public, and contained a number of interesting railcars.

Not Norfolk, but an appropriate way to start this weekend. Sixty-year old ex-Toronto PCC 4603, re-gauged to operate on the National Capital Trolley Museum’s one-mile standard gauge electric railway.

The next morning dawned with a thin covering of clouds and the weather throughout our day was variably cloudy with temperatures in the low 70s. We drove to the Military Highway station, where we began a good day’s worth of railfanning, consisting of riding, photography (for me) and video fi lming (for Phil). The 7.4-mile line opened on August 19, 2011. Conceptu-ally, it consists of two portions, the inner being in an urban setting within the city of Norfolk, and then along a former interurban right-of way on reserved track eastward to-ward the city line of Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach is the state’s largest city, with a population of about 440,000, while Norfolk is the state’s second largest city with about 240,000 residents.Chesapeake is not far behind as number 3 (220,000), thus the Tidewater region, with additional urban centers such as Portsmouth, Hampton and Newport News, is a very large conurbation. Weekday ridership during the early stages of operation was projected to be a little under 3,000 passengers per day, but it is exceeding this number substantially, with the average running around 4,500, 50 percent greater. Saturday patronage is quite good as well, sometimes exceeding weekday ridership. Today, Monday, October 10, was celebrated as Columbus Day, a minor holiday, so it was not a normal weekday, as many people had the day off from work. We drove to the Military Park station, one stop before the end of the line at Newtown Road, arriving around 10:00 a.m. Since it was already after the morning rush

hour, the question of whether Columbus Day operations were on a weekday or weekend schedule was moot, as 15-minute frequencies are operated during base hours every day. It was a bit diffi cult to fi nd the station, but we persevered, and found a parking space easily. No question that it was not a regular workday, as patronage picked up as time went on, and in the afternoon some cars were carrying standees. In addition, after chasing the line for photos and videos in the afternoon, when we relocated our parking to the Newtown Road terminal, we had diffi culty in fi nding a space in the 260-car lot. All parking lots are free. It turned out that the passenger count for Columbus Day was 4,731, pretty much in the ballpark with normal Monday ridership. We fi rst rode one station out to the single-track terminal at Newtown Road and then all the way westward on the 11-station line to EVMC/Fort Norfolk terminal, a trip that took a little less than a half hour (offi cial running time is 26 minutes). We moved along quite rapidly on the pri-tave right of way, but the street running was a bit slow; hopefully it will become a bit faster after both motor traffi c and the LRV operators get used to each other. The LRT system is operated by Hampton Roads Transit, which also provides bus service throughout the Tidewater. The line was designed to serve quite a number of traf-fi c generators, including Norfolk State University, Harbor Park Stadium, MacArthur Center shopping mall, Tidewa-ter Community College, Sentara Hospital and Eastern Virginia Medical School. The rolling stock consists of 9 Siemens S70 Avanto light rail vehicles. The 70-percent low-fl oor units are similar to cars operating in Charlotte, Houston, Salt Lake City, Portland and San Diego. The next page (Page 3) consists of photos of the inner portion of the route, where the LRVs share city streets with automobile traffi c.

Poster announcing arrival of The Tide, Norfolk’s new light rail line. Is it really hip and hot? Is that impor-tant? You’ll have to ride it and judge for yourself.

EXTRA January 2012, Page 2

EXTRA January 2012, Page 3

The Tide’s car 407 operating eastward along West Charlotte Street in downtown Norfolk on a quiet Co-lumbus Day morning. The city is immaculately clean with many refurbished buildings. The livery of the Siemens S70 cars is an attractive combination of traction white with blue trim in a sea-wave motif.

A view of The Tide on Monticello Avenue from the balcony of Chili’s in the MacArthur Center shopping center. The mall and nearby square were named after General Douglas MacArthur, whose mother’s family came from Norfolk.

Above and bottom left: MacArthur Square station, from the surface and from a nearby parking garage.

The use of massive center poles with a plethora of horizontal and diagonal crossbars plus the use of catenary rather than simple overhead wire, hardly makes the line invisible to the desired aesthetics of a downtown area. On the other hand, the light-ing fi xtures and colonial-style station architecture are quite attractive. As can be seen from these pho-tos, the platforms are covered and the posts hold-ing up their roofs almost look like pillars. They are equipped with informational displays and ticket vending machines, with fare collection employing a Proof-Of-Payment system.

The overpass connecting two portions of the parking garage near Norfolk’s City Hall and The Tide’s Civic Plaza station offers a good vantage point for photos of light rail operation over the tracks embedded in East Main Street.

THE TIDE (Continued from Page 2)

EXTRA January 2012, Page 4

The photos on this page show the outer (eastern) section of the route, which is entirely on reserved track, mostly parallel to Interstate Highway 264.

After The Tide ducks under I-264 the line emerges alongside Harbor Park, the stadium for the Norfolk Tides, a Triple A baseball team in the International League that is affi liated with the Baltimore Orioles. Note that the center section of westbound car 404 presents a safety message urging pedestrians to “Look Both Ways.”

Ramp leading from Harbor Park station to a long el-evated structure is shown in this photo of westbound car 407. The line fi rst crosses Park Avenue at grade and then cuts under I-264 before bridging a creek.

Above and bottom left: The only station on the ele-vated portion of the route is Norfolk State University. One of The Tide’s main traffi c generators, it contains a center platform and is fully accessible.

After passing the carhouse and reaching the surface again, the line is pretty much a straight shot along the old Norfolk Southern interurban right-of-way, which is where the LRVs’ highest speeds are attained. Car 409 has just crossed an inlet on a verdant stretch of the line, which is showing signs of residential devel-opment, including some gated communities.

Below: Both end points of the system are endowed with single-track stations. Newtown Road is the eastern terminal and the bumper block can be seenbeyond the platform alongside car 409.

THE TIDE (Continued from Page 3)

SAN DIEGO HISTORIC TROLLEY – A MORE DETAILED LOOK

EXTRAJanuary 2012, Page 5

The lineage of San Diego Vintage Trolley’s PCC car No. 529 starts in 1946 when it was built by the St. Louis Car Company as part of a 100-car order for the St. Louis Public Service Company where it was numbered in the 1700 series. It was part of a group of 70 PCC cars fi rst leased and later sold by SLPS to the San Francisco Municipal Railway, which renumbered it into its 1100 series. In 1982, with the completion of the Muni Metro project and the replacement of PCC cars with Boeing-Vertrol U.S. Standard Light Rail Vehicles, it was retired.

A Bay Area rail fan with a dream of creating a trolley line at Lake Tahoe bought it, along with an number of Muni PCC cars of various vintages, and moved them to Lake Tahoe. There it sat in a open fi eld for about 25 years until its owner gave up on his project and began selling off parts of his collection. At that point, circa 2006-7, the San Diego Electric Railway Association set up San Diego Vintage Trolley, Inc., bought three of the ex-SFMR 1100 series cars, and moved them to San Diego for restoration.

Since then SDVT also has acquired two ex-Phila-delphia PCC cars and New Jersey Transit PCC car No. 10, itself with a heritage from the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (Minneapolis and St. Paul), which sold 30 cars to Public Service Coordinated Transport in 1953 (placed in service in January-February 1954).

Why does San Diego want so many PCC cars? The so-called Silver Line clockwise loop around downtown is but a demonstration. The goal is to restore PCC car service to and from Balboa Park as a tourist attraction. The San Diego Electric Railway, which bought 28 PCC cars in 1936-38 was acquired by Western Transit Lines, part of the National Cities Lines group, after World War II, which wasted no time in converting San Diego’s re-maining streetcar lines to diesel buses. Twenty of San Diego’s original PCC cars were sold to El Paso City Lines, another National City Lines property, where they ran until 1974 on the International Streetcar Line to and from Juarez, Mexico. Several of these cars still exist, sit-ting out in the desert near the El Paso airport, along with at least two others in trolley museums (Perris, California and Baltimore, Maryland).

Finally, there are no PCC cars – ex-San Francisco or otherwise – operating in heritage or vintage street-car service in Mexico City or Portland. San Francisco operates its own PCC cars on the F Market & Wharves Line, as well as others acquired from Philadelphia and Newark,and has (out-of-service others) that came from Pittsburgh and Brussels. Hope this sheds some light on the subject.

Editor’s Note: NJ-ARP Director Phil Craig expounds on San Diego Trolley’s history as an adjunct to the fi rst web reprint on page 1.]

Top right: A reminder of the Norfolk Southern inter-urban line, heading toward Virginia Beach, is shown crossing Newtown Road at the eastern end of the line. With its popularity and its positive effect on de-velopment, it would not be surprising if the citizens of Virginia’s largest city begin to clamor for The Tide’s extension for a further 10 miles to the Atlantic Ocean, which would more than double its length.

The extreme western portion of the line is also on private right-of-way, running along the south side of West Bram-bleton Avenue. The fi rst extension to The Tide is likely to be on this end, and would run northward, to serve Old Dominion University and the large Norfolk Naval Base.

Bottom right: Car 409 lays over at EVMC/Fort Nor-folk, The Tide’s single-track western terminal. Note the station’s architecture is an attempt to combine function with colonial architecture.

(NJ-ARP Photos by Jack May)

THE TIDE (Continued from Page 4)

PARIS TO MULHOUSE BY TGV LYRIA – 300 MILES IN 3 HOURS By NJ-ARP Morris Rep, Jishnu Mukerji

Last weekend I took a trip on Sunday (October 23, 2011) from Paris Gare de l’Est to Mulhouse, via Strasbourg on a TGV Lyria Paris - Zurich train. This is a short report on that trip.

First some background for those not familiar with the route. Paris to Strasbourg is part of an old classic route which carried famous trains like the Orient Express. Re-cently a new LGV (Ligne Grande Vitesse - High Speed Line) has been built from just outside of Paris to a place called Baudrecourt near Metz. This was the fi rst 200 mph (320 kph) commercial speed line in France and the speed record of 359 mph (574 kph), for steel wheel on steel rail, was also set on this line just before its inauguration.

The rest of the way from Baudrecourt to Strasbourg is currently covered on the old classic line upgraded for up to 125 mph (200 kph) wherever possible, but mostly 100 mph (160 kph) or less. A new LGV from Baudrecourt to Vandenheim, just outside Strasbourg is currently under construction, scheduled to go into service in 2014. Cur-rently Paris to Strasbourg non-stop time is 2 hours and 20 minutes. Upon completion of the new LGV that will get cut down to 1 hour and 50 minutes. The distance is around 250 miles (400 km). The current LGV covers about 185 miles (295 km) of that.

Beyond Strasbourg, the route to Zurich is along the up-graded Rhine Valley line through Colmar, Mulhouse and Basel, with speeds up to 140 mph - sort of Acela-like speeds only. Eventually an LGV will be built there too, but not for a while. The next LGV that is going into ser-vice is the LGV Rhine-Rhone which connects Mulhouse to Dijon via Besancon.

Anyway now for the trip..... I had procured a fi rst class reservation for a window seat on the single side (fi rst class is 2 - 1 seating), so I just had to pick up the ticket from a ticket machine at Gare de l’Est that morning (the 23rd of October.) I arrived at the station about 30 min-utes before departure by Metro 4 from Montparnasse where my hotel was. Found a ticket machine and coaxed it into English mode, and then obtained my ticket. The ticket machines can be coaxed into one of several lan-guages – main ones being French (default), English and German. There were several TGV consists parked at several platforms, some two unit trains a few single unit trains and a few dupleix (double-deckers) too. I looked for one with Lyria branding, but there weren’t any. Appar-ently all the Lyria branded trains are in the Sud-Est de-pot in Bercy outside Gare de Lyon, and apparently there are very few POS (Paris-Ostfrankreich-Süddeutschland or Paris-Eastern France-Southern Germany) sets in that branding yet assigned to Est depot in Pantin just outside Gare de l’Est.

Anyway, about 15 minutes before departure, the track was posted on the departure board and a whole crowd, which was only a small part of the overall crowd mill-ing around various departure boards, started moving towards the platform - no gates, no checks, no barriers or hindrances. The posting on the board said it was the second train on the platform. Turns out that we were on a two unit train. The fi rst unit was deadheading to Zurich for the Monday morning rush hour train which was to be

the full two units in service. For this Sunday service the second unit farther from the gate was open. Previously I had checked the train consist chart so I knew exactly where my assigned car would be and hence leisurely walked over and took my seat. The real rush to board started at 5 minutes before departure – which is when apparently most seasoned travelers in France arrive at the station. By the time we were ready to leave, the train was entirely full. The consist was 2 POS sets coupled together, one closed and one open. Each set had (from rear to front) Powerhead, 4x Second Class, 1x Cafe/Bar, 3x First Class, Power Head. I was in the First Class ad-jacent to the Cafe/Bar the third car of the train behind the Power Head.

At the appointed departure time, the traditional Paris Metro style buzzer sounded and the doors closed and we were off smoothly, slowly at fi rst as we passed through the throat of Gare de l’Est then up to about 60 mph (100 kph) as we passed Pantin and the East European Tech-nical Center with lines of dozens of TGVs parked there, and a couple of ICEs too, which run a Paris - Frankfurt service. Soon we were up to 100 mph (160 kph) and then 125 mph (200 kph), and then we branched off onto the LGV at Vaire-sur-Marne, and the speed rapidly in-creased through 140 mph (225 kph) - 155 mph (250 kph) - 180 mph (290 kph) and then close to 200 mph (320 kph). And we pretty much stayed between 180 mph (290 kph) and 200 mph (320 kph) all the way to Baudrecourt.

There are three stations on the way to Baudrecourt, but we were a Paris Strasbourg non-stop, so we zipped though all of them at full speed. We got to Buadrecourt in a little over an hour - 180 miles (290 km) in an hour is not bad in my books, and branched off from the LGV to the Metz - Strasbourg classic line and immediately got stuck behind a slower train. See, it happens in France too But at the fi rst opportunity we were allowed to over-take the regional train. Turns out we got stuck behind it because we were running a tad bit ahead of schedule at that point.

I recorded part of the trip on GPS. Some pictures are available at: https:/ / fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/375981_2632880106481_1389752480_33109841_878811690_n.jpg

A small map and summary of speed performance is available at: https:/ / fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/375981_2632880106481_1389752480_33109841_878811690_n.jpg

A more detailed summary is available at: https:/ / fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/298773_2632859985978_1389752480_33109834_1039476704_n.jpg

And a 1 minute video of running at ~200 mph (~320 kph) (click on page when it appears) is available at:http://s-static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/v1/y0/r/RGEKQ-iREe4a.swf?v=2632907107156&ev=0

EXTRA January 2012, Page 6

The windows could have been a little cleaner, though the dirt is more visible because I was on the sunny side of the train.

Anyway, once the overtaking was done we settled down to a modest 80 to 125 mph with many many slower spots due to sharp curves. The super-elevation on the curves in Europe though are impressive compared to what we have in the US. And fi nally we crawled into Strasbourg, still a few minutes ahead of schedule.

Almost half the train emptied out at Strasbourg, and about a quarter refi lled, and we were off in under 5 minutes. Now on the very nicely upgraded Classic line we clipped along at 125 mph (200 kph) - 140 mph (225 kph), and soon arrived at Colmar where there was again a large exodus. Another 20 minutes and we were in Mulhouse and time for me to say goodbye to this wonderful ride.

One thing that I have to comment on is the smoothness of the ride even at top speed. I have no idea why we cannot get such smoothness in the U.S.. You can barely feel the train moving if you just close your eyes. On the other hand, there are two things that you do feel, smooth transitions in and out of curves - horizontal and vertical. Grades of 5% are not that uncommon apparently and you do feel it when you go into one or out of one, sort of a bit like in an airplane. But the random jerking and vibrations that we experience so often even on the Acela

seem to be totally absent.

While the seats on TGV are not necessarily as good as the ones on the Acela, I must say that the slight differ-ence there has never bothered me. Oh and fi rst class does not include food service either. But still it runs pretty full. In general, the fares appear to be about a third lower than the Acela fares for corresponding distances. Either way, the overall technology is just way impressive.

By the way, LGV Est is equipped with two separate but interconnected Positive Train Control (PTC) systems. It has the French TVM-430, and the European standard ERTMS, both operational. TGVs generally use the TVM-430 while the ICEs use ERTMS, though the TGV-POS sets are capable of using either system, since they do operate into Germany and Switzerland where they deal with ERTMS and even other more classical systems. The system is built for 350 kph (220 mph), but at pres-ent operates at 320 kph (200 mph).

For all High Speed Rail (HSR) enthusiasts, if you get a chance, ride the TGV before forming any opinions about what true HSR should be like. And think about what as-pects of it can easily be adopted in the U.S. instead of vague theories about population density and what not. Just note that the area between Nancy/Metz and Stras-bourg is pretty sparsely populated, and is more like go-ing across western PA than along the NEC.

EXTRA January 2012, Page 7

PARIS TO MULHOUSE (Continued from Page 6)

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For over 30 years, NJ-ARP has attracted members like you – who are interested in providing a better transportation network for future generations. Our membership includes a fair amount of volunteers, many of whom work within the transportation fi eld, and are among the best and most diverse in New Jersey. Over the past three decades, these unpaid individuals have been the backbone of our organization, bringing to NJ-ARP many different talents and skills that enable our organization to reach out to the travelling public and the transportation agencies that serve us.

For three decades NJ-ARP has been the statewide voice for those seeking better transportation solutions. We’re funded solely by our membership dollars. In return for your membership contributions, we report back to you in our three publications (of which EXTRA! is the newest) and at our annual and other meetings.

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