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Re: Wheaton Metro Escalator; 2nd Longest Anywhere?
Robert Coe wrote:
>
> On Sun, 24 Dec 2000 12:09:21 GMT, billboltonREMOVE-TO-EMAIL@computer.org (Bill
> Bolton) wrote:
> : I repeat, if you think that Philedelphia has a subway service, so does
> : Sydney, and its getting larger decade by decade.
> I'm not sure we need another full debate on what constitutes a "subway". We've
> had them repeatedly in the past, and nothing much seems to get settled.
Bill is one of life's pedants, and bless him.
The fact is, the Sydney railway system is not what Americans would call
a subway system, even though it has long underground sections, very
frequent service and more lines than all but the New York Subway.
"Subway" or "metro" systems in the Americas, Asia and Europe are
generally defined as being urban rail mass transit systems specifically
separated from other train lines.
Sydney's system (and others like it in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth)
are part of the state/national railway systems and are not phyically
separated from them. Sydney has what Australian's call a "suburban rail
system." Sydney folk do not talk about catching the subway, they catch
the train.
> A year or so ago some twit kept insisting that the Tremont Street tunnel in
> Boston isn't a subway, even though it was the first transit line to which the
> term "subway" was ever applied. If the system that invented the term can't
> continue to use it in the same context, all further discussion would seem to
> be too subjective to be useful.
The Tremont St subway is a streetcar subway. That's not the same thing
as a "subway system" as being debated above.
David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand