Baltimore Light Rail speed was Rail Re: [NSW, Ci-tyra-il] Airport Link

["Clark F. Morris, Jr." <cfmtech@istar.ca>]

I rode the Baltimore Light Rail Line from the airport to Penn Station. I
find it difficult to believe that a cab couldn't beat it during most
times of the day and maybe even in the rush hour.  One of the things
about the recent accident at the airport that I suspect happened is that
the motorman sped up rather than applying the brake because the curve
entering the station has a 15 - 20 mile per hour (24 - 32 kilometer per
hour) speed restriction.  There are numerous other speed restrictions
and general slow running on the line even on the private right of way. 
My opinion of the designers of the system is that they didn't understand
the value of time.

Clark Morris, cfmtech@istar.ca  

Bill McNiven wrote:
> 
> ROY HOWARTH wrote in message <8gggso$en4$1@bugstomper.ihug.com.au>...
> >The main purpose of building the AirportLink was to relieve congestion on
> >the Redfern - Sydenham corridor. The fact that the line travels thru the
> >Airport was a means of killing two birds with one stone.
> 
> Oops!
> 
> The City Outer and Illawarra Local carried at peak times, in the last
> timetable, 16 trains/hour.  Changing this to 18 trains/hour on the City
> Outer, then sending  8 of the trains via the Airport, doesn't do anything
> for congestion.
> 
> I think that the main political purpose of building the Airport Link was to
> demonstrate that anything Atlanta can do, Sydney can do better.  Doing
> better than MARTA in Atlanta isn't hard, but it hasn't been achieved.
> 
> Somewhere between the "great idea" and implementation, things that have been
> forgotten include
> *    usually, if you build a railway line, you build rolling stock too
> *    usually, if you build a railway line to connect with an airport, you
> provide some accommodation for airport-style luggage.
> 
> OK, I know there are substandard exceptions like the Boston "Blue Line" (but
> then most of it was built as the Maverick streetcar tunnel almost before
> airplanes were invented) and like the Baltimore Light Rail (which still gets
> to the CBD quicker and cheaper than a cab).
> 
> The problem is that a series of political administrations of various parties
> have rubber-stamped design decisions without anybody asking "will this
> work"?
> 
> Rgds