Re: An idea of mine - express trams

["Michael Pfeiffer" <mpfeiffer@iprimus.com.au>]

Why not make some stops bidirectional? i.e. All stops down tram runs into
down stop and is held there until the express down tram has crossed over to
the up stop, collected passengers (is it is a major stop) and proceeded past
the all stops before crossing back to the down line, then the all stops can
proceed.

Obviously some very strict timetabling would be needed, and the signalling
wouldn't be too involved. Only problem would be can a driver open the right
hand doors (DOT)?

It happens on the railways, why not the tramways. In replying please don't
be too harsh: I've only ever been to Melbourne once!

Cheers,
Michael Pfeiffer

Bradley Torr <truenorth@one.net.au.SPAMTRAP> wrote in message
news:01c0d0a6$68179b60$a52365cb@default...
> Evening all.
>
> While in the shower today, I was pondering upon the old tram vs. bus
> arguments... one pro-bus argument that I came up with was that buses could
> overtake each other, and that you could have 'express' or 'limited stops'
> buses without having 'all stops' buses in front of you blocking the faster
> bus. This is obviously a major advantage of buses, as the patronage on the
> Sydney STA's 'L' and peak-hour 'X' and 'E' routes demonstrates.
>
> I got to thinking how the old tramways and the modern tramways in
Melbourne
> deal with the problem of distributing passenger loads over a route, and
> making sure that passengers at the extremities of a particular line don't
> have to put up with the overcrowding that would result from having to stop
> at all stops way into the city. This problem can be mitigated by the use
of
> short-workings, which have the effect of distributing passengers going
> from/boarding at inner-city stops over a greater number of trams - but
> still, the outer suburban trams must still stop at every stop for the
> reason that it can't overtake the trams in front of it!
>
> I then came up with a solution - on the busier tram routes, build three
> tracks along the route instead of two. The track in the centre can be set
> up for bi-directional running for the sole purpose of express running
> during the peak hours. It might not work on the lines which travel along
> fairly narrow streets (such as many of the south-eastern routes in
> Melbourne), but it might work on routes along wide boulevards, such as St.
> Kilda Road and Royal Parade and Victoria Parade.
>
> Has any tramway system in the world ever tried this concept of express
> running? Has express running or skip-stop running ever been tried in
> Australia?
>
> Some food for thought.
>
> BT
>
>