What would I put on the priority list?   Calgary, Alberta is one great system.  Those people are moving 267,000 people on a normal weekday.   It sure works for them.   Edmonton is expanding but has never given me the same vibes as Calgary but you could compare the two while you are there.

San Diego just keeps right on growing.   It's up around 90,000 riders a day.  Remember, that's good for southern California.  It's not Canada where they build homes on small lots.

Los Angeles moves 150,000 a day in the subway and 150 on the light rail lines with one more light rail line (Expo) scheduled to open in a couple of weeks. 

Up in Central California ...  BART has matured and grown and it is still growing.   It moves over 350,000 riders a day.   Muni's streetcars haul about 150,000 a day.  Sacramento is around 50,000 a day.   But look at San Jose last.   I think the money was put there because Norman Minetta was a favorite son and not because San Jose needed light rail.   You go there to see a poorly configured light rail line with bus routes that will take you downtown faster, empty parking lots on the light rail (the only car in one that I looked at was stripped) and around 30,000 riders a day on four lines ... they are long lines too so that the revenue per car mile has to be very low.   

Portland's MAX is one of the good ones with about 122,000 riders a day.   Portland is also one great city.  It still has a downtown.

Phoenix opened one line.   The local naysayers keep saying it's useless.   Our cars are better.   It's hauling about 40,000 riders a day!

Houston also opened the right line first ... connects a multitude of colleges and hospitals ... moves about 40,000 riders a day.   The Republican party tried several times to scrap plans to add routes and have been unable.   

Denver went to 60,000 when they opened the branch off the first line.

Salt Lake City is an amazing system ... who would have believed that they could get riding around 45,000 a day in that desert city on one long line and a branch up to the university?   Those numbers were before they added the two new lines last year.   

Now after you look at those ... then move on to some of the others.   DART with 60,000 a day doesn't begin to compare when you realize how many miles of track they have to maintain.   And Minneapolis with 29,000 ... well, nice, but the locals don't go to the Mall of American ... that monster shopping center is for the tourists (one of their security people told me that).   The locals drive to the smaller shopping centers so they can get in and out faster.   St. Louis tries to run off photographers.   They also have an amazingly large count of riders for a city that lost a greater share of its population than even Pittsburgh or Detroit ... St. Louis only has 1/3 of its people left.   They have one long line that goes through the city and out both sides, and a cross-county line in Missouri, and they get 55,000 riders a day, well that's probably around 20,000 on each end of the longest line and its probably there because they have an unrealistically low flat fare.   You can ride up to 35 miles on a single-zone flat fare.   That may stimulate riding but not covering expenses.   (Remember when Pittsburgh Railways had Special Transfers for people crossing the city ... you paid less than two full fares but still you paid extra.  And that wasn't going to cover you going from McKeesport to Library.  There would have been several zones on Library and an extra one or two on McKeesport.   But Bi-State doesn't get it.)

Even though it is close to you, I would put Baltimore last on the list.   The numbers they report are more than they can carry with the fleet they own!   They are covering up the fact that the cars are empty and Baltimore has become a bedroom community for Washington DC.   SEPTA still hauls respectable loads but now what they did in my youth .... but no one does.   Cleveland, sorry about this Herb, but I think Shaker used to haul 40 or 50K a day and its down to 10,000.  At least they're honest.  

Trouble with trying to see them is, there will always be a new one that you have to go back and see.   For me there's a few miles of track in Dallas, two new lines in Dallas, and an opening in Los Angeles next month on the list of lines I have not ridden.   I've caught up to all the rest in the USA.   In Canada, I'm missing one subway line in Toronto.   But things have gone crazy in Europe.   Since I last made a sweep around France they have added about 20 light rail systems ... that's 20 systems in less than a decade.   And Porto added one in Portugal.  And Italy has added a flock of them.  I was going to do France and Italy this summer until my traveling companion found himself helping to raise his 4-year-old grandson .... his son-in-law suddenly died of natural causes at age 41 this month.  Right now he is helping to sort out his daughter's life too.   So if I do France this year, it will probably be on my own.   

Enough rambling.   I've got to read about architecture for Thursday's class.

Fred Schneider



On Mar 20, 2012, at 9:51 AM, Jim Keener wrote:

> 
>> Are you the person producing graphics for an Prc book?  Did you recently
>> express an interest in scanning historical transit documents?
>> 
> Yes and No.  I was interested in scanning and OCRing documents, but I'm
> not producing a PRCo book.  I simply wanted to make sure there was a
> digital copy of the archives that could be searched and viewed without
> having to handle the original documents.
> 
>> Do you still have an interest in model railroading?  Mr.Cramer on the list
>> has an impressive layout. 
>> 
>> What kind of models did your father have?  Is he still active with models?
>> 
> 
> My father, brother, and I model in N-scale.  My father is building a
> decent sized layout in his basement.  I'm currently just putting up and
> down some small plans on my dining room table using snap track.
> 
> My father models the Conrail era, my brother NS (so they overlap quite a
> bit).  I model transition era Pennsy.  I don't yet have any traction
> models.  In an ideal world, I would be able to make 3D printouts of
> various trolley bodies and use those. (I have some friends with
> MakerBots and others with access to better printers as well.)  The
> biggest challange is getting an N-scale trolley to move.  I hate having
> the whole body taken up by the motor like in an engine. I've had some
> ideas (that don't involve $400 small electric motors), but haven't yet
> been able to play with those ideas.
> 
> Once my fiancée and I settle down (she's in grad school and will have a
> post-doc or two once she's done), I'll be able to work on my first
> larger layout.
> 
> I also collect stock certificates and tokens from Philly- and Pgh-area
> companies.
>> Did you and your father trace the history of Prc through Canonsburg?
> We've have tried to find it's route through.  There were some maps
> posted on the list a few months ago that made me go out and do it
> again.  The trolleys were gone before he was born and I never got to ask
> his parents about them before they passed away.  My mom's family moved
> into the area in the 60s, so after as well.
> 
> Jim
>