Light Rail, Standards - Reader comments at The New York Sun

Reader comment on:
The Planner Behind Bloomberg's PlaNYC
in response to reader comment: PlaNYC Should Not Prefer 6 miles of Subway to 60 miles of Light Rail Without Further Study

Submitted by Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Jun 4, 2007 23:40

We already have too many different standards, which prevents us from exploiting scale economies. What we need is a twenty year plan to make all the rail standards converge (platform distance, tube height, car length). The late Seymour Melman agreed with me, a few years ago, when I asked this to a disagreeing former Chicago transit chief then at CUNY. If you can do light rail within this standardisation framework, I would have no problem, but if you only propogate too many incompatible standards, it is not wise. The silly Roosevelt Island tram experience, repleat with snapping cables, and separate repair crewsand facilities, proves my point. If you have "one standard, one city" you can then redeploy existing tracks to create enw routes as needed.

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Reader comment on:
The Planner Behind Bloomberg's PlaNYC
in response to reader comment: PlaNYC Should Not Prefer 6 miles of Subway to 60 miles of Light Rail Without Further Study

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Comment on The Planner Behind Bloomberg's PlaNYC

Reader comment on:The Planner Behind Bloomberg's PlaNYCin response to reader comment: PlaNYC Should Not Prefer 6 miles of Subway to 60 miles of Light Rail Without Further Study

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Comment on The Planner Behind Bloomberg's PlaNYC

Reader comment on:
The Planner Behind Bloomberg's PlaNYC
in response to reader comment: PlaNYC Should Not Prefer 6 miles of Subway to 60 miles of Light Rail Without Further Study