DC Lightrail

[Gordon Werner]

I'd add that I wish Kato (or Tomix but preferably Kato) would release a model of the Skoda T3 trams ... like those used in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and soon Tuscon and Washington DC, etc ...

[Guest ___]

I'd add that I wish Kato (or Tomix but preferably Kato) would release a model of the Skoda T3 trams ... like those used in Seattle, Tacoma, Portland, and soon Tuscon and Washington DC, etc ...

 

We have no trams in DC :( Looks like we never will either.

[bill937ca]

But Washington does own three Skoda LRVs.  They've been sitting in a warehouse in Czechoslovakia since 2003 or so.

 

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1392600

[Bernard]

But Washington does own three Skoda LRVs.  They've been sitting in a warehouse in Czechoslovakia since 2003 or so.

 

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1392600

 

First off....Bill how did you find this article? And second, after reading it, it's sad and funny at the same time. DC spends 10 million USD on Trams but has no track to run them on. Don't you lay down the track first and then buy the trams? It's ironic but typical.

[Gordon Werner]

But Washington does own three Skoda LRVs.  They've been sitting in a warehouse in Czechoslovakia since 2003 or so.

 

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1392600

 

First off....Bill how did you find this article? And second, after reading it, it's sad and funny at the same time. DC spends 10 million USD on Trams but has no track to run them on. Don't you lay down the track first and then buy the trams? It's ironic but typical.

 

not necessarily. IF the trams were purchased as a tag-on order for another city (Seattle did this) then sometimes they are cheaper since everything is built at once.  If the order is separate they sometimes cost more because of all the specific equipment that is required for the US as opposed to Portugal, or wherever.

 

There is also a considerable lead-time to build a tram, just like commercial airplanes.  The assumption was made that the rails would be in by the time the trams were ready for delivery ... but sometimes that doesn't quite work out as expected.

[cteno4]

 

not necessarily. IF the trams were purchased as a tag-on order for another city (Seattle did this) then sometimes they are cheaper since everything is built at once.  If the order is separate they sometimes cost more because of all the specific equipment that is required for the US as opposed to Portugal, or wherever.

 

There is also a considerable lead-time to build a tram, just like commercial airplanes.  The assumption was made that the rails would be in by the time the trams were ready for delivery ... but sometimes that doesn't quite work out as expected.

 

quite possibly the dc situation. we have our politics here cubed! DC is sort of like a city, county, and state, as well as being at the mercy of the feds and their politics. i could see the rails getting clipped in the next years budget at some level irregardless if the cars were bought. i am glad we live just over the line in bethesda md and not in the district any longer!

 

Ill ask bob tomasko (jrm member) if he knows anything about this, he actually lives over the line and keeps track of things like this.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

But Washington does own three Skoda LRVs.  They've been sitting in a warehouse in Czechoslovakia since 2003 or so.

 

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1392600

 

First off....Bill how did you find this article? And second, after reading it, it's sad and funny at the same time. DC spends 10 million USD on Trams but has no track to run them on. Don't you lay down the track first and then buy the trams? It's ironic but typical.

 

I searched in Google, but I've known about this for some time.  My first interest is in streetcars and has been for most of my life.  On one of the lists I belong too there is a street railway engineer from the Czech Republic.  Those cars are kept on the system where he works.

 

This is the system in Plzen.

 

http://world.nycsubway.org/world/cz/plzen.html

[Guest ___]

But Washington does own three Skoda LRVs.  They've been sitting in a warehouse in Czechoslovakia since 2003 or so.

 

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1392600

 

First off....Bill how did you find this article? And second, after reading it, it's sad and funny at the same time. DC spends 10 million USD on Trams but has no track to run them on. Don't you lay down the track first and then buy the trams? It's ironic but typical.

 

DC Bought a few trams for the Anacostia Streetcar Line about six years ago and they were to be delivered in early 07, but at the last minute refused shipment of them. Officially the order was canceled according to the DC Department of Public Works, though that may not be correct as Dept of public works is under audit do to irregularities in their reporting and books..

 

As soon as DC public works got the go from FedDOT the DC public works started work on the road itself, then out of the blue injunctions came in right and left. Then the funding for the streetcar line got pulled as one of the public partnership pullout. (Though this is not the "official" line)

 

A good bit of the money for the line was diverted to the Stadium project and the work on the line pretty much abandoned, citing DPW issues. DC essentially refused to take delivery of the streetcar and abandoning them outright. The irony is in typical DC fashion they just never bothered to take the money back from Skoda. But officially he public-private partnership that used DC tax payer's dollars no longer exists.

 

Skoda tried to send them to WMATA for storage who in turn wanted nothing to do with it, nor anything to do with the light rail project. WMATA can barely keep buses and heavy rail in service. Metro sort of works as a liaison, but the line is not going to be part of the Metro System.

 

WTTG, and the Washington Post made a big deal out of this earlier this year. I recall WTOP did a brief on this as well as WMAL. It's pretty old new. I'd argue WTOP's article from last year as they did not even tough on where the money for the project got diverted to, nor the fact that private-public partnership no longer exists.

 

Instead of the light rail, DC is planning to extend the Circulator bus service to cover the water front area. (Note the images in Bill's link show the LRT's in Circulator paint livery)

 

Here's an overly optimistic and under-researched article from my buddies at the post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/01/AR2009040103937.html

[Guest ___]

 

quite possibly the dc situation. we have our politics here cubed! DC is sort of like a city, county, and state, as well as being at the mercy of the feds and their politics. i could see the rails getting clipped in the next years budget at some level irregardless if the cars were bought. i am glad we live just over the line in bethesda md and not in the district any longer!

 

Ill ask bob tomasko (jrm member) if he knows anything about this, he actually lives over the line and keeps track of things like this.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Here's the one I like. The FRA's 100 million dollar mag-lev study. After ten years, the feds narrowed down the final two cities to Pittsburgh or DC-Baltimore. A week before the FRA was to make it's final decision the entire website disappeared. Up to the final decision, WTTG FOX-% DC was going mag-lev crazy as was WJZ and WBAL (both Baltimore)

 

Everything pertaining to the mag-lev disappeared along with a 100 million in funds. Poof, Suddenly there was nothing on the FRA site, PATransit, MTA or WMATA sites. I recall a year or so later talking on the MTA transit forums about the mag-lev and no one acted like they had heard of it. Ten years and a hundred million in research, gone. I managed to find a link that went in to the original website that the FRA made, but somehow got stored in archived.

 

When I showed it to the forum, no one knew what to think of it. But it's funny how quickly even the media forgot about it. That's exactly what the Anacostia Streetcar Line reminds me of.

 

Every now and again the story surfaces on a blog or news website only to disappear again.Most all of those reports are hashes or half-assed recounted of obsolete information.

 

http://www.bwmaglev.com/

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2008/10/27/story21.html

[Guest ___]

UPDATE:

 

Maglev. Well, out of nowhere, and completely off the radar to everyone in the industry, including the city of Pittsburgh, and the FRA, FedDOT out of the blue announced they are going to build the maglev between Pittsburgh and Philly. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09253/997097-100.stm

 

DC Anacostia Streetcar Line, while officially dead, DC Public works has closed down Anacostial Freeway to lay tracks down starting today even though Mayor Fenty had officially announced last month the project is dead. http://www.myfoxdc.com/subindex/news/local

[to2leo]

Wow a Maglev study for $25 million?  They are joking right?  Someone is getting that cash to be used for something else.

 

Streetcar in DC?  That 10 million would be better spent in providing right of way of the Circular bus lines.

[Guest ___]

The best part this study was conducted ten years ago, revisited five years ago, and Pittsburgh made the bid. The FRA and FedDOT narrowed down the two finalists about four years ago between DC and Pittsburgh. The project disappeared completely, then FedDOT announced rather than DC or Pittsburgh as getting the maglev, that they are going to award 25m to Pittsburgh for more studies.

 

The original maglev bid was to go from Pittsburgh International Airport through Pgh to Greensburg, now they want to extend the focus of the study to go all the way to Philly.

 

I'm a native Pittsburgher, and I can tell ya not many people commute the seven hours between the two cities. On an engineering front the PRR had a hell of a time running the mainline from Philly to Pgh via Altoona becasue of the grades. If PA is serious about this, they should look to the Japanese on how to build a high speed rail network through the heart of mountain territories.

[to2leo]

The problem I see in funding Maglev is honestly...very unrealisitics because of cost and the riders supporting it.

 

I am with you on the HSR idea.  Build it in sequences and perhaps work with neighboring states to Detroit, Erie, Toled, Columbus too.

 

Maglev is better preserved for Japan, China, Germany where there is a culture, population and desire to make it possible.

[Guest ___]

The logistics and demographics of the route in itself is as mind boggling as the topography of the route itself.

 

I can see DC-Baltimore-Philly-NYC as a Shin-NEC being more practical as an alternative to the current NEC and I-95.

[Mudkip Orange]

Shin-NEC

 

LOL. Oddly enough, weird Northeast names like "Paoli" or "Pennsauken" have direct katakana translations. More than you can say for "Phoenix" or "Saint Louis"

[Guest ___]

I got word last night from a buddy of mine at DCPW, that the streetcars that were sitting overeas were to arrive today or tomorrow.

 

The LRVs had to be shipped out by the end of the year or face repo under a mechanic's lean for storage. I'll look for video footage after work.

[Guest ___]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121504839.html

 

 

D.C. streetcars coming home

 

The three 66-foot streetcars that D.C. purchased in 2005 are finally coming to the city.

 

The D.C. Department of Transportation announced Tuesday afternoon that it is shipping the cars in from the Czech Republic, where it has been storing them since their construction. The agency provided photos showing the cars being loaded aboard trucks in the Czech Republic and then transferred to a cargo vessel in Hamburg.

 

D.C. purchased the cars -- modeled after cars in Portland, Ore. and painted to resemble the D.C. Circulator -- during the mayorship of Anthony Williams but left them in Europe as track construction stalled. The transit agency has restarted streetcar plans under Mayor Adrian Fenty and says the cars will arrive in the U.S. in about a month, by mid-December.

 

Photos provided by the D.C. Department of Transportation.

 

According to agency spokesman John Lisle, the city will store the vehicles at a yard at the Greenbelt Metro station, to be maintained by Metro on D.C.'s dime. "Having them local will also allow us to familiarize ourselves with the cars," Lisle said.

[Guest ___]

Photo: APTA

[to2leo]

So tell me again why DC is not selling them to Portland since the city will not see a streetcar line for a while?

[disturbman]

They are not obliged to sell them, they could simply rent them to another agency/city. That's a quite common practice.

[Mudkip Orange]

They are not obliged to sell them, they could simply rent them to another agency/city. That's a quite common practice.

 

IIRC, Athearn actually released HO and N scale Bombardier bi-levels in the Seattle Sounder paint scheme but with VRE lettering. Sounder had leased bi-levels to them when the Lakewood/South Tacoma extension got pushed back a couple years.

[Guest ___]

They are not obliged to sell them, they could simply rent them to another agency/city. That's a quite common practice.

 

IIRC, Athearn actually released HO and N scale Bombardier bi-levels in the Seattle Sounder paint scheme but with VRE lettering. Sounder had leased bi-levels to them when the Lakewood/South Tacoma extension got pushed back a couple years.

 

I recall VRE had run those for several years before they finally went back to Seattle. I got quitea few pictures of that train running through Mananas, VA.

[bill937ca]

Overhead wires approved in DC.

 

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dr-gridlock/2010/06/overhead_wires_bill_passes_dc.html

[to2leo]

If DC does not want wire, there's a streetcar for that.

PRIMOVE Catenary-Free Technology

http://www.bombardier.com/en/transportation/sustainability/technology/primove-catenary-free-operation

[Guest ___]

Wish I had the pix from a few weeks ago of the tram cars. We had them on display at the old conventi9on center a few weeks ago. Still going to be a while before they go in to service assuming the political environment doesn't change before they go live.