So You Built the Wrong Transit System... What Now?

Many cities (especially in North America) build transit that doesn't make sense for them. In this latest video, I talk about how cities can transform existing transit lines into entirely different forms of transit.

As always, leave a comment down below if you have ideas for our future videos. Like, subscribe, and hit the bell icon so you won't miss my next video!

FTC Disclosure: This video is sponsored by Rocketman. All content presented is my own. There may be affiliate links, meaning I receive a small commission from purchases - feel free to use your own links! These are my 100% honest opinions.

=ATTRIBUTION=

=PATREON & YOUTUBE MEMBERSHIPS=

If you'd like to help me make more videos & get exclusive behind the scenes access and early video releases, consider supporting my Patreon or right here on YouTube! Every dollar goes towards helping my channel grow & reach more people.

=COMMUNITY DISCORD SERVER=

(Not officially affiliated with the channel)

=MERCH=

Check out the RMTransit Merch Store here!

=MY SOCIAL MEDIA=

=ABOUT ME=

Hi, my name's Reece. I'm a passionate Creator, Transportation Planner, and Software Developer, interested in rapid transportation all around my home base of Toronto, Canada, as well as the whole world!

#japan #transit #lrt

[RMTransit]

Do you have a transit line you think would be better off as a different mode?

[Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

I think that the reason that the overwhelming majority of new urban rail transit in the US is light rail is because that is all you can get funding for, even if you know that a heavier-duty type of rail transit would be better.

[timothytao]

"The solution has long existed in Japan" is applicable to all transit.

[Ranman]

I recently took a car-free vacation to Seattle and actually really liked their light rail. Constantly changing from elevated to street-level to underground to street-level to underground again really fascinated me. I think the ability to easily take the train somewhere without needing a car is more important than the type of train it is. I could easily see myself living along Martin Luther King Jr Way, my favorite portion of the line that's walkable. Meanwhile near the airport, the stations are very car-centric with large park & rides...my least favorite portion.

[cityjetproductions]

The opposite has also happened in Japan: In Toyama the JR branch to the port was converted into light rail, and the line to Miyajima in Hiroshima was converted from an interurban and integrated into the tram network in the 1980s. Some of the rural rail lines damaged in the 2011 tsunami have also been converted to BRT.

[WilliamChan]

Man, everyone involved in NA public transit planning need to take a sabbatical to learn about European and Asian systems at some point in their careers

[MegaCookieCrafter]

The whole System between Cologne, Bonn, Siegburg and Bad Honnef in Germany has such a System too. Its a Tram, a Subway and a Metro in one and its working really well!

[ollie]

I've noticed that when you say things that Tokyo in Japan does well, wouldn't it also be good to also mention Japan's other cities such as Osaka (+ the whole Kansai area), Nagoya as they often do transit things just as well as Tokyo ? Eg. With this video I am pretty sure the major private railway lines around Osaka also started off as Trams just like in Tokyo.

[trainzguy]

I think a very easy upgrade to many North American light rail systems would be a reduction in "unsignalized" grade crossings. A lot of light rail I've rode don't even have gates at grade crossings, they have traffic lights for trains so that they have to stop at intersections and wait for their light to change. This somewhat defeats the purpose of an light rail. These crossings could be upgraded with crossing gates and lights to turn them into real railroad crossings where the train always has priority. It would be cheaper than grade-separating the whole line but still offer some degree of speed increase.

You suggested some systems could upgrade to metro cars, but I think that could be too expensive (particularly if a change in platform height is required). Instead, I'd propose buying new light rail trains that feature flat cabs with a door in the middle instead of a streamlined cab. It would make them look a little old-fashioned but the door could be opened when coupled to another trainset to allow people to walk through. Such trains could also have a more comfortable seating arrangement and upgraded traction motors for a higher top speed. The system would then retain its original platform height and be backwards-compatible with older trains. I'd imagine such a system using their new walk-through trains on the busiest lines or during peak demand while relegating their older standalone cars to smaller lines.

[WillGallagher]

I enjoy riding Seattle’s light rail very much and can’t wait to see it continue expanding. The city is compact enough that it feels perfectly adequate in most cases. The only journey that is a really long is to get to the airport… if in the future they implement express service there it would be appreciated. As for LA, I so hope they can create some sort of express service stopping at Santa Monica, Culver City, the Crenshaw/LAX transfer, and DTLA. It is already an improvement over sitting in traffic but it is still rather slow for such a far distance.

[Fanw]

This Brit (Roger Sexton) notes that the Dutch and the Swiss often convert a route from one form of rail line to another. For example, Rotterdam has two metro lines which used to be NS heavy rail. One of these metros goes to The Hague where it shares tracks with the Randstadrail trams to Zoetermeer new town, on a line first served by NS heavy trains! There used to be two inter-urban tram lines from Bern to Worb. One of these lines is now S7 of the Bern S-bahn. The other is now route 6 of the Bern city tram network! A rural line Trogen St Gallen-Appenzell has been changed to a modern inter-urban tramway.

[alcarbo]

I think the biggest thing that could help Dallas and Denver is digging downtown tunnels to replace their currently above ground light rail stations, it would make the systems much faster and improve capacity

[zdavis]

When I was at school in the 1970s, we had a presentation by someone's father (who happened to be a university professor in engineering!) showing how Edinburgh's disused or freight-only railway lines could be converted to a light rapid transport network. Apart from the one tram line from the city centre to the airport, none of this was ever built. Against this, Edinburgh now has a pretty impressive cycle network covering much of the network appearing on the professor's 1970s map. It may be 'old school' but Edinburgh also has a pretty decent bus service and car parking in or near the city centre is restricted or very expensive or both. So there is no one solution that fits every city.

[NickBurman]

Of all the Japanese private lines, Hanshin might have been the one which went through the greatest change through its history, from a New England-style side-of-the-road trolley line to a modern high-speed regional rail operation.

[Hollandstation]

As a dutch person that loves making videos about transport infrastructure, I'm glad in Europe we didn't break everything up!

[gregessex]

One of the main reasons that Light Rail is chosen is to prevent the urban decay that often occurs around a brutal ugly heavy rail corridor. The world is littered with examples of heavy rail corridors destroying neighbourhoods for blocks in all directions. My home town of Newcastle, Australia made the correct decision to remove the last 2km of heavy rail and then made the questionable decision to replace it with Light Rail which negated some of the urban renewal benefits of removing heavy rail. Very few people would argue to bring back heavy rail and all the damaging infrastructure that comes with it.

[DDELE]

Maybe LA will eventually obtain rapid transit style cars for their Light Rail system. Higher capacity that could be potentially walk thru capable but still nimble enough to run in the streets almost like the old Pacific Electric Red Cars.

Look at the MBTA Blue Line in Boston for a perfect example of this. It originally ran streetcars thru the East Boston Tunnel, America’s First Underwater Subway tunnel. But nearly a century ago in one massive weekend operation Boston officials converted the fleet to high level rapid transit style cars and build high level platforms.

Because of this and the sharp turns the trains have to negotiate particularly at the Bowdoin terminal where trains loop around to start the outbound trip, Blue Line cars are considerably more shorter than most North American subway cars at 48.5 ft long per carriage.

[davidfish]

Since you mentioned DFW/DART, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the D2 subway proposals. Maybe a potential video for the future? DART is such an interesting, albeit very flawed system (as this video points out). Between Texrail, TRE, and DART there is a lot to talk about and I'd love your take!

[ShonnMorris]

Can you do one on San Diego Trolley? It would be interesting to see what you think of the current system and where it should go.

[neolithictransitrevolution]

Looking forward to you growing the series you started with Buffalo about how certain systems should/could evolve.

Also along these lines, would be nice to see some review of Swiss style systems operating on minimal infrastructure, and how to best utilize single track lines (Such as Ottawa line 2) (Edit: which you did sort of cover with the Japanese Monorail video and string diagrams).