Why Are The Metro Light Rail Lines So Short?

[citykid09]

Why are the Metro light rail lines so short?

Why not have about ten cars to a train?

[squatterkid]

Long answer: politics and stupid people.

Short answer: So they don't block streets while making stops at stations.

[tw2ntyse7en]

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[ssullivan]

There's really no reason for long trains if demand isn't there. As it is, demand has not reached a level that two car trains are used for regular weekday service, although I've been on trains during rush hour where a second car would have relieved overcrowding.

As squatterkid said, anything longer than two cars would block downtown intersections when the train stops. This would also mean cars behind the second one would not be at a platform when the train stops at a station, posing a safety hazard for passengers exiting the train cars.

In general most light rail systems stick to short trains of no more than two or three cars.

[squatterkid]

My point being that stupid people and politics put MetroRail at grade instead of elevated or below ground.

And I have been on more than a few standing room only MetroRail rides. Just wait till they add an extension.

[tw2ntyse7en]

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[Lowbrow]

To build below grade in Houston youd have to build an enormous pump system. Something akin to New Orleans.

Now if they could marry the ideas behind rail and drainage in this city perhaps youd have something.

[tw2ntyse7en]

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[Lowbrow]

No. Just referencing their enormous pump system to keep water out of a city below sea level.

While Houston isnt having to keep the ocean out... yet... we do get our share of flooding associated with datum change.

[ssullivan]

To build below grade in Houston youd have to build an enormous pump system. Something akin to New Orleans.

Now if they could marry the ideas behind rail and drainage in this city perhaps youd have something.

Don't forget that there are miles of tunnels downtown already, much of which didn't flood during Allison. Building underground in Houston does not necessarilly equate a major flood hazard if the water does not have a way to get into the system. Other cities at low elevation including Amsterdam and parts of New York City have subway systems that are not extremely flood prone. Even portions of downtown Chicago could be considered flood risks for underground construction, with the river and Lake Michigan right there, but their downtown transit system includes some subway segments. I don't buy the arguement that a subway through downtown Houston is not possible. I personally think it would be a great option for the east-west Metrorail line, allowing a more convenient routing for Houston Center, the GRB, Minute Maid Park, and City Hall, as well as easier connections to the Main St. line at Main St. Square. And, a downtown subway would allow trains longer than two cars. Yes the construction would be disruptive, but probably no worse than the construction on Main St. was.

[Houston19514]

Subway construction would not necessarily be any more disruptive, and may in fact be less disruptive, than light rail construction on the surface. Most subway construction is not done by trenching, but rather by tunnelling, leaving the surface completely untouched and undisrupted. And enough already with the theory that subways could not be built in Houston. Just looking at the number of low-level cities around the world that have large subway systems should tell us that is nothing but urban myth... New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Amsterdam... And somehow, they manage to run subways, not to mention traffic tunnels UNDERNEATH rivers and bays; that seems to suggest that the technology exists to make them waterproof.

[Lowbrow]

I never said that it couldn

[N Judah]

That first picture is of a heavy rail subway line with its own dedicated right of way, without cars crossing its path, etc.

Houston's only got a light rail line that runs at grade (as many light rail systems do). Compare it to other LRT systems and it's actually about the same size -- 3 or 4 cars to a train.

Such as:

http://www.lightrail.com/photos/sanfrancis...francisco04.jpg

[ssullivan]

That first picture is of a heavy rail subway line with its own dedicated right of way, without cars crossing its path, etc.

Houston's only got a light rail line that runs at grade (as many light rail systems do).  Compare it to other LRT systems and it's actually about the same size -- 3 or 4 cars to a train.

Such as:

http://www.lightrail.com/photos/sanfrancis...francisco04.jpg

Any coincidence the train in the picture you linked to is running the same route as your screenname?

Seriously though, I have ridden single car Muni trains in San Francisco quite a few times, especially during non rush hours. That picture is a good example that Houston isn't the only major city with street-running LRT lines at grade, even though those trains in San Francisco do run in a subway once they reach Market Street.