Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: $Revision: 1.6.2.13 $; site uiucdcs.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!friedman From: friedman@uiucdcs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.railroad Subject: Re: Attention: Subway Enthusiasts - (nf) Message-ID: <20600008@uiucdcs.UUCP> Date: Fri, 1-Jun-84 13:39:00 EDT Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.20600008 Posted: Fri Jun 1 13:39:00 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 5-Jun-84 08:30:22 EDT References: <7900002@inmet.UUCP> Lines: 33 Nf-ID: #R:inmet:7900002:uiucdcs:20600008:000:2146 Nf-From: uiucdcs!friedman Jun 1 12:39:00 1984 #R:inmet:7900002:uiucdcs:20600008:000:2146 uiucdcs!friedman Jun 1 12:39:00 1984 Most commentators on electric rail city transit don't classify systems so much on a subway/non-subway basis, but on a light/heavy basis. Since most subway systems are heavy rail, they tend to assume all are. I imagine that's the reason the Newark system is left off of subway lists; it (and anything running PCCs) is clearly light rail. Another system (or pair of systems, depending on how you count them) that could be viewed as a subway, but which is usually omitted from lists of subway systems, is the Cleveland system. It services its downtown terminal from below ground, though most of the system is at or near grade level. There is a heavy rail system running, roughly, east-west, originally built in the 1950s by the Cleveland Transit System, now called the Red Line, operated by pantograph from compound catenary. And there is an older light rail system having two branches, originally built as the Cleveland Interurban (or some- thing like that; not sure I have that name right), later operated as the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit, and now called the Green and Blue Lines. Both sytems are now operated by the Cleveland Regional Transit Authority. They share trackage from the downtown terminal (which is about the middle of the Red Line, and the west terminal of the other two lines) east to about 52nd St. The light rail system has new Italian-made cars from Breda; the heavy rail system is being equipped with new cars, but I forget who is making them. The older cars on the light rail system were PCCs (and before that, ordinary city streetcars and second-hand lightweight interurban cars), operated by ordinary trolley pole; the new cars are pantograph equipped, as are a few rebuilt PCCs. Before the new cars were accepted, the light rail line was completely rebuilt: roadbed, overhead system, and everything; very nice results. The shared trackage has always had to support both pantagraph and trolley pole; now, the entire light rail system does so. By the way, the shared trackage is left- hand operated, so that the PCCs can load passengers from a ground-level platform between the tracks. An interesting operation.