Monday 11/01/21

By now, almost everyone can agree that Honolulu’s attempt at a rail system is turning into even more of a disaster than anticipated, and, at a price that is exponentially higher than anticipated. To those of us familiar with a wide variety of transit systems, it was obvious from the beginning that they chose the wrong kind of system to do the job. I’m now in Bordeaux, which does a particularly good job with transit, but is by no means alone in that distinction in France or in Europe. But, since I’m here, let me point out some of the things that really make this work. The core of the Bordeaux system are trams that run at grade. They don’t need anything other than a platform about a foot higher than grade to get people on and off. Every station has a ticket machine, and tickets can be purchased individually or you can buy a week long pass for about 14 euros. That’s 2 Euros/ day for all you can use. Notably, the trams come about every 4 minutes on a normal day, and slightly less often on a holiday such as today. One thing that is really neat, is they have figured out a way to safely put a third rail into the center of the tracks. This means that no overhead wires are necessary, and that when a tram is not coming, it’s perfectly safe for people to walk or drive over and on the tracks. Must be some kind of induction system, but really cool. I have seen other third rail type systems, but this one seems to be the best. Caen and Dijon also have systems for avoiding overhead wires. So, in a short distance, urban setting that is relatively low speed, it’s pretty clear that light rail at grade is the way to go. It’s not only massively less expensive, but it is much more flexible when it comes to changing or adding stops, and, adding on to the end of it.

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