mass transit

I am new at this so please bear with me. On an earlier thread I suggested that Metra electrify all its trains. I believe in the long haul the costs would be dramatically reduced in terms of a lower power bill, rolling stock that would last much longer & require less servicing, and trains that could go & stop faster due to higher torque. For environmentalists the absence of diesel fumes is a no brainer. Anyone have any thoughts ?

Hey thanks, sorry I missed your earlier post.

I don't know, but I think electrification introduces at lot of risk for pedestrians, on the Metra track there are a lot of pedestrians crossing every day in all the suburban stops.

I know I am one of them.

Imagine a CTA stop where there's an electrified rail with pedestrians crossing over them. I think there are none.

They would have to reconfigure a LOT of intersections and stops, and the costs could be many millions or even BILLIONS.

If I'm missing something, let me how could this work?


Eric

CTA has three grade crossing stops on the Brown Line (Rockwell, Francisco and Kedzie) with no third rail going across the sidewalk or street. Use some common sense. Third rail stops prior to the crossing. Metra Electric would not use a third rail. Instead it would be a hanging set of ugly, obtrusive and eye sore electric poles with wires everywhere. Stick with deisel until technology can catch up with magnetic ride rails.

Sorry I was just thinking about how the CTA does it with the third rail.

Does Metra Electric use a third rail at all? I.e. does it switch back and forth? Or is it overhead wires the whole way? I think from your post I'm understanding it switches back and forth. That seems expensive for just three grade crossings.. but what do I know :-)