detroit to ann-arbor commuter rail

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If Michigan commuters sweat less than us North East types, ok. But the reason for using vinyl for the seats has nothing to do with civility. Amtrak cleans its trains frequently, and exists for providing luxury, such that it is. Therefore, Amtrak is willing to take the expense of constantly replacing seat covers.

Commuter railroads are utilitarian things, not cleaned very often, and the expense of maintaining seats to luxury levels make the politico imbeciles start talking about "money wasting" and "pork". Vinyl lasts longer, and stays useable much longer. How long have the Arrow IIIs on NJT had those ugly brown covers without much replacement? 30 years?

As for the diaphragms, there are three kinds of connecting corridor types used on rail cars in this country.

Various subways, as well as twinned MUs on many eastern railways, have open corridors.

They are completely exposed to the elements, and do not wear out from heavy switching. Perfectly fine on the trains they are used, which have no passenger traffic between those cars, and no reason to have it since they either don't have restrooms at all (Septa, subways), or those restrooms set in the pairs (MNR, LIRR) and thus people use the covered route to the bathroom.

Then there are bumper diaphragms, used on all commuter railroads currently in service. They consist of rubber tubes. They don't wear out much from heavy switching, and provide a modicum of protection from the elements and falling off the train. They allow the occasional passenger to go wandering in search of a bathroom, or to move to certain cars when the entire train doesn't platform at their stations.

Then there are trifold diaphragms, which are large, complicated, and relatively delicate things. They provide almost complete protection from the elements. The downside is they wear out and require maintenance, and also require crew members to connect them manually from the inside. Amtrak uses them- the pass through of passengers between cars on a intercity train is pretty high. Most passengers will leave their normal car at some point during the trains journey. Like the cloth seats, they make sense for intercity trains, given their market and purpose.

On a commuter train, they border on the silly.
 
Could this project be back in business?

Word on Detroit-Ann Arbor commuter rail expected next weekBy Bill Shea

Organizers of a Detroit-Ann Arbor commuter rail project expect to learn next week if $200 million in federal capital funding will be approved.

The Federal Rail Administration money (via the second round of funding set aside for high-speed rail projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) would be used to build new sidings, signals and make other corridor improvements, said Carmine Palombo, director of transportation planning for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments regional planning agency.
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http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20101022/FREE/101029943/-1#
 
Work is nearly complete on the refurbishment of a locomotive, coach car, and cab car for the Ann Arbor - Detroit Regional Rail Project. View the photos below to see the progress that has been made on MiTrain.
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Click on amtrakwolverine's link above for more. Note that the photos appear to be large files and thus load slowly. How many train sets will there be? Are they refurbishing one loco, coach, and cab car at a time?
 
It appears only 1 loco 1 cabcar and 1 coach car have been refurbished. The trains will only have 2 cars. I hope they build more later cause only 1 transit is not going to cut it. What if the 1 engine breaks down. they won't have any backups. The engine came from GO transit in toronto were they did the rebuild of the loco.
 
There is a picture of another F59PH at the shops where the 1st was refurbished. Last pictures I've seen still have it in GO paint, but it may be in line to be updated. Also GLC owns some more coaches that may or may not be refurbished at a later date for service on the MiTrain.

peter
 
Probably because they'd be a higher initial cost, and because except for the new units Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit is buying from Nippon Sharyo, and the (now defunct) Colorado Railcar DMUs, available DMUs don't meet FRA crash standards, and because any DMU would be years away from seeing the rails.
 
MattW said:
Probably because they'd be a higher initial cost, and because except for the new units Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit is buying from Nippon Sharyo, and the (now defunct) Colorado Railcar DMUs, available DMUs don't meet FRA crash standards, and because any DMU would be years away from seeing the rails.
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Texas is buying DMU's for its Newer lines that share with freight. NJT runs the Riverline that shares with freight....it seems to me the FRA does not care.
 
Nexis4Jersey said:
MattW said:
Probably because they'd be a higher initial cost, and because except for the new units Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit is buying from Nippon Sharyo, and the (now defunct) Colorado Railcar DMUs, available DMUs don't meet FRA crash standards, and because any DMU would be years away from seeing the rails.
Click to expand...
Texas is buying DMU's for its Newer lines that share with freight. NJT runs the Riverline that shares with freight....it seems to me the FRA does not care.
Click to expand...
NJT's Riverline cars don't meet FRA crash standards to share the tracks with active freight trains. Freight only runs on the tracks during the late night hours when the Riverline doesn't operate; something called temporal separation. Newark's light rail system also has a temporal separation with freight on the last few miles of the line in Newark & Belleville. They even have a big gate that the freight crews have to unlock before they can roll out onto the shared tracks.

And the FRA cares quite a bit. In fact if there was ever a violation of the temporal separation, some people would have some major explaining to do. And quite possible could be looking for a new job.
 
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AlanB said:
Nexis4Jersey said:
MattW said:
Probably because they'd be a higher initial cost, and because except for the new units Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit is buying from Nippon Sharyo, and the (now defunct) Colorado Railcar DMUs, available DMUs don't meet FRA crash standards, and because any DMU would be years away from seeing the rails.
Click to expand...
Texas is buying DMU's for its Newer lines that share with freight. NJT runs the Riverline that shares with freight....it seems to me the FRA does not care.
Click to expand...
NJT's Riverline cars don't meet FRA crash standards to share the tracks with active freight trains. Freight only runs on the tracks during the late night hours when the Riverline doesn't operate; something called temporal separation. Newark's light rail system also has a temporal separation with freight on the last few miles of the line in Newark & Belleville. They even have a big gate that the freight crews have to unlock before they can roll out onto the shared tracks.

And the FRA cares quite a bit. In fact if there was ever a violation of the temporal separation, some people would have some major explaining to do. And quite possible could be looking for a new job.
Click to expand...
Why do we still have these 19th Century rules , time to join the rest of the planet... Aussieland has the same of trains we do and they have no issues...
 

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