Quote:
Originally Posted by Express691
What are the reasons European trams (Geneva and such) have succeeded and gained reputation for being well constructed, convenient, and almost immune to failures compared to trams in say, Houston, Denver, and Salt Lake City?
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Because they don't do things by subcontracting out every part of things piecemeal in Europe, or even in Asia.
In the US and Canada, projects are usually a series of subcontractors of subcontractors, everyone does their one specialized thing, and that's it.
That is why Transit is so expensive in the US and Canada. If let's say the TTC/Metrolinx, Translink, and a few other transit companies got together and decided to standardize on a North American standardized transit vehicle model that fit everyone's systems, there could be two companies on the continent that produce nothing but these vehicles (eg one producing the powered cars and one producing the unpowered cars.) But instead every project has to be put to tender, every train is a custom-built thing with no compatible parts other than the third rail interface. This is one of the reasons why Bombardier and TTC are bickering with each other, because the TTC kept changing what they wanted, causing redesigns, and delays. (At least that's what I kept hearing.)
See if we had automated vehicles, none of this would even be an issue, because every car would have to work with everyone's system. Instead the insistence on "cheaper" cars by any means possible means we get different corners cut on different systems, and they have to live with those corners cut for the life of the system. that is why all the hollering about building "cut all the corners possible" Surrey LRT. Build it right or don't build it at all.
We wouldn't even be arguing about the technology if the superior technology wasn't already there as the Skytrain. Like if this was Victoria, nobody in their right mind would want to try roll out the Skytrain between Langford and Downtown Victoria, or the Shwartz Bay terminal and downtown Victoria because there is an existing Rail ROW that could be used NOW and there is almost no traffic crossings between the old Interurban there, unlike the mess Surrey is getting itself into. The catch with Victoria is that the distance required to cover doesn't lend itself very well to a 30kph light rail, nor does it lend itself very well to any city except one that is on an Island and there is no practical place to expand it to. So for Victoria a somewhat faster LRT would suffice, where as Surrey it will hobble everything from traffic to passengers.
Like had the Skytrain not been brought accross the river in the first place, we wouldn't behaving this discussion, we would be having one about IF we should bring it to Surrey or to Maple Ridge.
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