The Chicago L's Unusual Feature
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- Опубликовано: 17 авг 2021
- #Chicago #Subway #Elevated
The Chicago L has a unique feature that not many large metro systems still have - Grade Crossings. How do these affect the system?
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Y'all need to spotlight Chicago more often! I feel that Chicago is often (and, once in a while, unfairly) maligned in transit circles.
Well guess what? Chicago metropolitan area’s transit network is not that great. Chicago uses a radial rail network, it is only useful if your commute is to the city center or directly in between your neighborhood and the city center. You guys have a massive transit network of metros (both elevated and subway) and railways (both commuter and regional) and intercity trains (Amtrak) yet all of it is effectively useless besides travel between the city center and the neighborhood you live in outside the center. The only other use it possesses is taking you to a place along the route between the center and your suburb. It’s poorly designed. There should be 2 railway lines or 2 metro lines that connect adjacent suburbs together and curve around the periphery of the Chicago metropolitan area.
The unusual feature of the Chicago L is the sparking from the third rail and the shaking when the trains go on an incline underground makes for an amusement park quality ride. It's actually quite fun to ride some sections.
Happens on British contact shoe trains too
Like those extremely banked curves just south of the loop on the orange line.
This was more about grade crossing in general. You didn't really address Chicago's grade crossings.
Chicago's grade crossings are traversed at speed and they are along the last 1 mile of the Brown Line from the 1910's w 4 stations on it and the last mile of the Pink Line from the 1920's w 3 stations on it. At the time, there was little development at these line's western edges and they helped spur development similar to the way NYC's routes into open lands did.
The Yellow Line is more of a 5 mile long heavy rail shuttle line but has grade crossings along the last mile w 2 stations at grade out of 3 (it used to have 8 and 6 of which were grade separated). The Yellow Line was opened in 1925 and discontinued in 1948 due to low ridership. It was reopened in 1964 as a non-stop shuttle w only 2 stations at the end points. The at grade portion used catenary power while the grade separated section use third rail requiring trains that could operate on both systems. The catenary section was removed and third rail installed along the entire line in 2004 with the CTA threatening to eliminate the line unless it became all third rail. This allowed increased speed along the at grade section to 55 mph and the possibility for a northern extension. A new station was added along the at grade portion in 2012 for a total of 3 stations along 5 miles.
So, the Yellow Line has an interesting at-grade conversion to third rail story.
All of these lines operate at speed and have 100% right of way so they do not wait for traffic. The Brown Line can have frequencies of 4-5 minutes at peak times w 8 car trains.
An obvious Chicago transit geek who has nicely pre-empted my comment, and indeed added more detail. As a Chicago old fart (but have not lived there since the lines became color coded) I speak in terms of Ravenswood, Douglas, Skokie Swift and the one that you forgot, Evanston (now purple), which also has a short grade level section from the former Isabella station to Linden. You are 100% correct that these go back to the legacy era and in the case of Ravenswood was actually a spur to development as the then private Northwestern owned the land around it. Also regarding the Yellow (aka Skokie) line, as I'm sure you know, Brian, and other transit fans would be interested in learning, was the high speed Skokie Valley route of the old North Shore Line, one of the last interurbans in the country. The predecessor to the CTA ran the Niles Center (as Skokie was called then) route but as you noted, was abandoned soon after the CTA was formed in 1947. I'm old enough to have ridden the North Shore many times although the L stations along the way were interestingly derelict. When the North Shore stopped in 1963, within two years the 1-stop Skokie service was started by the CTA, which is an interesting story in that it was the first case of federal $ being used for urban transit--a product of the LBJ administration's forward thinking. Also, the Evanston line has an important North Shore line link as that interurban (which actually built south from Waukegan) first entered Wilmette on street tracks before joining the L tracks at Linden.
Grade crossing is of course very much a feature of commuter lines pretty much everywhere and this includes some commuter / rapid transit hybrids such as Chicago's South Shore, Illinois Central (now Metra Electric), and Long Island RR in NY which have many, many grade crossings. As to the RM series--great, great stuff! --and I especially appreciate that he is from and covers in depth my favorite country in the world--Canada!
thanks for this comment, it's what i was hoping to learn about in the video :)
The Yellow Line's grade crossings are because it is a remnant of the North Shore Line's former Skokie Valley line (built to provide an inline route that bypassed the denser coastal suburbs on Lake Michigan).
Also for the brown line almost all the grade crossings are on side streets, so they don't get as much traffic as major or arterial streets do. It's entirely possible to avoid the brown line grade crossings entirely if you're familiar with the area.
The orange line has grade crossings too... it's pretty much at grade the whole way down from Archer to the airport.
Considering how often people end up driving onto the transitways in Ottawa despite numerous signs, I feel like grade crossings still risk some people trying to drive up the tracks... some people should not be allowed to drive.
true ... although it's not a very common sight here in Germany, it still does happen as we have our fair share of idiots in traffic as well. In fact, when building new crossings, level crossings may in fact not be built in Germany any more, it has to be either a bridge or underpass instead; Old level crossings are still kept, but new ones aren't built
The transitway is still a road. Without signs, it's indistinguishable from a city street. At some intersections it can be unclear which turn is which.
Railroads not only look different than streets, dedicated railways cannot be driven on with a car.
In Porto, Portugal, the bridge that the LRT uses now, used to be a car bridge. Nowadays, the LRT comes out of a tunnel that crosses some kilometres through the city center, just before entering the bridge to cross the river. A few years ago, a car entered the bridge from a level crossing on the opposite side of the river and went all the way into the tunnel. He later claimed he hadn't been to the city in quite a few years and thought it still was a car bridge, despite all the signs.
@@desanipt
When you drive from memory, especially from longtime experience, you don't look at signs, because you "know" where to go. When something is changed, it's a shock.
That's an interesting bi-level bridge.
A video on overhead power would be much appreciated!
Yeah I'd be interested to hear why a lot of new metro lines use overhead power
I agree. I find the topic interesting enough for a separate video.
@@Ivandor12 It could be a safety matter. If somebody falls on the tracks of a third-rail-electrified system they might come into contact with the third rail and be electrocuted. The same applies to depots. Staff can't walk on the ground freely if they need to constantly worry about and avoid the third rail. Putting the power source out of the general reach of people reduces the possibility of otherwise avoidable injuries or fatalities.
@@bahnspotterEU That's a good point about the depots, I hadn't thought of that.
@@bahnspotterEU You can use sheathed bottom contact rails, like in the case of many German systems, and that eliminates most of the electrocution risk for workers on the ground. OHL isn't perfect either, it can be hazardous if you're carrying a long conductive object like a metal pole or a ladder which is certainly an issue in depots.
I think the main reason why OHL is preferred over third rail nowadays is the cost due to raw material required. You can get away with a pretty thin wire and minimal insulation at 1500 VDC whereas you need a pretty chunky third rail. Why this wasn't done in the past, I'm not sure. Could be an issue of tunnel height, perhaps it's cheaper to make tunnels taller now to allow pantographs to fit.
As you noted, grade crossings can be particularly workable where they involve relatively minor streets. For Chicago, which had a significant amount of growth pre-war with smaller streets/human-scaled development, most of the grade crossings are in residential areas near the end of the rail lines (brown, pink, yellow, purple) where the streets are relatively minor. Also as you noted, signal priority is important and these lines in Chicago have 100% signal priority, with the trains proceeding and automobile traffic stopping for the Chicago L as opposed to the other way around with trains having to stop for automobiles. There are also separate crossing gates on the sidewalk in addition to the street, the L's surface tracks are tucked away in the alleyways of city blocks making it more clear the transit-way isn't a roadway for automobiles, and the grade crossings have been in existence for such a long time that Chicagoans grow up quite familiar with how it all works and accept the minor inconveniences of being blocked by a train for a short period of time. I think you pointed out a lot of good reasons why rapid transit can have grade crossings (as well as noted trade-offs), but thought I'd try to bring it back home to the specific location featured in the video title and link some of those reasons that are particularly applicable to the Chicago L. :)
yes more familiarity with the specifics of Chicago would have made the video better as opposed to the generalities presented although the arguments pro con for grade crossing were good. further one can't discuss Chicago's system with out acknowledging the el and the street car system complimented each other up until the time the street cars were yanked.
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It really is. Even if you’re not from Toronto
@@dmann5938 I've never been to Canada, yet I still watch every single one of his videos
Great video, I love your content! I have ridden on the 'L' many times, and I didn't know how unusual it was to have grade crossings.
Chicago also has the train crossings where lines meet rather than grade separated lines, sort of like with streetcars, and the cars are shorter due to the very sharp turns they take on these downtown lines. This of course lowers capacity on the lines crossing. It's an interesting system, sort of like a crossing between a metro and a street car, but (mostly) grade separated.
I swear the intro music gets chiller on every new video
Gotta have good vibes to get people into the construction mood
The grade crossing of Chicago is like the best ever! The fact that the train loses power and coasts through the grade crossing is way too satisfying. I lived in Chicago and I hope they don't replace them (to an extent).
On some grade crossings in Chicago there used to be automatic gates that close to block the tracks when there is no train to prevent trespassers. They were removed, probably due to reliability issues and maintenance costs.
"How could a third rail railroad line have an at-grade crossing?"
My grandfather, who grew up in Long Island: "Kid, let me tell you a little story from sixty-seven years ago..."
Personally, I think the safety risk of having third rail near a grade crossing is exaggerated, at least on the Long Island Rail Road and Metro North. The third rail is generally kept several feet back from the grade crossing, so if you get near it, then you're already somewhere you're not supposed to be. I'm not sure how it is in Chicago or England, however, but I do know that in England the third rail is completely uncovered which is a bigger danger because that makes it easier to step on. Also, the only four quadrant gate crossing in third rail territory on either the Long Island Rail Road or Metro North is in on Little Neck Parkway in Queens. This is the only grade crossing in New York City not in an industrial area, although there used to be others.
Our third rail in Chicago is also completely uncovered and it's several feet back from the crossing with special anti-trespass pads between the road/sidewalk and the third rail.
@@mtgibbs I grew up and lived close by that part of the Brown Line (picture of Kedzie crossing at 1:10). For that last mile there are at least five street level crossings. Despite those pads, every few years or so some idiot comes out of a nearby tavern on Kedzie and goes deliberately to urinate on the third rail, with the expected dire consequences. Also at those five crossings, several car/train impacts occur per year, mainly as a result of some idiot going around the lowered street barriers. In fact, a fellow with whom I went to grade school did cross his Volkswagen around the barriers in the early 1970s (at Sacramento Ave. I think) and they ended up scraping up bits of him with cardboard off the tracks (Yes, I did see the aftermath 1/2 hour after the accident, honest, no exaggeration). The trains now cross at slowed but still damaging speeds. I agree with "RMTransit:" grade level crossings are more problematic in North America (and especially in Chicago) than the rest of the world. Thanks for the video.
--Pat, in Chicago, now living near the Damen Ave. Brown Line station.
@@patrickf.4440 Certainly grade crossings are not ideal. I was just pointing out the configuration of our grade crossings (I also live in Chicago). There are also issues because of the volume of trains which mean that the gates are down a lot of the time. It would be great to grade-separate everything west of Western (and maybe extend it to the Jefferson Park station on the O'Hare line) but I don't see that happening any time soon.
@@mtgibbs Yes, I have often felt it a shame that they haven't somehow extend the Brown Line more West/North (in an elevated fashion of course). Obviously it should have been done before it all became too built-up. Cost I am sure, was and is everything. It would be nice for some technology to be developed which would enable elevated train lines to be built traveling above, over the center of a street (in a matter other than the older fashioned and obtrusive elevated tracks as run currently in Chicago). But cost and neighborhood reluctance would no doubt halt such plans (I remember how many businesses were wiped out along some sections of Milwaukee Ave. when they were building the Blue Line subway section; I'm sure others do too). But, then, I guess doing anything extensive in an already built-up metropolis is always going to be disruptive to some, using the Brown Line flyover at Belmont and the station- lengthening that happened a decade or so ago, as just two examples (and the building of the expressways through Chicago in the 50s and 60s, even scarier). I wish us all good luck with future changes.
Pat, Lincoln Square
@@patrickf.4440 All good points. I hope at some point we collectively will be more forward thinking about how investments like this would benefit the region's transportation system and people would view the line in the middle of the street or down the alley not as a detriment but as a valuable asset to their neighborhood and city. Good transit service is part of what makes the city attractive to live in. There are ways to build things that are not so obtrusive but it does take a little more money and people in charge to be satisfied with something that's not grandiose but long-lasting and functional and designed to fit in with the neighborhood fabric.
In my city (Groningen, NL) there was a grade crossing that saw 6 trains per hour per direction (so 12) and they wanted to add more trains so they basically had to make it separated because it would mean the crossing would be closed for like more than half an hour per hour. It was quite the operation to retrofit the whole thing.
I get off at an at-grade Brown Line stop most days and have seen a small kid almost run right under the boom gate and in front of the train. Definitely need safety improvements, thanks for the video!
It is important to remember that a crossing gate is usually down 30 seconds before the train arrives. So a typical crossing takes about 60 seconds, even if the train itself goes by in a few seconds.
tell that to the Long Island Rail Road 😒 i frequently wait for minutes at a time at grade crossings, ESPECIALLY during peak hours when there might be a train in either direction hitting the same station at around the same time, so the gates stay down between them
"Something I could make a video on in the future, if people are interested in it."
You could make a video about the different paints used by transit agencies and the rate at which they dry and we would still watch it.
In Germany building new grade crossings on the railway is illegal under most circumstances. Makes reactivation projects of closed lines really difficult when there would be crossings there :(
Don't see how that's a good idea. Yes, level crossings can be bad for traffic if you're a driver, but if you want to build a bridge or something, it's more expensive.
@@a11u45 sure it is, but it minimizes the chance of accidents and allows better traffic flow on both the road and railroad. Keep in mind, there are also pretty busy tracks with anything from commuter trains to international and inter city express trains sharing the tracks along with freight trains. During rush hour some level crossings are more closed than they're open, which is an issue not only for normal traffic, but of course also for emergency services.
Many quite long sections of railroad lines already don't have any level crossing and it works perfectly well
@@EnjoyFirefighting when train lines are constructed, the costs of construction need to be taken into account, as if you spend lots of money on say grade separated crossings, that money might be better spent elsewhere. For example buying more modern rolling stock instead or putting that money in the education system instead. For areas with high train frequencies high traffic, grade separated crossings make sense, but for areas with low train frequencies and low traffic, there is less of a need to spend public money on grade separated crossings
@@a11u45 yeah that's what I'm talking about, smaller branch lines that might get an hourly or half-hourly service at most. Many proposals are there but requiring grade seperation makes it really expensive and often it isn't done then
Same policy has applied here in Melbourne, Australia for the last 20 years.
There's usually an isolated section of 3rd rail across a crossing that is only energised via contactors when the boom gates are down. This solves the 'break' in supply issue when a train crosses the roadway.
Interlocks prevent boom gates being raised if the rail inadvertently stays energised after the train has passed. The same technique can be used for pedestrian crossings, which can also have boom gates and / or audible alarms, as is common in the UK.
About the CTA, the Brown, Pink, and Yellow lines have street level segments and as many others have stated, they are older parts of the system and were built before Chicago grew around them. An interesting anecdote: what is now the Green Line west of its Laramie Street station once descended onto a right of way directly adjacent and on the same level as streets all the way to its terminus in Oak Park, but the entire line was grade separated in 1962 by being placed on a disused embankment. It is interesting to compare the old ground level line and the currently elevated one.
Similarly, I believe what is now the Red Line was once at grade north of the Wilson station, but that part was elevated much earlier in the 1920s.
Great video, I really like the explanation and comparisons to other transit networks!
purple line has one aswell
As a train driver, I absolutely despise level/grade crossings. Trains and vehicles should not be crossing paths.
I think they're fine
Besides the Chicago "L", both the powered sections of the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North's Hudson Line (both third rail systems) have grade crossings as well.
Late to this comment but I think he’s talking specifically about subway systems and not commuter rail
I wanted to learn more about Chicago's L
I'd love to see a modernization of the L along with a radial line that connects all the suburbs. Chicago really needs some solid suburban transit coverage, like there is in Toronto.
But doesn't Chicago have metra trains to connect the city to suburbs
@@AlexCab_49 I mean suburb to suburb travel. Chicago has great transit if you're going and from the city center, but it's lacking if you want to go anywhere else.
yeah in my recollection even though chicago is huge, the less dense outer edges of chicago and the burbs are absolutely sprawling and the region could really benefit from more suburb to suburb connectivity.
@@AlexCab_49 you are right but their southern most point is a hour and 30 mins away from downtown
@@harktischris land, money, and time.
The London Underground had a grade crossing on the Central Line up until 1994 - it was just east of North Weald station on the Ongar line until the line closed in 1994
btw concerning the gates in Germany: there are some crossings with gates only covering half of the road, each side only the driving lane towards the crossing; There are some crossings with full gates, but on most large crossings first only the gate in driving direction comes down, and in order to let possible cars on the track the chance to leave it (as they might have stopped on the tracks) the other gates come down a bit later
There's a video online of a level crossing that doesn't make much sense, as it's just beside the busy (new) _shin-Osaka_ station, so a car ended up waiting almost 40min at the crossing for trains to cross before it could proceed
The Frankfurt U-Bahn in Germany is another subway system with lots of grade crossings, and even a on-street running section on one line. While there's lots of light rail systems also using the U logo and U line numbers, especially in the Rhine-Ruhr area (but also in Stuttgart), the Frankfurt system is much closer to the four fully grade separated systems of Munich, Nuremberg, Berlin and Hamburg.
The only places with grade crossings on the L system I believe are the yellow line (a short extension into the inner right suburbs) and the western end of the brown line. I think maybe 5-10 grade crossing at most across the entire system.
Also, the end of the Purple and Pink lines.
Having lived in Chicago for the first 30 years of my life, I was always surprised by how FEW incidents there were with the grade crossings. I always thought there should be more but it was rare to ever here about any car or person ever being struck. More often than not any incidents were on the Red or Blue line subway stations, likely because of the mere fact they have way more people, and drunk people late at night.
The grade crossings can also make extending platforms difficult _at best._ (Certain Brown Line stations come to mind.)
I’m glad that someone’s is making a video on this I Saulet on Google Maps and I was like what and wanted to know more
5:30 There is a scene in "modern times" when charlie takes the streetcar and hangs onto the side with the other passengers. Would be considered tramsurfing nowadays
But still common practice on the San Francisco cable cars!
@@davidconnor2458 I opened a subway door recently had my hand on the handle and this thing opened a few seconds before the train came to a halt, it doesnt normally happen which is why I had my hans there in the first placd, but this was one of the last trains without a "safety refit" (scrapped by the end of the year). Which showed me to what standard the trains were built back in the day.
Metro North's Harlem Line has third rail up to Southeast and many grade crossings.
I love the blimp count 😂👍🏼
Your assumption that a level crossing on the underground would not work due to its four rails is mistaken. The middle, negative conductor rail is just like the outer positive one and could easily be interrupted for a crossing if one were ever built, which I would be very suprised if it had never happened yet, for example on roads within LU depots.
And linear motor stators have to be interrupted for pointwork, so I don't see why they couldn't be interrupted for a level crossing too.
It's interesting. The Charlotte Lynx and St Louis Metrolink also have grade crossings, but other than that, are grade separated. But because of the grade crossing, they are considered light rail.
In Rotterdam, some metro lines switch between third rail and overhead wire mid-way, so that there would be an overhead wire at sections with level crossings. The switch happens in at least 3 places in Rotterdam, sometimes at a station and sometimes between stations.
You mentioned german grade crossings, in germany it is illegal now to build a new grade crossing on heavy rail line. Only on tram tracks it is allowed.
Fascinating! Thanks for sharing
I was on a Yellow Line train that got stuck at an at-grade crossing. We wound up waiting for the next train to come along and then they coupled the trains together to continue down to Howard.
Yes some modern level crossings in Germany monitor the area between the gates by radar in order to prevent possible collisions; We've had some bad accidents in the past, especially regional train lines often have level crossings with a wide range of existing / non existing safety measures. Still remember a US army truck which got stuck at a level crossing and as no-one ran either way down the railroad track to warn possible approaching trains, a regional train hit the truck and the train driver (not sure if passengers as well) was killed. And that scenario happened twice in the area. It was a very basic crossing without that radar system
Your videos have been supprisingly relevant to me, I got to Chicago like a day ago!
Melbourne is over half way through a massive level crossing removal programme on the suburban rail network (47 removed, 38 to go). Of the four crossings where trams cross trains on the level, one has already gone (railway line put into cutting) and two more will be removed. When I was there in 2019, I saw an entire street-level line that had become elevated, to allow train services to be increased (the need to keep the roads open to traffic at crossings for a minimum number of minutes per hour was restricting the frequency of train services that could be offered, and trains were so busy that frequency increases were desperately needed). Admittedly, Melbourne's rail network isn't quite a metro system - but with the 1980 city loop, plus the new north-south tunnel under construction, it's not far off.
Thanks for the video, I really like these short focused videos, such as this one or the bilevel cars video. It really sets this channel from others apart
Perhaps we can cover the South Shore Line and the improvements that are being made like more double-tracking? And possible improvements too, like how speed could be increased, or where other branch lines could be built?
The S bahn in Berlin has quite a few grade crossings with a 3rd rail - in zone B. Just off the top of my head is the S9 on its approach into Grünbergallee
The Berlin S-Bahn uses third rail and has some grade crossings.
And there are many Japanese commuter lines with rapid transit level frequencies (
2:00 mind you, it isn't quite that simple. It would require extra signalling, since the main power switch has to be turned off while passing over the section without power to avoid arcing.
Would be REALLY nice if you could put pictures of what you’re talking about (for instance the gates that you were talking about for pedestrian grade separation).
For The Brown Line having street crossings after Western Stop it's because of the history of Chicago. At the time when The Brown Line was being built the western boarder of Chicago was closer to the city than it is nowadays. So back then what we know as the neighborhoods of Lincoln Square and Albany Park were considered suburbs so the city law that all L Lines must be either elevated or in a subway weren't required once they were in the suburbs. It's different for The Yellow Line because the Chicago Rapid Transit Company (The Chicago L Lines were owned by different companies Chicago Northwestern Rapid Transit Company for The Red Purple and Brown Lines and The Yellow Line would've been theirs if
Samuel Insull didn't combined all of the L Lines into one company) because the right of way was built by The North Shore Line as a way to bypass the busy North Shore Lakefront Suburbs which got too congested so they built The Skokie Valley Branch. The branch was intended to have North Shore Line Trains that were going to Milwaukee Wisconsin bypass the busy suburbs along the lakefront to get to Milwaukee much faster and efficiently so they can add more trains. That's why The Yellow Line is so different from other L Lines because it wasn't the original purpose of the right of way.
The Rotterdam metro system has two branches (line A and B to Ommoord and Nesselande) with grade crossings. The vehicles switch from 3rd rail to overhead power before entering this section. The Amsterdam metro used to have this too (line 51 to Amstelveen), but that branchline was closed for metro's and rebuild for trams only (line 5 and 25).
From a UK point of view.... the reason why Level Crossings (Grade Crossings) are either rarely create these days, or being eliminated is due to pedestrian/driver stupidity, such that they are no longer seen as safe in some places. Near my town the level crossing was actually removed, and the road terminated due to some really horriffic behaviour by pedestrians, cyclists and car drivers (especially some pedestrians dragging their child to school across the gates as they are coming down.... note there is a foot bridge to safety traverse the line when the gates are down for pedestrians)
Tokyo is the best but Tokyo Metro itself (let alone the through running services) is not fully grade separated because a train depot on the Ginza Line actually has a grade crossing (on a third rail line).
Btw I think that street running of heavy metros is actually viable in some places (like the Keihan-Keishin line)
The last grade crossing in the NYC Transit system was on the L line. They built a station in its place and the mezzanine was the way across the tracks.
What station is this??? I’d like to visit it…
@@korbermeister1 East 105th Street
One of NYC subway line use too have one grade cross until it was removed in 1973.
Melbourne is currently spending a vast amount of money getting rid of level/grade crossings.
NYC L train 105th station closed 8/5/1973
The single-car "garbage train" that Toronto used to operate on the subway had a "jumper cable" that could be used by the operator if he was unfortunate enough to come to a stop inside the gap between third rail segments in the middle of a track switch.
Soviet grade crossings have a little chunk of the road lift up. It's a neat set up actually.
WMATA Blue and Silver Lines have an At-Grade Crossing east of Addison Road - Seat Pleasant Station just before the tunnel.
Baltimore's Metro SubwayLink has an At-Grade Crossing just outside Old Court station.
At the end of this video it's like listening to a live overly repeated recording.
Some tram stops are also bus stops but this works only when both have same platform height
In Tokyo, I don't think they build level crossings with metro train service any more. They are all inherited from the past and occur only on suburban railway lines with reciprocal running to metro systems. A great effort is made to eliminate them by elevating or burrowing tracks, but the process is still far from the end.
1) only the brown, and pink lines (which was a former blue line branch) have grade crossings. yes the skokie swift yellow line does as well but it is a real outlier in the system. all three lines are legacy and were built before Chicago became urbanized around them. 2) near the end of the pink line at Cicero Ave, perhaps the busiest grade crossing in the system there are plans to upgrade the crossing for improved safety. i believe funding has been set aside to start. skokie swift is all that is left when there were connections between Chicago and Milwaukee.
FWIW, Radar and intrusion detection is actually making its way into many newer or upgraded crossings in America
Usually metros, especially newly built ones, more expensive, and designed to has high capacity. It needs very short intervals. Like 2min in rush hours. And make grade crossing completely blocked.
Also, higher speeds does not make grade crossing lifts faster. Higher speed needs longer blocks and need to close the crossing earlier.
Please make a demystified video on Mumbai Metro Line 3. It is quite long, relieves a lot of pressure from Mumbai Suburban Railway (which is notorious for its Crowd), has trains of Alstom, and is India's first fully Underground metro. A lot of controversies are in this project. It would be a great video.
Germany is actually continuing to reduce grade crossings, especially on main lines. Since you have to keep the gates open for a certain amount of time per hour the frequency is severely limited by grade crossings. As far as I know it’s not allowed to build new main lines with new grade crossings at all. Not sure if this is true for branch lines.
Another metro system that has grade crossing is Oslo, although on only one line which was previously a tram/suburban rail
Quick ask about the 407 Transitway! I try to research what's happening to it but the website's is out of date. Loving the videos!
Would you consider Seattle's link light rail a full rapid transit system? There are a few grade crossing, but then there are long, totally underground sections too.
There are probably well over a hundred, maybe more, level crossings (US- = grade crossing) here in the UK on the 3rd rail electrified network located south of the River Thames, Originally installed by the Southern Railway in the 30s the network was considerably expanded by British Rail,
There have never been any problems because where there is a grade crossing, a gap is left in the 3rd rail at the crossing. Trains either coast over the gap, or pick-up shoes are located at each end of the train so that one is always in contact with the electric supply. Such arrangments have been used for overhead wire supply: -
In Amsterdam in the Netherlands, there is a moveable railway bridge over a canal which has no overhead electricity supply, yet the line on either side has overhead wires. Trains coast across and the wires are arranged to get higher and higher as the bridge is approached. The pantograph eventually reaches maximum height, the train coasts over the bridge, then the pantograph eventually is pushed down by the gradual lowering in the overhead wire beyond the bridge.
Engineers are very ingenious !!
The pink and brown line has great crossing and never had overhead
I love your train education videos
Grade crossings serve an important role in asserting dominance over the single-occupancy motor vehicle.
Public transit doesn't dominate motor vehicles in any way
Of course, the Long Island RR in New York City (Queens and Long Island) has several level crossings, but the NY Metropolitan Transit Authority is currently eliminating a lot of these with bridges over and under auto roadways. Before the New York City Subway merged all of the independent lines into one operation, the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT) had quite a few crossings (I don't live in the Big Apple, so I don't know if all of the crossings have been replaced -- I have enjoyed riding MTA trains during various times in my life). I'm not sure if the Staten Island Railway metro (also 3rd rail) has any crossings (I have yet to visit the island). Level crossings, even though they may be dangerous for animals, pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers, add a special flavor to the railfan experience. It's a feeling not matched by completely-separated systems, such Atlanta, Georgia's MARTA or D.C.'s Metro, where many lines run both underground and at ground level. I had the most fun riding LIRR, where the experience felt more like being on AMTRAK or a regular passenger train.
At grade crossings are often retained due to the environmental damage that would be done if they were replaced by bridges and the long approach ramps that are required. This is particularly the case where a town centre is close to the railway and building a ramp would either wipe the town out or turn a vibrant town into a slum.
Just make the road go below grade
This Torontonian do not understand Chicago L system.the grade crossing system do work even on heavy Traffic.
This idiot doesn't understand grammar
I'm definitely interested in a video about overhead power for metro systems
I was quite surprised at the number of grade crossings in Central Tokyo, including for rapid transit like the heavily traveled Yamanote line. I guess it makes sense though given the age of many of these lines and that they use overhead power. However, I heard that they are trying to eliminate some of these crossings since the train traffic is so frequent that the roads are closed every couple of minutes.
8:10 Half-covering boom gates have the advantage that vehicles can leave the crossing even after the gate has closed, e.g. when the engine has died during passing. And in almost all cases, at least a pedestrian will be able to enter a grade crossing with intent anyway. Not uncommonly also in populous areas, you see heavy rail grade crossings equipped with just a road sign and a red plus yellow traffic light here in Austria; which is truly unsafe. I never came across something like an anti-trespass pad here in these parts.
I would be interested in overhead power also. In Cleveland, our rapid transit Blue and Green lines have a TON of grade crossings...and none of the gated either.
This is why on the Stouffville line, grade separations at Sheppard and Steeles made sense (despite some small car dealerships impacted) and why they probably won't make sense for McNicoll and Huntingwood unless it went super high frequency later on. Can't wait for Finch to join them (and soon since Finch-Kennedy station is supposed to be open in 5 years).
The M1 line in Lausanne (Switzerland) has a similar. It has several grade crossings, but at the same time it has its own tracks (standard gauge) and always gets priority over traffic. It runs on a single track (except at most stations), and still offers a headway of 5 to 10 minutes depending on the time of day. It mostly runs at ground level, but sometimes runs on underground or elevated tracks. Its trains have both longitudinal seats and front-facing ones. So what is it? A metro line? A light rail line, or a tramway maybe? The city seems to refer to it as "light metro", so I guess it would be a mixture of both
Great video! I'm definitely interested in a video on overhead power
and comparing third rail to overheard power!
Coming from south-east England it was always horrifying to see people mess about on railway tracks in American movies growing up; I was always convinced that those scenes were going to end either in somebody getting electrocuted or struck by a 160 km/h train
Walking on railways is/was perfectly normal thing here. There are too many miles of track and too low of a volume. There are no 160 km/h trains, it's all freight and you know when they are coming from miles away. There is a short section with 160 km/h trains now, about 850 km.
There is a train track through my university campus. There is an underpass, but there was also an unofficial over tracks crossing. Worse, some people walked down the tracks over a river bridge, that is dumb. It's now a transit line with a stop at the unofficial crossing. Would have been nice to have when I went.
When I first watched the cab view videos CTA has on RUclips, one of my first thoughts upon seeing the grade crossings, was the safety aspect. Someone could easily trip and fall and land on the third rail, or simply just trespass onto the rails if they wanted to. It's not an efficient feature to have in the system and I think removing these grade crossings is one of the biggest improvements to the L the CTA can make.
On at least some of their crossings, maybe all of them, there are anti-pedestrian "baffles" that run parallel to the rails to make it difficult to get onto the ROW. The third rail begins after that.
@@sharkheadism I’ll have to take a look again at those videos than. Thanks for mentioning that, I’ll check it out!
@@DanTheCaptain I wish I knew a proper term for them, some look like large pieces of angle iron laid inside and outside of the rails to form a series of sharp "V" ridges & troughs parallel to the rail. The effect is that it's difficult to walk on them. They're analogous to cattle guards.
You should definitely do a video on different types of power supplies!
Great content as always. Quick question Reese- do autonomous systems require complete grade separation by regulation in North America?
I agree that the fewer the grade or surface railroads there are, the safer the better they will be. That is why I prefer rapid transit lines be at subway or open cut level, or raised like on a trestle level but built concrete bridges, not the steel trestles, only their height.
The basic history behind this was that all the crossings were built at a time when they were outside city limits (or as it is in Wilmette, Cicero, and Skokie, still outside city limits)
I wouldn't say grade crossings are a defining feature of the L. If you visit Chicago as a tourist and take the L around the city, you probably won't encounter the few grade crossings that exist. They are mostly towards the end of a few of the lines.
Agree. The L actually has pretty minimal grade crossings and unless you specifically go to those certain parts of the city, you will almost never see them. The mass majority of the L runs as a Grade Separated Metro system
Not Rapid transit but recently the Commuter rail network has undertaken grade separation projects, in most cases at Crossings which already have a flyover above. Although in most cases the replacements are not that pedestrian friendly (Level crossings here don't have sidewalks too)
For an example of a new system (or at least a new extension) with grade crossings, you might find Edmonton’s LRT Metro Line interesting. Three new stations (MacEwan, Kingsway, NAIT) entirely at street level with several grade crossings in between
Are there any specific grade separations planned to happen in Toronto that you think we don't need?
I minor point, you mention that the London Underground is incompatible with grade crossings due to the multi-rail arrangement. The London Underground uses a 4 rail system where the central and outer power rail basically operate in the same way as a simple 3rd rail system (the 4th rail provides for an insulated current return path to avoid electrolytic corrosion problems on metal tunnel linings), indeed there are sections where both "mainline" 3rd rail and London Underground trains share the same track and electrification infrastructure. The London Underground system can accommodate grade crossings in the same way as 3rd rail systems, though there are currently none on the network, though there are some public pedestrian crossings on the network.
That scream 😂
There's the Metro North and Long Island Railroads in New York with very extensive street grade crossings and are 3rd rail operated.