General Dutch and Belgium Transport Talk

[Toni Babelony]

Bah

Oh tell me about it... I use these things a few times a month @_@ (luckily only on a non-frequent base)

[chevyrider]

Well, if you are a driver you could try to aim at the (open) door.

Passengers: Just stand on the chair and aim right out of the windows (if they can be opened that is.)

Now i realy do that. (standing in the door, blindside of the platform).
But the new trains have glass backwalls, so everybody can see you pee.

[DeletedUser21]

Well, if you are a driver you could try to aim at the (open) door.

Passengers: Just stand on the chair and aim right out of the windows (if they can be opened that is.)

Now i realy do that. (standing in the door, blindside of the platform).
But the new trains have glass backwalls, so everybody can see you pee.

Aren't they like in the ICE? That they can go from transparent to opaque? The transition looks really cool.

[Illegal_Alien]

Curtains? As far i know they have those.

[Toni Babelony]

Curtains? As far i know they have those.

Now you know why the curtains close at daylight

[athanasios]

This is worse than metro trains...
And to pay .50 for a pee.
Better to go by car.
Travelling in livestock vans may be better. You can even cook.
So this is the way to beat the planes.

[Azetta]

It's not that bad. To my knowledge they will be used (at first) on Den Haag Centraal - Gouda - Utrecht Centraal and on Rhenen - Breukelen, both 60 to 70 minutes. And most passengers will probably travel shorter distances on these routes, NS claim the average time spent in these trains per passenger wil be 20 minutes.

And these trains are certainly not intended to compete with airplanes, they will be used on a metro-like network between cities.

Pics of the interior of the Dutch version:
http://www.anp-photo.com/search.pp?page=1&pos=6
http://www.anp-photo.com/search.pp?page=1&pos=5

[DeletedUser21]

This is worse than metro trains...
And to pay .50 for a pee.
Better to go by car.
Travelling in livestock vans may be better. You can even cook.
So this is the way to beat the planes.

Then they also raise the ticket price every now and then.
And they say they want to make people get out of the car and use the public transport services. Government is also not helping.

[Purno]

And they say they want to make people get out of the car and use the public transport services. Government is also not helping.

They don't. Come on, think of how much tax a car owner pays. They never want us all out of the car. Cars gives the Gov moneys, public transportation only costs moneys.

Anyways, NS claims the average trip is 20 minutes, which IMO, is still way too long in a train you rather stand than sit. 20 minutes already deserves the comfort of at least the IRM. Unfortunately, comfort is low in every new train, bus, whatever. They should stick to the old stock.

[Toni Babelony]

They should stick to the old stock.

They should have kept the 'Hondekop' trainsets and modernise them instead. Ah well...

You should be happy not to live in Japan where standing for 20 minutes is quite normal. However, it's slowly becoming the standard in Dutch trains as well.

However, Japanese trains have some more efficiency in their interior design:

[DeletedUser21]

They should stick to the old stock.

They should have kept the 'Hondekop' trainsets and modernise them instead. Ah well...

You should be happy not to live in Japan where standing for 20 minutes is quite normal. However, it's slowly becoming the standard in Dutch trains as well.

However, Japanese trains have some more efficiency in their interior design:
img

Actually Japan lives on it's public transport system. JR (Japan Rail) is afaik the best rail transport company in the world. It's so busy in Japan that seatings like we have are useless and only take up space while reserved places where you can standup is more efficient when you have to transport 200 people in a train the size of a tram every 5 minutes.

[chevyrider]

It's not that bad. To my knowledge they will be used (at first) on Den Haag Centraal - Gouda - Utrecht Centraal and on Rhenen - Breukelen, both 60 to 70 minutes. And most passengers will probably travel shorter distances on these routes, NS claim the average time spent in these trains per passenger wil be 20 minutes.

Normal routes for us are:

Utrecht > Rhenen > Amsterdam-Zuid > Utrecht> Lunch, first coffee and pee.

or
Amersfoort> Amersfoort-Vathorst > Amsterdam> Uitgeest> Amsterdam >Gouda> Rotterdam. Lunch

or
Utrecht> Weesp> Schiphol> Leiden > Rotterdam> Dordrecht. Lunch.

And nowhere time enough to do what you have to do.

[Toni Babelony]

Actually Japan lives on it's public transport system. JR (Japan Rail) is afaik the best rail transport company in the world. It's so busy in Japan that seatings like we have are useless and only take up space while reserved places where you can standup is more efficient when you have to transport 200 people in a train the size of a tram every 5 minutes.

Not even close

For example: I was in Japan a few years ago travelling on the Odakyû-Odarawa line. You can watch along with the drivers and right in front of us in the next block was another train. (on the same route none the less!) JR sometimes comes nowhere near what other companies are preforming on their lines. Though, I must say I was also impressed by the train density on the Yamanote and Keihin-Tohoku lines from JR-East.

Anyway, sometimes in Japan trains are more of a kind of horizontal elevator, rather than a train... But then, Japan has also very romantic local lines.

[Purno]

Amersfoort> Amersfoort-Vathorst > Amsterdam> Uitgeest> Amsterdam >Gouda> Rotterdam. Lunch

Utrecht> Weesp> Schiphol> Leiden > Rotterdam> Dordrecht. Lunch.

Does that mean I can soon see LighTTrains passing Hilversum?

[chevyrider]

Does that mean I can soon see LighTTrains passing Hilversum?

As far as i know they will replace mat.'64.
So they will be put in the 5700 series Utrecht>Weesp> Leiden and Utrecht Almere-Oostvaarders.
I haven't drove them yet, but it's certainly not Lightrail, but a normal "heavy train".
It's not allowed that lightrail and heavyrail run on the same track, because of the large difference of inertia while colliding.

[Purno]

Does that mean I can soon see LighTTrains passing Hilversum?

As far as i know they will replace mat.'64.
So they will be put in the 5700 series Utrecht>Weesp> Leiden and Utrecht Almere-Oostvaarders.

How soon will they replace them? Or, when would the first LighTTrain be put in service, and when would they be a rather common train?

I haven't drove them yet, but it's certainly not Lightrail, but a normal "heavy train".
It's not allowed that lightrail and heavyrail run on the same track, because of the large difference of inertia while colliding.

But they call the new thing "LighTTrain" right? At least, that's the info I got for the Dutch Trainset.

[Azetta]

Someone from NS told here that NS will call them S70 and S100. There is also some information about the upcoming retirement of Plan T on that site.

@ Chevyrider: I looked at the trains from a passengers point of view, I have no doubt that the drivers can have other experiences

[chevyrider]

LighTTrain has nothing to do with "lightrail".
(Otherwise you couldn't have seen it on the "Bokkeduinen"between the other heavy trains.)
It's a concept just like the old "Sprinter".
Fast pull up and braking characteristics, a lot of doors, many places to stand.
Normally used for station distances less than 3 minutes.

As soon as they have passed admittance to drive on our tracks, we could already start to educate the drivers to handle it.

Before that i first have to learn DM '90 (Buffel), 2 days, because we are going to drive "allstation service" between Groningen and Zwolle, and Leeuwarden and Wolvega too.

[Illegal_Alien]

Clicky link for more: http://www.retmetro.nl/nl_nieuwsitem588.htm

Some picture`s of the new Rotterdam Metro: (RandstadRail livery):

[Ameecher]

That's a big turntable...