How to Choose Your Transit Modes

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Transit comes in many forms, but each transit mode is best suited to particular roles within a transit system. So what are they? Let's dive in.
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[@Ian-wq3vg]

another hard hitting transit masterclass from canadian rail daddy himself

[@eternalcanadiandevyt]

going to start using "canadian rail daddy" from now on

[@michaelvickers4437]

"rail UNCLE" perhaps? 🤔

[@RMTransit]

That's quite the title

[@amouryf]

@@RMTransit Wth you like the name?

[@PikaPluff]

@@amouryf did he say he did ??

[@Richard24Blair]

"You can spin up ferries pretty quickly" HAHAHA *laughs in Halifax*

[@PulastyaG]

Same man (in Kolkata, India, where they have LOADS of canals, but built low bridges all over making them effectively unnavigable and prioritising cars). The city planners in Kolkata are also gradually killing the tram system here for buses. Smh

[@laurencefraser]

'can' and 'will' are, of course, not the same thing.

[@andrerenault]

or STQ

[@RMTransit]

Oh Halifax

[@amouryf]

Halifax is great

[@katrinabryce]

The cable car in London is basically useless, and almost nobody uses it other than as a tourist ride. If you want to go specifically between Royal Victoria and North Greenwich, which almost nobody does, then the benefits of it over DLR + Jubilee Line are marginal at best. Between any other station pair, an alternative route is going to be better.

[@mosaloquendo]

Look at cable cars in La Paz, México City and Medellín

[@wraithcadmus]

Yes, I think TfL said there's only about 10 commuters on it. The only use I can think of is if you're attending an event at the Excel, and want to go to the O2 for food, or maybe you have a hotel around there.

[@RMTransit]

It has great utility as an example of a gondola! A contribution from London to the world!

[@Kollum]

@@RMTransit you mean it has great utility as an example of how not to integrate a gondola in your transit infrastructure, right ?

[@randalbarbosaonline]

I'm from São Paulo, Brazil, and here we have a large rail system, but with little diversity. There are 380 km of tracks with 275 km of metropolitan trains and 104.4 km of metro. We don't have the new trams, but we already had a 200 km network at the beginning of the 20th century and no cable cars today. I believe that a variety of transport that connects is fundamental to a good transport system. We have a huge bus fleet, one of the largest in the world, with several preferential routes, but only 1 BRT. In total, more than 8.5 million people are transported daily, 4 million via subway, 2.4 metropolitan trains and 2.3 via bus. It is a complex system that needs to be constantly modernized. Hugs!

[@RMTransit]

Honestly Sao Paulo probably ought to double the size of its metro

[@randalbarbosaonline]

@@RMTransit For sure. There are plans, the problem is putting them into practice. They are currently building 34 km of new lines and extensions by 2027, with 3 tunneling machines. Pray that the other lines come true.

[@Fan652w]

This is an excellent video. Two points. Another drawback of ariel cable cars is that they have to shut down in high winds. And that is one of the reasons why an older technology, the funicular, continues to thrive in hilly countries such as Switzerland. Indeed Switzerland has at least three underground funiculars which are certainly not 'old''. In Neuchatel a modern funicular runs from the station down to the University. The Ski resorts of Zermatt and Saas Fee both have modern underground funiculars. The one at Saas Fee is referred to as the 'Alpinmetro'.

[@RMTransit]

@realbritishjeffy Indeed!

[@RMTransit]

High Winds are a potential show stopper for sure!

[@JayJayGamerOfficial]

The image at 0:16 is actually brisbane, not Sydney 😁

[@crismairo]

Brisbane moment

[@RMTransit]

I know! And it's quite obvious because of how the "Metro" looks, moral of the story: don't edit at 3AM

[@JayJayGamerOfficial]

@@RMTransit fair enough, we all make mistakes from time to time. Great video by the way!

[@NozomuYume]

For me the biggest downside of buses is terrible ride quality. Even BRT has wobbly suspension compared to rail simply because the suspension has to be able to deal with road conditions. Meanwhile regular buses in traffic lurch as they have to cope with random acceleration, braking, and steering. Curb stops in particular cause much lurching as they pull to the side where the road angles into the gutter.

[@BigBlueMan118]

Yeah and BRT with dedicated infrastructure, especially with heavier battery buses as opposed to trolleybuses, tends to wear the road surface down quite a bit if you are running frequent buses, so that after a few years your ride quality will be significantly worse than when you opened the system.

[@szymex22]

That’s not at all true and fully depends on the vehicles and maintenance of the road/track. In my city there are tram routes which are very bumpy due to old track , and there are bus lines that use modern Mercedes Connecto G and ride very smoothly, even with diesel engines. Many people say this but in reality both modes can be good or bad in terms of comfort

[@BigBlueMan118]

@@szymex22 Yeah but logically if your city is bad at maintaining rails they are also going to be bad at maintaining roads which degrade faster. Also logically if your cities' system cheaps out and buys crap trams, they are probably going to do the same with buses. My city in Germany the buses are fairly smooth but don't come close to the rails.

[@hilosky]

Hmm. London buses offer a pretty smooth ride. A little lurch on take off and slow down, but nothing major. Must come down to road maintenance, vehicle maintenance or vehicle design.

[@rossbleakney3575]

@@szymex22 Yeah, it really depends. The New York Subway is great, but it sure isn't smooth. An articulated bus is often smoother, as the driver isn't likely to make jerky movements.

[@mahuhude]

Today passenger trains are quite standardised. You‘ve got the choice between Siemens, Bombardier-Alstom and Standler and all of them have their model to fill the few categories (Intercity, bigger and smaller regional trains, diesel trains …)

[@mrvwbug4423]

They still require adaptation for the individual user. In countries with standardized power systems and signaling like Germany this is easy. In the US which has differing crash test standards depending on whether the train runs on a mainline or not and a myriad of different signaling systems there can be a lot of variation. Just to use Amtrak as an example. They need electric locomotives that can operates on 25kv AC and two versions of 12kv AC, mainline diesel locomotives that have to be able to operate on 3 different signaling systems (ACSES, I-ETMS and block signaling), dual mode diesel locomotives that can operate on diesel or 750VDC 3rd rail, a high speed train that can handle significantly more speed changes than a typical HST, rolling stock that fits within the loading gauge of Penn Station, and other rolling stock that meets the larger loading gauge outside of the NEC so they can run shorter trains outside the NEC.

[@antonnurwald5700]

It's still weird - and fun - to see places i go every day on videos by a canadian youtuber so frequently. 😂

[@RMTransit]

What spot!?

[@antonnurwald5700]

@@RMTransit central Berlin, around Alexanderplatz and in part Hauptbahnhof

[@hanwang52]

Just got off a derailed TTC street car. Nice video!

[@jasperli]

The one that crashed into a hydro pole?

[@RMTransit]

@@jasperli I hope not! And I hope you're ok!

[@un_tizio_a_caso2701]

Well, apart for funicolars and gondolas, for steep terrains you can use steep grade railways or trams. One example that come to my mind is the Sassi-Superga tramway in Turin, which uses trams equipped with a rack and pinion system and can also operate on normal tram tracks, usually for maintenance interventions.

[@Mart_7512]

That's a cog railway for you.

[@RMTransit]

For sure, or the rack railway in Stuttgart (and many other cities of course!)

[@gmponza]

every time RMtransit uploads I get 0.2% stronger

[@LouisChang-le7xo]

I have been watching this guy for months 20% healed

[@zionosphere]

Considering how often this happens, you will get stronger very quickly.

[@IWouldLikeToRemainAnonymous]

If your power level started at level 1 and you have been a subscriber since day 1, thus seeing every video upon release and subsequently getting 0,2% stronger - you will have gotten 0,2% stronger 717 times, considering that's the number of videos RMtransit have uploaded (this is assuming Reece never deleted or privated any video). The equation for your given power level today is thus: (your starting power level) 1 * 1,002^717 = 4,189... so a bit more than a quadroupling of your starting power level.

[@treekangaroo.7691]

Is the percentage scaling or is it based on a fixed initial strength

[@RMTransit]

I am inspired

[@scottydude456]

My transit networks in Cities Skylines have improved dramatically since watching your content, thanks Reece!

[@skbo521]

“Buses that shouldn’t have been buses” exactly!!!! yet Bogotá’s mayors don’t seem to get it. Thanks Reece, great video as always.

[@mindstalk]

Elevated or 'El' metro got passed over, and is often grouped in with subway as it provides similar capacity and grade separation. But you mentioned subway riders being disoriented and not getting a bite to eat; El riders can see the city, and in Osaka some large interchange stations had shops on the platform, which basically merged with the buildings. As a Chicago native, I feel El trains are not-considered too often. (I'm pretty sure I've occasionally seen kiosks or convenience stores on a subway platform too, but there is less room there. More often they're upstairs and outside the paid area.)

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

An 'El' isn't a different mode. It's just a different way of building a metro. But they're terrible for new projects near the city centre

[@justmeajah]

More explainer like this please! As an urban enthusiast i would love to re learn anything from zero!!

[@dasy2k1]

I like the tram/light rail boundary that is used in a couple of UK cities It's a tram that runs on the street at low speed in the city centre then runs more like classic light rail or metro in the suburbs on dedicated right of way and at higher speeds

[@stephanweinberger]

remark @9:57 trams actually often take up *less* space than buses. Being guided on rails they can operate on narrower lanes than busses (especially in curves, where they don't swing out as much).

[@johnks6733]

Sorry to be pedantic but at 0.19 the black bus is in Brisbane, not Sydney. It is one of the new Brisbane metro Tri-Articulated electric busses. If you look closely, you can see Brinbane Metro on the front of the bus. The station in the background is Roma St Station. The platform near the green building is the long-distance platform for QR trains like the tilt train to Cairns. To the right is the Standard gauge for interstate trains going south to Sydney. The layout of Roma St is intrastate, suburban, interstate, bus station & under it is the Crossriver rail station than is planned to open in 2026

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

It is very clearly only a bi-articulated bus

[@tacitdionysus3220]

Could be a lot worse. Could be a picture labelled Sydney, but actually showing Melbourne.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

3:14 that is so weird: seeing a tram THAT CLOSE to the beach of an ocean!

[@f.g.9466]

Technically it's not an ocean, it's the North Sea. I genuinely don't know why you think that's weird, but it's rather peculiar for the large distance it covers and the fact that it (almost) connects one border of the country to another.

[@sawyerhamilton446]

Living in Utah, we're talking about massively upgrading FrontRunner (our commuter rail service) to full on Regional Rail. But what holds it back is our light rail network (TRAX) that's held back by being street running. There are no real plans to separate it from traffic, which makes TRAX run slow. I wish it was a light metro or had a downtown tunnel at the least

[@mrvwbug4423]

Which is the opposite problem Denver has. RTD has two rail systems doing the same basic job. The RTD light rail only operates as a tram in the city center of Denver and a pretend tram with no street level stops through the city center of Aurora (the infamous R line). The rest of the light rail is tram-trains that act like commuter rail, just slower, with less capacity and less frequency. Then there is the RTD commuter rail which is fast, frequent and high capacity, but only runs on the north side of the metro area and the train that was supposed to run to Boulder just got farmed out to Amtrak as part of a regional rail system that could either be amazing or awful depending on how they build it.

[@sawyerhamilton446]

@mrvwbug4423 what also doesn't help is all three of our light rail lines are interlined (Denver has that problem too I assume? It's been a minute since I looked at the RTD map). UDOT (Utah Department of Transportation) also won't give TRAX signal priority at several key intersections in downtown SLC which further slows our trains down

[@HaakonKoyote]

Loving all the videos! Found the channel about a month back and have been obsessed lol. I have a request for a future video looking at the plans for reintroducing trams/streetcars to Vancouver! Would love to hear your thoughts on the study the city did a couple years ago. In looking at it there was a couple things I noticed and thought could be improved. The alignment at the east end of south creek is proposed on Quebec St instead of Main St. I think Main would make more sense if you removed a couple lanes of vehicle traffic or parking and created a major transit plaza/park in front of Pacific Central Station to support the eventual introduction of Cascadia HSR in the longterm and the new hospital in the shorter term... Nvm the better link with the Expo line at the Main St Science World station. I also thought there could be an opportunity to expand the arbutus greenway line onto the CPR tracks along the Fraser with tram trains running to hopefully connect to the Commercial Drive Canada Line station and the South Fraser Lands community. Would be great to hear your opinions on this one. Translink seems to have only the Skytrain or bus modes and now BRT possible for the future and after watching this video maybe you think trams could be a good option on these routes.

[@dez7800]

Hey Reece! There was an announcement about the new REM de l'Est project which is now tramway de l'Est. I'd be curious as to what your take on it is. Great video as always. Everyone should watch this..

[@JoseArcticol]

I envy cities with a good transit system. Imagine walking to your school/university that is you have to cross a road with drivers being reckless.

[@RMTransit]

Everyone should have it

[@TheCrunchifiedOne]

To expand on ferries a bit, Sydney is an excellent case study on where ferries are the best transit solution around the harbour. There are a lot of long inlets in the harbour that mean land connections between shores are very circuitious, or require mew bridges to be built. Another big plus is that they terminate at Circular Quay, which has a great heavy rail (and now light rail) connectjon.

[@rebeccawinter472]

Yes, tho I sorta know all this, it’s nice to have this distilled in one video. It’s helpful to send to people as an overview.

[@just_some_blocks]

Great video! Can you make one on Dallas-Fort Worth's "interesting" transit system?

[@goatgamer001]

I think that the riverline style light - heavy rail is the best urban transport, as it is a) compatible with the mainline and suburban railway, b) it can run on roads and its stations don't need large buildings, c) it can reach high speeds with high frequencies, d)it has big capacity, e)although it shares a lot in common with trams, it may have a smaller station density so it is not outrun by busses.

[@laurencefraser]

The problem is that anything running on the main line needs to comply with pretty strict scheduling anywhere it wants to run well and without causing or experiencing disruption, and anything that runs on the street and interacts with traffic... can't reliably do that.

[@beyondEV]

@@laurencefraser Unless it's still separate tracks on the street. then you could make it work. But it's not actually high capacity. If you have a very good network, you need to run something like stadler kiss compositions on the main lines to stand a chance to keep up. Running something (bus or tram) with high station density on the same axis as the main line with low station density is the best long term solution. the mainline stations will become distributed commercial centres over time. and using them to have circular minor connections also is very effective.

[@NickBurman]

Trieste wants to build an aerial cable car connecting the center with Villa Opicina on the hills behind the city. An aerial cable car in a city famous for the "Bora", the wind which in winter blows from Central Europe towards the Mediterranean, known to sweep people clean off their feet when it blows. Brilliant.

[@RamonKeller-lc5qh]

The bus at the beggining was for Brisbane not Sydney!

[@JesusChrist-qs8sx]

5:10 I do want to point out, that at least in the US, cities aren't just limited to existing train lines! Most cities have interstate highways running through that have their own, dedicated right of way that can be easily transformed to a subway It's one of my biggest criticisms of a lot of highway removal proposals. Rarely do you see proposals that look to replace high capacity highways with high capacity transit - it's usually always just a plan to replace with a lower capacity boulevard

[@robike2662]

Great episode. You mentioned ferries. How about a whole episode. Vancouver - Victoria & Nanaimo. We don't have the option for trains so how about passengers only ferries from DT to DT. Vancouver Island is approaching 1 million. Car ferries are no different from a freeway between cities. Just like adding one more lane, instead of expanding car ferries, expand people only ferries

[@SammytheawesomeILikePotatoes]

I think you should talk more on "on demand" bus systems, special flex buses, and publically funded "uber/taxi" style fleets. I find it very interesting and im still so confused how YRT OR is profitable or makes any sense... find the weird fractures zones of the system even stranger...

[@RTSRafnex2]

English speaking world: Tram, LRT, train, heavy rail, Metro, Subway etc. German speaking world: I don't know what it is, let's just call it Bahn. 😂

[@laurencefraser]

Yeah, side effect of people making up new (sub-)catgories to dodge regulations or hostile public perception, mostly. I mean, trams, LRT, train, heavy rail, metro, subway... they're all railways/railroads (depending on dialect). Also, 'heavy rail' is just lumping 'train' 'metro' and 'subway' together. Of course then you have the fun of 'subway' meaning 'heavy rail, mostly underground' in some places, and 'pedestrian tunnel' in other places, Metro being just all over the place in it's meaning (it derives from a word for 'city', and where I live it... well, the specifics are weird and complicated but in practice it's the busses and ferries. but in other places it's specifically the underground trains, and in others it's the trains within the city regardless of type, and in other places it means other things), The difference between 'light rail' and 'tram' is basically down to which entered the local dialect first (with the other one being used to dodge regulations on the first one)... Here's a fun one though: Train. Multiple units and the existence of Caravan trains make the term a bit fuzzy, but Properly speaking, when you have a locomotive pulling a bunch of wagons and/or carriages? The wagons and/or carriages are the train. The locomotive is not. The locomotive by itself (baring the Slight fuzziness introduced by tenders) is not a train. Railcars are not trains. Trams without trailers are not trains. A trade caravan through the desert back in the day? Camel train! All the wagons carrying an army's supplies trundling along in a line down the road behind the army? Bagage train! (like wise the artillery: artillery train! Different from a train with guns mounted on it, which is usually a subtype of Armoured train), the long trailing part of a wedding dress that has to be held up off the ground? Also called a train! A group of subordinates being dragged around wherever their boss wants to go? they're described as being 'in train' (the grammar on that one's a little complicated and situational though). And then here's road trains (which, interestingly, are usually defined as a tractor with Three or more trailers. Because apparently two isn't enough to warrent an entirely seperate catagory in the regulations but three is). The common thing being that there are multiple Things, each following along the path of the one in front of it, with the front one providing either direction or power.

[@RTSRafnex2]

@@laurencefraser I want to make it clear that I was less concerned with the language and more with the mindset of the respective culture. I often notice that in the english speaking world there is this compulsion to force everything into a category and a scheme. Even if it doesn't need to be.

[@mrvwbug4423]

Well they do have some differentiation between the bahns, you have S-bahn which is basically commuter rail and U-bahn which is basically a subway.

[@MarioFanGamer659]

In some of the ways (pun unintended), this is true of English. Tramway, subway and monorail are named after railways of various degrees (albeit initially not being _the_ railway). Still, anything which resembles railways in some ways is called "-bahn" in Germany regardless on whether it's a variation of a railway (Straßenbahn, U-Bahn, Hochbahn, etc.) or something similar (Einschienenbahn, Achterbahn, Magnetbahn, etc.).

[@RTSRafnex2]

@@mrvwbug4423 Yes, but the distinctions are not the same as in the anglo world. U-Bahn is simply a train that runs mostly underground (U = Untergrund -> underground). But then again it's "Bahn", that was the joke after all. S-Bahn, on the other hand, is not as distinctive as transit folks in North America think it is. It's more of a marketing term for an integrated network. In anglo/North American terms, an S-Bahn can be anything between a tram and a bilevel regional train. Even the term U-Bahn can also be used for underground running trams. in the end of the day, it's up to the operator to decide what to call his service. Here in Switzerland in particular, we have dozens of smaller railroads that I wouldn't know how to name in anglo terms. They are all small, legacy railroads (often narrow gauge) that have grown organically over the decades and don't fit into the new concepts of dedicated transit modes. Most of them use modern low-floor tram-style vehicles in their latest rolling stock generation, but I wouldn't call them LRT, for example.

[@factorization4845]

I feel like I could bring up the case in Hong Kong. In northwest New Territories (Tuen Mun, Yuen Long and Tin Shui Wai), light rails almost fully replaced the local buses back in 1988, but that kind of backfired, as people complained about how slow they are compared to buses and how headways are infrequent to deal with the mass population. The infrequency is mainly due to certain bottlenecks in the system that disallow the increase in light rail frequency. At the same time, in Tuen Mun, development is kind of scattered but still very densely populated. When the former West Rail Line commenced, people still complained, as certain journeys requires 3 journeys for the fastest time (say Tuen Mun south to Tin Shui Wai north, it requires light rail->rail->light rail, which is ironically similar to going to urban Hong Kong in terms of time (around 45 minutes), even if there is a massive difference in distances) All light rails routes between the three areas are constantly full of passengers even during off-peak hours (because people prefer direct trips) but the light rail cannot handle the shear demand between these three areas. Build extra rail lines may be difficult due to already built-up areas in the region, and Yuen Long was originally a piece of swamp/wetland, increasing the difficulty to build rail systems that doesn't sink into the ground. MTR does operate bus routes where light rail doesn't cover, but it's honestly not enough. The population in this region is still continuously rising, so I'm not sure how they should tackle this. How would you deal with the current situation?

[@mrvwbug4423]

How it should be dealt with and how it will be dealt with are probably two different things. My suspicion is a hastily planned, rapidly built, tofu dreg quality metro system will be built by the PRC, and likely have the same constant problems that the newly built rail systems in the PRC have.

[@beyondEV]

You could use the riverbeds (the look like concrete channels anyway) to extend the rail network into the Tin Shui Wai Area. Or to install dual use light rail (running like trams in some areas, but using the rail network other times, to speed things up). Add cycle infrastructure and interconnect it well with the rail hubs. One disadvantage is rail / tram don't always are parallel. That means you have to ride further on the tram before switching to rail and then back to tram. Seems to look like there's a different gauge for the light rail. You could get around that, stadler does have built some light rail which can adapt to different gauges.

[@chongjunxiang3002]

I hope for a video that discuss recent phenomena in my place: DRT, demand response transit. Is it going to help? Or just fancy way to cut bus frequency?

[@LouisChang-le7xo]

just a tech bro gadgetbahn

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

Like everything, there are specific places were it could work. But not everywhere (or even most places)

[@Traxl_]

Still looking forward to the Vienna tram video, hehe.

[@pizzaipinya2442]

8:45 That's the Vallvidrera funicular in Barcelona! By the way, could you make a video on Spanish Cercanías systems? I think they're an interesting topic, serving a similar purpose as the RER in Paris.

[@troelspeterroland6998]

I liked the background music in this video.

[@LouisChang-le7xo]

Honestly when people say "light rail is flexible" they should stop looking at Seattle with the low floors and look at Los Angeles with the high floors, in which low floor trains dont make sense in grade separation but high floors do. Also I feel like you can very much operate trams at top speed on wide streets like in bergin at 3:52 if you can do enough seperation from trams and cars, and in that case high floor makes even more sense.

[@BigBlueMan118]

But high floor LR doesn't integrate with the city streetscape very well and is more difficult to meet disability requirements, you need more serious platform infrastructure. The problems you are talking about are largely because systems in North America are ignorant of the latest high-quality low-floor tram vehicles now available which have advanced so much that they have basically all the advantages of high floor without the disadvantages.

[@LouisChang-le7xo]

@@BigBlueMan118 Ever heard of station ramps, which are rather cheap? Also modern low floor trams have very tight interiors that are often inacessible by design, and high floor trains can have interior layouts like that of a small subway also american light rail systems feature extensive stroad running and urban intergration is already nearly impossible, just look at systems like phoinex light rail. High floor light rail is like low quality subway, not glorified tram

[@BigBlueMan118]

@@LouisChang-le7xo You are falling into the conventions that US transit planners fiddle around with, I live in Germany and see continuously how high-floor systems eg. Stuttgart+Frankfurt compare with low-floor systems like Munich+Berlin+Prague, as well as mixed systems like Köln, and look at the strengths & weaknesses of each. Have a look at the latest low-floor tram designs from Skoda, none of the issues you mentioned and performance technically superior to the LRVs that all the US systems run. Systems like Phoenix or LA do mostly run in the middle of stroads and urban integration is difficult that is true; but as soon as you go for high-floor trams you can't run a transit mall through downtowns; the most successful light rail systems which aren't subway-surface lines (ie. with a city centre tunnel or Stadtbahn) have transit malls through their downtowns. The transit mall was an important features of LR systems before they began to aquire more civils and become the poor man's subway you mentioned. Phoenix performs pretty poorly as well, particularly for a system with such a large catchment, same with LA fwiw though LA is largely the average speed and should clearly have been done as heavy rail.

[@mrvwbug4423]

@@BigBlueMan118 High floor is MUCH easier from an accessibility standpoint. level boarding + flat floor inside the train. We see this in Denver where we have both a low floor tram system where only 1 door on the entire train is accessible as it lines up with a wheelchair ramp on the platforms and a wheelchair ramp in the tram and a commuter rail system with high floors and level boarding where every door on the train is accessible without special equipment.

[@mrvwbug4423]

LA Metro is the very definition of tram-trains, they do not run at street level, they run like a commuter train and run at the low end of commuter train speeds. The lines served by LRT were originally built with shorter trains and shorter platforms hence the use of LRT, the underground lines are a full on metro with high density metro trains. Then add in Metrolink which is a regional rail system. Then you have that stupid BRT in the valley (orange line) that used to be LRT and is apparently eventually going to be converted back into LRT.

[@TheHoveHeretic]

Interesting trolleybuses and guided busways (other than the special case airport installationd) don't get a mention. From a UK perspective, I've watched Paris installing a modern successor to the original tramway abandoned in 1938 (IIRC) with interest. The entire ethos of the modern tramway is a world away from the former network and from my position on a rock full of fractious NIMBYs I'll admit to some small twinge of jealousy. London was moving away from it's tramways around then (process delayed by war, completed July 1952). At least a part of tramways falling out of favour in the UK was down to maintenance costs, in many cases long deferred, as much as a failure to commit to capital investment in the operating fleet. I cannot imagine London's congested road network playing host to new tramlines into the centre, not that the compulsory purchases necessary to install dedicated righrs of way would be feasible from a financial standpoint. Indeed, it's been an uphill battle to install cycleways (a process nowhere near completion as of 2024). Neither could I envisage any significant changes to London's at grade transport infrastructure, even were general opinion favourable to any master plan .... which rest assured it wouldn't be. Getting agreement between the individual Boroughs (let alone the wider electorate) is like herding cats ... and that's before considering the traditional inability of central government to accept any concept of continuity.

[@m4rch84]

very interesting video, should be seen by the citie and town administrators who plan transit

[@RMTransit]

Thank you!

[@IWouldLikeToRemainAnonymous]

And on the other side of cars on the scale of transportation, opposite of 'transit', we have 'micromobility', 'human powered (land) vehicles' and pedestrianism. It's the combination of the these two opposite sides of the spectrum which solves 99% of the problems we have with cars. Most car trips are done by lone drivers which would be better replaced with a bicycle trip if still a short and flexible trip, or a higher speed, longer distance trip in public transit but you share the vehicle with multiple others. Cars are peak inefficiency most of the time they are used, and today's trend towards bigger and heavier cars only make things worse.

[@AndreasMolnar-Dev]

When it comes to trains we definitely beed more universal standards - sometimes even completely new trains have to be developed just for meeting them.

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

Not really

[@ahmedgouhmid6132]

there is no one size fits all though, trains or any form of transit are supposed to be adapted to the city or country they will be deployed in. It is actually not all that hard, a lot of companies produce different units for different countries, for instance Alstom for France and Germany who have vastly different systems.

[@laurencefraser]

What we currently have, to my understanding, are a number of 'baseline' designs that can be adapted to the specific needs of a given line without too much difficulty.

[@lnemeth4334]

8:35: I did not expect to see the Buda Castle Hill funicular in a mass transit video. It's just a tourist trap in Budapest, built in the 19th century.

[@qolspony]

Im sure every city would want a subway, but the cost prevents them from ever deciding to do it. So they settle for not elevated railway, but the worse case scenario. Street running rail rebranded as lightrail. The very thing that suppose to remove traffic, competes with it. And thats why i don't favor it. I prefer something in the middle. Single car street cars and elevated rail. I think Philadelphia has the best example of this. Streetcars don't compete with traffic as much, because they are much smaller. And elevated rail can offer a faster alternative than building subway.

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

You clearly have no idea what you're talking about

[@RedbookGereute-bs1xg]

Vienna manages to add tram line after tram line? Vienna used to have about 300km of tram lines, it is about 173km today. It is a lot easier to add a tram line in a street where 30 years ago a tram used to run, then somewhere where a tram never was before.

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

Ok so? Most larger European and American cities are in the same situation just that they haven't started rebuilding lines

[@mrvwbug4423]

@@Gfynbcyiokbg8710 Well the most famous US tram system that was ripped out was the Pacific Electric red car, LA's road system has been completely rebuilt several times over since the red car was shut down over 90 years ago. LA has built a rail transit system since then, but they've opted for the LA Metro which consists of two systems, an above ground LRT system that is the truest definition of a tram-train, it's LRT that operates like commuter rail, no street running at all with high floor trams with level boarding. And the underground lines which are basically a subway. I do not envision LA adding streetcars back into the mix, but they have a bunch of expansions of the metro in the works.

[@ix830]

More transit agencies and planning departments should regularly discuss the spectrum of transit modes with elected officials and the public. Instead of skipping to light rail or streetcar, frequent bus networks, BRT, trams, and maybe even people movers. Question: Do you consider Light Rail and Trams the same? Or are Trams more similar to streetcars? The videos of trams in Europe look so different from what I'm used to in the US. What are examples of trams in the US?

[@mackworsfold4087]

The bi-articulated bus shown at the beginning is from Brisbane not Sydney

[@wence25games89]

Isn't 0:17 Brisbane???

[@James-el6lj]

love this channel.

[@brickstadt5141]

Please take a Look at the Transit in Kassel Germany

[@jyutzler]

Are there really that many places where bus capacity is the limiting factor? If anything, in the US, most buses are mostly empty most of the time. And at 9-figures per mile in construction costs for heavy rail, you can run a heck of a lot of buses before you're anywhere near the break-even point. That's before you get to the considerable operational costs of heavy rail.

[@mdhazeldine]

Good video, but curious absence of "light rail" as a category? Maybe because it's hard to define.

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

Probably because almost no one uses light rail correctly

[@rongpirson5250]

0:18 says Sydney "Brisbane metro"

[@karlbrown1982]

Would the WMATA silver line from end to end (interlining with the blue, and orange lines or not) be better as is (a metro service), an s-bahn, suburban, or regional rail service?

[@janlam01]

What's are your thoughts on on-demand transit, that some transit system is trying to moved towards to from the existing fixed-route/fixed-schedule system?

[@mrvwbug4423]

sounds like techbro pods

[@stickynorth]

Overall I think High Floor LRT is the sweet spot technology that blends flexibility, scalability and basic common-sense design... Edmonton and Calgary really got it right when emulating the Frankfurt model. The only tech downside is that it's very hard to automate fully which gives the Skytrain tech the advantage in a lot of ways but especially when it comes to Labour-proofing the system. Even when Translink was on strike, Skytrain can keep operating normally... Pretty sure that advantage trumps everything else...

[@strangeshadow289]

Sadly, both cities have abandoned High Floor LRT for their new lines, despite the capacity, speed, and comfort benefits vs their low floor counterparts. I'm not against low floor rolling stock, but it's primary benefit is for environments where a segregated ROW isn't feasible.

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

The best thing about it is that it can evolve. You can turn e.g. the C-Train into an automated metro with 'only' some grade seperation and upgrades whilst Seattle will forever be stuck with low floor light rail.

[@chongjunxiang3002]

For furnicular example, I suggest you use Haifa as example, which is a functional transit system for a big population, not just tourist.

[@yaitz3313]

The funicular in Haifa is absolutely a tourist attraction. The gondola, actually, is not, and is genuinely useful.

[@j.s.7335]

I was disappointed that you didn't mention monorail. If you think it's fairly prone to misuse, even if it's not as common as misused light rail, it seems that it would have been a valuable mode to talk about the right way to use it.

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

No monorail is definately more misused. It's misused in almost all cases whilst light rail is used correctly at least some of the time.

[@oPlazmaMC]

4:20 torontos streetcar system is way slower compared to for example the parisian trams *proceeds to show slower paris tram* EDIT: I know paris trams are still faster on average it is only the clip where they arent

[@CreatorPolar]

The T12 is definitely way faster then any Toronto streetcar line

[@oPlazmaMC]

@@CreatorPolar yes but not in that clip

[@Myrtone]

Furthermore, with their long stop spacing and reserved track and priority, Parisian trams, like those on many other second generation tramways, achieve faster service without stop skipping.

[@oPlazmaMC]

@@Myrtone i still know that trams in paris are way faster its just the clip where they arent

[@henreereeman8529]

at 0:18 don't you mean Brisbane?

[@RMTransit]

Yes 🤦 knew I'd miss one!

[@LouisChang-le7xo]

@@RMTransit Buses with only doors on one side? I though that was bus rapid transit and that they'd use buses with doors on both side for island platforms like rapidride seattle

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

​??

[@christopherjared1277]

... do you mention the "order" of transit should match the expected density?

[@glaframb]

Speaking of the BRT Trap this is why it's matter less in developing country where the salary are lower but in place like Danemark, Canada the future is Automation. No driver. But to this safely, you need to restrict access. to the rails / tracks / so insertion in the middle of the street is almost impossible.

[@horizonoftheeast]

The reason why BRT is popular in Latin America is that the govt could not afford subway or elevated railway projects, but still need to carry that many people on that specific route... Once they have enough money they will inevitably shift to heavy rail transit modes. The places in Europe where LRT is working well are all having legacy or historical districts where car access is bad. Other than that modern trams especially in North America, they are only slightly better than nothing, because building of them always involved too many compromises to make them useful.

[@pivnichni]

Is it possible to add (by us) subtitles for your Ukrainian spectators?

[@johndumpling1896]

I think KZbin has removed that functionality.

[@simonbone]

The auto-translate feature is getting very good - you can set it to Ukrainian. Not as good as subtitles written by a person, of course.

[@pivnichni]

@@simonbone we'll be glad to do it in person for ability to show/represent this video for as much as possible ukrainian speaking authority.

[@crowmob-yo6ry]

I'll never understand why you have such contempt for light rail, particularly American light rail systems. Is there any light rail system in the USA that you don't hate?

[@horizonoftheeast]

They are worth that level of hate. They are the results of too much compromises nullifyling their intended purpose, almost making the city govt pretending to provide public transit

[@laurencefraser]

Fundamentally, a GOOD light rail system is indistinguishable from a tram, or it's a weird niche compromise to allow for the use of existing infrastructure like the DLR that has none the less been done Properly. American light rail systems are... not. (In general, I'm sure there's some exceptions here and there). Most American light rail systems, to my understanding, are as they are due to NIMBYs, politicians, or very short sighted bean counter types preventing an actually suitable system from being implemented, and have all sorts of problems (the specific problems vary, mind you) that mean they miss out on any of the advantages of either a proper tram system or a heavier rail system without offering any unique advantages of their own (other than getting the afformentioned list of obstructionist twits to shut up and get out of the way of the project) to make up for it. Some of them manage to make it work well enough, of course, but it's still not the option you Should pick in the vast majority of situations where it IS picked.

[@f.g.9466]

He complimented the excellent light rail in Paris, listed strengths and weaknesses of light rail, and gave examples of good use cases. So it doesn't really seem like he has an issue with light rail, rather an issue with light rail not being properly implemented, or worse being the choice when it's not the right mode. Almost like the point of the video was to highlight that modes of transit need to be chosen correctly. I feel like some of those light rails in the USA should've been proper metros. I remember Reece pointing Seattle's is doing the job of regional rail (I'm not overly familiar with Seattle, but it feels to big of a city to not have a heavier mode of transit). He has talked about some of the systems in dedicated videos and their issues, and has talked quite a lot about Toronto street cars in the channel and how they struggle without a dedicated right of way among other issues.

[@sebastian.wilson]

Err, that's Brisbane, not Sydney. Looks right near Roma St.

[@NFvidoJagg2]

Kind of disappointed the ferry mention didn't have B-roll of the Halifax ferries.

[@Juan_224]

Where monorail?!?

[@alexejvornoskov6580]

Monotrail is a train - its exactly same role, only different technology. There is nothing that monorail can do, that normal trains cannot. But its more expensive as production numbers are so much lower. Only reason to build it, if a city wants to show off and has extra money to spend on it. But otherwise it doesnt really offer anything unique that other transportation modes dont already offer.

[@stickynorth]

@@alexejvornoskov6580 Wrong. It can also be a viable choice in cities with steep grades... Chongqing for example... A metro just wouldn't make sense there...

[@laurencefraser]

@@alexejvornoskov6580 There are a few, limited, use cases where a monorail is actually suitable while regular rail is not. They're not super common, but they exist. Which is why monorail is generally considered to either not be a gadgetbahn or be right at the low 'only a gadgetbahn if used where it shouldn't be' end of the scale of such things. But yes, most monorails are more about novelty (be it to get the public to actually support it, or to get the politicians to go along with it, or because it's in a theme park) and being better than not having a train at all, rather than being the best system for the job.

[@wonkagaming8750]

jakarta/indonesian video?

[@juanbustos1338]

Buses that shouldn't been buses You destroyed us ayyy *cries in Bogotan spanish*

[@DarrienGlasser]

I pick train

[@Mart_7512]

1:18 That ain't Toronto, that's Richmond Hill.

[@TheNomad3000]

How about monorails?

[@kanojune5754]

Westerners hate monorails (they never seen Tokyo Haneda Monorail or Chongqing Rail Transit L2/L3).

[@MattMcIrvin]

As far as I can tell, the main advantages of them are that an elevated monorail requires less space than other types of elevated train, they look nice, and they are very reliable. So they're popular showpieces for expositions and theme parks, and there might be some other local transit situations where they make sense. But they are also slower than conventional rail, you're generally locked into buying more custom hardware, and the switches are relatively slow and bulky so they don't work well with complicated networks. I rode the Osaka one recently (which is actually a pretty extensive line used as real transit, 28 km long), and I was also struck by how bumpy the ride was, though that hasn't been the case on other monorails I've ridden.

[@LeZylox]

No Monorails 😢

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

No one wants that crap

[@laurencefraser]

They're a very niche subset of elevated rail. There are a few limited situations where they're actually the Correct choice (mostly involving steep changes in elevation, if memory serves), but the vast majority of the time you should be building regular rail (be it elevated, underground, or at ground level) instead. They're not quite full gadgetbahn, but in the vast majority of situations they may as well be.

[@artificial_S]

Liking buses is like having a feet kink

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

Not at all. A well designed bus and bus system can be almost as comfy and often faster than light rail

[@realtissaye]

thats crazy 💀

[@laurencefraser]

... liking busses is perfectly normal... in places with good busses.

[@traindergy]

I think the folks at those think tanks can take a lesson from this! Sorry, buses are not THE only good mode of transit!

[@laurencefraser]

They are the best model! ... for a limited (though common) subset of use cases. For most other uses cases their merits begin and end at 'not as bad as cars'.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

Modes of Travel 0:45 Bus 1:55 Tram 4:33 Train 7:50 Other Modes 11:25 Catapult

[@lassepeterson2740]

Compartments with windows that can open and slam door stock would make me take the train again .

[@mrvwbug4423]

ScotRail still runs HSTs, I believe they're the last operator of them in the UK. I've literally never seen opening windows and slam door stock outside the UK in my lifetime. Even US rolling stock from the same era as the HSTs have trainline operated doors, non-opening windows and fully air conditioned. The Amtrak Amfleet cars were built around the same time as the HST sets (late 70s to early 80s).

[@lassepeterson2740]

@@mrvwbug4423 Yes slam door compartment stock was European wide it lasted longest in south England . USA never had this as far as i know , USA did have dutch doors and some commuter trains had windows that opened and rarely i seen compartments . But i think trains should be more fun than efficient . As far as busses are concerned the Routemaster is the only ride .

[@NoirMorter]

I looked to see how long it'd take me to get across town to a large mall on the other side of Omaha. It'd take me 4 hours by bus by car its 20 mins.

[@TheOneCity1]

700th view also ❤❤❤

[@Zelda-sr6ro]

Uploaded the day Montréal announces the official tram project that should not be a tram 😅

[@mukulvdhiman]

This should help me with Cities Skylines

[@matt_the_wildman_2112]

Virgin Urban Transit Planner < RMTransit Viewers

[@jeremymurphy3555]

Me using this for cities skylines

[@TrenesytransportesGDL]

I don't know why Americans call trams light trains.

[@laurencefraser]

Properly speaking, they don't, they call them street cars. American light rail is what happens when they want to cheap out and make the streetcar do the job of a proper heavy rail solution, but want to make it less obvious how stupid that is by not calling it a streetcar. Also regulation dodging and public perception dodging. Mind you, the use of the term 'light rail' is not uniquely american, but it pretty consistently amounts to 'tram-like things that are doing something weird such that calling them trams would cause public confusion and/or regulatory problems'.

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

​@@laurencefraser 'light rail' is almost uniquely US and Canadian. Very few countries have an equivalent of the term and in e.g. the UK 'tram' is almost always used for systems that would be considered 'light rail' in the US. Also that last part's not how the term 'light rail' is actually used. In the US anything thats not a streetcar or metro is 'light rail' even if 'tram' would be a better term

[@beyondEV]

@@Gfynbcyiokbg8710 RBS is a legacy light rail system of Bern. Their Terminal at Bern (Underneath the Heavy Rail Station) had to be upgraded. Built to handle 16k People a day, they now have a daily ridership into Bern of up 60k. Because of the rather frequent stops, it's not worth to upgrade to Heavy Rail, as Trains wouldn't really be able to go above 60 mph. Most Light Rail (which is not a tram and partially or fully runs as a streetcar) in switzerland dates back to times, where there weren't cars or buses. It mostly uses 1m gauge, and it was either terrain and / or original ridership, which prompted the use of light rail. But with modern LRT units, they do well. People don't care that much about space or not having a seat during rush hour, if they only spend like 15 min on the LRT.

[@米空軍パイロット]

​@@Gfynbcyiokbg8710How do non-English countries refer to light rail?

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

@@米空軍パイロット depends on the language/country

[@BLACKSTA361]

U can't have a complete Transit System without having at least a decent and frequent Bus System in my opinion

[@LouisChang-le7xo]

(cough cough) every american city that tries to build light rail with hourly buses connecting

[@stickynorth]

You can but you need really dense urban areas and a streetcar to backstop it... And few places have that now... Thank you GM Streetcar scandal! ;-)

[@BLACKSTA361]

@@stickynorth Sometimes I wonder how much better off a situation we'd be in if many of the cities didn't tear out their tram/streetcar networks. One of the most crucial mistakes of the past 75 Years

[@BLACKSTA361]

@@LouisChang-le7xo They're trying to skip a crucial step in tbe process then wonder why the overall process isn't working 🤔

[@rossbleakney3575]

@@BLACKSTA361 I don't think it made any difference at all. The problem was embracing the freeway and the whole idea that everyone (who can afford to) live outside the city and commute in. This lead to cities replacing buildings with parking lots (instead of bigger buildings) as they grew. When they stopped growing the whole thing collapsed and we are left with cities that consist of sprawling low-density areas (which are extremely difficult to serve with transit of any type).

[@nickanand8087]

There's not a best transit mode, but there's a worst one and it's the toronto strettcar system.

[@Gfynbcyiokbg8710]

There are definately worse

[@stickynorth]

@@Gfynbcyiokbg8710 100% For what it is... A last-mile solution, the Toronto Streetcar is fine. Just not as great as automated metro's or conventional subway systems...

[@LeonidJP92]

(Please pin me) Trolleybus 🚎 Pros: • Electric powered (like tram) • Rolling stock live longer without a diesel engine • Faster acceleration cause electricity • Tired (like bus) • Easy to add in car centric cities • You don't need to dig up a street • Faster to construct that a tram • Rolling stock can be transformed from buses • (If you want) With additional battery (like electric buses) you can run routes in new neighbours then new wires is in constructing Cons: • Wires need specific maintenance • Specific switches need to be installed • Not so popular (almost only in post Soviet countries) • All problems of a bus without diesel engine