Making Our Transit More Resilient

[@c.t.8614]

Interesting to note that one of the reasons the NYC subway was built was due to the devastating blizzard of 1888 in which buried the city in snow, the response of the city was to put utilities and trains underground. Now, during major snowstorms and blizzards the underground sections of the subway still run without disruption.

[@chrisorr8601]

Huh that’s fun thanks for sharing!

[@MIKEJ788]

I LOVE UNDERGROUND SUBWAY NETWORKS!

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

The snow wasn't as bad for the elevated railways as some people (and some publications) made it out to be -- if you have an open structure elevated, snow in excess of the little bit that can sit on the girders is just going to drift down through the structure. The snow did, however, make many of the elevated stations inaccessible for people that wanted to use them.

[@h8GW]

@Lucius Chiaraviglio 7-train Queens Boulevard concrete viaduct: _looks nervously around the room_

[@nikhillrao3799]

Too bad the stations get flooded during heavy rains lol

[@thunder____]

I think using hockey sticks to clear away snow and ice might be the most quintessentially Canadian thing I've ever heard of

[@ianweniger6620]

ICE hockey sticks... I'm sure @RMTransit Reece didn't mean for the outside world to be thinking Cdns beat even more defenseless things than we already do during winter

[@RMTransit]

It really is!

[@KingLarbear]

@@RMTransit if you're going to put words on the screen, please make sure they are on the screen long enough to be read, this can be frustrating

[@Exploder11]

I think those wavy subway grates 5:02 were put in just before Huricane Sandy and they were said to be for preventing flooding, but the flat grates could be covered in bolted down plywood, while the waves couldn't. The wave grates could only be covered by tarps which blew away and let in just as much water as if they were open flat grates. The real purpose of those wave grates, and their periodic flanges is to prevent the homeless from sleeping on them. There are also bicycle rack grates which exist for the same reason.

[@TMAziz]

Worse for unhoused people, worse for transit users; that's a win-win for the people who make these decisions.

[@serendripity2498]

yea it's called hostile architecture and sadly, it's everywhere all around the world once you take a closer look :/

[@Yay295]

Many of Minneapolis' light rail vehicles are actually equipped with a permanent snowplow, as well as pantographs designed to cut through ice on the wires.

[@camberweller]

Great idea. Think it out even further. What if city buses had medium-grade snow plows?

[@Ghfvhvfg]

@@camberweller for some vehicles yep

[@frafraplanner9277]

Trimet needs this

[@bernardrr]

One aspect that is often overlooked is the humble bus stop. Here in Ottawa we seem to forget about winter for the other 6 months of the year, so our bus stops aren't designed for snow clearing. It's not unusual to find a snow bank between the shelter and the road, something that is impassible to anyone with mobility issues. We are also shamefully bad at clearing sidewalks, which are literally the first step in a functional transit system.

[@arokh72]

Extreme heating, flooding, and fires, are a real issue here in Australia, and Sydney's transit network has suffered from all 3 over the last several years. There has been extreme summer heat in parts of the city, especially the inland western suburbs, where one summer's day it got as high as 47 degrees C, which you can imagine disrupted rail travel due to failing signals and track distortions. We had the major bushfires of 2019/20 which destroyed or damaged a lot of rail and road infrastructure, and it took almost 6 months for the Blue Mountains line to be restored. The flooding issues Sydney has had over the last 2 years, especially this year, has damaged a lot of infrastructure, including subsequent landslides due to the excess rain. It's a shame you didn't mention Sydney in your video, as over the last 3 or 4 years, it has become a good example of what a lack of resilience building leads to.

[@moofey]

Vancouver and cold/snow really don't mix. With the frequency of snow events increasing I feel like they haven't done enough on the bus network to deal with the issues that crop up. They talk about tire socks on the routes up to SFU but there are so many routes that also have to deal with steep hills which basically can barely run at all. There also needs to be better snow response from the cities to ensure these routes are clear. It seems that with every winter that goes by, the snow and the city's response to it worsens. SkyTrain is a bit of an odd one because it primarily is snow accumulation on trains and doors freezing. I've found that the newer the train, even with the doors hanging on the outside of the train, the better it gets through the colder weather. The Mark II stock has really bad issues with snow accumulation in general and I remember with the most recent storm having to clear snow out of the doors myself on the earlier trains so that it could close. Hopefully, when the Mark Is are retired and the Mark Vs enter service it will improve.

[@RMTransit]

Hopefully newer trains incorporate features like heated door thresholds and the like!

[@imsbvs]

winter tyres is a better solution, having driven on winter tyres myself I can say they make driving much easier and safer when there is snow on the road

[@teddymacrae]

I grew up in Vancouver and recently moved to Montreal. The way mtl handles snow is miles ahead of Vancouver and even places like Toronto and Edmonton. It doesn't seem to me like the STM manages their buses any better than translink. In fact I'd say they're are generally in worse shape. It seems to me it's all in the snow clearing and salting.

[@SirDerpofCamelot]

That snow storm on the 29th stopped the majority of transit; save for Skytrain, which was actually running. Maybe Vancouver needs more rail since other modes seem less reliable.

[@williamhuang8309]

@@RMTransit I've seen images of snow accumulating on the insides of the doors. Seems like an issue exclusive to the Mk I and Mk II stocks. But the daily dose of Canada line outages during the snowstorm that happened just last week needs to be fixed.

[@AaronSmith-sx4ez]

Bad weather can actually help transit, because sometimes its competition is more impacted by adverse conditions. Airlines are very vulnerable, because they crews often commute in from far away areas, and few routes use hub-spoke any more. Most train routes tend to have local crews and routes which make adapting to adversity easier. Am not sure tunneling is always the answer...it is a two-edged sword. It handles many adverse reports well, but not mega floods. Something that would help tunneled transit would be to install drainage trenches along the tracks to make it easier to pump out water. Switching to overhead wires vs third rail is also a nice option for areas with heavy floods. Lastly, construction quality is paramount with underground systems. Whether your system leaks or not, sometimes just boils down to whether you had a competent contractor who used good materials and had tight tolerances.

[@RMTransit]

Yes, often during adverse weather people who don’t want to drive or cycle or commute by other means get on transit

[@johncrwarner]

I was visiting Tallinn in Estonia in the winter and there was a snow storm overnight and I was so impressed that the streets were cleared and the trams and busses were all running. In Britain where I was living at the time if you had one snowflake on the line it was "the wrong kind of snow" and services would be suspended.

[@dasy2k1]

It's very much as case of how frequently it snows to the level that investing in the infrastructure to deal with it becomes worthwhile. Traditionally the UK didn't get enough snow to keep a fleet of snowploughs on standby. Just a couple up in Scotland and the pennines.... Some diesel locos were also able to mount a small snowplough on the front which was usable up to about 30cm of snow In countries where they expect heavy snow they have a fleet of specialist snowblowers and suchlike

[@Steff2929again]

Don't forget the 'Urban wind island effect'. Large open places, wide roads, tall buildings and not enough trees makes wind speeds in an urban area noticeably higher. This aspect of city planning is probably more important than currently understood.

[@RMTransit]

A lot of planning effort goes in to mitigating this effect actually!

[@katrinabryce]

@@RMTransit I don't know how far away you walked from Tottenham Court Road Elizabeth Line station when you visited London, but one block away to the east, there is a new development which includes Google's offices that is a really bad wind tunnel. It is not the one you showed in your video.

[@jonathanodude6660]

​@Zaydan Alfariz transit quality doesnt necessarily translate to urban heat. pretty sure central park has less heat issues. less asphalt and concrete = less heat. less tall buildings and the reflective glass windows on them too.

[@jonathanodude6660]

@Zaydan Alfariz yes, city planners must take the aspects of the building plan, which have effects on the heating, wind speed and drainage, into consideration when approving construction.

[@jonathanodude6660]

@Zaydan Alfariz surely you can use paint that has good thermal properties lol?

[@jtsholtod.79]

💙 Southwest has entered the chat: "Anyone looking for a crew scheduling system that fails under weather-induced demand?"

[@RMTransit]

This is actually a really interesting problem 😅 it gets the CS part of my brain going

[@hockeymaskbob2942]

Southwest airlines also lobbies against highspeed rail in Texas 😒

[@dylanc9174]

@@RMTransit Reece I was wondering if you could do a video on PEI's trans-provincial toonie transit system that just recently got expanded. It is a very interesting solution to connect rural towns, and excites me. PEI is making progress on reducing car culture. Warning: T3 hasn't made a map of the routes, so you may have to create your own, but the schedules are online.

[@somethingsomething404]

Westjet in Canada is next, their system is a joke

[@staycgirlsitsgoingdown2]

The MBTA (boston) needs to watch this video. This is in one of the parts of the us that famously gets super harsh winter but the whole network completely falls apart the second the snow starts. The red and orange lines just completly give up if there’s more than 4 inches of snow on the ground and the busses can’t even run on time in sunny weather, in inclement conditions they don’t even try to keep a consistent schedule and just let it all go to hell

[@thingamabobgk2946]

Don't forget that the Red Line stops running when it gets too hot as well. Boston covering all the temperature bases!

[@sitdowndogbreath]

When did this start?

[@sams3015]

Idk why but the hockey stick thing cracked me up. Such a Canadian solution

[@RMTransit]

It really is!

[@MrBirdnose]

The reason for the tree policy in San Francisco is that people pitch a fit if you cut down any urban trees in California. The town I live in has a big fight going on over whether it's acceptable to cut down a dozen or so trees for a new bicycle path. It's caused a huge delay during the environmental impact phase and may result in the whole project being canceled.

[@kamyabmashian2892]

Sure enough, the Caltrain rail corridor mentioned in the video was blocked when a tree got knocked over by this weeks' storm. Apparently it was a "historic eucalyptus tree" (even though eucalyptus trees are invasive in California), so they couldn't remove it preemptively even though they knew it posed a risk well in advance.

[@MrBirdnose]

@@kamyabmashian2892 I've developed a healthy dislike for eucalyptus. They're constantly shedding limbs and bark strips, they're highly flammable, and they rot easily.

[@katrinabryce]

In London, and I believe other cities in the UK with underground railways, ventilation shafts tend to open up at least roof height of a 1 storey building, so about 3 meters above the ground. Flooding and storms are our greatest weather risk, and, in the South of England, > 5mm of snow though other parts of the UK tend to cope just fine with that.

[@no_name4796]

I am pretty sure the heat way also fucked up england rail tracks very bad.

[@ghamerons6287]

With the uk if it’s waterproof then it’s good all year round

[@davidty2006]

@@no_name4796 It got so bad some parts of infrastructure in south london litterally caught fire.

[@PeteS_1994]

London doesn’t cope well with heatwaves.

[@jasonreed7522]

5mm of snow is barely worth mentioning, more like a dismissal of snow as a consideration because that isn't even enough to make a proper snowball with. (Lake effect from the great lakes can dump 7feet / 2.13meters in a single 24hr event.)

[@blushinglampshade]

Can you do a video dedicated to how to make transport more accessible to disabled people (could include deaf and blind too). Lots of very easy bits of planning can make a huge difference

[@questionmaker5666]

I agree, public transport will become more relevant as time goes on, so we must make it as accessible as possible for everyone. No one should be left behind because of solvable design issues.

[@alistairlee7604]

Living in DC, I remembered when snow fell in the early months of 2022, the metro was still running and the heat was on inside the stations and the subway cars were as well.

[@Roma_eterna]

Oh yeah! As a DC resident myself, it’s nice not having to wait in the cold or snow for a bus that may never come. I always prefer trains for that reason. Granted, they do slow down service during inclement weather, but it still runs from what I can tell.

[@WhiskyCanuck]

A bit OT: but I notice that the raised vents at 5:02 follow the modern pattern of hostile architecture against homeless people. Those crazy shapes prevent anyone from sleeping on a warm vent to keep from freezing to death. Or for any pedestrian from using it as a bench to take a moment of rest. Maybe instead of adding the cost to make them hostile, just spend that on making sure they're robust enough to support these secondary (and in the modern world with its exorbitant cost of living in many places, necessary) functions?

[@jackbates7467]

The weird thing about the Texas storm is DART (Dallas's Transit) kept some service running, but during a smaller snow storm the next year they shut down completely.

[@joermnyc]

The cross river tunnels were the worst impacted during Sandy, that required months of shutdowns to allow reconstruction to remove everything with salt water damage. The worst station flooding was the brand new South Ferry station for the 1 train, water was all the way up to the top of the escalator in the mezzanine. They had to reopen the old loop station that can’t accommodate an entire train, only the front cars could open the doors.

[@RMTransit]

Yep! It was astonishing to watch, hopefully everything is more resilient going into the future

[@langr752]

“They go out with Hockey sticks to clear the door tracks”….. thats the most Canadian thing ive ever heard you say!! Haha😂

[@mactan_sc]

in Rochester MN the pedestrian tunnels and skyways were fantastic for crossing downtown without ever going outside

[@DanChan-qb2ec]

In HK, most MTR lines are far from trees except the East Rail Line. Therefore after a huge typhoon (weaker hurricanes that appears in the Pacific Ocean), the East Rail Line is always the one to be disrupted.

[@RMTransit]

Need to move them back!

[@marcleslac2413]

​@@RMTransitWhat do you think the rem will do for on west island branch, especially the segment between kirkland and fairview pointe claire as, there's a basically a small forest right next to the track. As Ive witnessed what nature can accomplish in april. (read lost power for 4 days this april and my dads car is in the shop getting its roof fixed).

[@AAA839]

Not only East Rail Line, Light Rail on Tuen Mun also had same problem. Typhoon is not really weaker hurricanes. Both are the same thing just use on different geological place. With Typhoon being stronger and stronger we deal with more disruption on services easily. All overground section of the system will suspended services with signal warning of 9 and 10. Don't forget the Super Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018 cause huge disruption across whole MTR network and road traffic too. Remember we didn't immune with Flooding too.

[@kepstin]

Kind of interesting that during the snowstorm during filming, several of the things you mentioned in the video came into effect here in Ottawa - they ran the trains overnight to keep tracks and power lines clear of snow and ice, closed some bus stops on hills or spots with poor traction, and reduced bus sizes on a few routes where articulated buses commonly got stuck.

[@theowainwright7406]

In my part of England the signalling system stops working when the temperature is over 35°, expect delays or cancellations if there’s a rainstorm and even worse delays and cancellations if there’s snow.

[@kartik_sinha]

We are also facing severe cold here in India. Ok not as cold as Canada but cold by our standards. Recently many cities reported temp below 10`C which is cold for us. Delhi particularly reported a historic low of 5C. This led to unforseen problems with our railway infrastructure. Our rails are designed for high temp in most places (there are some places where tp goes below freezing and the rails used there are different) so when it got too cold the rails started chipping hence the speeds had to be reduced for safety reasons. Talking about floods, keeping entrances above ground level is a common practice here as well. I have never seen any railway station be it mainline or metro which has its entrance at ground level. The escalator and lifts are always 2-3 feet above ground, even more if that area floods regularly. You always have to take a few steps/ ramp to reach the level where you can take the escalator or lifts. Electrical substations are also kept higher than the ground. I have recently observed that all new mainline rails are built on embankments 4-5 feet above ground level. This increases the cost but has a ton of benifits. First of all you don't have to put a ton of work for grade separation. Since the track level is already higher than the ground, roads normally go down a bit to cross them. Plus there are gaps for water to go through in case of flooding and tracks do not flood. Uncertain weather patterns are a really big problem for all kinds of infrastructure and we need to find elegant solutions to keep our lives moving.

[@vidarfe]

Another good thing about tunnels is that they reduce the problem of nimbyism.

[@ollie2074]

I know this video covered a lot of weather events, but another issue is fog. This usually always disrupts ferries and sometimes to lesser extent depending on the severity buses, as well as trains that don't have in-cab signalling.

[@Hollandstation]

the NS (the dutch railways company) should take notes here. In winter conditions the switches are always (at least from a passenger view) freezing And in the autumn there are leaves on the tracks which disrupts service.

[@davidty2006]

what is with railways and bad weather? feels universal.....

[@RMTransit]

Everyone has room for improvement 😅

[@LoneHowler]

I found it off that you chose Ottawa for temperature swings when Calgary is known for drastic temperature swings in less than 24hours with Chinooks we can go from -30 to +30 in a matter of hours. Recently we went from -40 to +1 just before Christmas day

[@joelhurtado3652]

I recently moved to SF. While BART leaves a lot to be desired, one thing I think it gets right is the integration with the earthquake early warning system. As far as I understand it is open source (at least the warning system part) and covers the rest of the west coast.

[@cityjetproductions]

2:37 A lot of the rail lines in Europe were also that way in the beginning, but there have been many more initiatives to realign them with new tunnels and diversions over the years.

[@RMTransit]

Same in North America, just more slowly I would say. Roads too

[@UrdnotChuckles]

That raised wavy ventilation grate was also a prime example of hostile architecture, meant to keep people from sleeping there. So not exactly super ideal in that particular configuration.

[@bftjoe]

Good, who wants to use transit/sidewalks next to homeless people.

[@MercenaryPen]

trees directly adjacent to rail lines aren't just a threat to power lines, leaf fall on rail lines creates conditions that maximise the chances of severe wheelslip- which can lead to fatal accidents (as seen in the vicinity of Salisbury, UK a year or two back)

[@MarioFanGamer659]

This made me realise of a comment somewhere (don't know the exact video) which mentioned that diesel trains don't have to deal with trees shorting a circuit with the overhead wires and are (supposedly) a big reason for delays on Amtrak services even though weather can affect both sources (internal and external alike). That with the leaves is actually a good point and is further an issue not solved with an internal power source.

[@raphaelkinney]

Anytime I think of someone asking for tunneling I think of Switzerland busting through the ground like the Kool-Aid man.

[@TorToroPorco]

Regarding the hardening of infrastructure I’m really curious about Taipei’s subway and the design allowances for civil defence. I took notice of the blast proof doors at the subway entrances and the wide passage areas above the platform level that are able to hold a large number of people. Taipei receives over 90 inches of rain annually so drainage is a major consideration as well. Taiwan is also in an earthquake zone so there’s that as well.

[@andrewmasin5787]

The Washington D.C. Metro is deep level. I wonder if any Civil Defense features were included? Any Washingtonians, or ex US CD people on the board?

[@Lucius_Chiaraviglio]

I have noticed in my time in the Boston area that the resiliency of the MBTA and Amtrak has been getting worse, not better. In the 1970s and 1980s, Amtrak and the T used to be able to keep running through a major blizzard. Now both shut down for even a moderate event. You can tell that it's due to misplaced government priorities, because the roads get plowed and reopened first.

[@cheesygazelle]

Trees too close to the tracks isn't just an issue for OHLE during windstorms but leaf fall in autumn months causes serious issues with traction. "Leaves on the line" is often used as a reason for delays or cancellations in the UK, usually to much ridicule by people who don't realise that operating a train on wet leaves is like driving a car on black ice. Letting trees grow adjacent to tracks might be nice from a visual perspective and help soften noise pollution, but it's a disaster for rail operations during very typical weather at certain times of year.

[@michaelimbesi2314]

I’ve lived in the northeast US my whole life, and we’re famous for the all leaves changing and falling in autumn. I have never once heard of leaves causing any train any trouble. And the US typically has steeper grades and larger and heavier trains than the UK or Europe. I think your trains might just have a problem.

[@kitchin2]

@@michaelimbesi2314 It has been a problem in the US Northeast. Wiki “slippery rails” and see the sand, water jet, and other techniques on MNRR etc.

[@Muzer0]

A raising grate, how sweet the sound

[@ricequackers]

This is a big issue for the UK since we're so used to having mild, temperate weather for 50 weeks of the year. As a result the country isn't built for hot weather (anything above 27C), cold weather (anything below 0C), or lots of snow (anything more than light flurries). Not just transit, everything seems to stop working.

[@kartik_sinha]

Yes here in India we build infra keeping temp between 15C to 50C in mind. Now we are going through a cold wawe and many cities have temp below 5C and we saw corners of rails chipping which led to speed restrictions. We also saw a lot of cracks on roads because so much contraction due to cold temprature wasn't a consideration.

[@cx5307]

Resilience (or redundancy) not only concerning the weather, but construction works, strikes or sickness waves seems to be a very important topic to me. Owning a car costs me between 3 and 5 Euros per kilometre, because I drive very little. But selling the car is no option for me, because I need it as a backup when trains and busses are not running.

[@sonicboy678]

Knocking snow out of doorways isn't something I'd consider unexpected. Doing it with hockey sticks sounds utterly hilarious.

[@HenryMidfields]

Maybe we should get NHL players as volunteers for some good old publicity!

[@RealConstructor]

Amsterdam is 2m below sealevel and the deepest metro station is about 25m deep. Groundwater level is managed in our country and about 1m below surface level in Amsterdam. My town (and by that my house) is about 6m below sealevel and groundwater is about 0.5m below surface level. If our sea and river defenses fail, I’m f*cked. I have a bungalow with a flat roof at 3.5m, so I will be 2.5m submerged. I may have to buy an inflatable dingy and store it at the roof. No kidding, climate-change-caused flooding is a real time threat. Look up the island nation of Tuvalu and the islands nation of Maldives. They don’t have high grounds to flee to, their island(s) will submerge. And their whole nation will have to move to other countries. For them it isn’t a future threat, it is happening now. Tuvalu is moving some of its citizens to New Zealand every year. Don’t know about Maldives though.

[@apexhunter935]

Also, if your trying to build and/or extend a line into an area with a high water table and/or is flood prone, it may be best to build it on an elevated structure

[@Nicholas-ks8xp]

Halifax has budget and staffing constraints. No snow tires for the buses, and service reduction from lack of staff and storm plans also reduce service. A light automated metro would be perfect for Halifax. But tunneling through solid rock is expensive

[@guyfaux3978]

The only trouble with that advice about not planting trees too close to tracks is that you will now have the tree lobby saying how trees are a CO2 sequestering mechanism and that if you don't plant them/leave them in place when constructing/maintaining transitways, you're somehow not serious enough about climate issues. Y'know, the old "To a hammer, everything looks like a nail" approach, especially when it comes to one's own hobbyhorses.

[@JP-dn1ol]

Very relevant video considering that portions of the Ottawa LRT have been out of service for over 24 hours due to ice build up on the power wires. Hard to believe that something as common as freezing rain can disable the system.

[@CoBy_CoBy-97]

Railroad switches i cold areas also needs heaters to keep them clear from snow and ice. and these heaters needs to be quite effective as when a train goes over the switch it is likely that the shaking will course any snow gathered under the train to be dumped on top of them

[@RMTransit]

Yep, Ottawa was using electric heaters initially but switched to gas as apparently the older ones were not creating enough heat

[@AlRoderick]

It's a common sight for open flames from the gas fired track heaters to be visible around Chicago on the L system, coming right out of the ground, it's spooky.

[@michaelimbesi2314]

@@AlRoderick The other day, the ones on the switch next to the L’Enfant Plaza VRE station were cranking so hard there was visible steam coming off it.

[@MrBirdnose]

@@AlRoderick I told someone that it was because a train used its flux capacitor. ;)

[@MrBirdnose]

In areas that get more light powder snow they sometimes use blowers instead, but for wet snow heaters are the only real option.

[@Hiro_Trevelyan]

About trams and trees : line T4 in Lyon stopped 2 or 3 times in a month because of tree branches falling on the catenary. I never understood how they ended up in there.

[@xander1052]

The way we've prevented flooding on the central line on the London Underground is by not ventillating the line pretty much at all.

[@lucadipaolo1997]

Ground-level power supply could be a solution for wind/tree related damage on overhead lines, especially Alstom's system for trams. It would be interesting to see a video on that, showing some systems that already use it, what its limitations are, and so on.

[@roberthuron9160]

On the Oyster Bay branch,[LIRR],several years ago,a number of trees fell on the rails,and service was severely disrupted! Plus there is a heavy duty power line,paralleling the branch! Double trouble,and not easily corrected! The same goes for some subway lines,in the Bronx,Brooklyn,and Queens! Connecticut also has its problems with trees,and overhead wires! Those problems existed with the trolleys back in the day,too!! Historical note,also see what the TTC,had its arsenal for snow fighting,and assorted work equipment!! Thanks Reece,another thought provoking video,definitely outside the box!! Thank you 😇!

[@freddysanders2826]

ahhh, now i understand why the K line ventilation grates here in LA are raised up by 3 or 4 feet!

[@qolspony]

Elevated lines are good with flooding as long as the current isn't affected. While subways are good with snow as long as the melting of snow isn't drastic. So having a balance of them both is good planning. Street running systems are cheap for every reason So they should never be the main public transportation system in any mid size or large city.

[@strongtowns]

Love the variety of solutions you pointed out- people are brilliant!

[@MrBirdnose]

The wavy raised subway grates are also intended to stop homeless people from sleeping on the grates -- an example of hostile architecture.

[@mymocs61]

Would be interested in learning about how and why other countries build transit faster. Like how much builders get paid and how many hours they work

[@RipCityBassWorks]

Lmao that is peak Canadian: TransLink employees with hockey sticks responding to winter storms to keep Skytrain running reliably.

[@peterhoz]

Melb/Victoria always has a problem with excessive heat in summer.

[@joshlikescola]

Completely agree on the importance of this - if people can't rely on transit, as a system is out of commission for days/weeks after an extreme weather event, then it will push them to drive, creating more emissions and making the problem worse! In terms of cutting back trees/foliage, another big issue for rail systems is leaves on the track during autumn, which massively increase braking distance due to wheel slip. Trees and power lines are a disaster waiting to happen, as the tree will take down any overhead infrastructure with it in windy conditions. Network Rail in the UK seems to finally be getting round to pruning the foliage on many routes - at one point tree branches would regularly brush against the sides of the trains coming out of Nottingham!

Tunnels are also less likely to be involved in accidents with cars or pedestrians. Not, of course, a sick passenger. My main expertise is dependable distributed software systems. Looking at how easily a single fault can stop major portions of our public transport systems is incredible. Definitely not enough resilience nor redundancy.

[@RMTransit]

I certainly agree re redundancy, that’s why I like the planning of Madrids Metro so much, many lower capacity lines helps keep things working even when one has problems.

@@RMTransit With tunnels, there's also less issue with right of way (obviously a big thing on top). More costly, sure, but at least possible. I wonder what other options might exist to reduce the impact of incidents and medical emergencies on the rest of a particular track.

[@GenericUrbanism]

@Zaydan Alfariz Indonesia should do more tunneling especially considering how mountainous that country is.

[@GenericUrbanism]

@Zaydan Alfariz oh I see, tunnels are definitely expensive and would not be built during an austerity period.

[@ordinaryorca9334]

The trees removal thing not being universal is something I just don't get. Here in Belgium infrabel, the company in charge of the maintenance of the tracks in Belgium is allowed to cut down any and all trees on their land that are taller than they are close to the tracks, not the OEL, the tracks, without having to apply for a permit. Now less trees fall on the tracks, less damage is done to overhead lines and I believe we even have less leaves on the track in fall, it at least doesn't seem to cause many delays, as the major events causing delay are the first freeze and first heatwave, not the 2 weeks in which all trees lose their foliage.

[@Unpacked_Mind]

It's always fun to see crossover in interests. Royal Bloof are a great band!!

[@RMTransit]

Royal Bloof 😂

[@EugeneAyindolmah]

Portland had snow and below-freezing temperatures on the 24th, and it stopped all MAX and streetcar service because of icing on the catenary wires. Trimet still ran empty MAX trains after it shut down service to keep the tracks clear, while PBOT didn't bother to run any streetcars the entire day. Trimet had lots of operators not show up because of the snow and ice, so they shut down all bus routes that had low frequency. The bus routes with high frequencies used snow chains, which limited them to 25mph. Even on the 23rd, the MAX (a 55mph network) was limited to 30mph speed because of high winds Then on the 25th, the MAX network was split in half by the Willamette River because the switches malfunctioned on the Steel Bridge

[@paulcomfort1]

Great episode! Very timely and informative.

[@eructationlyrique]

The Montreal REM first phase opening was delayed to spring only because they didn't want the first few months of service to be in winter. They want to break-in the network and rolling stock during clement weather

[@jack2453]

Great sentiments. But I am a bit worried whenever the solutions are 'cut down all the trees' and 'spray chemicals on the wires (which presumably ends up in waterways)'

[@steveyoung780]

An extremely informative video. Many cities will not have considered the various ramifications of weather, temperature etc. Another one for the Top Ten Reece. Thanks.

[@RMTransit]

Thanks so much Steve! I think its a very important topic indeed!

[@bryanCJC2105]

I will always avoid the NYC subway in the summer as the accumulated heat from the subway trains in the Manhattan subway tunnels makes the stations so hot that it's just overwhelming. Here in Chicago, I've always been fascinated by how Metra, the commuter rail system, sets fires on the rail switches to keep them from freezing over in extreme sub-zero weather. It's a weird sight for sure. Chicago's L trains have scrapers installed on the train cars in winter to scrape snow and ice off the third rail as the trains pass over. Mexico City and San Francisco BART both have extensive underground railways that have easily survived major earthquakes. BART was the only way to cross the SF Bay from Oakland for a month after the Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Bay Bridge.

[@AnotherDuck]

Tunnelling... Stockholm says hello! :)

[@JacobOhlssonBudinger]

there is sometimes a case to be made for missing a link. for example on the northern line extension in 2021, the extra stop to clapham junction (which is planned for but not implemented) was intentionally missed as; 1. it was outside the scope of the Battersea TOD site 2. more importantly, if it was built the transfer volumes at the station would overwhelm the northern line charing cross branch, already vastly overcrowded. the plan is when (or more accurately if) crossrail 2 plans get off the ground, providing another route to central london, the extension will be made to the northern line to meet CR2 at clapham. just goes to show there are reasons for making seemingly weird choices

[@jan-lukas]

But inside of cities, you can't just remove most trees from some alleys where they happen to line a tramway. You might have to deal with the damage, but you get a better city for it. If it is mainline rail however, it shouldn't be running through the middle of residential areas, so yes, cut down the trees Also, you can't just do tunnels everywhere. They are 10 times more costly than overground track, and more prone to flooding. You just don't build tunnels, if they're not necessary (because there's not enough space on the surface)

[@andrewmasin5787]

Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM's) have reduced the cost of tunneling. However they do produce deep level tunnels, which some people dislike... don't mind myself!

[@WilliamPitcher]

I just want to say that you are a content machine of late. Congrats. However, please ensure your activity is sustainable. KZbinr burnout is a real thing.

[@RMTransit]

Just December 🎉 new year I’ll return to regular levels :) thanks for caring

[@GenericUrbanism]

@@RMTransit I think you may need a bit of a break so you don’t get burnt out.

[@LeZylox]

1:40 haha i was just there today, it's my favourite Bus line :)

[@imsbvs]

Trees, yes indeed regular problem in the UK as the autumnal fall of leaves tends to make the tracks slippery and cause havoc to rail transport. Modern trains with motors spread though the train suffer as each set of wheels has less grip and traction suffers. Then there is wind. Or shall I say excessive wind. In the "Great Storm of 1987" lots of trees came down, eveywhere, including across the rail tracks. We dodged a bullet in so far that the worse winds were in the wee hours, and by the time commuters started travelling many of the trees had fallen and lines were already blocked. Otherwise trains full of commuters would have become stranded (by fallen trees blocking the tracks where there is 3rd rail electric delivery or taking down overhead power cables) then the trains would have been crushed by falling trees, injuring & probably killing many passengers.

[@drearyplane8259]

"Moderating heat can be easier underground" Londoners: jk poor design is why the tube is so hot not something inherent to tunnels

[@davidty2006]

And the poor design is due to it's age. Though sub surface is better simply because theres openings between tunnels from the days where steam trains were used.

[@RMTransit]

Yep! The tunnels are just soooo tight and relatively speaking also very deep

[@kepstin]

It's kind of interesting how much of a reduction of heat being dumped into tunnels you can create by using regenerative electric braking - turning speed into electricity, dumped into batteries or back into the grid - rather than friction breaking or dynamic braking, which turns speed into heat. I seem to remember reading that the London system has started to do this where possible to try to bring things under control?

[@kueller917]

I'm in the Bay Area for the holidays and while on BART the system did stop a few minutes for an earthquake. It was a small earthquake, I think a 3.0, not even close to where my train was, and on the surface I probably would not even feel it, but it was enough for the system to react. That was very reassuring. The good thing here is that seismic activity is largely independent of climate change so transit systems near faults will already know the risks. Different than Portland having cable-melting weather or Texas freezing over.

[@JonMartinYXD]

You mentioned expansion and contraction of train rails, but another challenge in coping with a large variation in temperature (aside: Edmonton experiences this to an even greater degree than Ottawa, 73.7 C at YEG this year vs 62.7 at YOW) is overhead power lines. If they get too taut in the cold they can snap and if they sag too much in the heat the pantographs can push them out of their supports. Also when it gets down to -40 the track switching gear can have problems and the rails are more susceptible to damage, particularly at crossovers.

[@kepstin]

Overhead power lines for pantographs are typically run in relatively short sections, and each section has a constant tension maintained through it even as power lines stretch or contract - they don't get too taut or sag. You can sometimes see the tensioning pulleys and weights beside the track at spots where a new run of power line starts.

[@linuxman7777]

I know you are a transit channel but I think that all of these resiliency measures would be even more valuable for the freight rail and trucks, as the current state of affairs as far as infrastructure goes isn't good, and they have even fewer resiliency mechanisms than the passenger systems do.

[@leolu4868]

However, when it comes to a major disaster like an unprecedented rain storm, human errors are also to blame. Though China's rail transit infrastructure is the world's finest, a major flooding accident happened last year in the metro line 5 of Zhengzhou, a city in the middle of China. Water flooded the tunnel through the metro depot. But the metro company shut the system down so late that there are passengers already trapped in the train in a tunnel. At last 14 people are dead, 5 are injured. The state department launched an investigation about this. In the end, many higher-ups from the metro company and the local emergency management bureau are arrested. As a Chinese, I do hope these kind of avoidable accidents do not happen again.

[@kskssxoxskskss2189]

During one deep DEEP freeze across New York State my train got held up by frozen switches. Ever since then I've been leery of those situations.

[@mrfriendlolo4971]

Would love if you could do a video on some lesser known rail systems like in Atlanta with MARTA

[@jarjarbinks6018]

Yeah I think what is not talked about enough is just how much more tunneling is done in other countries compared to North America. Both rapid transit and highways There are countries within Europe for instance that have more miles of road tunnel than the United States. There are many instances where tunneling would be preferable but due to cost related reasons such tunnels aren’t built. Whatever the tunnel, whether it for a train or a road, in North America we’re just not very good at building it cost efficiently

[@MarioFanGamer659]

This reminds me of the Big Dig and how it went enough overbudget that some money from MBTA had to be used to pay for the project. If the US were really more efficient than that wouldn't have been that much of a problem, would it?

[@janetj471]

Please leave the “subtitles” on screen a little longer, I can’t read that fast. Thanks

[@RMTransit]

The idea when I put them in is just to pause to read, that’s the solution that I think is better for most users based on the analytics of where people watch

[@npdarcy123]

It doesn't take much for UK rail to suffer because of the weather conditions. We've had 'leaves on the track' as a reason for delayed services, but also the wrong type of snow!

[@darthmaul216]

That makes sense. Leafs, when pressed hard enough produce oil, which reduces traction for breaking and accelerating

[@LightWrathme]

Reminds me of those bobble heads that people put in their cars...

[@PeteS_1994]

This should be a priority during global warming as relative extremes are becoming more normal.

[@electricerger]

Was stuck in YYZ for Christmas, but GO was able to get me out to the GTA and I could get a friend to help the last bit. Trains are the bomb

[@MysteriousTraveler]

I live on the Q line in Brooklyn. Whenever there's a storm a tree falls on the tracks and messes up the whole line.

[@jpnmtrmn93]

You mentioned Hurricane Sandy and NYC. One of my university research projects was a transportation economics study on willingness to pay for resiliency programs like the "Fix&Fortify" project. It was a long time ago, but from what I remember, the hypotheses we made were mostly, and surprisingly, incorrect. For one, we believed that larger families would rather save the money to provide for their children instead of paying a higher fare to use mass transit. but actually the opposite turned out to be true. I would think it's because facing difficulties getting to work to earn the money to provide for the family was the greater concern.

[@verba_volante]

For heat fluctuations, just avoid long rail segments, it's slightly Louder and less eficent, but it's worked in the past, and with modern approach no reason it cant work now.

[@yorkchris10]

Québec installed jeudi 29 décembre 2022 power grid after the Ice Storm. Some railway signals were taken out and not replaced. Regional rail had power and rails, but the doors were said not to open. Ice loading standards may have changed since. Railways have a lot of experience with temperature de cycling - like in tunnels. Skytrain runs trains continuously during snowfall?? They do have a hi-rail blower?

[@ianweniger6620]

Skytrain has no blower but I live in Vancouver and... @RMTransit I think you'll agree that, if we got one, it would be so cool and also the source of so many complaints!

[@mark123655]

Kind of disappointed with the praise handed out to some of these Singapore stations - which have essentially made the station non-accessible for the disabled. It's not that hard to do both - protect against flood and provide access to those who need it.

[@FalconsEye58094]

in the case of the NYC subway so much of the tunnels flood regularly and is not prepared for the storms we're getting all the time, you can see some unbelievable videos online

[@KyrilPG]

Paris long had a plan, that is now quite developed, to face the Seine River floods, especially the much dreaded centennial flood that the city is exposed to. The last major one was in 1910 and it is a bit to Paris what the "big one" is to California. A centennial flood is supposedly overdue and the number one threat to Paris. Photos of the 1910 flood in Paris are numerous and extremely famous, large portions of the city were literally navigable! It delayed the opening of new metro sections at the time. The centennial flood or more modest floods in Paris are not sudden events, they build up over many hours to several days. There are frequent drills and new features or equipment versions are regularly tested for the metro. That includes panels like shown in the video in New York, fast curing water resistant cement and blocks with special frames, large watertight floodgates, kinds of seal plugs, a network of pumps and sections of tunnel that can be ditched and used as overflow buffer. Thankfully a number of prevention and mitigation infrastructures and dispositions have been taken : "floodable" fields and an artificial lake upstream on the Seine and Marne rivers. Also, a kind of arbitration was made as to which part of the agglomeration should be hit the worst and "sacrified" : the less populated and less dense area near the river, with the least human risk and financial cost. Understandably, people living there are not happy about it but it is the lesser evil, with reduced impact, so they are informed about when and how to evacuate. The choice is easy between a few low-lying one-floor single family homes from the 60's or 70's versus 7-floor 19th century buildings, metro and telecommunication infrastructures or the Louvres reserves, etc. Anyway, the risk remains and every other year there's a documentary on TV with simulations and advice on how and what to prepare. Right now the "natural" risk seems to be coming *from* transit instead, as another bus caught fire in Paris. The electric busses that had a bad habit of unexpectedly burning were retired, the last fire (a couple days ago) happened on a hybrid one.

[@roger1818]

Trees were planted beside railway tracks to provide shade and reduce thermal expansion. By cutting down the trees, you are solving one problem but exasperating another.

[@RMTransit]

You can create shade in ways that don’t create a risk of knocking down wires though

[@roger1818]

@@RMTransit You can also choose trees (and trim them accordingly) so that they won’t knock down the wires. I would argue that any structure you build is at risk of being blown over in a wind storm.

[@pbilk]

8:25 I thought this video was made in response to the latest snowstorm in Ontario and most nearby areas, but you clearly stated this was during the snowstorm. If you waited a bit longer before recording this, you would have had a more recent example of a tree landing on a train but between Ottawa and Toronto. 😬

[@LeZylox]

7:40 once in an early morning i was on my diesel Regional train and we just crashed into a tree lying on the tracks the train had to be stopped but there were nor wires damaged since it's a unelectrified track

[@alansiebert7029]

Don't forget walkways and bike paths, people with wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, canes exist too

[@n.b.3521]

I agree we need more tunnels and not just for transit (and not just underground). Every winter, I lament that we don't have more indoor places to just walk around that aren't also just shopping. Like, why don't we have more atriums with greenery or entertainment venues (playhouses, comedy clubs, dance clubs, bowling alleys, etc) attached to the PATH?