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Originally Posted by JM1
Anyone know how noisy the Citadis trains are?
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I'll hazard a guess based on the fact that what we're going to be using is 100% low floor that we'd be using the Alstom Citadis 302, used on the Paris T2 tramway:
• Video Link
It doesn't seem too noisy to me. Note that the Citadis is modular so we can have a different cab on ours.
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I search the web and see that they are supposed to be 5 dB quieter. But this doesn't tell me much.
Are they louder than a diesel bus? My guess is the sound is more penetrating because it is higher frequency (from wheel on rails) than a diesel engine.
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I have the misfortune of living near the Transitway trench. I also lived in Calgary near the C-Train. It's not difficult to tell which is coming first.
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I also suspect vibrations are a little worse. Am I right?
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Why would you think that?
The weight of a rail vehicle is spread out linearly along the rails and laterally through the ties into ballast. The weight of a bus is spread out through a half a dozen or so point loads under the wheels into asphalt. In other words, the vibrations of a rail vehicle are spread out more to begin with and the nature of the running way is far more conducive to dissipation.
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Also, anyone know if it depends if the trains have a pantograph or take their electricity from a third rail.
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Pantograph.
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I am intrigued by what appear to be two central rails in some of the renderings. Could these be electricity pickup and return? Given that the system will run on a dedicated right of way (without plans to run buses on that same row or to run the trains on city streets) a ground pickup would be possible, although care would need to be taken in stations to switch the power off because the platforms are essentially at ground level.
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Kitchissippi asked about that earlier. My guess is that they are derails, i.e. old scrap rails placed to prevent a derailment from becoming a disaster by trapping the wheels of a derailed train between the rail and the derail and thereby avoiding the possibility of the train tipping over.
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Also, if you are going to constrain yourself to a dedicated ROW (no street running in the suburbs), then why do you need to have curb-level entry and exit? It seems that on a dedicated ROW, platforms can always be constructed to desired height.
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Answer: you don't. That's one of the things that the earlier light rail - light metro discussion was about, i.e. the City is building this thing to what amounts to light metro standards but is going to put light rail vehicles on it, and, more to the point, it seems like any suburban extensions will also be built to that standard.