{"id":149,"date":"2024-01-20T11:01:55","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T16:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/migrate\/?page_id=149"},"modified":"2024-02-12T16:39:43","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T21:39:43","slug":"design-guidelines-for-various-transit-modes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/?page_id=149","title":{"rendered":"Design Guidelines for Various Transit Modes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These are some engineering constraints to keep in mind when crayoning your own transit routes and proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"note\"><em>This page incorporates contributions from the following individuals: <a href=\"https:\/\/railsroadsriverside.com\/\" title=\"\">RailsRoadsRiverside<\/a>; ArchBoston users <a href=\"https:\/\/archboston.com\/community\/members\/jeffdowntown.550\/\" title=\"\">JeffDowntown<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/archboston.com\/community\/members\/the-ege.5216\/\" title=\"\">The EGE<\/a>; Reddit users <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/Graflex01867\/\">r\/Graflex01867<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/CreatureXXII\/\">r\/CreatureXXII<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Light Rail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Maximum grade:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/onlinepubs.trb.org\/onlinepubs\/tcrp\/tcrp_rpt_57-a.pdf#page=73\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">4% (unlimited length), 6% (up to 2500 feet), and 7% (up to 500 feet)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Minimum turning radius: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The industry standard is <a href=\"https:\/\/nap.nationalacademies.org\/read\/22800\/chapter\/2#5\" title=\"\"><strong>82 ft<\/strong> (25 m)<\/a>. This allows you to use most off-the-shelf Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) without heavy customization.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>MBTA Green Line, however, has much tighter curves due to being a legacy system. This <span class=\"note\">(and other info about Green Line)<\/span> have been surveyed in <a href=\"https:\/\/dspace.mit.edu\/handle\/1721.1\/111263\" title=\"\">this MIT Thesis<\/a> in great detail, and <a href=\"http:\/\/archboston.com\/community\/threads\/underground-station-layouts.6072\/post-375064\" title=\"\">other ArchBoston users<\/a> have provided <a href=\"http:\/\/archboston.com\/community\/threads\/crazy-transit-pitches.3664\/post-464348\" title=\"\">their digests<\/a>. \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>TL;DR: 45&#8242; anywhere, <strong>49&#8242;<\/strong> non-revenue with simple yard modifications, 60&#8242; revenue. <span class=\"note\">(Note that Park St inner loop is 49&#8242;, and it&#8217;s very useful in Green Line Reconfiguration concepts.)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The EGE <a href=\"http:\/\/archboston.com\/community\/threads\/underground-station-layouts.6072\/post-375064\" title=\"\">mentioned<\/a> that the smallest off-the-shelf LRVs have a turning radius of 66 ft.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Heavy Rail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;m not sure if there exists an industry standard, but here&#8217;s some info from a few heavy rail systems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Maximum grade:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>On the New York City subway system, the maximum grade is <strong>5.5%<\/strong> <span class=\"note\">(for 390&#8242;)<\/span>, and there&#8217;s a 5.4% grade for much longer distance <span class=\"note\">(928&#8242;)<\/span>. <span class=\"note\">(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyctransitforums.com\/topic\/39935-what-is-the-steepest-grade-that-subway-cars-can-handle\/?do=findComment&amp;comment=653100\" title=\"\">Source<\/a>)<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>MBTA&#8217;s Red Line has maximum grade of <strong>4%<\/strong> <span class=\"note\">(for 1200&#8242;)<\/span>. Orange Line has a very short segment with a <strong>5.6%<\/strong> grade <span class=\"note\">(for 60&#8242;)<\/span>; otherwise, the maximum grade is 4% <span class=\"note\">(for 750&#8242;)<\/span>. <span class=\"note\">(Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/bc.mbta.com\/business_center\/bidding_solicitations\/pdf\/MBTA%20RO%20Technical%20Specification%20October%2022%202013.pdf\" title=\"\">MBTA vehicle procurement technical specifications<\/a>)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Minimum turning radius:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>On the NYC subway, for routes that can operate 75&#8242; cars, there&#8217;s a minimum radius of <strong>145&#8242;<\/strong>. However, they&#8217;re hard to navigate for 75&#8242; cars, so all new cars are now 60&#8242;. <span class=\"note\">(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/trains\/comments\/154j5yu\/comment\/jsqm4uf\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\" title=\"\">Source<\/a>, original discussion no longer accessible) (I think they also have tighter curves for routes that only use 60&#8242; cars, but I&#8217;m not sure.)<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>MBTA&#8217;s Red Line has a minimum radius of <strong>250&#8242;<\/strong>, presumably the Harvard curve. (There&#8217;s a permanent speed restriction there because of the tight curve, which may <a href=\"https:\/\/amateurplanner.blogspot.com\/2017\/10\/thinking-big-lets-think-realistic-first.html\" title=\"potentially limit RL's headways\">potentially limit RL&#8217;s headways<\/a>, so that&#8217;s not ideal.) Orange Line has a minimum radius of 440&#8242;. <span class=\"note\">(Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/bc.mbta.com\/business_center\/bidding_solicitations\/pdf\/MBTA%20RO%20Technical%20Specification%20October%2022%202013.pdf\" title=\"\">MBTA vehicle procurement technical specifications<\/a>)<\/span>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span class=\"note\">Note that Red Line&#8217;s cars are 69&#8242; long, and Orange Line&#8217;s cars are 65&#8242; long.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.m.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Toronto_Rocket\" title=\"\">Toronto Rocket<\/a> has a minimum turning radius of 75 m (246 ft), and their cars have length 75&#8242;. <span class=\"note\">(Thanks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/trains\/comments\/154j5yu\/comment\/jsr5hpy\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\" title=\"\">this Reddit comment<\/a>)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mainline Rail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Maximum grade:<\/strong> Most info I can find seem to suggest 4%. (citations TBA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Maximum grade:<\/strong> 6% to 8% <span class=\"note\">(<a href=\"https:\/\/onlinepubs.trb.org\/onlinepubs\/tcrp\/tcrp_rpt_19-b.pdf#page=26\" title=\"\">Citation 1<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/static.tti.tamu.edu\/tti.tamu.edu\/documents\/1225-2F.pdf#page=13\" title=\"\">Citation 2<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These are some engineering constraints to keep in mind when crayoning your own transit routes and proposals. This page incorporates contributions from the following individuals: RailsRoadsRiverside; ArchBoston users JeffDowntown and The EGE; Reddit users r\/Graflex01867 and r\/CreatureXXII. Light Rail Maximum grade: 4% (unlimited length), 6% (up to 2500 feet), and 7% (up to 500 feet) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":99,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-149","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/149\/revisions\/170"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/99"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teban54transit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}