The Oil Drum

This is a guest post by DoDo, a railway professional in Hungary who front pages over at the European Tribune and posts here on TOD under the same name.

BruceMcF introduced us to various local transport modes as potential 'recruiters' for high-speed rail. Pursuing most of these is worth on its own, for local traffic. This diary expands on one of these: local rail. As the Recruiters diary indicated, local rail is just one alternative, but it should be the backbone of any decent public transport system.

Public transport near Budapest's Keleti pályaudvar (East Terminal): express and local rail (black), subway (thick red), light rail (thinner red), trolley bus (dashed red), bus (blue) all linked up. Blaha L. t. to the West is again a hub.

Below, I first want to chart distinct categories of local rail: describe their specialities, their differing best uses, and some newer developments. In the real world, however, the boundaries of those categories are rather blurred, what's more, different locales use a bewildering array of rail terminology. But there are also some ingenious ideas mixing the 'basic categories', some of them will be described below, too.

This diary can also be viewed as a general guide as to what kind of projects local initiatives could aim for, and tries to give examples around the world that can be used as model for supporters and argument against opponents.

Having had to take an unanticipated flight to Europe this week, I thought I would pass on a couple of comments about changes in flying conditions after the recent change in security levels, as well as other observations. There really was not a whole lot of change in flying, provided you packed away all your "bathroom cabinet" types of products in your checked luggage. I did and, apart from a question about taking laptops on the plane (I could) had no problems with the flight. The gentleman in front of me, however, had all the domestic products he used set out in front of us, and (at his choice) relegated to a waste bin. The flight from the US to London was as full as usual at this time of year, and London as hectic, it seemed, as the airport always is.