Well, I like trains a lot, so since I'm bored as hell I though about making a post about the trains that circulate by my area. I live there: And for being precise, there: Well, let's talk about some trains damn it. In Valencia we've got 5 lines of urban and suburban trains. 2 lines are completely ground level, the other 3 are partially underground but most of the travel is done at ground level. The five lines are: Line 1: goes from the town Bétera and LlÃria to Vilanova de Castelló, it basically does travel around 70 kms or around that I think. That is the oldest line of the actual train service and dates from 1985 if I'm not mistaken. The travel through the city of Valencia is subterrain. Line 2: under construction, supposed to be a "tram" which will go by the old part of the city until Nazaret. Line 3: goes from Benimaclet (neighborhood of Valencia) to the town of Almassil, and it goes from Alboraya to Rafelbunyol by ground level. All the ground level instalations are herency of the old "Trenet", that means, if I'm not mistaken, nearly 70 year old tracks, but well who cares lol. Line 4: this line is ground level and metropolitan. It is a "tram", like the ones in San Francisco lol but newer of course (and with much less appeal but well). It goes from the beach to the neighborhoods of the town of Paterna of La Vallterna and La Coma (tip for tourists: don't go to La Coma ). Line 5: this line is quite new and still being developed. It goes from the airport to near the docks, and it's completely subterrain. Line 6: another tram line. Goes from Orriols to the docks. Useful for going to the arcade xD. Well, now some pics: This is the typical look of a Line 1 station. Ugly, eh? That train is the second series that circulates by the Line 1, the first series is even older (and worse), but the seats are more confortable. XD Those are the first model Line 1 trains. Those are refurbished new trenet models which are around 35 or so years old. Refurbished means repainted, don't think that they are repaired or something. :lol: This is a old Line 3 unit. The Line 3 stations can be of two kinds: the first ones are very nicely illuminated, with shops, a lot of mechanical stairs, links with busses or even with high speed trains, with connections with other lines. The other kind are gloomy, dark, bad looking stations, completely abandonated talking about personell working in the station, like the one in my neighborhood lol. This is the Line 4 ground level tram. The one in the picture is an old model train, from 1995. They are nice but incredibly noisy, you cannot talk inside them because you won't even hear yourself. Another old Line 1 unit. Those are horribly bad. I remember a rainy day, and it rained inside the train. Literally. The funny thing was how it was during an underground travel. But well. Those suckers are the new tram model used in Line 6. Those, instead of being made in Valencia like the old models, are made in Polonia (english?), and well, they are silent, nice overall and confortable. Another Line 1 model 2 train in some station. Well, we know now how are the urban trains but what about real trains? I can only think about those trains that go by my city: Those go to the towns from Valencia to Castello, Gandia, Moixent, Caudiel, and some more places XD. Confortable, fast, cheap, very good. :020: Those are the Euromed, and go from Valencia to Castello and Alacant , and to other destinations in the country like Barcelona, Madrid, Teruel, etc... I've never used one since they are expensive but from other's experiences they are very good too. Spanish made Euromeds (Euromeds are repainted german trains IIRC). They go from Valencia to Castellon and to Alicante and to other destinations. They are cheaper than Euromeds but not as good. Those are the Talgos. They are the only trains besides from AVE that can go outside of Spain. In Spain, national trains use a bigger track since the governement was paranoid about an invasion by train when the first trains were made. Those can change from the Spanish to the international track spacing in seconds and at 100 km/h. Nifty stuff. Yes, I'm not kidding, I've seen those things circulating... They do the travel between Denia and Alacant. It's fucking pathetic. 1 hour pass frequence. 1960's trains. Avoid it unless you are a train freak like me. Still, it has some appeal since it's like going back to the 60's. XD Someday I'll make a video or something of the metropolitan lines. Cheers. :020:
Bah I can't stand trains in the UK...a bit of light rain and they're 1/2 an hour late... Maybe its just Merseyrail thats put me off. All their carriages sound like you're sitting above a couple of thousand chickens being murdered.
Oh cool, nice to see another train fan over here :nod: I like models like this: Think those always look cool. Of course there aren't any like that in my area ;(
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=HdKtVo9N6qw&feature=related Line 3 from cabin. http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=GcsnkQ8vRf4 Line 1 from cabin. Simply beautiful! EDIT: This one is quite heart touching for me since I've used this line a lot. http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhAcp-Ypppw&feature=related Last travel of the first model Line 1 train (1982-2007). EDIT2: This one is pathetic. Two trains get separated at start: http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=wzNCKJWRIGI&feature=related
Wow, really interesting post. There are no trains/rail lines where I live except for one transport line that runs past my job at the USAFA. This post reminded me of the one time I ever left the country - to go to Italy - we road a few trains to get to our destinations.
Ah, great stuff! Thanks for the pics. Those Euromeds look like rebadged TGVs, in which case, they should be pretty nice - fast (186MPH), comfy & fairly quiet, even at full tilt - worth a ride if you can afford the premium. I miss proper trains...:crying: I really need to spend some time exploring what's left of long distance train travel here (AMTRAK), whilst it lasts.
150 MP/H aproximately, anyway Spanish full size tracks are very old and are very well conservated, and Euromeds circulate at around 220 / 240 KM/H at most of the zones, except at some zones where the tracks haven't got changed yet and are, well, incredibly old and have to go at 120 KM/h but well. AVE is the Spanish Shinkashen for you XD, it has it's own high speed tracks with european standard track size and can go up to 220 MP/H in basically all the travel, the trains can't go that fast, I think that they go at 180 MP/H or so, like SNCF's TGV, but the tracks are brand new and nicely made. FGV is the company that manages the trains in Valencia, and all tracks outside the city are between 50 / 100 years old and most of them remain unchanged, and trains somewhen go at 120 KM/H what is really unsecure, the trains are old and have little security measures, the tracks are old, but it has it's own charm, I'd use it ten times more even knowing that if a donkey crossed the track I'd die, I'd use it before an Euromed or AVE. About the USA, I've heard that the trains aren't bad but there is nearly no service outside of big metropolitan centers. EDIT: http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=yvAVMM7wiaY&feature=related LoL?
Not exactly true. There are plenty of smaller towns which have stations but they tend to be sandwiched between major cities and rarely tend to deviate. Unfortunately due to cheap gas over the years Trains (especially high-speed rail) have taken a backseat to automobile and airline travel over here. Something that we are paying for now and will hopefully change in the future.
It's funny how fuel is cheap in the states and you use the most while the rest of us have to pay through the nose, especially in the UK. Japanese petrol prices have go up 4 times so far this year. It's a joke. Yakumo
Exploiting third world countries, Proping up two-bit dictators, Plotting and supporting coups d'état. We work hard for our cheap gas.
Well, this one is sad. Because of the installation of a new tram line the old trenet station in the docks is going to be demolished. It is preservated as a historical building concerning architecture and industry, since it's one of the oldest train stations in Spain, and if I'm not mistaken the first station in Spain with a regular service for merchant trains. Still, politicians do what they want in Valencia. Gah. It's sad how I know that I'll never see a belgium trenet unit, a wooden trenet unit, or a first model line 1 model never again. Instead of preservating one unit as a museum piece, every unit is destroyed and turned into garbage. Gah...
Why? Those are quite new. Oh wow, this is sad: + = I lol @ 30 year old repainted trains. XD EDIT: a bit of history
US gas/petrol use has been high because it's historically been cheap. Probably the biggest reason why other countries pay more is tax. I'm out of touch with UK prices, although they were darned high when I was last there, so the following figures are lifted from wikipedia: US average tax - 14.2 ¢/litre UK tax - 69.53p/litre Japan tax - no idea, but I suspect it's high (didn't they recently have a gas tax holiday?) In the last few years, I've gone from paying as low as $1/gallon to $3.90/gallon - still way cheaper than Europe, but enough of a rise to slow the economy & panic more than a few politicians... I LoL'ed. Looked like they were having fun. More fun than I remember commuting across London in the rush hour... By European standards, I'd consider it fairly true - in Europe, you can usually get to a passenger rail service well within a 50 mile radius of a given point, whereas in the US you might have to go a lot further to find a service that might only run 1 or 2 times a week. There's still a pretty extensive rail network here, but nearly all of it is owned by railroad companies that run freight traffic exclusively (they ditched passenger service when Amtrak was created in the 70's) - as a consequence intercity passenger traffic is very much a second class citizen, as it mostly has to run over tracks owned by the freight railroads. However, light rail is leading to a resurgence of passenger traffic inside/around many cities now. But for intercity travel - air is king.
50 mile? Here every town separated by maybe 10 Km has it's own train station, and big towns (50.000+ hab) have two, or even four train stations the only problem is that there are two companies there but you can go basically everywhere by train.
