MER Cover Up

[Two-lane]

Lisbon trams are standard gauge and run in the city. The MER is 3 foot gauge and most of the time runs out in the middle of nowhere.

The MER track has very tight bends and steep inclines.

The bus journey time Douglas/Ramsey is 50 minutes, and the MER time is 85 minutes (lateness and breakdowns excluded).

Some trams have wooden seats. No trams have adequate heating.

To provide a reasonable service brand-new trams would be required. The DoI would welcome the opportunity to install a brand-new tram system.

Everyone else would be happy to get the bus.

 

[Lightening McQueen]

Pull the tracks up and make it a road for mamils and electric cars, they can argue with one another as to who’s saving the planet more.

Edited October 7, 2023 by Lightening McQueen

[Roger Mexico]

2 hours ago, Max Power said:

Imagine if we had a modern tram service running on these lines, how do other places cope? In fact how do they cope in Lisbon, Portugal where very similar trams to ours are operated in and out of the city and in a rural environment?

I don't know about Portugal, but in the UK they tend to operate in city centres where vehicular traffic is restricted and has to be slow-moving.  In less crowded places they tend to operate on old train tracks and so be segregated from cars etc.

[John Wright]

30 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

I don't know about Portugal, but in the UK they tend to operate in city centres where vehicular traffic is restricted and has to be slow-moving.  In less crowded places they tend to operate on old train tracks and so be segregated from cars etc.

Except where there are track/road crossings! 

[monasqueen]

11 hours ago, Two-lane said:

Lisbon trams are standard gauge and run in the city. The MER is 3 foot gauge and most of the time runs out in the middle of nowhere.

Lisbon trams are 900mm gauge - a vey small fraction less than 3 ft.

Do you not recall that a Lisbon tram was bought for the MER a number of years back? The bodywork was a bit too wide, and it would not go round some of the MER's bends, so the body became a waiting room, and the rest was kept for spares.

[WTF]

2 hours ago, monasqueen said:

Lisbon trams are 900mm gauge - a vey small fraction less than 3 ft.

Do you not recall that a Lisbon tram was bought for the MER a number of years back? The bodywork was a bit too wide, and it would not go round some of the MER's bends, so the body became a waiting room, and the rest was kept for spares.

the body wasn't too wide , the length coupled with the position of the bogies made the underhang and overhang greater than MER trams so it wouldn't go round some bends ,  the actual width/loading gauge was ok on paper.

[woolley]

4 hours ago, WTF said:

the body wasn't too wide , the length coupled with the position of the bogies made the underhang and overhang greater than MER trams so it wouldn't go round some bends ,  the actual width/loading gauge was ok on paper.

That's a bit pedantic. The loading gauge embraces the whole profile for rolling stock on the route, so it's reasonable to say the body was too wide if it won't go around the bends without excessive over/underhang.

[Mercenary]

12 hours ago, WTF said:

the body wasn't too wide , the length coupled with the position of the bogies made the underhang and overhang greater than MER trams so it wouldn't go round some bends ,  the actual width/loading gauge was ok on paper.

Ridiculous statement, loading gauge includes overhangs

Edited October 8, 2023 by Mercenary