M-1 rail discussion

[SDCC]

Light Rail Vehicles [[LRV) in San Diego are trolleys that run in tandem – typically three of them are hooked up together – each LRV seats 64 passengers and can easily accommodate 36-56 standees; or 100-120 total. “Crush Load” capacity for special events is 150-163 riders per trolley. There are 3 lines, two of those lines lumber through downtown San Diego - 3 trolley cars long. Trolleys run every 15 minutes, 6 days a week, every 30 minutes on Sunday, all trolley stops are serviced by buses. There is however no comparison between buses and trolleys, trolleys have a larger capacity by far.

Streetcars or Street-trolleys are not trolleys at all. In San Diego they are filled with tourists, share the road with cars and run on gasoline engines. These vehicles gingerly cruise around town in open air designed mini buses, which are constructed to look like trolleys. Stopping often and taking in all the sights; the trip is accompanied by the driver giving an oral history of the salacious details of San Diego’s old Stingaree and Chinatown.
As opposed to light rail which has limited stops, is way faster, and is climate controlled – the windows don’t even open. Once the trolleys clear the downtown area, they run 35 – 50 miles per hour. Trolleys will deviate from the road as well, they run wherever the track takes them, one trolley runs along the shoreline for several stops, all the while providing a great view of Navy Base San Diego – which is home of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, the ships are so cool. The last stop is the U.S. Mexican border.
Trolley tracks are different from train tracks, trolley tracks are wider.
As an employer the MTS trolley has a staff of nearly 500 full-time employees.
As an employer MTS Bus Operations has 490 Bus Drivers.
Plus a support staff of
178 Maintenance
70 Administrative
26 Clerical

Trolley


Streetcar