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[Amtran]

RailPlanner

 

Intro

 

In the spirit of the former Virtubus, and the American Railroad RP, I've decided to start up a new roleplay. The idea behind this roleplay is to take a medium-sized North American city/metro area, and develop a commuter railroad for it (ala Virtubus, just with commuter rail).

 

Here's how the roleplay will work: Each round will start with an intro post on the city/metro area that will be that round's focus, with relevant area info included that may or may not be of use to everyone, depending on how they develop their system. following that, there will be 2 weeks to plan and submit your initial plan. After everyone's initial submission, there will be one week of judging, where there will be a polling system to grade factors of each design. The results from the poll will be computed into a formula, and at the end of that week, the results will be posted.

 

Formula TBA

 

Round 1 results

TBA

[Amtran]

Tips, Tricks, and Hints
 
Commuter rail in the US has grown more popular iin the last 10-15 years. The problem is, most communities that plan systems base their systems on inefficient ideas that may work in one place (say, New York), but not another (New Mexico, Minneapolis, etc). Most cities can really only handle one line financially. Here are some tips on creating an efficient line in RailRunner:

• When possible, try to use existing rail lines. Really, you shouldn't use longer than a mile of tracks, usually to connect lines, since the costs can spiral out of control.
• Single-track lines may be your only option in some cases, but make sure to plan to add sidings in areas, or else you'll be waiting on the freight trains that will invariably have priority over your trains.
• Try to place stations in areas to connect with other forms of rapid transit (buses, etc).
• Just because a line runs through a CBD (Central Business District), it doesn't necessarily have to end there. Sometimes running through a city will allow for a higher catchment area. Even better, running a line between 2 or more CBDs allows you to have greater ridership in off-peak hours.
• Choose your equipment carefully. A long double decker commuter train may be nice, but if you can only get seats filled once or twice a day, other options (such as DMUs) might be better options.
• Most commuter railroads contract out the operation of trains, maintenance, etc. to the railroads their lines run on. They have the people, facilities, and experience, so contracting is usually the way to go.
• Most (if not all) US commuter rail runs on a push-pull system, to save time and money at terminals.
• Running during the rush hour only is probably the one biggest factor in a system's failure. At least try to run hourly during off-peak hours, but you don't need to run all-day (an example is the scheduling with Chicago's METRA). A good idea for a system would be running hourly, with additional trains (possibly additional trains off-set by a half-hour) during rush hours.

For those who don't mind reading through longish blogs and and PDFs to learn more about North American commuter rail systems, more ideas and summary of how commuter rail runs in North America can be found at these links:

• http://www.publicpur...m/ut-crintl.pdf
• http://www.thetransp...r-rail-systems/

What you'll need to plan

• A suitable route, with stations planned, any track modifications/additions noted, and station locations.
• Equipment, such as locomotives, cars, etc. (Some of the bigger names in the US market are Bombardier, Nippon Sharyo, and Colorado Railcar, and a former major producer - think of used equipment - was the Budd Company).
• How the system will be operated (in-house/contracting different parts of the system).
• Maintenance and overnight equipment storage (can be bundled with the last point)

[Amtran]

Round 1
Welcome to the Tampa Bay Area! This round will focus on planning a commuter rail system for the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, which, among other cities, covers the Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Clearwater areas. The Tampa Bay Area has a few medium-sized bus systems, but beyond that, a light-rail/people mover system to the airport from Union Station, and a small trolley system, the area lacks much in the way of systems that offer much to commuters.

 

The former lines of the Seaboard System, which historically ran down the Eastern Seaboard from New York to Tampa, are now operated by CSX, who run most, if not all of the rail trackage in the area. TBARTA would like a system to be set up around the existing Tampa Bay Union Station, which offer Amtrak services with Thruway buses, the Silver Star train from New York to Miami, and Hillsborough Area Rapid Transit (HART) buses running from the station.

 

For the most part, the rails in this area are single-track, so plan accordingly. Tampa's Union Station is the only railroad station in use, and most former stations have been demolished or repurposed, so they are mostly out of the picture.

 

Plans should be ready for judging by June 1st.