Rapid transit
Rapid transit or mass rapid transit known as heavy rail, subway, tube, U-Bahn or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport found in urban areas. Unlike buses or trams, rapid transit systems are electric railways that operate on an exclusive right-of-way, which cannot be accessed by pedestrians or other vehicles of any sort, and, grade separated in tunnels or on elevated railways. Modern services on rapid transit systems are provided on designated lines between stations using electric multiple units on rail tracks, although some systems use guided rubber tires, magnetic levitation, or monorail; the stations have high platforms, without steps inside the trains, requiring custom-made trains in order to minimize gaps between train and platform. They are integrated with other public transport and operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some rapid transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines.
It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people over short distances with little to no use of land. The world's first rapid transit system was the underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a conventional railway in 1863, now forms part of the London Underground. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway a cable-hauled line using static steam engines. China has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world at 31, with over 4,500 km of lines and is responsible for most of the world's rapid transit expansion in the past decade; the world's longest single-operator rapid transit system by route length is the Shanghai Metro. The world's largest single rapid transit service provider by number of stations is the New York City Subway; the busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, the Shanghai Metro, the Guangzhou Metro, the New York City Subway, the Mexico City Metro, the Paris Métro, the Hong Kong MTR.
Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. Rapid transit systems may be named after the medium by which passengers travel in busy central business districts. One of these terms may apply to an entire system if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In most of Britain, a subway is a pedestrian underpass. In Scotland, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway. In most of North America, underground mass transit systems are known as subways; the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. Chicago's commuter rail system that serves the entire metropolitan area is called Metra, while its rapid transit system that serves the city is called the "L". Rapid transit systems such as the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, the Miami Metrorail, the Montreal Metro are called the Metro; the opening of London's steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit.
Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant. Experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient and cleaner than steam and the natural choice for trains running in tunnels and proved superior for elevated services. In 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, fully underground. Prior to opening the line was to be called the "City and South London Subway", thus introducing the term Subway into railway terminology. Both railways, alongside others, were merged into London Underground; the 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset. The technology spread to other cities in Europe, the United States and Canada, with some railways being converted from steam and others being designed to be electric from the outset. Budapest, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services.
Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services. Hybrid solutions have evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems. In response to cost, engineering considerations and topological challenges some cities have opted to construct tram systems those in Australia, where density in cities was low and suburbs tended to spread out. Since the 1970s, the viability of underground train systems in Australian cities Sydney and Melbourne, has been reconsidered and proposed as a solution to over-capacity. Since the 1960s many new systems were introduced in Europe and Latin America. In the 21st century, most new expansions and systems are located in Asia, with China becoming the world's leader in metro expansion operating some of the largest systems and possessing 60 cities operating, constructing or planning a rapid transit system. Rapid transit is used in cities and metropolitan areas to transport large numbers of people short distances at high frequency.
The extent of the rapid transit system varies between cities, with se
Novocherkasskaya (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Novocherkasskaya is a station on the Pravoberezhnaya Line of Saint Petersburg Metro, opened on December 30, 1985. Until 1992, it was known as Krasnogvardeyskaya
Park and ride
Park and ride facilities are parking lots with public transport connections that allow commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system, or carpool for the remainder of the journey. The vehicle is retrieved when the owner returns. Park and rides are located in the suburbs of metropolitan areas or on the outer edges of large cities. A park and ride that only offers parking for meeting a carpool and not connections to public transport may be called a park and pool. Park and ride is abbreviated as "P+R" on road signs in the UK, is styled as "Park & Ride" in marketing. In Sweden, a tax has been introduced on the benefit of free or cheap parking paid by an employer, if workers would otherwise have to pay; the tax has reduced the number of workers driving into the inner city, increased the usage of park and ride areas in Stockholm. The introduction of a congestion tax in Stockholm has further increased the usage of ride. In Prague and ride parking lots are established near some metro and railway stations.
These parking lots offer low prices and all-day and return tickets including the public transport fare. Park and ride facilities allow commuters to avoid a stressful drive along congested roads and a search for scarce, expensive city-centre parking, they may well reduce congestion by assisting the use of public transport in congested urban areas. There is not much research on the cons of park and ride schemes, it has been suggested that there is "a lack of clear-cut evidence for park and ride's assumed impact in reducing congestion". Park and ride facilities help commuters who live beyond practical walking distance from the railway station or bus stop, they may suit commuters with alternative fuel vehicles, which have reduced range, when the facility is closer to home than the ultimate destination. They are useful as a fixed meeting place for those carsharing or carpooling or using "kiss and ride"; some transit operators use park and ride facilities to encourage more efficient driving practices by reserving parking spaces for low emission designs, high-occupancy vehicles, or carsharing.
Many park and rides toilets. Travel information, such as leaflets and posters, may be provided. At larger facilities, extra services such as a travel office, food shop, car wash, or cafeteria may be provided; these are encouraged by municipal operators to encourage use of park and ride. Park and ride facilities, with dedicated parking lots and bus services, began in the 1960s in the UK. Oxford operated the first such scheme with an experimental service operating part-time from a motel on the A34 in the 1960s and on a full-time basis from 1973. Better Choice Parking first offered an airport park and ride service at London Gatwick Airport in 1978. Oxford now operates ride from 5 dedicated parking lots around the city; as of 2015, Oxford has the biggest urban park & ride network in the UK with a combined capacity of 5,031 car parking spaces. One of the largest park and rides in Saudi Arabia is located at Kudai in Mecca, it helps people go the Masjid al-Haram. There is a Shuttle Service operated by SAPTCO that takes people during Ramadan from the Kudai Parking to the Masjid al-Haram.
Some railway stations are promoted as a park and ride facility for a town some distance away, for instance Liskeard for Looe and Lelant Saltings for St Ives, both in Cornwall, England. Names of stations in the UK with large parking lots outside the main urban area are suffixed with "Parkway", such as Bristol Parkway, Tiverton Parkway, Oxford Parkway. At Luton Airport Parkway and Southampton Airport Parkway, the stations are there to serve air as well as road passengers. In the United States, it is common for outlying rail stations to include automobile parking with hundreds of spaces. Boston, for example, has built several large parking facilities at its commuter rail and metro stations near major highways and large arterial surface roads around the periphery of the city: Alewife, Forest Hills, Hyde Park, Quincy Adams, Route 128, Woburn; the local transit operator, the MBTA, offers ride spaces. B & R is a name for using cycle boxes or racks near public transport terminals together with P & R parking lots.
This system can be promoted through integrated fare and tickets with public transport system. Many railway stations and airports feature a "kiss-and-ride" or "kiss-and-fly" area in which cars can stop to discharge or, less pick up passengers; the term first appeared in a 20 January 1956 report in the Los Angeles Times. It refers to the nominal scenario whereby a passenger is driven to the station by partner. Deutsche Bahn has announced that it will be changing the English expressions for Kiss and Ride, Service Points and Counters to German ones. In Italy the new Bologna Centrale railway station uses the "ride" signs; some high-speed railway stations in Taiwan have signs outside stations reading "Kiss and Ride" in English, with Chinese characters above the words that read "temporary pick-up and drop-off zone". Kiss and Ride are getting popular in Poland. Cities with such areas include Kraków, Warsaw or Toruń. Locally they are known by its English name, i.e. "Kiss and ride" and while the sign is non-standardized, all of them contain the letters K+R.
Park and ride schemes do not necessarily
Spasskaya (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Spasskaya is the current western terminus station of the Pravoberezhnaya Line of the Saint Petersburg Metro. It is part of the first three-way transfer station that includes Sadovaya and Sennaya Ploshchad stations; the station was scheduled to open in December 2008, but opened on March 7, 2009 because of last-minute repairs to station's transfer escalators. As of 2009, the station does not have a connecting escalator. Passengers have to transfer to one of the connected stations. Saviour Church on Sennaya Square - demolished church from which the station takes its name «Спасская» на официальном сайте Петербургского метрополитена «Спасская» на metro.vpeterburge.ru «Спасская» на ometro.net «Спасская» на сайте Проекты Петербурга «Спасская» на форуме Metro. NWD.ru
Ladozhskaya (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Ladozhskaya is a station on the Pravoberezhnaya Line of Saint Petersburg Metro, opened on December 30, 1985. A set of escalators takes you down to the platform
Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo II (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo II is a station on the Pravoberezhnaya Line of Saint Petersburg Metro, opened on December 30, 1985. Media related to Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo 2 at Wikimedia Commons
Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo I (Saint Petersburg Metro)
Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo I is a station on the Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya Line of Saint Petersburg Metro, opened on November 3, 1967. Media related to Ploshchad Alexandra Nevskogo 1 at Wikimedia Commons
Kirovsko-Vyborgskaya Line
Moskovsko-Petrogradskaya Line
Nevsko-Vasileostrovskaya Line
Frunzensko-Primorskaya Line
