1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Caltrain
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Caltrain is a California commuter rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the Santa Clara Valley. The northern terminus of the line is in San Francisco at 4th, extra trains were often run for special events held in AT&T Park in San Francisco, Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, and SAP Center in San Jose. Caltrain operates 92 weekday trains,6 of which are extended to Gilroy, weekday ridership in February 2016 averaged 62,416, up 83% since 2010. Caltrain is governed by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board which consists of agencies from the three counties served by Caltrain, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara, each member agency has three representatives on a nine-member Board of Directors. The member agencies are the City and County of San Francisco, SamTrans, Caltrain has 29 regular stops, one football-only stop, and two weekend-only stops. As of October 2012 Caltrain runs 92 weekday trains,36 Saturday, the original commuter railroad built in 1863 was the San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road, it was purchased by Southern Pacific in 1870. Southern Pacific double-tracked the line in 1904 and rerouted it via Bayshore, after 1945, ridership declined with the rise in automobile use, in 1977 SP petitioned the state Public Utilities Commission to discontinue the commute operation because of ongoing losses. To preserve the service, in 1980 Caltrans contracted with SP. Caltrans purchased new locomotives and rolling stock, replacing SP equipment in 1985, Caltrans also upgraded stations, added shuttle buses to nearby employers, and dubbed the operation CalTrain. The Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board was formed in 1987 to manage the line, subsequently, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties commissioned Earth Metrics, Inc. to prepare an Environmental Impact Report on right-of-way acquisition and expansion of operations. With state and local funding, the PCJPB bought the right of way between San Francisco and San Jose from SP in 1991. The following year, PCJPB took responsibility for CalTrain operations and selected Amtrak as the contract operator, PCJPB extended the CalTrain service from San Jose to Gilroy, connecting to VTA Light Rail at Tamien Station in San Jose. In July 1995 CalTrain became accessible to passengers in wheelchairs, five months later, CalTrain increased the bicycle limit to 24 per train, making the service attractive to commuters in bicycle-friendly cities such as San Francisco and Palo Alto. In July 1997 the current logo was adopted, and the name became Caltrain. A year later, VTA extended its rail service from north Santa Clara to the Mountain View Caltrain station. In June 2003, a connection for the Bay Area Rapid Transit. In 2006, Caltrain announced that wireless internet access would be available on trains at no additional charge, Caltrain invested more than $1 million in researching and testing WiFi in 2006. Caltrain still hopes to offer the service eventually as part of a comprehensive communication package
3.
Side platform
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A side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, tram stop, or transitway. Dual side platform stations, one for direction of travel, is the basic station design used for double-track railway lines. Side platforms may result in a wider overall footprint for the station compared with a platform where a single width of platform can be shared by riders using either track. In some stations, the two platforms are connected by a footbridge running above and over the tracks. While a pair of platforms is often provided on a dual-track line. Where the station is close to a crossing the platforms may either be on the same side of the crossing road or alternatively may be staggered in one of two ways. With the near-side platforms configuration, each platform appears before the intersection, in some situations a single side platform can be served by multiple vehicles simultaneously with a scissors crossing provided to allow access mid-way along its length. Normally, the facilities of the station are located on the Up platform with the other platform accessed from a footbridge. However, in cases the stations main buildings are located on whichever side faces the town or village the station serves. Larger stations may have two platforms with several island platforms in between. Some are in a Spanish solution format, with two platforms and an island platform in between, serving two tracks
4.
22nd Street station (Caltrain)
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22nd Street is a Caltrain commuter rail station on 22nd Street beneath the I-280 freeway in San Francisco, California. It is the only station in the Caltrain system. The only way for passengers to reach the platforms is by stairway, like all Caltrain stations except San Francisco 4th & King and San Jose Diridon, the station is unstaffed, passengers buy tickets from machines. In Southern Pacific days the station was called 23rd St, Ticket Machines Caltrain 8-Ride Ticket Validators MUNI48 Quintara-24th Street Media related to 22nd Street at Wikimedia Commons Caltrain 22nd Street station page
5.
Bayshore station (Caltrain)
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Bayshore is a Caltrain commuter rail station on the border of San Francisco, California and Brisbane, California. The parking lot and about the fourth of the platforms are in the Visitacion Valley District of San Francisco. The official address is in San Francisco, like most Caltrain stations it is not staffed with ticket sellers, passengers buy tickets from machines. Caltrain Ticket Machines Caltrain 8-Ride Ticket Validators Pedestrian walkway above tracks to cross to the opposite platform, four tracks pass through, two in the middle and two side tracks for trains stopping at the station. During commute hours on weekdays, some trains are scheduled to wait at Bayshore on the tracks until the Baby Bullet passes on the bypass track. A centerline fence prevents passengers from running across the four rails, Muni intended to establish another light rail connection to the Bayshore station at Visitacion Valley in southern San Francisco with its new Third Street light rail extension. To complicate matters, this connection has also plagued by cost. The Third Street extension opened in early 2007 without the connection, the closest Muni station, Arleta Station, is about a seven-minute walk north from the Bayshore Caltrain station. Bayshore was established by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1907 along the new Bayshore Cutoff, the railroad planned to build an extensive terminal facility in Visitacion Valley that would serve as the primary maintenance and marshaling facility for the San Francisco Peninsula. Financial problems delayed completion of the project, and the 250-acre Bayshore rail yard, the facility operated around the clock and employed over 1,000 workers. The Bayshore shops maintained all the locomotives on the Southern Pacifics Coast Division which stretched south to Santa Barbara, by 1952, this was 133 steam engines, but by 1954, diesel-electric locomotives had become common enough that the Bayshore steam shops were closed. The roundhouse continued to service locomotives, but the decline of industry and shipping in San Francisco. Media related to Bayshore at Wikimedia Commons Caltrain Bayshore station page Vistacion Valley TOD Project Brisbane Baylands Project
6.
Tamien Station
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Tamien Station is an intermodal passenger transportation station served by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail system, two bus routes, and the Caltrain commuter rail line. The station has two distinct elevated rail platforms – one for Caltrain, the other for light rail, each is a center platform with two trackways. The two platforms are connected by a walkway at ground-level that is below the two platforms, currently, Caltrain does not serve this station during the middle of the day on weekdays. On weekends, a Caltrain shuttle bus instead of a train connects Tamien to the San Jose Diridon station, the station is named after the Tamien who were some of the Ohlone, a Native American people. The Caltrain platform is located between Lick Avenue and State Route 87, just north of Alma Avenue, menlo Park, CA, Ballena Press Publication,1994. Media related to Tamien Station at Wikimedia Commons Station information Station information
7.
Gilroy station
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Gilroy is a Caltrain station located in Gilroy, California. It is the southernmost terminus on the Caltrain line, and is served during commute hours on weekdays. It is located in Fare Zone 6, Gilroy is a former Southern Pacific Railroad depot that was adopted by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board. Amtraks Coast Starlight passes through Gilroy between Salinas and San Jose Diridon, but does not stop, once every year, Caltrain operated a special limited-stop train from San Francisco to Gilroy that operated during the weekend of the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Christmas Hill Park. Shuttle buses would take passengers from the Caltrain station to the festival, when weekend service resumed in 2004, Caltrain opted to end the annual Garlic Train. The Golden Gate Railroad Museum chartered weekend trains to Gilroy during the festival for a few years, Caltrain announced that the Garlic Train would resume service for the 2013 Garlic Festival. The Gilroy Rail Station is one of two sites that California High Speed Rail is considering for its Gilroy stop, with the site on lands immediately east of Gilroy Premium Outlets. Media related to Gilroy Station at Wikimedia Commons Station information Station information Park & Ride Lots - Gilroy Caltrain Station at VTA
8.
Train station
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A train station, railway station, railroad station, or depot is a railway facility where trains regularly stop to load or unload passengers or freight. It generally consists of at least one platform and a station building providing such ancillary services as ticket sales. If a station is on a line, it often has a passing loop to facilitate traffic movements. The smallest stations are most often referred to as stops or, in parts of the world. Stations may be at level, underground, or elevated. Connections may be available to intersecting rail lines or other modes such as buses. In British usage, the station is commonly understood to mean a railway station unless otherwise qualified. In the United States, the most common term in contemporary usage is train station, Railway station and railroad station are less frequent. Outside North America, a depot is place where buses, trains, or other vehicles are housed and maintained and from which they are dispatched for service. The two-storey Mount Clare station in Baltimore, Maryland, which survives as a museum, first saw service as the terminus of the horse-drawn Baltimore. The oldest terminal station in the world was Crown Street railway station in Liverpool, built in 1830, as the first train on the Liverpool-Manchester line left Liverpool, the station is slightly older than the Manchester terminal at Liverpool Road. The station was the first to incorporate a train shed, the station was demolished in 1836 as the Liverpool terminal station moved to Lime Street railway station. Crown Street station was converted to a goods station terminal, the first stations had little in the way of buildings or amenities. The first stations in the modern sense were on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, manchesters Liverpool Road Station, the second oldest terminal station in the world, is preserved as part of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. It resembles a row of Georgian houses, dual-purpose stations can sometimes still be found today, though in many cases goods facilities are restricted to major stations. In rural and remote communities across Canada and the United States, such stations were known as flag stops or flag stations. Many stations date from the 19th century and reflect the architecture of the time. Countries where railways arrived later may still have such architecture, as later stations often imitated 19th-century styles, various forms of architecture have been used in the construction of stations, from those boasting grand, intricate, Baroque- or Gothic-style edifices, to plainer utilitarian or modernist styles
