143-712: The Twin Peaks Tunnel is a 2.27-mile-long (3.65 km) light rail / streetcar tunnel in San Francisco , California. The tunnel runs under Twin Peaks and is used by the K Ingleside , L Taraval , M Ocean View and S Shuttle lines of the Muni Metro system. The eastern entrance to the tunnel is located at the west end of the Market Street subway near the intersection of Market and Castro Streets in
286-724: A "light rail" vehicle (it is a heavy rail vehicle), and is only included for comparison purposes. Low-floor LRVs have the advantage of a low-floor design, allowing them to load passengers directly from low-rise platforms that can be little more than raised curbs. High-floor light rail systems also exist, featuring larger stations. Historically, the track gauge has had considerable variations, with narrow gauge common in many early systems. However, most light rail systems are now standard gauge . Older standard-gauge vehicles could not negotiate sharp turns as easily as narrow-gauge ones, but modern light rail systems achieve tighter turning radii by using articulated cars . An important advantage of
429-449: A box-car. There are no carriage roads through the ditch country, and before the ditch was built, or bored, rather, there was no horse-trail. Hundreds of inches of rain annually, on fertile soil, under a tropic sun, means a steaming jungle of vegetation. A man, on foot, cutting his way through, might advance a mile a day, but at the end of a week he would be a wreck, and he would have to crawl hastily back if he wanted to get out before
572-431: A bus shuttle due to work on the line. Light rail service through the tunnel ended at 9 p.m. until October 2, when it was extended to 10 p.m. on Sundays and midnight on other days to better align with BART's late night service. Around 2014, with the tunnel nearing a century of continuous use, Muni began planning a major track replacement project in the tunnel. The project would include the replacement of all rails and ties in
715-458: A bus, there will be even more capacity when there is a combination of cars and light rail. Table 3 shows an example of peak passenger capacity. The cost of light rail construction varies widely, largely depending on the amount of tunneling and elevated structures required. A survey of North American light rail projects shows that costs of most LRT systems range from $ 15 million to over $ 100 million per mile. Seattle's new light rail system
858-403: A chaotic breakdown inflow and a dramatic drop in speed (a traffic jam ) if they exceed about 2,000 vehicles per hour per lane (each car roughly two seconds behind another). Since most people who drive to work or on business trips do so alone, studies show that the average car occupancy on many roads carrying commuters is only about 1.5 people per car during the high-demand rush hour periods of
1001-1142: A common right-of-way (however, Link converted to full separation in 2019). Some systems, such as the AirTrain JFK in New York City, the DLR in London, and Kelana Jaya Line in Kuala Lumpur , have dispensed with the need for an operator. The Vancouver SkyTrain was an early adopter of driverless vehicles, while the Toronto Scarborough rapid transit operated the same trains as Vancouver, but used drivers. In most discussions and comparisons, these specialized systems are generally not considered light rail but as light metro systems. Around Karlsruhe , Kassel , and Saarbrücken in Germany, dual-voltage light rail trains partly use mainline railroad tracks, sharing these tracks with heavy rail trains. In
1144-502: A compromise to rein in potential costs, O'Shaughnessy shortened the length of the Twin Peaks Tunnel originally proposed by Bion Arnold , cutting the construction budget from $ 7 million to $ 4M. That tunnel was started on November 30, 1914, and completed on July 14, 1917. Privately, O'Shaughnessy reveled in the symbolic victory over property owners that had opposed his 1891 Market Street extension survey. With
1287-534: A cross-country railroad ticket for US$ 70 (equivalent to $ 2,400 in 2023) and arrived in San Francisco on March 30, having traveled via rail through Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Ogden, and Oakland, completing the trip via ferry from the Oakland mole. He took mass at Old St. Mary's Cathedral the next day. He married Mary Spottiswood on October 21, 1890 in San Francisco. After
1430-490: A heart attack on October 12, 1934, at his home in San Francisco, approximately two weeks before water started flowing from O'Shaughnessy Dam to the Bay Area. He was survived by his wife, Mary, and their five children: four daughters (Margaret, Mary, Helen, and Elizabeth) and a son (Francis). Funeral services were held at St. Vincent de Paul Church on October 15, attended by San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi , and he
1573-476: A large collection of photographs from his projects and his personal life. There are also many photographs of the fascinating O’Shaughnessy daughters that document their lives after their father’s death, up until the 1960s". O'Shaughnessy Dam , which impounds the water at Hetch Hetchy, is named for the longtime city engineer. In addition, O'Shaughnessy Boulevard in San Francisco, which serves as an extension of Bosworth Street and runs next to Glen Canyon Park ,
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#17327661292451716-416: A light rail train may have three to four cars of much larger capacity in one train under the control of one driver, or no driver at all in fully automated systems, increasing the labor costs of BRT systems compared to LRT systems. BRT systems are also usually less fuel-efficient as they use non-electrified vehicles. The peak passenger capacity per lane per hour depends on which types of vehicles are allowed on
1859-435: A live rail. In outer areas, the trams switch to conventional overhead wires . The Bordeaux power system costs about three times as much as a conventional overhead wire system and took 24 months to achieve acceptable levels of reliability, requiring the replacement of all the main cables and power supplies. Operating and maintenance costs of the innovative power system still remain high. However, despite numerous service outages,
2002-481: A longer distance. Light rail cars are often coupled into multiple units of two to four cars. Light rail systems may also exhibit attributes of heavy rail systems, including having downtown subways, as in San Francisco and Seattle . Light rail is designed to address a gap in interurban transportation between heavy rail and bus services, carrying high passenger numbers more quickly than local buses and more cheaply than heavy rail. It serves corridors in which heavy rail
2145-666: A month-long honeymoon to St. Louis, they lived with her parents for two years. None of the letters of introduction that O'Shaughnessy had carried from Ireland led to a job, but he remained active in the local Irish community, where he struck up a friendship with Dr. Buckley, who had graduated from Queen's College Cork and arranged for O'Shaughnessy to start as an assistant engineer for the Sierra Valley & Mohawk Railway in Plumas County, California in January 1886, at
2288-642: A more diverse range of design characteristics than LRT, depending on the demand and constraints that exist, and BRT using dedicated lanes can have a theoretical capacity of over 30,000 passengers per hour per direction (for example, the Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit system operates up to 350 buses per hour per direction). For the effective operation of a bus or BRT system, buses must have priority at traffic lights and have their dedicated lanes, especially as bus frequencies exceed 30 buses per hour per direction. The higher theoretical of BRT relates to
2431-915: A rail route between Eureka and Red Bluff (1896–97) and working for Schussler to survey potential additions for Spring Valley Water in Alameda County (1898). He then turned his attention to the Territory of Hawaii , after Schussler called him on behalf of Edward Pollitz to map what would become the Wailuku Sugar Plantation in May 1899. After arriving at Honolulu, he took a train to the Waianae Sugar Company plantation and hiked 6 mi (9.7 km) to visit water tunnels nearby, through which flowed 2,000,000 US gal/d (5,300 L/min). He then booked passage to
2574-559: A request to line the planned Stockton Street Tunnel with brick. Under O'Shaughnessy, the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) started operation as the first publicly owned railway in San Francisco, with the A Geary-10th Avenue line beginning revenue service on December 28, 1912. The proposed Fillmore Street Tunnel was authorized in 1913, the same time as a new streetcar line along Van Ness Avenue ; both projects were intended to bring visitors to
2717-407: A result, has many of the operating characteristics of a metro system rather than a light rail system. A capacity of 1,350 passengers per train is more similar to the heavy rail than light rail. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is an alternative to LRT and many planning studies undertake a comparison of each mode when considering appropriate investments in transit corridor development. BRT systems can exhibit
2860-509: A special assessment district or a long-term railroad lease. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a competing plan to build a longer tunnel under Twin Peaks in March 1912, continuing under Market to Valencia, which was seen as the foundation for a rapid transit system connecting the downtown Financial District with western San Francisco and the Peninsula . This action was taken on
3003-534: A top speed of 55–71.5 miles per hour (88.51–115.1 km/h) depending on the system, while the trains on the all-underground Montreal Metro can only reach a top speed of 72 kilometres per hour (44.74 mph). LACMTA light rail vehicles have higher top and average speeds than Montreal Metro or New York City Subway trains. Many light rail systems—even fairly old ones—have a combination of both on- and off-road sections. In some countries (especially in Europe), only
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#17327661292453146-481: A tramway, a light metro, and, in a narrow sense, rapid transit. This is especially common in the United States, where there is not a popularly perceived distinction between these different types of urban rail systems. The development of technology for low-floor and catenary-free trams facilitates the construction of such mixed systems with only short and shallow underground sections below critical intersections as
3289-484: A transfer point, enabling passengers to move from Third and Market to Ocean Beach within 25 minutes on an express car, assuming a Seventh Avenue surface line was built. At a proposed 16,000 feet (4,900 m) in length, Arnold's proposed tunnel would not be suitable for road traffic for lack of adequate ventilation. He also believed the straight extension of Market to 19th and Douglass was impractical, as it would require extensive earth moving and exceed 3% maximum grade. It
3432-784: A trip to Honolulu to procure cement; O'Shaughnessy booked passage on the next available ship. O'Shaughnessy published a paper describing irrigation in Hawaii for the Hawaiian Planters' Monthly for October 1904, later republished in Thrum's Hawaiian Annual (1905), updated for Engineering News (1909) and subsequently reprinted nearly a century later in Organization & Environment (2007). Jack London visited Hawaii in 1907 with his wife Charmian , who praised O'Shaughnessy for his "magnificent irrigation scheme that harnessed
3575-470: Is a generic international English phrase for types of rail systems using modern streetcars/trams, which means more or less the same thing throughout the English-speaking world . Light rail systems can range from trams runnig in streets along with other traffic, to semi-metro systems having portions of grade separated track. People movers are even "lighter", in terms of capacity. Monorail
3718-575: Is a separate technology that has been more successful in specialized services than in a commuter transit role. The use of the generic term light rail avoids some serious incompatibilities between British and American English . The word tram , for instance, is generally used in the UK and many former British colonies to refer to what is known in North America as a streetcar , but in North America tram can instead refer to an aerial tramway , or, in
3861-602: Is a significant amount of overlap between the technologies; similar rolling stock may be used for either, and it is common to classify streetcars or trams as a subcategory of light rail rather than as a distinct type of transportation. However, some distinctions can be made, though systems may combine elements of both. Low-floor light rail lines tend to follow a reserved right-of-way and with trains receiving priority at intersections, and tend not to operate in mixed traffic, enabling higher operating speeds. Light rail lines tend to have less frequent stops than tramways, and operate over
4004-563: Is by far the most expensive in the US, at $ 179 million per mile, since it includes extensive tunneling in poor soil conditions, elevated sections, and stations as deep as 180 feet (55 m) below ground level. This results in costs more typical of subways or rapid transit systems than light rail. At the other end of the scale, four systems (Baltimore, Maryland; Camden, New Jersey; Sacramento, California; and Salt Lake City, Utah) incurred construction costs of less than $ 20 million per mile. Over
4147-426: Is especially important for wheelchair access, as narrower gauges (e.g. metre gauge) can make it challenging or impossible to pass the tram's wheels. Furthermore, standard-gauge rolling stock can be switched between networks either temporarily or permanently, and both newly built and used standard-gauge rolling stock tends to be cheaper to buy, as more companies offer such vehicles. Overhead lines supply electricity to
4290-502: Is expensive. Similarly, the most expensive US highway expansion project was the " Big Dig " in Boston, Massachusetts, which cost $ 200 million per lane mile for a total cost of $ 14.6 billion. A light rail track can carry up to 20,000 people per hour as compared with 2,000–2,200 vehicles per hour for one freeway lane. For example, in Boston and San Francisco, light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour, respectively, in
4433-575: Is hard to distinguish between what is called light rail, and other forms of urban and commuter rail. A system described as a light rail in one city may be considered to be a streetcar or tram system in another. Conversely, some lines that are called "light rail" are very similar to rapid transit ; in recent years, new terms such as light metro have been used to describe these medium-capacity systems. Some "light rail" systems, such as Sprinter , bear little similarity to urban rail, and could alternatively be classified as commuter rail or even inter-city rail. In
Twin Peaks Tunnel - Misplaced Pages Continue
4576-559: Is impractical. Light metro systems are essentially hybrids of light rail and rapid transit. Metro trains are larger and faster than light rail trains, with stops being further apart. Many systems have mixed characteristics. Indeed, with proper engineering, a rail line could run along a street, then go underground, and then run along an elevated viaduct. For example, the Los Angeles Metro Rail 's A Line "light rail" has sections that could alternatively be described as
4719-484: Is one of the highest capacity ones, having been upgraded in a series of expansions to handle 40,000 passengers per hour per direction, and having carried as many as 582,989 passengers in a single day on its Line 1 . It achieves this volume by running four-car trains with a capacity of up to 1,350 passengers each at a frequency of up to 30 trains per hour. However, the Manila light rail system has full grade separation and as
4862-407: Is similar to that of a traditional tram, while operating at a higher capacity and speed, often on an exclusive right-of-way. In broader use, it includes tram-like operations mostly on streets. A few light rail networks have characteristics closer to rapid transit or even commuter rail , yet only when these systems are fully grade-separated are they referred to as light metros . The term light rail
5005-461: Is the backbone of the territory of Hawaii, wherefore the Nahiku Ditch, which is not a ditch, but a chain of tunnels. The water travels underground, appearing only at intervals to leap a gorge, travelling high in the air on a giddy flume and plunging into and through the opposing mountain. This magnificent waterway is called a "ditch," and with equal appropriateness can Cleopatra's barge be called
5148-533: The Castro neighborhood, and the western entrance is located at West Portal Avenue and Ulloa Street in the West Portal neighborhood, named for the tunnel. There are three stations along the tunnel, West Portal at the western entrance, Forest Hill near the middle, and the now disused Eureka Valley near the eastern end. Plans for a tunnel extending from Market Street under Twin Peaks were first presented at
5291-542: The Cádiz TramBahia , where trams share track with commuter and long-distance trains from the main terminus in the city and curve off to serve cities without a railway connection. Some of the issues involved in such schemes are: There is a history of what would now be considered light rail vehicles operating on heavy rail rapid transit tracks in the US, especially in the case of interurban streetcars . Notable examples are Lehigh Valley Transit trains running on
5434-758: The London Underground and the New York City Subway . Conventional rail technologies including high-speed , freight, commuter , and rapid transit urban transit systems are considered "heavy rail". The main difference between light rail and heavy rail rapid transit is the ability for a light rail vehicle to operate in mixed traffic if the routing requires it. The world's first electric tram operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg , Russia , invented and operated on an experimental basis by Fyodor Pirotsky in 1880. The first tramway
5577-539: The Mile Rock Tunnel , a sewer outfall draining much of the western half of the city, were approved by the SF Board of Public Works in January 1914 and Mile Rock was in use by September 1915; it was large enough that a party of officials, including Mayor Rolph and Engineer O'Shaughnessy, drove its length for an inspection just days before it was completed. The majority of O'Shaughnessy's time as city engineer
5720-637: The Netherlands , this concept was first applied on the RijnGouweLijn . This allows commuters to ride directly into the city center, rather than taking a mainline train only as far as a central station and then having to change to a tram. In France, similar tram-trains are planned for Paris, Mulhouse , and Strasbourg ; further projects exist. In some cases, tram trains use previously abandoned or lightly used heavy rail lines in addition to or instead of still in use mainline tracks. In 2022, Spain opened
5863-874: The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa, Ontario , Canada, the River Line in New Jersey , United States, and the Sprinter in California , United States, which use diesel multiple unit (DMU) cars. Light rail is different from the British English term light railway , long-used to distinguish railway operations carried out under a less rigorous set of regulations using lighter equipment at lower speeds from mainline railways. Light rail
Twin Peaks Tunnel - Misplaced Pages Continue
6006-687: The Panama–Pacific Exposition , but the former never materialized due to prioritization of the Twin Peaks Tunnel. 1914 was a busy year for Muni as it geared up to serve the Panama–Pacific Exposition by opening the D Geary-Van Ness line along in August, completing the tunnel along Stockton in late December, and starting construction on the Twin Peaks Tunnel , which was planned and built under O'Shaughnessy's leadership; as
6149-703: The Philadelphia and Western Railroad high-speed third rail line (now the Norristown High-Speed Line ). Such arrangements are almost impossible now, due to the Federal Railroad Administration refusing (for crash safety reasons) to allow non-FRA compliant railcars (i.e., subway and light rail vehicles) to run on the same tracks at the same times as compliant railcars, which includes locomotives and standard railroad passenger and freight equipment. Notable exceptions in
6292-627: The Raker Act . Work on the dam started in 1919 and the dam was dedicated in 1923 for O'Shaughnessy upon its completion. The water impounded by the dam was held while the aqueduct to San Francisco was completed. He held the post of city engineer until 1932, when a new city charter was adopted, and he was subsequently appointed to the role of Consulting Engineer for Hetch Hetchy Water Supply by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission . O'Shaughnessy died of
6435-478: The Sunset Tunnel in the 1920s, the final rail tunnel built in San Francisco until the completion of the Market Street subway in the 1970s for BART and the new Muni Metro light rail/streetcar system. Aside from overhauling the city's public transportation system, O'Shaughnessy also completed the work begun under his predecessors to rebuild the city's fire-fighting water and sewer services. His plans for
6578-530: The medians of roads . If run in streets , trains are usually limited by city block lengths to about four 180-passenger vehicles (720 passengers). Operating on two-minute headways using traffic signal progression, a well-designed two-track system can handle up to 30 trains per hour per track, achieving peak rates of over 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction. More advanced systems with separate rights-of-way using moving block signaling can exceed 25,000 passengers per hour per track. Most light rail systems in
6721-624: The 1970s was proven to have been a technical failure by the following decade. After World War II, the Germans retained many of their streetcar networks and evolved them into model light rail systems ( Stadtbahnen ). With the exception of Hamburg , all large and most medium-sized German cities maintain light rail networks. The concept of a "limited tramway" was proposed by American transport planner H. Dean Quinby in 1962. Quinby distinguished this new concept in rail transportation from historic streetcar or tram systems as: The term light rail transit
6864-570: The Board of Supervisors in October 1913. With the addition of 15,000 acres (6,100 ha) of "the best residence property on the peninsula within 15 minutes of the business center of the city", the Call estimated the population of San Francisco would add 100,000 within three years and 200,000 within five. Carl Larsen, a prominent resident of the rural western side of San Francisco, recommended shortening
7007-642: The Eureka Curve just west of Castro station. Taking advantage of an unscheduled closure of the Muni Metro due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency replaced the ballast between November 2020 and February 2021. Light rail Light rail (or light rail transit , abbreviated to LRT ) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology while also having some features from heavy rapid transit . The term
7150-495: The French city of Bordeaux , the tramway network is powered by a third rail in the city center, where the tracks are not always segregated from pedestrians and cars. The third rail (actually two closely spaced rails) is placed in the middle of the track and divided into eight-metre sections, each of which is powered only while it is completely covered by a tram. This minimizes the risk of a person or animal coming into contact with
7293-579: The K, L and M lines were diverted via the new East Portal ramps (and via 17th, Church Street and Duboce Avenue, removed from Upper Market) to allow construction of the Muni Metro subway under Upper Market to begin. These newer portals and ramps remained in use by all K-L-M service until 1980 . After the Muni Metro subway section between Van Ness station and the Twin Peaks Tunnel opened for use, in December 1980, weekday trains on lines K, L, and M were converted to Boeing LRVs , and trains continued directly from
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#17327661292457436-566: The Makaweli Plantation; Koʻolau, aka Nahiku Ditch (Maui, 1903–04), which included a 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 mi (12.1 km) tunnel section over its 10 mi (16 km) length; and Kohala (Hawaii, 1905–06), which had 45 tunnels with an aggregate length of 46,000 ft (14,000 m) and an overall length of 14 mi (23 km). His time in Hawaii was interrupted by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire, which he learned of on April 18 during
7579-462: The Market Street subway into the tunnel without going above ground. Weekend service initially remained operated by the old PCC cars and routed along the surface of Market Street, and the subway was closed on weekends. Regular weekend use of the east portal ramps to 17th and Castro finally ended on September 19, 1982, with the conversion of weekend K-L-M service to light rail and the closure of
7722-703: The Merchants' Association banquet in May 1909. A. W. Scott Jr. spoke on the need for the tunnel to open up the western part of San Francisco to development, as "40,000 San Franciscans lived across the bay or in San Mateo county because of the lack of proper transportation in this city." In April 1910, a committee, named the Twin Peaks Convention, was formed to plan the project, which would open the development of approximately one quarter of San Francisco's land area. In July 1910, an architectural rendering
7865-625: The Mount Trenchard National School and completed his studies there on September 25, 1880, whereupon he tried his hand at farming briefly before deciding to train as a civil engineer. He began those studies at Rockwell College in County Tipperary for half a year, starting from January 1881, and later attended University College Cork for a year starting in fall 1881 and the University of Galway
8008-492: The Muni Metro subway. Muni soon modified the station with high-level platforms, completing that project in 1985. On March 30, 2020, Muni Metro service, including trains through the Twin Peaks Tunnel, were replaced with buses due to the pandemic . Light rail service returned on August 22, with the routes reconfigured to improve reliability in the tunnel and at West Portal. K Ingleside and L Taraval services were interlined, running between SF Zoo and Balboa Park and not entering
8151-404: The Nahiku Ditch is not an ordinary ditch. The windward side of Haleakala is serried by a thousand precipitous gorges, down which rush as many torrents, each torrent of which achieves a score of cascades and water falls before it reaches the sea. More rain comes down here than in any other region in the world. In 1904 the year's downpour was four hundred and twenty inches. Water means sugar, and sugar
8294-542: The Spreckels brothers called O'Shaughnessy to their offices in San Francisco, where they presented him with a bonus check "in five figures to make up the deficit which they felt they owed me". In late August 1912, San Francisco Mayor Rolph contacted O'Shaughnessy at Southern California Mountain Water Company and asked him if he would be willing to serve as city engineer; O'Shaughnessy's lingering bitterness over
8437-453: The Twin Peaks Tunnel and the 1972 portals. The last Trolley Festival took place in 1987, and by the time its replacement, the F Market line, opened in 1995, its streetcars were able to use the J Church for "pull-in" and "pull-out" trips (to and from the carhouse) because the 1991-opened extension of the J line from 30th Street to Balboa Park BART station had provided an alternative routing for streetcars traveling between Metro Rail Center (and
8580-416: The Twin Peaks Tunnel in December 1914, with an estimated three-year construction schedule for the twin-track bore. Construction was completed thirty-three months later. Funding for the tunnel came from special assessment districts established at the eastern and western ends; the undeveloped western area, approximately 4,000 acres (1,600 ha), was responsible for 85% of tunnel costs. The eastern approach to
8723-662: The US are the NJ Transit River Line from Camden to Trenton and Austin's Capital MetroRail , which have received exemptions to the provision that light rail operations occur only during daytime hours and Conrail freight service only at night, with several hours separating one operation from the other. The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa also has freight service at certain hours. With its mix of right-of-way types and train control technologies, LRT offers
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#17327661292458866-455: The US as a whole, excluding Seattle, new light rail construction costs average about $ 35 million per mile. By comparison, a freeway lane expansion typically costs $ 1.0 million to $ 8.5 million per lane mile for two directions, with an average of $ 2.3 million. However, freeways are frequently built in suburbs or rural areas, whereas light rail tends to be concentrated in urban areas, where right of way and property acquisition
9009-666: The United States and in North America . In Britain, modern light rail systems began to appear in the 1980s, starting with the Tyne and Wear Metro from 1980 and followed by the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London in 1987, continuing into the 1990s including the establishment of the Manchester Metrolink in 1992 and the Sheffield Supertram from 1994. Due to varying definitions, it
9152-590: The United States are limited by demand rather than capacity (by and large, most American LRT systems carry fewer than 4,000 persons per hour per direction), but Boston's and San Francisco's light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour per track during rush hour. Elsewhere in North America, the Calgary C-Train and Monterrey Metro have higher light rail ridership than Boston or San Francisco. Systems outside North America often have much higher passenger volumes. The Manila Light Rail Transit System
9295-472: The United States, "light rail" has become a catch-all term to describe a wide variety of passenger rail systems. Light rail corridors may constitute a fully segregated corridor, a dedicated right-of-way on a street, an on-street corridor shared with other traffic, a corridor shared with other public transport, or a corridor shared with pedestrians. The most difficult distinction to draw is that between low-floor light rail and streetcar or tram systems. There
9438-415: The ability of buses to travel closer to each other than rail vehicles and their ability to overtake each other at designated locations allowing express services to bypass those that have stopped at stations. However, to achieve capacities this high, BRT station footprints need to be significantly larger than a typical LRT station. In terms of cost of operation, each bus vehicle requires a single driver, whereas
9581-467: The abundant waterfalls and tremendously increased the output of the invaluable sugar plantations" after viewing the systems on Maui and Hawaii. After returning to San Francisco from Hawaii, he met with James Rolph , who was heading an earthquake relief committee at the time. The meeting was to discuss business: Rolph held an option to purchase the more than 10,000-acre (4,000 ha) San Vincente Ranch near Santa Cruz, and he wanted O'Shaughnessy to inspect
9724-415: The brothers John D. and Adolph B. Spreckels , who asked him to inspect the work in progress on Morena Dam , which they were building at Barrett near San Diego to supply water to the city, and estimate the cost and schedule to complete it. O'Shaughnessy was hired by John Spreckels to act as a consulting engineer for the project in May 1907; a construction contract was let that July and water began flowing to
9867-866: The case of the Disney amusement parks , even a land train . (The usual British term for an aerial tramway is cable car , which in the US usually refers to a ground-level car pulled along by subterranean cables .) The word trolley is often used as a synonym for streetcar in the United States but is usually taken to mean a cart, particularly a shopping cart, in the UK and elsewhere. Many North American transportation planners reserve streetcar for traditional vehicles that operate exclusively in mixed traffic on city streets, while they use light rail to refer to more modern vehicles operating mostly in exclusive rights of way, since they may operate both side-by-side targeted at different passenger groups. The difference between British English and American English terminology arose in
10010-466: The city's Lower Otay Reservoir via the Dulzura Conduit, an aqueduct connected to Morena Dam, on January 3, 1909, six months ahead of schedule. Construction of the dam itself was not completed until 1912; by that time, O'Shaughnessy had been recruited by Rolph, now serving as Mayor of San Francisco. He reluctantly packed up his belongings and left San Diego in August. On December 28,
10153-514: The city, complete the Geary Street Railway, and complete in-progress improvements to the sewer and fire protection systems. The prospective challenge of rebuilding a city devastated by the earthquake and fire delighted O'Shaughnessy, and he accepted the role. After taking over on September 1 from the retiring city engineer, Marsden Manson, O'Shaughnessy took action within a week to minimize costs and preserve schedule by denying
10296-421: The closure of Glasgow Corporation Tramways (one of the largest in Europe) in 1962. Although some traditional trolley or tram systems continued to exist in San Francisco and elsewhere, the term "light rail" has come to mean a different type of rail system as modern light rail technology has primarily post-WWII West German origins. An attempt by Boeing Vertol to introduce a new American light rail vehicle in
10439-471: The closure, Muni Metro trains were short turned at Castro station; the surface section of the K Ingleside was through-routed with the J Church , while the L Taraval and M Ocean View were replaced by buses. Systemwide delays during the summer of 2018 resulted from a combination of the tunnel shutdown and decreased qualified driver availability, which in turn was attributed to the rollout of LRV4s (requiring driver training), and contract issues. Refurbishment work
10582-407: The completion of the Twin Peaks Tunnel, Market Street was equipped with four streetcar tracks and the business interests which previously had opposed its construction for fear it would hurt their profits found their sales doubling and quadrupling instead. In 1919, Muni introduced the "O'Shaughnessy" badge, which would endure as the service's logo until 1968. O'Shaughnessy also oversaw construction of
10725-481: The construction of a Twin Peaks Rapid Transit tunnel at the earliest possible date. In so doing, there will be brought within 30 minutes' running time of the business district, approximately 10,000 acres of new territory, 75% of which is suitable for residence land, that has been practically useless heretofore by reason of lack of adequate transportation thereto." One of the key elements of proposal No. 5B
10868-710: The county line, and again was cheated out of US$ 5,000 (equivalent to $ 170,000 in 2023). In 1893, he served as the chief engineer for the California Midwinter Exposition held in Golden Gate Park . On June 1, 1893, he moved with his growing family (then with two children) to a new house in Mill Valley. While planning the Expo, he had to work with John McLaren , who forbade him from cutting any trees. O'Shaughnessy also
11011-415: The day. This combination of factors limits roads carrying only automobile commuters to a maximum observed capacity of about 3,000 passengers per hour per lane. The problem can be mitigated by introducing high-occupancy vehicle ( HOV ) lanes and ride-sharing programs, but in most cases, policymakers have chosen to add more lanes to the roads, despite a small risk that in unfavorable situations an extension of
11154-469: The descent. A few days later, he described to the Tamalpais Land & Water Company how he proposed to route the water from the brook to supply water for Mill Valley without an expensive dam; he completed the design and surveying for the water project by the time he married Mary in October. O'Shaughnessy's involvement with the city and county of San Francisco began in the early 1890s. In 1891, he
11297-755: The direct translation, which is city rail (the Norwegian term, by bane , means the same). However, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead. Light in this context is used in the sense of "intended for light loads and fast movement", rather than referring to physical weight. The infrastructure investment is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA), in its Glossary of Transit Terminology, defines light rail as: ...a mode of transit service (also called streetcar, tramway, or trolley) operating passenger rail cars singly (or in short, usually two-car or three-car, trains) on fixed rails in
11440-408: The east portal and 5,900 feet (1,800 m) from the west. Several notable accidents occurred during the construction of the tunnel: Dedication ceremonies were held at each portal on July 14, 1917. Mayor Rolph and several other dignitaries, including former Mayor P. H. McCarthy spoke at the east portal, beginning at 2:00 p.m.; after the remarks, hundreds of people walked through the tunnel to
11583-667: The end of 1894 by traveling to the site in person, he began serving as the chief engineer of the Mountain Copper Company , part of the Iron Mountain Mine of Shasta County , where he supervised the construction of the Iron Mountain Railway (California) , 12 mi (19 km) of narrow-gauge railway in 1895. Outside of this work, which involved surveying the right-of-way for a railroad and building it, O'Shaughnessy kept busy surveying
11726-482: The initial line linking BART from a transbay tunnel to Daly City be routed through Twin Peaks Tunnel. BART's 1961 plan did not include the tunnel connection on Market Street. When the Market Street subway was built in the early 1970s, it was connected to the Twin Peaks Tunnel to be used by the K Ingleside , L Taraval and M Ocean View lines. These services were spared from conversion to trolleybus by virtue of their use of Twin Peaks Tunnel. The Eureka Valley station
11869-569: The island of Hawaii to visit the plantation. Warned of Hawaii's monsoons, O'Shaughnessy prepared by outfitting himself with rubber hat, coat, and boots, causing the plantation manager to have a laughing fit at his ridiculous appearance when they first met, but O'Shaughnessy had the last laugh as that day turned out to be quite wet. He returned to San Francisco on July 4, laden with notes, data, and curios as he thought he would never return to Hawaii, but in September of that year, O'Shaughnessy
12012-458: The late 19th century when Americans adopted the term "street railway", rather than "tramway", with the vehicles being called "streetcars" rather than "trams". Some have suggested that the Americans' preference for the term "street railway" at that time was influenced by German emigrants to the United States (who were more numerous than British immigrants in the industrialized Northeast), as it is
12155-524: The latter is described as light rail. In those places, trams running on mixed rights-of-way are not regarded as a light rail but considered distinctly as streetcars or trams. However, the requirement for saying that a rail line is "separated" can be quite low—sometimes just with concrete "buttons" to discourage automobile drivers from getting onto the tracks. Some systems such as Seattle's Link had on-road mixed sections but were closed to regular road traffic, with light rail vehicles and buses both operating along
12298-462: The light rail concept was the "Shaker Heights Rapid Transit" which started in the 1920s, was renovated in 1980-81 and is now part of RTA Rapid Transit . Many original tram and streetcar systems in the United Kingdom , United States , and elsewhere were decommissioned starting in the 1950s as subsidies for the car increased. Britain abandoned its tram systems, except for Blackpool , with
12441-633: The nearby Cameron Beach Yard) and Castro. As a result, there was no need to bring the 1972 portals back into regular use when the F line reopened as a full-time service in 1995. Light rail service briefly used the 1972 portals for two weeks in 1991 (August 19 to September 2), when K-L-M service was diverted via 17th and Church Streets, and entering and leaving the Muni Metro subway via the portal on Duboce Avenue, to permit track work near Castro station. Forest Hill and Eureka Valley stations were originally constructed with low platforms, as streetcars of that era had steps to load passengers from street level. However,
12584-754: The next fall, then graduated from the Royal University of Dublin on October 21, 1884. After returning to the family home for a few months, O'Shaughnessy visited London in January 1885 to sightsee and apply for a position, but was encouraged to pursue his career in California instead. He departed from Liverpool on March 8, 1885 aboard the Guion Mail Steamer Wisconsin with a cousin, J.S. Molony, arriving in New York on March 18. After arriving, he purchased
12727-465: The old and new systems. Since the 1980s, Portland, Oregon , has built all three types of system: a high-capacity light rail system in dedicated lanes and rights-of-way, a low-capacity streetcar system integrated with street traffic, and an aerial tram system . The opposite phrase heavy rail , used for higher-capacity, higher-speed systems, also avoids some incompatibilities in terminology between British and American English, for instance in comparing
12870-404: The open cuts at each end; initial excavation sank three drifts (one at each side along the springline, and one at the crown of the tunnel). A fourth drift was added at the centerline bottom of the tunnel to facilitate drainage of the ground at the western end. The two crews first "holed through" and connected their excavations near Laguna Honda station on April 5, 1917, 6,100 feet (1,900 m) from
13013-483: The peak at Laguna Honda, the tunnel has a maximum grade of 3% from west to east and 1.15% from east to west. Excluding approaches, the tunnel is 8,800 feet (2,700 m) long. The eastern 1,665-foot (507 m) portion (with the exception of the 300-foot (91 m) long Eureka Valley station) of the tunnel uses a double-tube subway structure, and the remainder adopts an arched tube profile. As designed, both sections provide 15 feet (4.6 m) of vertical clearance above
13156-573: The peak direction during rush hour. Michael O%27Shaughnessy Michael Maurice O'Shaughnessy (28 May 1864 – 12 October 1934) was an Irish civil engineer who became city engineer for the city of San Francisco during the early twentieth century and developed both the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) and the Hetch Hetchy water system . He is sometimes credited as being "the Irishman who built San Francisco." O'Shaughnessy
13299-481: The property and report back to Rolph on its condition. This done, O'Shaughnessy returned to Hawaii to close out his work on Kohala, staying there for approximately one month, and upon his second return to San Francisco, happened to chance upon an acquaintance from the Mountain Copper Company, M. C. Couchot, who had previously handled drafting work for the engineer. Couchot told O'Shaughnessy that he
13442-476: The recommendation of noted tunnel expert, Bion J. Arnold , who had submitted two preliminary reports in 1912, following up with a final report in March 1913. The 1913 report studied several alternative alignments and configurations, recommending construction of both the Twin Peaks Tunnel and what would become the Sunset Tunnel . In the 1913 report, Arnold primarily considered proposals No. 2 and No. 5B, concluding "I can recommend unqualifiedly [ sic ]
13585-556: The required clearance height can be reduced significantly compared to conventional light rail vehicles. Reference speed from major light rail systems, including station stop time, is shown below. However, low top speed is not always a differentiating characteristic between light rail and other systems. For example, the Siemens S70 LRVs used in the Houston METRORail and other North American LRT systems have
13728-432: The right-of-way that is often separated from other traffic for part or much of the way. Light rail vehicles are typically driven electrically with power being drawn from an overhead electric line via a trolley [pole] or a pantograph ; driven by an operator onboard the vehicle; and may have either high platform loading or low-level boarding using steps." However, some diesel-powered transit is designated light rail, such as
13871-415: The road network might lead to increased travel times ( Downs–Thomson paradox , Braess's paradox ). By contrast, light rail vehicles can travel in multi-car trains carrying a theoretical ridership up to 20,000 passengers per hour in much narrower rights-of-way , not much more than two car lanes wide for a double track system. They can often be run through existing city streets and parks , or placed in
14014-401: The roads. Typically roadways have 1,900 passenger cars per lane per hour (pcplph). If only cars are allowed, the capacity will be less and will not increase when the traffic volume increases. When there is a bus driving on this route, the capacity of the lane will be higher and will increase when the traffic level increases. And because the capacity of a light rail system is higher than that of
14157-641: The salary of US$ 40 (equivalent to $ 1,400 in 2023) per month, with board included. After three or four months, O'Shaughnessy was dismissed; on the stage back to San Francisco, he received a letter from the Southern Pacific Railroad offering employment, where he was responsible for laying out the towns of Niles , Tracy , Sanger , Lindsay , Porterville , Merced , Mill Valley , and Dinuba between 1886 and 1888. After leaving SP, O'Shaughnessy began his consulting engineering practice. On July 4, 1890, O'Shaughnessy went hiking to
14300-671: The same as the German term for the mode, Straßenbahn (meaning "street railway"). A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams after World War II except in Blackpool , eight major North American cities ( Toronto , Boston , Philadelphia , San Francisco , Pittsburgh , Newark , Cleveland , and New Orleans ) continued to operate large streetcar systems. When these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both
14443-415: The six new Market Street subway stations were built with high-level platforms for speedier level boarding onto the new Boeing LRVs. West Portal station , which was originally a surface stop outside of the tunnel's western entrance, was rebuilt as a high-platform station located just inside of the entrance. With Eureka Valley station permanently closed, Forest Hill was left as the only low-platform station on
14586-408: The standard gauge is that standard railway maintenance equipment can be used on it, rather than custom-built machinery. Using standard gauges also allows light rail vehicles to be conveniently moved around using the same tracks as freight railways. Additionally, wider gauges (e.g. standard gauge) provide more floor clearance on low-floor trams that have constricted pedestrian areas at the wheels, which
14729-547: The subway and the need to quarantine a control center staff after a COVID-19 case. On May 15, 2021, Muni Metro rail service resumed the K Ingleside, T Third Street, and S Shuttle lines. K Ingleside and T Third Street services were again interlined (as before the August changes). At that time, some stations were converted to new wayfinding signage based on international standards, with compass directions like "westbound" replacing older "inbound"/"outbound" directions. M Ocean View service resumed on August 14. The L Taraval remained as
14872-488: The surface tracks on Market Street—a closure that was planned at the time to be permanent. However, the surface tracks – and the 1972-built Castro portals – came back into use the following summer for the first Historic Trolley Festival , in 1983. Trolley Festival service gradually expanded from being summer-only and five days a week to running May to October and daily for part of the year, and all streetcars on that service reached Market Street from Muni's Metro Rail Center via
15015-551: The system was a success with the public, gaining up to 190,000 passengers per day. Automatic train operation is employed on light rail networks, tracking the position and speed of a train and hence adjusting its movement for safety and efficiency. One line of light rail (requires 7.6 m, 25' right of way) has a theoretical capacity of up to 8 times more than one 3.7 m (12 foot) lane on a freeway, excluding busses, during peak times. Roads have ultimate capacity limits that can be determined by traffic engineering , and usually experience
15158-463: The time. Mayor Rolph served as the motorman for the first revenue trip, and most of the paying passengers were City Supervisors, wives, and invited guests. The trip through the tunnel took seven minutes. The tunnel was built sloping downwards at the east end, anticipating future expansion to a tunnel under Market Street per Arnold's plan. A technical report was commissioned by the city in 1960 to study possible rapid transit routes. This recommended that
15301-409: The top of Mount Tamalpais with his fiancée Mary and several of her siblings; the day was hot and he had brought 2 US gal (7.6 L; 1.7 imp gal) of water, but it was all consumed before they reached the top. While O'Shaughnessy was looking for an easier route down the mountain, he found a brook just below the summit and refilled his jug, returning to refresh the party's spirits for
15444-460: The top of the rail; each tube in the double-tube section is 14 feet (4.3 m) wide, and the arched tube is 25 feet (7.6 m) wide at its maximum. The lunette space between the arched roof and flat ceiling of the tube was used as a duct to convey fresh air into the tunnel. One blower was mounted at the west end of the double-tube structure, and the other was at a ventilating shaft 110 feet (34 m) deep, located 4,600 feet (1,400 m) east of
15587-503: The trams, making it safe on city streets. Several systems in Europe and a few recently opened systems in North America use diesel -powered trains. When electric streetcars were introduced in the late 19th century, conduit current collection was one of the first ways of supplying power, but it proved to be much more expensive, complicated, and trouble-prone than overhead wires . When electric street railways became ubiquitous, conduit power
15730-450: The tunnel and would allow for the use of two-car trains on the K/T lines. The construction contract was awarded on April 5, 2016. The project was originally planned to begin in late 2016, but suffered a series of delays. The start date was first pushed to April 2017, then in March 2017 it was pushed to mid-2017 to allow for "additional technical analysis" of the tunnel. In June 2017, the project
15873-571: The tunnel proposed by Arnold by moving the western portal to Laguna Honda station, but O'Shaughnessy stated the resulting grade would be too steep. Mayor James Rolph signed the Twin Peaks Tunnel Act in November 1913, rejecting the proposal for a shorter tunnel. The contract for tunnel construction was awarded on November 2, 1914, to the R.C. Storrie Company for US$ 3,372,000 (equivalent to $ 102,570,000 in 2023) and work began on
16016-459: The tunnel ranged from US$ 1,500,000 (equivalent to $ 51,000,000 in 2023) in 1909 to US$ 3,000,000 (equivalent to $ 98,000,000 in 2023) in 1910. The Twin Peaks Tunnel and Improvement Convention released their report in August 1910 recommending a municipal bond to pay for the tunnel, whose costs would be recouped by the additional taxation of the land that would then be opened for development. Other options were considered and rejected, including
16159-417: The tunnel was built along a parcel purchased by the city approximately 1,800 feet (550 m) long and 90 feet (27 m) wide at the end of Market. This right-of-way was also later paved to connect Market with Portola. As originally constructed, the total length of the tunnel is 11,675 feet (3,559 m) (including approaches) and the highest point of the tunnel is near Laguna Honda station. Sloping down from
16302-481: The tunnel with new rails directly fixed to concrete pads, the installation of two pairs of crossovers (one near West Portal, the other just east of Forest Hill), replacement of existing switches to the unused eastern portals, a structural refit in the area of the former Eureka Valley station, replacement of the overhead wires, and a number of other repairs and improvements. The work would lift speed restriction that limited trains to 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) through
16445-425: The tunnel, with passengers transferring at West Portal station. M Ocean View and T Third Street services were interlined, running between Sunnydale and Balboa Park station. Longer S Shuttle services operated in the tunnel. The forced transfers at West Portal were criticized by disability advocates. Service was stopped and substituted with buses just three days later due to a malfunctioning overhead wire splice in
16588-409: The tunnel. In an effort to save time and avoid the cost of disposal, Muni ordered the ballast to instead be reused, but did not ensure that the contractor followed the proper procedure to thoroughly wash and filter the ballast before it was reused. By November 2020, Muni acknowledged that it had made an "oversight" during the 2018 project and that the ballast was likely to create track stability issues in
16731-520: The two failed surveys of 1891 and 1892 made him wary initially. After an interview on August 31, Rolph made him a salary offer of US$ 15,000 (equivalent to $ 470,000 in 2023) per year, but O'Shaughnessy had made twice that in 1911. Rolph explained the daunting scope that faced the incoming city engineer for what was considered an exorbitant sum for the role. O'Shaughnessy would need to assume multiple major projects: build Hetch Hetchy, administer Spring Valley Water, then being considered for purchase by
16874-460: The vast majority of light rail systems. This avoids the danger potentially presented by an electrified third rail . The Docklands Light Railway uses an inverted third rail for its electrical power, which allows the electrified rail to be covered and the power drawn from the underside. Trams in Bordeaux , France, use a special third-rail configuration where the power is only switched on beneath
17017-509: The vegetation overran the passage way he had cut. O'Shaughnessy was the daring engineer who conquered the jungle and the gorges, ran the ditch, and made the horse-trail. He built enduringly, in concrete and masonry, and made one of the most remarkable water-farms in the world. — Jack London , The Cruise of the Snark He essentially moved his engineering office from San Francisco to Hawaii, arriving in January 1900, but
17160-523: The west portal, and Judge E. P. Shortall was the first of the pedestrians to arrive. At the west portal, Mayor Rolph spoke again and a ceremonial silver spike was driven by O'Shaughnessy and Rolph to mark the start of construction of the Twin Peaks Railway. The inaugural trip through the tunnel occurred on December 31, 1917. The tunnel was opened to revenue service on February 3, 1918, and was the world's longest tunnel for street railway traffic at
17303-421: The western portal. Excavation of the ventilating shaft required pumping 300,000 US gallons (1,100 kl) of water per day after a horizontal drift at the bottom of the shaft struck water-bearing sand. Laguna Honda, West Portal, and Eureka Valley stations were constructed using cut-and-cover methods. Laguna Honda station is approximately 70 feet (20 m) below grade. The tunnel was excavated simultaneously from
17446-434: The widest range of latitude of any rail system in the design, engineering, and operating practices. The challenge in designing light rail systems is to realize the potential of LRT to provide fast, comfortable service while avoiding the tendency to overdesign that results in excessive capital costs beyond what is necessary to meet the public's needs. The BART railcar in the following chart is not generally considered to be
17589-450: Was also criticized for inadequate notice of service degradation to bus lines during the closure, since buses were pulled off regular routes to substitute for trains, and for the death during the project. During the project, it was discovered that the track ballast was contaminated with toxic heavy metals . Muni had planned to replace the ballast, which degrades over time, creating a dust called fines, which can turn to mud when water enters
17732-584: Was born to farmers Patrick and Margaret ( née O'Donnell ) at the family cottage named Jointer in Loughill Parish, County Limerick , Ireland on May 28, 1864; he was one of nine children. At two years old, he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents, approximately 16 mi (26 km) east of his birthplace, along with his Uncle Maurice, Aunt Alice, sister Kate, and cousin Margaret O'Clery, who had been orphaned. In 1875, he entered
17875-508: Was buried at Holy Cross . The Bancroft Library , University of California, Berkeley holds an archive with primary source material relating to O'Shaughnessy's job as City Engineer of SF. In 2016, the O'Shaughnessy family donated an archive of "material that document his time in private practice, primarily engineering drawings, related reports and correspondence from the planning and execution of survey work in California, and irrigation design and construction projects in Hawaii" and "includes
18018-456: Was closed and was functionally replaced by Castro Street Station . This combined subway line was the impetus for transitioning the system to light rail and served as the basis of Muni Metro . The original eastern entrance to the tunnel in the middle of Market Street at Castro was removed and new entrances and ramps were constructed on the sides of the street further up the block. These were connected to track on 17th Street, and in December 1972
18161-543: Was coined in 1972 by the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA; the precursor to the Federal Transit Administration ) to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany, the term Stadtbahn (to be distinguished from S-Bahn , which stands for Stadtschnellbahn ) was used to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt
18304-502: Was coined in 1972 in the United States as an English equivalent for the German word Stadtbahn , meaning "city railway". Different definitions exist in some countries, but in the United States, light rail operates primarily along exclusive rights-of-way and uses either individual tramcars or multiple units coupled together, with a lower capacity and speed than a long heavy rail passenger train or rapid transit system. Narrowly defined, light rail transit uses rolling stock that
18447-530: Was contracted by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (SFBOS), then controlled by Democrats, to survey the extension of Market Street over Twin Peaks and subsequently was cheated out of his contracted fee of US$ 5,000 (equivalent to $ 170,000 in 2023); the next year, he was contracted again by the SFBOS, then controlled by Republicans, for an extension of Potrero Avenue from Ninth Street to
18590-463: Was indefinitely delayed after the construction contract was terminated. Muni and the contractor could not agree on a new schedule and costs to minimize disruptions to riders; and the project duration increased from 460 days to 807 days and the cost to $ 48 million. The SFMTA released a Request for Qualifications in October 2017, and bidding opened for the $ 35.5 million project in November. Work began on June 25, 2018, and lasted until August 24. During
18733-677: Was introduced in North America in 1972 to describe this new concept of rail transportation. Prior to that time the abbreviation "LRT" was used for " Light Rapid Transit " and " Light Rail Rapid Transit ". The first of the new light rail systems in North America began operation in 1978 when the Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta , adopted the German Siemens-Duewag U2 system, followed three years later by Calgary, Alberta , and San Diego, California . The concept proved popular, with there now being numerous light rail systems in
18876-502: Was let go by the company. However, O'Shaughnessy would spend the next 11 months consulting on numerous water projects and developing a reputation as the authoritative water engineer in Hawaii before returning to San Francisco that December. Through 1906, O'Shaughnessy worked on surveying routes for and supervising the construction of large aqueducts in Hawaii, including the Olokele (Kauai, 1901–03), stretching 13 mi (21 km) to
19019-399: Was now heading a construction company near Marysville and jokingly, O'Shaughnessy suggested they form a partnership, to which Couchot agreed; however, O'Shaughnessy quickly grew tired of the resulting work, in which he would provide estimated construction costs for owners of proposed buildings that would follow the plans through to completion. In December 1906, O'Shaughnessy was contacted by
19162-534: Was on this basis that the Twin Peaks Association of Improvement voiced their opposition to Arnold's plans, in May 1912. City Engineer M.M. O'Shaughnessy recommended terminating the tunnel at 17th and Market in February 1913, as he thought the Market Street subway may need to be extended past Valencia, potentially to Third. O'Shaughnessy's report, endorsing Arnold's plan, was unanimously adopted by
19305-495: Was quarantined upon arrival in Honolulu due to an outbreak of the plague which would lead to the fire and partial destruction of the local Chinatown . After returning to Kaunakakai, O'Shaughnessy sunk some test wells and discovered that at the proposed pumping rate, the irrigation water would become contaminated with salt, which proved true once the station began operating in May, causing the plantation on Molokai to founder and he
19448-406: Was released of the eastern portal; the tunnel was initially envisioned as a two-story bore 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, carrying road traffic on the upper deck and rail traffic on the lower deck. Market Street would be extended southwest in a straight line across private property to connect to the eastern portal, to be located at the intersection of 19th and Douglass. Initial estimates for the cost of
19591-739: Was responsible for surveying a site for a race course near Ingleside in 1890; originally, he had been contracted to survey a course on property that belonged to the Spring Valley Water Company , but the chief engineer of Spring Valley, Hermann Schussler , rejected the proposal over objections to stable waste, so O'Shaughnessy surveyed what would become the Ingleside course at his own expense. Later, after being introduced to Edward C. Corrigan in 1894, he convinced Corrigan to abandon an alternative site north of Ocean Avenue and build at Ingleside instead. After reviewing some surveys at
19734-507: Was retained by George Robertson (son of George Morison Robertson ) of C. Brewer & Co. to review a proposed aqueduct connecting a pumping station at Kaunakakai on Molokai to a plantation approximately 4 mi (6.4 km) to the west, prompting his return to the islands. His report impressed the company, which then hired him as a consulting engineer, reserving 1 ⁄ 3 of his time over three years at an annual salary of US$ 6,500 (equivalent to $ 240,000 in 2023). ... But
19877-544: Was spent on the Hetch Hetchy project, which would bring water from the Tuolumne River and Yosemite Valley to San Francisco, a distance of 167 mi (269 km). The project had been started under Manson's predecessor, Carl E. Grunsky, but protests kept delaying the project until President Woodrow Wilson granted the federal lands in Yosemite National Park to the city in 1912, approved under
20020-413: Was temporarily suspended after a signal technician was fatally crushed by a steel beam on August 10. The technician was an employee of Shimmick Construction, the firm contracted to handle the refurbishment; Shimmick had been cited for serious and willful safety violations on an unrelated job in 2011 by Cal/OSHA but neglected to disclose those violations during the bidding for the Twin Peaks Tunnel job. Muni
20163-632: Was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. It initially drew current from the rails, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. The first interurban to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889. An early example of
20306-451: Was the creation of a new station along the tunnel, which is now present-day Forest Hill station (then called Laguna Honda station, at the intersection of Laguna Honda and Dewey Boulevard). The San Francisco Call speculated the presence of a station at Laguna Honda meant the Geary line could be extended through Golden Gate Park . A 1912 report, by Arnold, proposed that Laguna Honda would be
20449-527: Was used in those cities that did not permit overhead wires. In Europe, it was used in London, Paris, Berlin, Marseille, Budapest, and Prague. In the United States, it was used in parts of New York City and Washington, D.C. Third rail technology was investigated for use on the Gold Coast of Australia for the G:link light rail, though power from overhead lines was ultimately utilized for that system. In
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