TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: AMTRAK (was Re: Last, Sad Laugh! A Nice Place to Work!)

Re: AMTRAK (was Re: Last, Sad Laugh! A Nice Place to Work!)

Mark Crispin (mrc@CAC.Washington.EDU)
Thu, 21 Oct 2004 13:33:46 PDT

On Thu, 21 Oct 2004, John R. Covert wrote:

> Mark, let's get the terminology correct. In Germany, "S-Bahn" is
> short for "Stadtbahn" (City Railroad)

Schnellbahn. I checked my dictionary to verify my memory on this point.
If Stadtbahn is used today that is a new usage.

> It's the equivalent of "commuter rail" in the United
> States, although in some cities (Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, and
> Hamburg in particular) it is quite well developed

I suppose you know that the Berlin S-Bahn is more or less totally
reconstructed since the fall of the wall.

Prior to that time, the U-Bahn was run by West Berlin authorities and
the S-Bahn by East Berlin authorities. Most U-Bahn lines served the
west, although one line had a stop in the east (Friedrichstrasse IIRC)
and there was another line that was east-only. The S-Bahn was
entirely streetcars in West Berlin, and generally avoided. Berlin's
S-Bahn could have been how S-Bahn came to be interpreted as
"Stadtbahn" since it very definitely was not schnell in Berlin!!!

In Munich, the S-Bahn is a high-speed line from the suburbs into
downtown, but only one or two stops in town (e.g. at Hauptbahnhof);
everywhere else in town you take the U-Bahn or walk. I don't recall
streetcars in Munich, but there definitely were streetcars in the
Vienna ring which were part of the S-Bahn system. Those streetcars
were definitely not schnell; I could walk faster than they would
transport you.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you; I think that maybe you
aren't aware of some of the history.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

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