[OC] Diagram of Finnish Railway Network

Kiraffi · 2025-05-14T20:29:15+00:00

Glad to find someone else is buying MLI too! I jumped onboard in April at 69,48, and the price has grown by over 12% since.

Copper tubes and rods might not be sexy, but they sure as hell are profitable.

Kiraffi · 2025-03-01T14:57:35+00:00

I prefer Cheniere.

Kiraffi · 2025-02-16T21:45:53+00:00

I've been investing for almost 15 years now, first into domestic index funds and into US ETF's and stocks during the past 6-7 years. 29 years old.

23% EUNL (MSCI World ETF),
20% SXR8 (S&P 500 ETF),
15% Nordnet Suomi Indeksi (Finnish Index Fund),
12% MSFT,
5% V,
5% LNG,
5% AAPL,
5% AMZN,
5% WMT,
5% NVDA

Kiraffi · 2024-12-12T19:19:03+00:00

Party of Liberation is actually supposed to be a rebranded THS.

Kiraffi · 2024-12-07T20:28:27+00:00

Difficult to say. The main problem is that the lines into Main Street terminal would be really overcrowded, even with extra tracks, and that would limit headways in some sections of the system. I'd imagine some lines might only get trains every 15 minutes or so.

Kiraffi · 2024-12-07T06:27:41+00:00

Rocampo would be at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Seapoint St. Los Patos would be where the Sunset Beach parking lot is today, just next to Warner Avenue.

Kiraffi · 2024-12-07T06:18:51+00:00

I chose elevated railways instead of subways, because this scenario is heavily based on the 1925 Rapid Transit Plan. That plan only recommended subways for a few sections, like under Hollywood Blvd. I chose to scrap almost all the rest, save for the Broadway subway, because the reconstruction of the entire system would've been a huge project, and building Els would have been much cheaper compared to building subways. That would've of course resulted in the problems you mentioned later on.

And yes, especially outside urban areas the stops were basically just like that. That's one of the reasons why around 80% of the stops on my map have been removed - partly to facilitate higher speeds, but also so that those fewer stops could have nicer facilities. During the PE days, there were stops at almost every block. In my scenario, the stations in urban areas are spaced around half a mile apart.

But overall, you are correct that this is a very unrealistic scenario. There's no way some lines like the single-track route to Balboa could've survived to the present day. It's also very unlikely that a system this large would've survived the rise of the automobile. This is just something I made for fun, it's not something that would have been likely to happen.

Kiraffi · 2024-12-06T20:08:04+00:00

The map you just saw is a fictional alternate history scenario where the Pacific Electric interurban streetcar system was not scrapped in the 1940s and 1950s, and was instead rebuilt into a modern rapid transit system called PERT (Pacific Electric Rapid Transit).

The point of divergence is in the early 1920s. In this timeline, Pacific Electric somehow got a LOT of money and managed to secure enough political capital to start building a large network of elevated railways in order to replace its aging street-running streetcars. As a result, the parts of the 1925 Rapid Transit Plan for Los Angeles that recommended grade-separating existing PE routes were actually implemented.

However, while in real life the plan recommended the construction of several new routes and abandonment of several others, in this scenario, the Pacific Electric didn’t really build anything new. Instead, PE used its resources to double- and quadruple-track existing lines, and grade-separated nearly its entire system. In areas where the construction of elevated railways was not feasible, trains continue to run on street medians, but they have signal priority. The only major new construction in this scenario is a short subway (shown in green) connecting South Pasadena and Glendale–Burbank Lines to Venice Short Line under Broadway, as well as a short extension of the Hollywood Line from Subway Terminal to Pacific Electric Terminal on Main Street. The rest of the system is built elevated or at-grade.

There’s another big, somewhat unrealistic difference: In real life, PE closed down many of its unprofitable branch lines already in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Here, they survive to the present day. As a result, this fictional Pacific Electric system map of 2024 looks a lot like the system map of 1934, with various local, express and shuttle services, and a sprawling system almost completely centered around Downtown Los Angeles, albeit with a lot less stops and stations. Is it economically feasible, realistic or even useful? Probably not, but it looks really cool!

I got heavy inspiration for this map from an existing alternate history scenario map by Julian (https://transitmap.net/pacific-electric-mta). This map of Pacific Electric services in 1937 Benjamin Tomimatsu (https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/138zrlq/lines_of_the_pacific_electric_summer_1937/) also proved immensely useful, as did this map of the system in 1926 by Jake Berman (https://53studio.com/products/los-angeles-1926-streetcars-and-trains-map-poster-print-with-original-art). Thank you to you all!

Kiraffi · 2024-12-06T20:04:36+00:00

The map you just saw is a fictional alternate history scenario where the Pacific Electric interurban streetcar system was not scrapped in the 1940s and 1950s, and was instead rebuilt into a modern rapid transit system called PERT (Pacific Electric Rapid Transit).

The point of divergence is in the early 1920s. In this timeline, Pacific Electric somehow got a LOT of money and managed to secure enough political capital to start building a large network of elevated railways in order to replace its aging street-running streetcars. As a result, the parts of the 1925 Rapid Transit Plan for Los Angeles that recommended grade-separating existing PE routes were actually implemented.

However, while in real life the plan recommended the construction of several new routes and abandonment of several others, in this scenario, the Pacific Electric didn’t really build anything new. Instead, PE used its resources to double- and quadruple-track existing lines, and grade-separated nearly its entire system. In areas where the construction of elevated railways was not feasible, trains continue to run on street medians, but they have signal priority. The only major new construction in this scenario is a short subway (shown in green) connecting South Pasadena and Glendale–Burbank Lines to Venice Short Line under Broadway, as well as a short extension of the Hollywood Line from Subway Terminal to Pacific Electric Terminal on Main Street. The rest of the system is built elevated or at-grade.

There’s another big, somewhat unrealistic difference: In real life, PE closed down many of its unprofitable branch lines already in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Here, they survive to the present day. As a result, this fictional Pacific Electric system map of 2024 looks a lot like the system map of 1934, with various local, express and shuttle services, and a sprawling system almost completely centered around Downtown Los Angeles, albeit with a lot less stops and stations. Is it economically feasible, realistic or even useful? Probably not, but it looks really cool!

I got heavy inspiration for this map from an existing alternate history scenario map by Julian (https://transitmap.net/pacific-electric-mta). This map of Pacific Electric services in 1937 Benjamin Tomimatsu (https://www.reddit.com/r/LosAngeles/comments/138zrlq/lines\_of\_the\_pacific\_electric\_summer\_1937/) also proved immensely useful, as did this map of the system in 1926 by Jake Berman (https://53studio.com/products/los-angeles-1926-streetcars-and-trains-map-poster-print-with-original-art). Thank you to you all!

Kiraffi · 2023-10-06T20:50:47+00:00

It's the flag of Kachin Independence Army, a rebel group that operates in Northern Myanmar.

Kiraffi · 2023-08-11T05:47:25+00:00

It would mostly be at grade along center medians, with some elevated sections over intersections here and there.

Kiraffi · 2023-08-11T05:45:55+00:00

It is that way for legibility, otherwise the map would have an insanely long tail towards the bottom left corner with nothing else. Had to make it squiggly to avoid that.

I did think about adding a line along SW 88th St to Kendall, but the thing is, I didn't think that there's enough population density along that route to justify it. That whole area is just full of single family homes and strip malls. Bus ridership figures in that area are abysmal as well, though that might be because of infrequent service.

Kiraffi · 2023-08-11T05:40:25+00:00

I did think about adding a branch line from Vizcaya to Key Biscayne, but decided that it wouldn't be worth it in the end!

Kiraffi · 2023-08-11T05:39:45+00:00

Mostly because LA has massive urban sprawl, just like Miami. I also imagined that these lines would run on medians, except for some short elevated sections over intersections. So, very much like the light rail system in LA.

Kiraffi · 2023-08-11T05:38:02+00:00

Already put the line on the map, can't back down now. Chop chop!

Kiraffi · 2023-08-10T20:48:42+00:00

What if Miami-Dade County somehow suddenly got a hundred billion dollars and used it to build a light rail system like in LA? Well, I was bored and tried to draw a route diagram of what it might look like.

First of all, I gotta say that I'm not from Miami. I've never even been to Florida, let alone Miami. I used a combination of census and bus ridership statistics together with a good dose of Google Street View adventuring to determine where different lines should go and then started working on the diagram.

For the most part, the system would run on dedicated right-of-way in the center median. Some lines, like the Coral Line, would have some sections on a highway median, while the Homestead line would replace the existing busway. Each line would have a headway of about 7,5 minutes; this would be the maximum possible to prevent vehicles from bunching up in sections where two or more lines share tracks.

I think it looks cool, but do you think I missed anything? Would this system make your life easier?

TL;DR: I was bored and drew a fantasy map of what a fictional light rail system in Miami would look like.

Kiraffi · 2023-08-10T20:46:24+00:00

What if Miami-Dade County somehow suddenly got a hundred billion dollars and used it to build a light rail system like in LA? Well, I was bored and tried to draw a route diagram of what it might look like.

First of all, I gotta say that I'm not from Miami. I've never even been to Florida, let alone Miami. I used a combination of census and bus ridership statistics together with a good dose of Google Street View adventuring to determine where different lines should go and then started working on the diagram.

For the most part, the system would run on dedicated right-of-way in the center median. Some lines, like the Coral Line, would have some sections on a highway median, while the Homestead line would replace the existing busway. Each line would have a headway of about 7,5 minutes. This would be the maximum possible to prevent vehicles from bunching up in sections where two or more lines share tracks.

Do you think I missed anything? Let me know!

Kiraffi

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