MARTA Upgrades (Atlanta, Lenox: station, commuter, peachtree)

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

Can't you tune an NFC reader to need to be, practically, right on top of the chip (or vice versa)?

I don't really see this being a problem more than it already is with the Breeze cards. That is... not really one.

The card must be touched, I guess I assumed when people are talking about NFC on a phone it's more not having to take the phone out and touch it. If that is the case, what's the deal with QR code?

[fourthwarden]

New Flyer Concludes Battery-Electric Bus Demo in Georgia

New Flyer of America Inc., a subsidiary of New Flyer Industries Inc., the largest heavy-duty transit bus and motor coach manufacturer and parts distributor in North America, has completed a three-week demonstration of the New Flyer Xcelsior XE40 battery-electric bus for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) in Georgia.

According to New Flyer, the electric bus demonstration, ended on Dec. 23, 2016, transported over 2,200 passengers throughout the region on seven different service routes and yielded over 1,600 in-service miles.

New Flyer says its electric buses have the ability to quick-charge at an equipped bus stop. As reported, this capability typically requires only six minutes of recharge for every hour of service operation. New Flyer also builds extended-range electric buses with more battery capacity, which can operate for longer periods during the day and then be recharged overnight using plug-in charging. MARTA is considering both types of charging methods for bus operations.

So, for buses that terminate their routes at either a transit center or train station, a charger could be set up to recharge the buses during the short dwell times at each end of the routes. Cool stuff, and it'd be nice to switch over to an electric fleet eventually.

[primaltech]

A battery, what a new concept! Wish they could do something like that for the streetcar, instead of those ugly wires and poles everywhere. And heck, do this for the future rail lines, too.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

New Flyer Concludes Battery-Electric Bus Demo in Georgia

So, for buses that terminate their routes at either a transit center or train station, a charger could be set up to recharge the buses during the short dwell times at each end of the routes. Cool stuff, and it'd be nice to switch over to an electric fleet eventually.

Very nice! If they are ready to rock, I'd say put a few hundred of them on the street ASAP.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by primaltech

A battery, what a new concept! Wish they could do something like that for the streetcar, instead of those ugly wires and poles everywhere. And heck, do this for the future rail lines, too.

Batteries add weight to the vehicle, which means that you need more power to move it, and it's harder to stop. It also means that it's harder to get up hills and such. It would also increase dwell times at stations as you need to recharge. It would also likely increase long-term maintenance costs as batteries have a limited life and would need to be replaced before the life of the vehicle is over. Extrapolate that across the whole fleet, and it's generally a larger lifetime cost than maintaining an overhead or 3rd rail system.

There's an industry reason as to why they use overheads and 3rd rails over batteries.

Using a non-industry standard for the completely personal reason of not liking how overhead wires look is not worth it, and for what it's worth, I like the way the overhead wires look.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by primaltech

A battery, what a new concept! Wish they could do something like that for the streetcar, instead of those ugly wires and poles everywhere. And heck, do this for the future rail lines, too.

For streetcars, there's already a solution for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-level_power_supply
For the other vehicles, they're on their own RoW so no one should care.

[magnetar]

Originally Posted by cqholt

The card must be touched, I guess I assumed when people are talking about NFC on a phone it's more not having to take the phone out and touch it. If that is the case, what's the deal with QR code?

MARTA's breeze cards already use NFC chips to communicate with the fare gates. You can confirm this if you have an Android phone; download the free Farebot app and tap a silver breeze card against your phone. You'll see a bunch of data pop up.

The advantages of NFC vs. QR code is speed. Where Apple Pay works with transit systems, like in Japan, you don't have to unlock your phone, open an app, and point your screen at a scanner; you just pull your phone out and tap it, or lean your wrist down and tap your watch, against the fare gate reader.

[cqholt]

https://www.citylab.com/tech/2017/02...easier/518121/

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by AtlantaTiger

Know of any details on MARTA upgrades? (mobile payments, cell coverage, etc.) Post them here!

It looks like one of the fare gates at Lindbergh has been outfitted with a device to scan phones. It was only on the one gate, so it might just be a test. I haven't heard any announcement yet. Are mobile payments going to happen soon!?!

All this tech. Still no benches.
Still no where to sit at Peachtree Center,
Still no where to sit at CNN Dome
Still no where to sit at Lenox

Yep....

[Atlanta Scientist]

Originally Posted by 0nyxStation

All this tech. Still no benches.
Still no where to sit at Peachtree Center,
Still no where to sit at CNN Dome
Still no where to sit at Lenox

Yep....

There are benches at Peachtree Center. I remember finding a place to sit at the Dome but I can't be too sure since I don't frequent that station often. Lenox station I'm not sure at all.