How to Spruce Up Your Tracks: The Magic of Green Track
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- čas přidán 16. 05. 2022
- A lot of cities around the world has green track for their surface tram routes, but what makes them so enticing, and why should more cities put these into their tram tracks? Let's take a look together!
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Hi, my name's Reece. I'm a passionate Creator, Transportation Planner, and Software Developer, interested in rapid transportation all around my home base of Toronto, Canada, as well as the whole world!
How's the new set?
The lighting seems way better
awesome, the crocodile in the background reigns supreme :)
Totes! Except the lamp placement over your shoulder is a bit distracting! Always look for that hidden Z shape in your shot! And of course tight and bright! That is literally all I learned in my photojournalism class from Sun Media... ;-)
Your decorating looks good. Maybe sometime you can give us a closer look at the model loco behind you
Way better imo
Another advantage of green track is than drivers, who seem to believe that it's their right to drive on every single piece of asphalt, can't drive or park on them easily and block the train. This is a big problem in bike and bus lanes in NYC
True. It would have been useful on TTC streetcar tracks entering the tunnels to Spadina Station and Queens Quay Ferry Docks
I'm not sure if wiser words have ever been commented
Best comment I have read! Ironically I am watching Virtual Railfan in La Grange Kentucky where a motorist is blocking a CSX freight.
Ugh… having commuted by bicycle in San Francisco for years, I definitely relate to this comment!
That's the best thing about it, yes.
The extension of Line 9 in Brussels has a short stretch of fake grass under a railway overpass where it is too dark for real grass to grow properly, perhaps the only correct application of it.
Yeah that's maybe not a bad idea! Better than dead real grass!
Isn’t fake grass just adding micro plastics to the environment though?
@@Zosu22 Bioplastics! Hemp-based ones seem to make the most sense... At least here in Canada... We have an ever-growing surplus. Even my hick hometown of Vegreville, Alberta is opening a facility that will mainline those products into RV's and Winnebago's across America!
Such grass is a good idea in dry places like Arizona too
@@glebsokolov2366 In that Case native plants would bei better.
Adding bushes on the sides separating tramlines from roads and sidewalks is just so nice in every regard, aesthetics, sound, temperature, environment, etc
Ðe greener, ðe better
Horticulturist here! Sedum is a succulent genus that is very hardy throughout the world, so is extremely useful for existing tram tracks: they can simply be planted on top of a moisture barrier on concrete and do not need to be planted in the ground. Plus, there are hundreds of cultivated varieties that all look unique, from small 2cm tall plants to larger 10-30cm height. So you can plant an array of them in great colors and patterns! Excellent that you included this Reece!
Sedum are my favorite plants.
Berlin has even developed rubber inserts that go between the dirt and the rails, to further insulate the sound coming from the rails. Green track already limits sound transmission somewhat, and the inserts do even more.
Yeah that was the "composite" material I was referring to :)
We use same technic 200 km to the east, tho we eliminated most of our green track in current rebuilds, tho the city is almost 30% green soooooo that's not a big problem right now
@@RMTransit The ones I'm referring to aren't made to be an actual ground to run vehicles run on though. Unless you've got something like an Unimog with train wheels, you're not going to have a good time there.
There is another aspect of nature in public transport that transport for greater Manchester are doing/have done.
Bus shelters topped with wildflower patches! This ties in with the bee symbolism of the city.
Yes and those are awesome!
@@DiamondKingStudios bees can be easily ignored, they only sting when provoked
@@chickenbokernot2598 Unfortunately, bees don't know the difference between provocation and accidental disturbance
Is that better or worse than installing solar panels on them instead?
@@BluePieNinjaTV the answer depends heavily on whether you’re optimising electrical output or biodiversity really
Great that you mention Sedum tracks!
They not only easier to maintain and need less water, they are also much better for the local ecosystem
I think they look better too, especially since they don’t need as much maintenance and can add color. Poorly-maintained green track looks kinda ugly imo but I’ve never actually seen them in person.
I love the brown swiss Lego croc in your background
Haha thanks! I like the visual intrigue myself!
There's something satisfying with grass and vegetation around trains tracks. Unlike car roads which uses more space and has a larger impact against the environment, green tracks brings us closer to nature. Plus, given that out of all forms of mechanized transport the trains is the most sustainable, green tracks just fit!
I dunno, I always have a soft spot for gravel
Another interesting ground cover plant is “Micro-Clover”.
Essentially a dwarf variety of clover that has a max height below what most people mow lawns to. Clover also fixes nitrogen so there is no need for fertilizer (short of maybe phosphorus etc). Finally they produce flowers that bees and other wildlife love, so all in all it’s pretty great.
Never would I have imagined in my younger days that my affinity for trains would result in me being interested in the very methods and materials that are used to construct the right-of-ways on which those trains run.
I ain’t complaining. Makes me appreciate the effort it takes to get to the point where those trains are able to be ran even more.
The Guangzhou Tram does exactly this, I lived close to the system and the greenspace is an amazing addition to the city's urban space. Especially the line which runs along the Pearl River, its beautiful
yes. The tram is nice next to the river
If you like trams, water and intersectinos, you should take a look at Solli Plass in Oslo in Norway. This is a roundabout with water in the middle, and it is also a tram T-junction with the tracks going straight thru the water.
Oh man that jogs a memory. The first time I rode a tram through that, I wondered if we were going through some kind of tram wash.
I'm a LEGO train fan, so, it would be impossible for me to not comment about the fact that there is one of my favorite sets behind you. Great choice, love the new set.
It's very fun!
Stormwater - the new interest relates to the out-of-control nature of sprawl and land covered with asphalt that has resulted. Size of stormwater drains - has not been able to keep pace with the reality of wide endless roads and parking lots as well as increased severity of weather. Thus - flooded basements. Strangely, had we developed with transit-oriented - high-density development. instead of sprawl - the pressure on storm water systems and the desire for green right of way for transit would have been much less. - same with pollution
Interesting. Québec City tram mock ups have some green tracks in them and I was wondering how feasible it is. Looks like it absolutely is. Let's hope they implant as much green tracks as possible in the project!
@Valérian thanks for the answer! Do you know which part of the tracé will be green?
And the tramway platforms will be "heated", to melt the snow and ice. As needed.
What?! Québec has a tram line being built?!
New York used to have an expansive streetcar network, if it were ever brought back this would be of serious help since there’s no relief from the city heat in summer
Your new background looks great. I liked your old mapwall too. The music you use in your intro is fun. There are some older homes in my neighborhood that have track-like concrete driveway paths with grass in between which looks nice. Very "from another era" feel. Though after a century of car tires packing the in-between soil, it's tough to grow nice lawn there or absorb water.
Yes but can we have flower tracks
Sedum flowers seasonally
Flowr trak
I think Frankfurt has done that before. Check the VGF blog from 2017 I believe.
Probably yes! But you have to consider whether it will do well with trams driving over it every few minutes
One of the things even I’ll admit is a winning point for rail over buses.
Ya you can't really turn bus lanes into nice linear parks.
Absolutely, though I'd dispute the "linear parks" bit haha, don't want to have a picnic on the Tramway!
@@RMTransit It depends, if you walk your dog at night after Trams stop running, this might not be an issue. Even during the day its much lower risk then walking on a standard road, a tram that comes as frequently as 5 minutes means only stepping aside 4 times on a 20 minutes walk.
But I more meant having a linear park with the tram on one side and a walk way on the other, and a ~10 meter green space between. It's much safer walking along side a tram route then a road way, both because they stay on rails and they're less frequent.
When I saw the green tracks in Paris I was surprised that it never occurred to me before. It's beautiful and great.
I'm looking forward to you for making a review about Jakarta's public transport system, it's not perfect but it always improving. We have the longest BRT system in the world, ongoing inter-mode integration, and we've won 2021 Sustainable Transport Award. I hope you'll interested with it
My favourite bit of green track is Birkelunden tram station in Oslo. It's right by a birch park, so they decided to integrate the station as an extension of the park with a line of birch trees in between the two tracks. It's beautiful
If you want to see green tracks, check out the new tram line L10 in Valencia, Spain's 3rd largest city. In fact, you might find it interesting to check out their Metrovalencia metro and Cercanías regional rail systems. They have quite a mix of rolling stock, tunneling, and surface alignments. Quite extensive coverage and exciting plans for the future.
I love the new set! I also haven’t seen enough on green track, so I’m happy to see you talk about it!
Happy you enjoyed!
We had them for so long and almost everywhere in France (at least where it makes sense), I just thought they were normal.
Not in North America buddy.
As with many things in Europe haha
Green Track: "Hey I can fix your water run off, air quality, heat island, visual monotony, sound propegation, and maybe I'll capture a bit of carbon if I'm in the mood"
City planners in NA: "Sorry we're gonna have to pave you because I refuse to take a single inch of the roadways that cover a third of our cities surface from cars and someone might have an emergency"
Who knows maybe the grass might save more lifes on it's own than the extra speed an ambulance could carry by having that right of way
Why are were humans so fast to dig the rails out of the floor because people felt like cars were the future, but slow to do this little good not that expensive things?
@@Duck-wc9de Lobbying
@@ignasanchezl Particularly if you account for people not hit by a car, but lives that weren't hurt will never be seen as as significant as lives actually were at risk and couldn't be saved (unless of course it involves a car accident).
@@Duck-wc9de litterally just having dirt next to the rails and not touching it is all ot takes to make a green right of way, grass is a very aggressive colonizer and the frequent tram will knock down any grass in its way although occasional mowing is recommended. (And the government already mows a massive area including all the country roadsides so its not that expensive of a maintenance task) But perfectly manicured lawns are massively overrated, just let the grass do its thing and mow it as needed to keep it a usuable space.
Like the new set
Happy to hear it!
So in Berlin we also have a lot of grass track sections on the tram. You can see that these sections are quieter than those with traditional track bodies. The new extension of the M-10 to U Turmstraße also gets a partial grass track. Greetings from berlin/ Germany. Sven
Regular grass doesn't even have to be (and shouldn't be!) perfectly manicured either. Natural grass areas contain a variety of grasses, dandelions, clovers, etc. And those tiny flowers can help bees.
I'm glad you mentioned alternatives to grass. I like all the green sections in the tramways they're building in Parramatta, but people naturally ask, who's going to maintain it? And for an area where water is typically scarce (despite the recent floods), I would've liked to have seen more appropriate vegetation.
7:02 I was just about to leave a comment mentioning Houston's water track. It's nice that our tiny light rail system has at least one thing that makes it stand out.
Never in my life did I think houston would be mentioned in a transit video... never mind as a positive mention haha
I did not expect to see a Houston Metro shoutout on this channel ever, so that's neat
Would love to see this in Boston on the Green Line - B & C branches are obvious candidates
Whoa! I got beat to Valencia! That route opened yesterday. I’ll get some video shots ASAP.
Another example of a water track is in Oslo, Norway at Solli Plass, it's a 5-way roundabout with a central water roundel (fairly shallow water) and some of the tracks for the trams running through this between 3 of these roads (shared with cars). 4 of the 6 tracks goes through the water feature, it's fairly easy to find photos of trams going through the water feature on Google Images. Oslo also have some green track on some of it's tram lines once you get outside the center core.
There's obviously no water during winter (it would freeze and cause lots of damage) and it's varied over the years whether they actually put water in it once it's warm enough. It does look rather nice when there's a nice white snow blanket in the feature too though that usually doesn't last that long in Oslo these days.
I've not been that way recently so I'm not sure whether they've filled it with water or not yet, or even at all this year given that the ground-water level is very low right now.
It's not THAT much water but it sends the wrong kind of signals when there's already outdoor watering advisories.
That sounds so cool!!!
YES!! I've been waiting for this video to come out! Thanks!! Love the new set as well.
My local sports centre utilises a version of concrete lattice grassed area not in a rail context but for it's car park. Imagine applying the same more widely. Beautify those park & rides?
Absolutely, if you must have a hard surface you can make it much better!
“Grasscrete”
Big problem: cars leak poison all the time. Mainly oil, and salt in wintertimes. This makes grasscrete only usable on mildly used parking spots.
@@wernerrietveld Solution: Ban cars so they're only for commercial vehicles or buses. It works!
@@planefan082 how do commercial vehicles and busses not leak oil and salt?
I live in Iași, Romania, where we have a 3 and a half kilometer section of green tram tracks. It opened in 1960 and it has been open to service ever since. The transportation authority is taking really good care of the grass, mowing it every now and then. I really like it. It feels way less bumpy and way more pleasant than the regular tracks on asphalt
It looks good, has noise cancelling properties, but is a pain in the butt to maintain, especially the variant where the tracks are level with the grass. Also, if you want to have the grass connect to the actual earth (and not a concrete section in between), you need to do some rigid construction in the underground to prevent the tracks from moving. Still, an option that has much potential and is underused.
Just strap a lawnmower to the front of the tram ^^
@@chrisX1722 That sounds hilarious. No, what I mean with it is If you need to remove the tracks itself, you also need to remove the grass around it because its literally embedded. If the tracks lay on top of the grass, its much easier to do
@@chrisX1722 that's a really nice idea
@@alexanderlammers6980 but how often do cities move entire lines? not often.
@@alexanderlammers6980 yes but with in-pavement tracks you have to remove the pavement or asphalt or whatever it is the track is embedded in
I am sure if the TTC installed green tracks on the Habourfront, it will prevent people from driving into the tunnel and into the Union Station! Haha
I remember I really liked the green tram tracks when I was filming in Rotterdam
I visit Rotterdam a dozen times a year and I absolutely love the tramtracks.
In Darmstadt, Germany they used a mix of lichen and moss instead of grass for a line extension - which is a pretty unique look actually
credits for this knowledge to Bahnwelten, otherwise I would've probably never seen it xD
Looks good! Showing your roots with the Vancouver map!
Thank You! The St Charles Line in New Orleans is an excellent example of this. It is a small change to create a much more pleasant visual and change the perception of streetcar line itself.
In Strasbourg they had a bunch of tram tracks like this....also they ran them down the median with a tree lined bike/pedestrian path running the length of the line. It was awesome! I'd go out wondering at night and as soon as I found tram tracks I knew I'd not be lost.
Set looks good, Nice to see you got one of the special edition Lego trains!
DAMN, YOUR BACKGROUND CHANGED A LOT
Indeed it did!
Woah, that Houston fountain rail is so cool.
Then put some warm water in it.
it’s pretty insane how far you’ve come with video and editing quality just looking back at some older videos
Great job on your new setup/background!!!! Looks professional and suitable to your channel and style of videos!
Love that Swiss Croc behind you. Cheers.
This is the first time I've heard Houston get a positive shoutout from a transit/urbanism channel! Thank you lol
Almost every other time it's (admittedly mostly justified) lambasting of our city
Green track is an awesome idea. But I must admit I got a tad distracted and puzzled by the pictures you used of a Concorde in British Airways livery being passed by a tram in what looked like the Paris colour scheme. Some digging later, all was revealed and in case any of your viewers are likewise puzzled, I can tell you that it is Concorde 102 (F-WTSA) near the terminus of Paris line T7 at Orly Airport. The reason for the BA livery on a French registered aircraft is that 102 was one of the pre-production aircraft, never used in passenger service, that carried the BA livery on one side and the Air France livery on the other side. Indeed once I'd discovered that, I realised that you had used a shot of the other side too.
F-WTSA is one of no less than four Concordes preserved in Paris. Given the rate of expansion of the Paris tramway network, I look forward to seeing pictures of trams on green tracks next to the other three (at Le Bourget and Charles de Gaulle) soon. :-)
This might be one of the few times ever that one of the Houston light rail lines get some love. I’ll take it! And that downtown section does look very nice.
SUPER excited to see any POSITIVE shout-out about Houston's transit situation. I know it is NOT a great system, but at least we got SOME stuff right.
Yeah! I got disproportionately excited when he mentioned that, haha
Good video. I'm so glad Toronto is doing this to its not yet open line 5 route. I think this is a first for North America as well. I wonder if Metrolinx will also apply green track on the future line 6 LRT on Finch west.
Something I have seen in the Netherlands is grassy parking lots. They use pavers with large openings that water can easily penetrate and grass can grow through like you showed. Looks nice.
Happy to see the photo from my city (Krakow) in 1:43. I have just one thing to say - in the video it's shown as the example of badly maintained grass track. Actually it's part of track without grass (just stones) so badly mantained that the grass started growing there by itself.
Sedum is a genus of plants, which are also often used for green roofs. They are succulents. "Succulent" is just a way to describe an anatomical feature of of a plant (they can store a lot of water in their tissue) . Just like tree or herb.
I really love the new set
The "green track" in the centre of Bielefeld
is mostly where the old city walls were
and there are several linear parks
between the inner city and the later (19th century) buildings
Maybe "green track" could be part of "de-stroading"
North American cities?
Acoustic absorption - just on that one point makes it worthwhile! All the other benefits make it seem even better!
I like the set and the change up in music as well. Looking at comments I’m fascinated to find out there are many places apparently with something other than pavement the rails are buried in. I would like to see some coverage of this if you could get video from people who live there, the system, or a publicly available source. A watery roundabout with a tram junction? Creative planning. Anything that spices up the experience must be attractive to riders and good for the area.
Congrats for getting on BT
The new tram line in my hometown (n°9 to Orly, which started operation last year) has a green track. Now there is this strip of vegetation dividing the main avenue down the middle, and the result is very aesthetically pleasing.
I am curious about this from more of an engineering standpoint. How do they construct the ballast and substrates to handle plant roots and direct water runoff? The last thing you would want would be water incursion forming sinkholes.
The water thinggi looks sooo nice! I'd love to ride a lightrail which passes such a sweet water thingi ^^
Yay new video
Finally some love for severely underrated RASENGITTERSTEIN!!
RM Horticulture - I might just create this channel LOL. Great topic, seldom discussed. 'Green' maintenance is an issue for many North American cities - it's rarely ever a political priority, so plantings are left to themselves. Infrequent watering, and salting roads for snow & ice, tends to kill off a lot. Especially in Toronto, which plants lots of trees, but lets them die.
I propose mini golf greens on the green track. If you intersperse the green track with tracks on water like those in Houston, you could even have water traps!
The difference between city and rural regions are remarkable. Get on a Bike and leave the City at nighttime. Every day I ride to work I immediately feel the temperature differnece. It's quite nice actually in warm summer nights, 2/3 of my work commute are trough the city and riding into the cold darkness is fantastic.
Nice lamp
Thanks for the video! I’m all for green track and I’m partial for sedum and any other drought or weather resistant plants over lawn. Lawn might look great, but it requires a high consumption of water and chemicals to make it look pristine and green. Over consumption of water and chemicals/pesticides isn’t exactly environmental friendly. Also, lawn’s stormwater retention quality isn’t that much better than concrete and asphalt. One might notice it’s very easy to step into a water puddle in the middle of a lawn after a rainy day…because the grass itself is unable to absorb all the stormwater, and the stormwater is unable to infiltrate the lawn and enter into the soil.
Be interesting to see the cost difference and is it easier to install. Charlotte just expanded the streetcar and pouring of concrete for the tracks is complex for how it was done and contractor had to fix spots where it wasn’t done correctly.
Now the push by council is to only expand it if the tracks are in a dedicated right of way but doubt that can happen without doing a road diet as the whole point of a street car is to keep it within the current right of way of the road and nobody wants to pay to acquire the land and impact those living working along the road.
There’s a section of green track in Box Hill in Melbourne on the 109 tram route that’s possibly been there since the year 2000! :)
I do like the new set, but I think it could use some more things in the background. 👍
In Melbourne some trams line have grass and trees on both sides and some have grass under the tracks like Line 109
Don't forget the 13 miles of the St. Charles Streetcar Line in New Orleans, of which at least 95% of it is green track. The neutral ground is also used a lot by runners.
This would be perfect on Toronto's dedicated streetcar tracks like Spadina, Lakeshore and maybe even St. Clair.
New set looks good, though the lamp should be moved over so it doesn't intersect with your head. Also, a second one of those dark desks/units added to frame right would help balance things horizontally since you have a lot of dark on the left side of the frame.
You should talk about Green Track in Stuttgart (Germany)
The have many of them and the are Looking really good.
I would love to see grass in downtown Toronto between the rails. Those blocks with holes could work. Come on TTC give it a try. Cheers.
Does snow clearance get along well with green track? That's the one potential objection I spent most of the video expecting you to address; I was a bit surprised when I reached the end without having heard about it.
Great content, as usual!
I'm im Wimnipeg where some of us are concerned about lineside fires on our semi-arid Prairie landscape once the spring flooding dries up.
The St Charles line in New Orleans has a green track when you're riding away from downtown. It's pretty cool
I was going to mention New Orleans, but you beat me to it. In New Orleans, it's called "neutral ground". By the way, there's not much cool in New Orleans. It's really hot and humid there.
@@Jeff-uj8xi Well, I have friends living and working there. It's a nice city given its history, food, and lifestyle IMO.
@@alistairlee7604 Yes, I agree it's a beautiful city. But it certainly isn't cool there. The weather in New Orleans is quite hot.....far from cool. Go to Boston if you're looking for cool weather.
@@Jeff-uj8xi Weather can influence those where to live. I live in DC and it's humid. But I like DC.
it is important to note that grass is not a suitable plant in southwest US, especially Phoenix, where there that kind of "picturesque" grass is not native and requires too much water to maintain. You did note this in the video, but I think it warrants extra emphasis. There are sometimes planters along the phoenix light rail with native species, but it wouldn't make sense to grass it up. Same goes for California I'd argue, where drought is a huge issue, and they simply can't justify maintaining light rail grass or even drought tolerant plants. You will simply save more water by having no plants at all.
I could go on and on for other cities. I don't think the message we should be pushing is "more grass"! It has to be a more nuanced "more native species planted to enhance public transit where it makes sense." In wetter climates, grass could be the way to go, but the general take of "more grass for trams everywhere" is not productive. And no, astroturf is not a suitable replacement. Astroturf is a waste of resources and bad for the environment .
Aesthetically, green tracks look fantastic, but I would assume by North American thinking that these green tracks would require too much maintenance/manicuring etc. I would love to see them on routes like Spadina and St. Clair, but how much effort and $$ would go into the upkeep?
well you will see it on Eglinton
Sedium are a species of flower they are very hardy particularly cold hardy and create sprawling low masses of flowers
Mta lines that run on the ground in brooklyn would be a great candidate (B&Q lines)
You have me convinced but I do have one question
How does it work without ballast?
As I learned not too long ago, the rocks that we put underneath our trains are actually really important
Lego croco in the back nice
There's a small amount of green track on Melbourne's tram network but I'd like to see it much more where tracks are in the road median or have their own corridor
Im a massive advocate for grassy tram tracks but they have another drawback. They don’t allow parallel bus service in the same right of way. This can be very useful in congested areas with limited space.
Although, those grassy pavement bricks might be a decent compromise.
The issue with grass and rainwater permeability is that grass isn't considered a permeable surface because it tends to retain water in the first inch or two in the surface, rather than letting it sink down. So many organizations pushing for increasing permeable surfaces and rainwater retention systems or rain gardens/bioswales don't consider lawns or grass permeable. They are closer to pavement than soils planted with other plants. Adding onto that, lawns and grass isn't all that beneficial to wildlife, and in some cases detrimental.
That isn't to say that it is a bad idea, I think it is a great idea; it is better than pavement for sure, and probably prettier too with the added greenery. I'm just pointing out a detail regarding "grass being permeable," which it really isn't all that much. I like the sedum tracks idea a lot though.
It can also help people know where the rail and where the roads are I’ve seen people drive up the rails a millions times at night lol