Did anyone ride urban electric public transportation?

[nasadowsk]

The Romainian trolley reminds me a lot of the old "PCC" type streetcar in the US, and I believe some post war European trollies were based on the design (The Chezch Tatra, in particular).

The PCC was a big breakthrough when it came out - smooth, fast, and highly effective brakes. There's still a few cities in the US that use them.

Subways are common in older US cities, and the northeastern US has a lot of electric commuter trains on the 750V DC third rail system, and also on the 11kv 25hz ac overhead system, and 13.8kv 60hz ac, and 25kv 60hz ac. The New Haven line of Metro-North leaves NYC under the DC third rail system, and changes without stopping to AC at Pelham NY:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh-MG7NFpQA

NJ Transit changes voltage / frequency at SWIFT (which is a dumb name for a 15mph junction), and also at Red Bank. But all their trains are overhead power on the AC system. Stupidly, their older trains can't change voltages in operation, because they didn't want to install the changeover equipment. But they can change voltages at the shop, by literally flipping a switch under the car.

Interestingly, because Penn Station in NYC is 11kv 25Hz, Metro-North can't go there, even though the tracks connect to the New Haven line at New Rochelle, because their trains won't run on 25hz. Amtrak's will, so they use the Hell Gate line to access Penn and go south of NYC from there.

SEPTA has a lot of trains (most of the fleet) that can change voltage/frequency, but the entire system is 11kv 25hz with no intention of ever changing.

Amazingly, nobody in the US sees any of this as being stupid!