Yesterday, my colleagues and I had an opportunity to tour the Carris Traffic Control Center, responsible for managing bus and tram operations in Lisbon.

Photo Gallery

The center is very new (opened in September 2009) as this boards shows:



We had a very nice overview of the facility, including the history of Carris and the Traffic Control Centre by Ana Sousa, and José Manuel Godinho Maia (coordinator of Network Planning and Operations Control). Both were very eager to answer questions!

After, we got a tour of the control center itself.

The system was specifically designed for Carris by a Portuguese consortium of companies. Similar systems have since been deployed in Porto (STCP) and in other cities around Portugal.

Easy Improvements

One of my question remained largely unanswered: Why is real-time arrival information not available on the web? This info is available at stops around the city, and, supposedly, by SMS and email, although I have been unsuccessful in getting this info that way. Carris website lists stops for each line. Why can't the two be put together?

While smartphone proliferation is not great here, the people that have it are the ones, who are more likely to put a higher value on their time and would be more likely to ride a bus if they did not have to wait for it. I have noticed that in San Francisco, such a system has cut down my waiting time to almost zero. I leave my origin 2 minutes before the bus is scheduled to arrive. I can check this info online or by phone.

I will try to convince them that this is a worthwhile investment that costs next to nothing and is likely to increase patronage of Carris.


Moving in the Right Direction

I really enjoyed this visit and I can see that this company is moving in the right direction. Compared to ten years ago, they have renewed their fleet and have increased the amount of information inflow, which allows them to know where their problems are. They also proudly display their ISO certifications.

They are continually making their fleet greener and their operations better.

I have a few gripes about the system: too many stops which increases travel time, route network that is a bit confusing, with some lines that seem to meander through neighborhoods, poor customer information (it exists, but it's not as clear as could be), and lack of real-time arrival info. All easily-solvable problems.

Пишу работу. Слышу какой-то крик снаружи. Сначала подумал дети играются, они тут любят в футбол круглые сутки играть (нет, какие нормальные родители разрешают детям в 2 часа ночи в футбол играть? Ладно бог с ними...). Крики не умолкают и "громкость крика" уже начинает мешать "громкости музыки", которую я уже слушаю через наушники.

Если вы никогда не слышали крики на португальском, то могу вам сказать, что они очень похожи на русские, с более выразительной интонацией. Причем чем больше народ жалуется, тем больше меняется тембр голоса во время речи. И всё это чем-то смахивает на Одэсский говор [читайте мягкую "г" в слове говор].

Смотрю на улицу и вижу в доме напротив тётушку, которая бегает по лестнице этой 12-этажки и заглядывает на чужие балконы. Ну мало ли что, может живет на верхнем этаже и белье упало или прищепки, кто её знает?




Тётя бегает вверх-вних, вверх-вниз. Наконец, увидела то, точнее того кого искала:



Не понимаю всё, что она говорит, хотя могу с уверенностью сказать, что непечатных фраз было достаточно. Накричав на бедного кота, минут через 10 она вернулась к себе в квартиру 7 этажами ниже и, продолжая, мягко-говоря, грубо выражаться, начала пересматривать своё белье.



Смотрю наверх. Вижу кот начал гулять по балкону. Появился хозяин. Мужик выглядит как-будто из какого-то фильма о Франкенштейне или из "Семья Адамсов". Видно, что ему на поведение его зверья абсолютно наплевать.



Тут, не понимая что произошло, я продолжаю наблюдать за ситуацией.



Мужик лениво смотрит вниз, а кот уже думает о самоубийстве, хотя его хозяин пофигистически не обращает на это внимания.



Но в последний момент кот передумывает.






Из-за криков и ругательств, которые продолжаются всё это время, появились соседи. Вначале все начинают смотреть вниз, искать истоки криков. После того как тётины крики были выслушаны, головы поворачиваются наверх и ищут кота. Были и крики о полиции, только не было понятно, кого "арештовывать" кота, хозяина или тётю, и, главное, "за что?"




Тут начинается межбалконное собеседование между хозяином и остальными жильцами дома.



После этого народ начинает пересматривать и перенюхивать белье, заподозрив "пакость, который этот мерзавец нам всем сделал." В выходной у всех конечно висит свежевыстираное белье. К счастью в предыдущую ночь был дождь, и некоторые накрыли белье пленкой.



Котик живет на 9 этаже 10-этажного здания. Вот перспектива.















Кто-то явно встал не с той ноги:



Хоть я уже и заподозрил что происходит, точно еще ничего не знаю



Котик продолжает танцевать вальс по балконному перилу туда-сюда туда-сюда, и переодически вылазить на карниз (получается, раз-два-три, раз-два-три), а хозяин подметает балкон совершенно в другом, своем, замедленном ритме, который то приближается к 4/4 то отдаляется к синкопированому ритму 6/8, со спотыканием.






И тут, котяра показывает всему миру, из-за чего все началось! Он приседает на карнизе и делает свои дела еще раз. "Кто не спрятался, я не виноват. Предупреждали вас о бомбардировке? Предупреждали! Нечего тут белье вешать было!!!"



Тут уже тётя, которая начала всю эту историю ничего сказать не может и все, сняв белье, потихоньку расходятся по квартирам стирать всё еще раз.





Мораль у этой истории проста -- не забывайте о силе домашнего кота (!

I am working on a paper, when I hear screams and cursing (in Portuguese), coming from outside. First, I think it's kids playing football. Here they seem to play at any hour of the day. I don't know what type of parents let their kids play at 2 in the morning, but that's another story. The shouting gets louder by the minute. It's now louder than my music in my headphones.

If you've never heard how Portuguese speak, according to one New Zealand newspaper reporter, "it's like drunk Eastern Europeans." I'll add "...especially when they're arguing..."

I look outside and see this woman running up and down, up and down, up and down about seven stories of a ten-story building, looking for something (or someone) and peeping into everyone's balcony. I'm thinking to myself: maybe she lost her laundry, or a clothing pin, who knows? But why the noise?!



Finally, she spots the cause of her problems.



Not hearing everything she is saying, I wait for things to calm down a bit. She comes back downstairs and starts looking over her clothes, still visibly agitated and mentioning many verbal expletives, which would be proper to print.



Looking back up, I see the cat now "walking on edge." The cat's owner also shows himself. All the screaming must have brought him out.



The owner, who looks like a guy out of "The Adams Family" or a "Frankenstein" movie,  seems unconcerned about what has happened (at this point, I still do not understand what has happened).



He also seems to be unconcerned about the cat, who, from the looks of this was contemplating suicide:







By this point, because of all the screaming, all the neighbors have come out onto their balconies. This being a weekend, everyone is home and all the clothes are out and drying. First, all heads turn down to the source of the screams, then to the top to try to find the cat.




Of course, a long and loud conversation between balconies ensues.



People start looking over and smelling their clothes. Thankfully, some had their clothes covered with plastic film due to rain the night before.



To get a perspective on the building, it's about 10 stories tall. The cat lives on the 9th floor:















Someone got up on the wrong foot and is having a bad hair day:



While I still don't know what is going on, this action is becoming more and more interesting to watch:



The cat and the owner continue doing what they were doing: that is the cat -- waltzing around on the edge of the balcony, and the owner sweeping something on the balcony.






And just when I think it's all over, the cat shows the world what started this whole mess. He bends over a railing and does his business:



At this point this poor woman can do nothing to save her clothes.




NEVER underestimate what a cat can do!

Because of the Belgium Train Crash, Eurostar suspended all train service to Brussels. Instead, passengers (including me) were put on the train to Paris and had to change to coaches in Lille. Other than the smelly, dirty Eurostar car, we also got stuck before the tunnel for about 30 minutes. Ten minutes into the wait, an announcement was made, saying we would sit there for another 20 mins. The next Eurostar was scheduled to depart from St. Pancras 30 mins later, and it passed my train in Lille. At least we didn't get stuck inside the tunnel, like these poor folk the next day.

I was amused by the announcements that the train manager was making. Up until the tunnel, in English first, then French, after the tunnel, in French, then in English.

What was interesting was the way he spoke French.

You can hear an announcement about the delay here.

I spent a nice day in Lille, touring VAL, the first fully-automated heavy rail system in the world and walked around the city for a bit.

Brussels was also very nice! I met some new friends and toured the city.

KCBS' Mike Sugerman is doing a story on my interest in Public Transport Announcements on his About the Bay segment.

Today, I can proudly say that I am finally up to date with photo uploads!
TODO: Create a gallery with one or two best pictures from each place.

Today I also uploaded my pictures from our "photo hunt" last weekend down in LA. I tested out my new "toy" Canon Rebel T1i. I bought a few lenses with it: 18-55, 55-250 and 10-22. The first two have image stabilization. The last one is Ultra-Wide Angle. For public transport and cityscapes the last two proved to be most useful, while the first was useful for everything else.

We also visited the Orange Empire Railway Museum [pics], which is close to the future Perris Metrolink Station (scheduled to open in 2011). Perhaps someone can put the museum rolling stock to good use and create a feeder network to the new Metrolink station.

In other news, the new section of the Metro Gold Line is quite nice. While there are only one or two nice shots to be had, there doesn't seem to be an absence of demand, both on weekdays and weekends.

The San Pedro historic line was unimpressive and I finally recorded some of the Red Line  automated announcements (speeches in some cases). I am working to upload those in the near future.

I decided to get up at 05:45 this morning to see the sunrise... well actually to look the other way and see the city in the sunrise. All of the pics can be seen here:

Views from Treasure Island

Golden Gate Bridge

Alamo Square

Ghirardelli Square

I uploaded new photos from my March-April 2009 trip to Eastern/Central Europe.

Czech Republic (Prague, Ostrava)
Poland (Krakow, Warsaw, Katowice)
Ukraine (Kiev)

WMATA will be making automated announcements in Ukrainian for "Days of Ukrainian Culture" in DC. Full story here.

If only they had automated announcements to begin with. Sounds like an April Fools thing to me :). Nicely done.

FLIGHT

I got to SFO quite early. All of UA's security lines were long. I went to the AA side and got through in a few minutes. As this was my first time flying international as a 1P, I went to the RCC to enjoy a half hour prior to my flight. Of the few lounges that I have visited, this was probably the least-stocked one... almost no food, few drinks... and it was pretty darn full. The decor was pretty nice, reflecting San Francisco's locale.

I unsuccessfully tried to change my one-stop to a non-stop in 3 locations. Each time I was warned that only standby was possible, which apparently is a step above their normal policy that prohibits changes altogether. That the non-stop looked pretty darn full. Oh well. I'm still not sure what UA's proper boarding procedures are. 1Ps get to board only after zone 1, and not on the red carpet. One side of me thinks  they should keep the initial boarding order the same, and then let 1Ps board on the red carpet after the "unwashed masses" start boarding. That way 1Ps can still get priority boarding, without inconveniencing F, C, 1Ks, GS and other elites.

On board, I met another Flyertalker, who, it also turned out, works in the same industry as I. We chatted for a bit about UA, MileagePlus, flying and other things. He was headed to LON, but on a later flight. We were delayed about 20 minutes on the ground for an unknown reason, nothing came up on channel 9 regarding this. We finally took off and had a pretty smooth sail to Orchard Airport. About an hour out, we got put behind a bunch of planes, and that slowed us down, waaay down. After we landed, I picked up my pax log book from the captain and ran to my next gate. My 50-minute connection turned into a 15-minute one. I was one of the last people onto the plane. My seatmate on the 2-side of the 767 was somewhat unhappy that I was sitting next to him. I made a remark about my 15-minute connection and he mentioned how last week he made the connection with minus 15 minutes. After the doors closed, I found an empty aisle in E+ with an empty middle, and probably made the person on the other side upset, as he was probably hoping for all 3 seats to himself. Oh well, He should've sat in the middle seat. Doors were closed, we were off. My 2008 aversion of ORD was broken.

Upon landing in LON, I quickly proceeded through immigration and to TAP. Check in was quick, but the guy 'strongly recommended' that I check my nearly-empty bag, leaving me with just my laptop bag. If I had been more awake, I would have probably realized that I could have fitted my laptop bag into my carry-on. Off I went to the Lufthansa lounge, where I spent the next few hours relaxing and catching up on things.

TAP's A32x could have passed for a pretty new bird, if not for the old style seats with fat seat-backs. This really reduced leg room. The flight was also uneventful, although a bit choppy. Flight Attendants were very cute.

LISBON
Day 1

After getting my bag, I quickly found a place to buy a 2-day ticket (EUR3.70/day) on an RFID card (EUR 0.35 for the card) and hopped on a bus that was standing outside. The ride took 20 minutes and another 5 minute walk brought me to my hotel. The hotel was literally littered (how's that for a tongue twister)  with self-proclaiming ads in the form of paper pads, cards, calendars and other small items. After getting two card-punched keys and figuring out that Quarto and Cofre meant Room and Safe (respectively), I quickly dropped my things in the room and went for a walk.

The city straddles the south-eastern portion of a peninsula. To the west is a park/big forest, and the Atlantic coast. To the south and east are bedroom communities, which I didn't visit.

The old center is on the southern end of the peninsula. Houses from the late 19th century are abound, although they're in "Mediterranean condition" (read: paint is not new). Laundry is hanging out on the clothing lines outside windows facing the street, streets are narrow, and the whole area is on top of many many hills, large and small, little yellow and red trams are rumbling by every few minutes. Small shops and bakeries are plentiful. The sun reached the peak a few hours ago and was starting its descent toward the ocean. I saw a long procession of people with a small bundle of joy at the front. The kid was baptized and a seemingly endless line of friends and relatives was streaming into the little house right next to the tram line. I was approached by some lady asking me how to get to a certain street (that much I understood). She understood that I understood her. I could not provide a comprehensible response in Portuguese. Another country, another person asking me for directions. What is it about me that makes me look like a local almost anywhere in Europe?

After getting a few shots, I jumped aboard a tram and it started winding around the streets, while going up and down hills. The line ended a bit outside the centre. The new houses were not too shabby, compared to ones I saw coming in from the airport built in the 1970s. I hate houses with metal windows in concrete housing blocks, with metal window divider supports. I wish buildings like this could be given a makeover or razed completely. They tried to compete with neoclassical architecture, but failed, as evident by the way they look now.

Seeing that there was nothing on this end of the line, I jumped back on the tram and we headed east, passing some of the same areas. We reached the city centre, The hills became more frequent, turns more twisty, and views more amazing. At a few places the two tracks merged into one and passed a narrow point or went down a steep twisty hill, surrounded by houses, and then widened back to their normal width. At one location the single track was regulated by a signal and lasted a few blocks. After a few more twists and turns we ended up on one of the main boulevards.

I jumped off and went down to the Metro. After some initial confusion over the direction of travel of the Metro, I took the Green line to the Red Line to the end station. It was only recently revealed to me that most mainline railways in the west of Europe are left-hand running. Having only seen train systems in the east of Western Europe, this came as quite a surprise. The British influence was unmistakable and very visible.

The stations reminded me of Paris or systems based on Paris, with side platforms and a single arch. Trains were built by Siemens and were quite German in their internal layout. Numerous compartments facing each-other, three doors on each side of the train, a nice niche for passengers who love to stand next to doors. A mix of articulated and non-articulated cars were coupled together. It looked like every car could be used on every line. The announcement system was pretty crappy -- the voices were not of the best quality and the "delivery" was not great. The green line stations were unimpressive. Pretty typical, well-lit, minimal decorations. The Red Line was a completely different story -- newer stations, high ceilings at most stations and each one unique enough making the time spent looking at it worthwhile. The line terminal also served as a train terminal and a shopping mall was built right next to it. It reminded me of Washington Metro's subway stations, dimly-lit, high arched ceilings and plenty of "naked concrete."

By this point it was quite dark. I spent some time at the mall, looking for decent yogurt at a grocery store and eating some Brazilian steak. The mall was right next to the bay. I walked outside to find a nice cool breeze blowing. A line of flags was lining the walkway to the water. A suspension bridge on the left was dimly lit, and I didn't have a tripod to take a decent picture.

I took a roundabout way back to the hotel, touring the rest of the green and most of the yellow line. The day was done.

Day 2

I woke up next morning after hitting the snooze button a couple of times. Breakfast was nothing to write home about. Cold cuts were decent, but yogurt was nothing compared to the Swiss and German yogurt I've come to love. The weather was foggy and later the fog turned into rain at higher elevations. I walked toward one of the main boulevards of the City that headed down to the water.

Lisbon has very interesting funiculars. They are two trams that are hooked up with a cable. They counter-balance each-other on the hill. Normally, funiculars have one stationary motor at the top and two cars that counter-balance each-other. Here, these were full-sized single-truck trams with motors. The floor was level, and that required a skirt on the front of the tram. The skirt on all cars was graffitied over. The once-yellow fronts were not yellow. On Sundays, these didn't start operations until 09:00, so I had some time. I wandered around a bit, wandering into one the countless squares in the old city center, located in a valley between two hills. By the time I wandered to the second set of funiculars they were operating. A few passengers were on board. The fog was working its magic and views were obscured by the thick white paste that turned into tiny droplets of water when it touched your face. Strolling down south, I saw the city waking up. More and more people were out on the tiny streets. Laundry was still hanging outside oblivious to fog. Tiny yellow-brick-paved streets were wet and slippery.

I reached line tram line 28E (E for Electriko = Tram) that I rode yesterday afternoon. A few blocks west was another funicular. I decided to seal the deal and ride this one down. This one was different. While it was of the same design as the other two I saw, it was not a regular tram. It had 3 sections and the top and bottom section allowed a different number of passengers for assent and descent. After about a 15-minute wait, and a picture or two, we went down. Midway through the ride we stopped to exchange drivers (and a stranger who came with the driver). Neither car set its brakes, so they were bouncing a bit back and forth. We continued down. The grade changed abruptly and became steeper. The lower station was built into the ground floor of a building, and looking at it from the street, you would not be able to tell there is a funicular behind the facade.

A few blocks' walk brought me to the waterfront. In front of me was the suburban rail terminal. The cars looked like those from PATCO from Philly, with streamlined steel sides. The only difference was the number of doors (3 here and 2 in Philly). Line 15E ran parallel to the suburban line. Quite a few cars were pulling out of the depot, heading into the city. A low-floor 3-section tram 15E pulled up. Quite a few tourists were on board. We followed the waterfront, parallel to the suburban rail line. A bit later we diverted to a parallel street a bit further up. We passed under the huge bridge that spans the two peninsulas north to south. It was fogged in. Continuing on, we passed through some really bad-looking buildings. Some were industrial, while others looked like former palaces. Many were disused or abandoned.

At the end of the line were two big monuments -- the Presidential Palace and a big cathedral. Portugal has not had a king for a while.... although during Columbus' time, the country and the Queen were quite important on the world stage. As with many small countries such as Portugal and the U.K., a great navy was extremely important to their development and colonization. The Presidential Palace still has honorary guard. I got there just in time for the changing ceremony. At exactly 11:00, on this foggy Sunday, surrounded by bystanders, the current set of guards marched out onto the square, along with the horses, guard dogs, and a small symphonic band. After marching around the plaza in front of the palace, the parade master lined everyone in their proper places. She was quite tall, around 2m, and you could tell her gender only upon close inspection. The uniform made her look very masculine, not showing any of her feminine features, although her face was quite attractive. I spotted a few other women both in the guard ranks and in the band.

The replacement guard and band was already marching down the street. All of the dogs were very happy to see each-other and their handlers tried very hard, but unsuccessfully to keep them from talking to each other. As the relief marched their way around the plaza, a set of relief horses showed up from the other side. All of the dogs became quite vocal, after seeing their long-lost four-legged relatives. The horses marched on unscathed by the loud scowling and barking. A group from the new guard separated and went into the palace to relieve the rest of the old guard. Meanwhile, the combined band started doing what marching bands are supposed to do best -- play while marching. They performed flawlessly, playing many different famous pop tunes from all over the world. Then they played the Portuguese Anthem and handed off the baton. From there, after a few more marches and songs, the new guard went to the palace, while the old guard marched off into the distance. Guard dogs were very much relieved to be able to march around for a bit, although they were kept on a tight leash. By the time everything was done, a tram was already guarding the police line, waiting to continue on its journey to the destination. The plaza was not really a plaza, but rather a relatively wide street, with tram tracks. Traffic was suspended while the ceremony was performed.

The weather was turning a bit sour. Droplets form the fog were becoming bigger, and it started feeling like rain. I walked back through the semi-industrial neighborhoods towards the bridge for about 15 minutes. I wanted to get a few pictures of suburban trains in front of the bridge. Thankfully there was an overpass over the train tracks. Left-hand running trains helped here too.

I walked a bit more and passed the 120-year-old tram depot. The transport museum was closed on Sundays, so I made a left and started walking uphill along line 18E. On weekdays the line runs all the way to the city centre, but on weekends it's a 2-car shuttle, running between the tram depot and a cemetery every 20 minutes. A very picturesque descent and great timing on everyone's part allowed me to get a picture of both cars together. I hopped on the car as it continued climbing and into the fog along a twisty line. The car was filled mostly with senior citizens trying to finish their shopping before the stores closed a few hours after midday. The fog was getting thicker by the meter. Finally, we reached the terminus. I took a few pictures and rode back to the center. In hindsight, I missed a great photo op that I normally call "Ёжик в тумане" (a hedgehog in fog) after a famous Russian cartoon. The hedgehog, of course, being the tram, with nothing else around.

After getting to the center, I decided to walk the remainder of line 28E. I ended up walking it to the terminus. This took a few hours since I took quite a few pictures along the way. I'll let these pictures do the talking.

To end the day, I took line 12E, which travels clockwise along, part of it being along line 28E's tracks. This was once a two-way line, but now one of the tracks was only there part-way up the hill. I wished I had more time to take pictures, but alas, that was that. I found a metro station and took the metro back to my hotel, where I collected my bags and took the bus to the airport.

LONDON AND RETURN FLIGHT

The TAP lounge was quite nice with good food and great wines. The flight back to London was uneventful and so was the trip in London. I got to my friend's place around midnight and we chatted until 1 in the morning. We had some breakfast the next day and he went off to work and I went walking around London. I had a few hours to kill before my 13:30 departure. I always wanted to see the traffic light tree at Canary Wharf, so that's where I headed. The place was busy as you would expect on a Monday morning with businesspeople coming and going about their business. I decided to ride a section of the Central Line that I have not ridden before. I boarded a Jubilee Line train, which was surprisingly empty, I headed to Central London. It seems that rush hour in London is packed into one to one and a half hours, unlike in many other cities, where it is spread out over three hours. This is probably due to the financial sector that's so prevalent there. Central Line was experiencing "minor delays" which meant that trains were coming every 90 seconds instead of every two minutes. On the other side of the line that meant headways that were 180 seconds, instead of 90.

 I got a few good shots of the trains and headed back -- picked up my bags and off I went to the Airport. Getting there proved to be a bit challenging -- Central Line service was suspended for the better part of the time I was riding the Central Line. When I got to Farringdon, a huge crowd was waiting on the platform and constant announcements advised them to use National Rail to Kings Cross and change to another line from there. I was planning on doing the same, but magically the departure board showed one, then two trains. First was a Metropolitan Line and the second was a Circle Line. I decided to take the first, since there are two Paddington Stations on the tube. The first that came was a Metropolitan Line train, which I boarded. It magically turned into an Inner Circle train while en route to Paddington. I boarded the Heathrow Express and got to the airport on time. After a brief stop in the Star Alliance lounge, where I spent more time chatting/flirting with the agent about how much time I can spend in the lounge than enjoying myself in the lounge, I headed to the gate.

This was my first proper international business class experience. While many frequent fliers do not consider UA's business class a proper one due to the service and amenities, it suited me just fine. The seat was comfy, I could easily use my laptop and food was excellent compared to coach. Very early in the flight, right after meal service, I got up to stretch my legs and use the lav. Another gentleman was standing around the galley. He started some smalltalk. I didn't immediately get that he was in a state of mind where each additional drink provides only marginal enjoyment, compared to previous drink ... and he was in this state only one or two hours into the flight. He offered to drink shots of vodka... I politely refused as I only drink Bailey's and sometimes wine with dinner... he insisted a few more times. In the end he decided to have some himself. I later saw him comfortably asleep. The rest of the flight was uneventful and we got into SFO an hour early. One time where I wouldn't mind if we were late, we ended up coming in early.

This was a great end to a great weekend. All in all, I really enjoyed this trip and hope to be back in Portugal soon.