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-====== [en] November 2022 Newsletter ======
-''Note:'' There are only two special features this month due to the fact the Spanish version, which requires more work, has all the special features here plus one more.
-===== Blog Updates =====
-Taken directly from the blog:
-> One problem with advanced trains is that it can be hard to collect all the content for it. To help with that, W3RQ01, Blockhead and Orwell96 have made a git organization to collect all the Advanced Trains content in one place, as well as keep some stale adv_trains mods up-to-date.
-The git organisation is held [[https://notabug.org/advtrains_supplemental|here]]
-====== Trains Depots ======
-Depots are massively important places, effectively a home of trains. They feature all the facilities a train would need to continue working. Why not build a fair few for your server?
-First, we must determine how we will design one. Decide what your priorities are. Do you want to store a few long trains? A lot of small trains? Shunting? Maintenance?
-A good depot should only go for a few priorities to specalise in. This improves the ability to diversify. For example, you may choose to have a massive train storage facility central to the map, with a small bit of shunting and maintenence being done to ensure storage is efficent, whilst having a yard dedicated to shunting for adjusting Everytrains to your wishes somewhere else.
-First off, we must design the layout of the depot. Consider the location and amount of space you will get. Will you build in the midddle of nowhere for space? Will you build close to where all the maintenance is needed?
-From this, we can now determine the shape of the depot. This will determine the layout of the various facilities you will need:
-  *  Mainline connections
-  *  Maintenence
-  *  Shunting areas
-  *  Storage
-===== Facilities =====
-Let's decide how we will shape each facility and the general trackplan. First, we will need to connect to the mainline. You could use either t-junction or a siding with connections to each facility. This will ensure that slow-moving trains using the depots various features do not obstruct mainline traffic.
-A maintenence area should feature a area for maintainers to get to all sides of the train easily and safely. Use level crossing blocks to make sure the rail does not trip up maintainers and ensure that the wagon in intrest has got its handbrake applied. This area should be a spur off the line with a buffer at one end, which will ensure that the wagon is restricted from movement in one direction.
-Shunting areas should use the "feather track" approach for easy access and reversal of trains. This approach uses many t-junctions on a single track to perpendicular tracks to ensure that any track can be accessed from any other. A program is being written to make the functioning of this system automatic.
-Storage areas are also quite important. These should be able to hold a train for any period of time. You have two main options for building storage area distrobutors. You could choose either the v fork or the perpendicular fork. The v-fork uses a single point to split the tracks into two main streaks which each go out from the centre at a knight's angle, allowing for a single point on these to create a straight tracks parallel to the lead. The perpendicular track uses a straight track 90 degrees from the lead with point leading to curves to paralell tracks.
-The mean weakness with the v-fork is the fact the outer tracks will be shorter then the tracks inside, leading to a massive inequality in large forks. The mean weakness of the perpandicular track is the space taken up by them.
-===== Interlocking details =====
-You will need to interlock some parts of the depot but you could leave some areas uninterlocked for use with other systems. Any track leading to the main depot track should be interlocked to ensure no crashes.
-Each area must have its own system designed.
-  *  The mainline connections should be interlocked how you would interlock a normal point junction, and given a routing code which all trains needing to go to the depot are given. You can assign the routing code after some inspection, such as length examination.
-  *  The maintenence area is quite simple as a stub, which means it can follow the same procedures as a single-track to double-track layout.
-  *  The shunting area should use the provided lua system and every point and LuaATC track should be initalised by feather hair
-  *  The storage are does not need routsetting. Mesecons will suffice if the depot is in a area which is constantly loaded, in any other case a digilines system is reccomended
-I will write the LuaATC code in the future for these, systems, as well as implementation details.
-===== Other Facilities =====
-A depot can also offer other things.
-A cleaning area might be a storage area with platforms for cleaners to hop aboard a stored train. A train painting area might be a small siding with a shed for painting. A night area for trains to sleep in might as well be a storage area with enough space for all trains.
-====== Preparing for Christmas ======
-The worldwide holiday is on approach like a punctual train full of curses and blessings. We must all prepare our railway networks for Christmas before they get destroyed by crowds out of incompetence.
-Christmas will bring literal tons of passengers and cargo, all of which expecting timely transfer to their destination. This is impossible with a transport system tuned to average demand.
-So, we must adapt our system temporarily to the heightened passenger demand of Christmas. Normally, lines economic for the year are not capacious enough for Christmas needs, so we'll need to increase capacity and network ability to handle crowds. Each of the methods you can choose will require infrastructure to be built and/or used, and each have distinct advantages:
-===== Methods of capacity improvement =====
-^ Method ^ Infrastructure ^ Pros ^ Cons ^
-| Lengthening existing trains | Train lengtheners | Cheap and quick to do | Higher crowding of stations |
-| Increasing frequency | Train depots | No crowding of stations, better convinience | Expensive and requires trains to be held back for a long time |
-| Adding Lines | Signalling retrofits and possibly new tracks | Can add capacity on various barely-connected corridors | New lines will have to be added every year when purely using this method to keep up with induced demand |
-==== Lengthening ====
-Let's go over how we would execute each one. When lengthening, we will need to store carriages and append them to a train. You will need a few tracks for this. One will hold the train, the other the wagons, and another linker track to connect the two. A train will be on the mainline and be checked for length and line. If the length is too small, it'll be pulled off and the wagons will automatically be shunted to the train before the train leaves with more wagons. At this stage, more people can get onto a single train and more people will be moved, increasing efficency and comfort.
-However, you cannot take this too far. Some platforms may be too short for long trains and some stations may not be able to handle the passenger increase from longer trains.
-==== Frequency Increase ====
-This is another way to create more capacity. It's more expensive but stations should be able to handle this better. First, you must construct a depot for trains to sit at for most of the year, but these trains can also quite quickly be deployed for other important holidays.
-To construct a depot, you will need plenty of space for trains to use and some Lua tracks to ensure they can leave under a single command.
-Follow the instructions in the first special feature.
-At Christmas, you can easily release the trains and improve frequency heavily helping stations with crowds by making them accumulate for less time. Signals, however, may suffer to allow as many trains at the same speed, so a speed increase may be required (How? Look at the August newsletter!).
-==== New Lines ====
-This is one of the most pernament solutions to capacity constraints. It cannot be reversed easily and many long term effects need to be considered. The time for people to begin to take a new route can be an important factor in lessening Christmas demand on the new line to a level where demand is that of the rest of the year.
-First, you must consider your route. Mirroring an existing line will not work here. You could, in order of complexity:
-  *  Split an existing line into two at a fork
-  *  Figure out a new route on existing track
-  *  Building between poorly-connected areas
-When you split an existing line into two, you have made two seperate lines, adding one to the map. Consider the Northen line in London. It could be split into two lines, one from Edgeware to Battersea Power Station, and the other from Morden to High Barnet. From here, you can get both lines each to have a frequency the same as the original but together double of the original, resulting in higher capacity and clearer navigation.
-Having seperate lines also helps with management and easier targeting different forks of the original line.
-Another option is to figure out a novel route. For example, you might make a line from Heathrow to Edgeware on existing track, increasing services on crowded areas, such as a parralel universe version of Baker Street and Euston.
-And the final option is to look at your railway network and see connectivity gaps between large interchanges. From here, you can build a tunnel and create a new line to redirect passengers from already high-traffic routes, lightening the load. This happened during the constrution of the Elizabeth line. Instead of having to change trains between Paddington and Bond Street, one could use the Elizabeth line to get there directly. This has lessened demand on other lines between the stations. However, the Elizabeth line is a pernament addition to the tube network and to add a similar level of capacity, the Elizabeth line will have to be recreated in a differet shape later.
-One of the things you must consider here is the fact that this action is likely to be pernament and will need to be repeated in different places next year.
-===== Retrofitting Stations =====
-Stations are works of art. They can be amazing places full of detail and care, but this can often come at the cost of crowd control. Look for bottlenecks, narrow points where crowds will form. Find ways around the bottlenecks. Could you build a wider and longer passegway around a bottleneck and direct passengers down it for higher capacity? Could you widen a hallway? Are your platforms dangerously narrow? Do you have space for the Spanish solution?
-These questions must be considered to ensure passenger safety, especially for platforms. When there are too many people on a platform, people will move to the only open space - the tracks, which are often electrified. Try establishing platform screen doors or if impossible, widen platforms.
-Let's consider these questions as they may apply to your network. The most common type of station is one where there is a single line coming in. These stations often serve small settlements and are not that much of a crowd risk during normal season, but Christmas changes everything. Masses of people wish to visit their family, moving through these stations like debris through stormwater pipes in a storm.
-You must optimise stations to handle this influx of people. Double-track stations come in two configurations - island and bay platforms. Island platforms may be too small to handle people, so i reccomend temporary bay platforms are emplaced. There may not be enough space for this in some situations, so i also reccomend establishing input limiters at entry points to prevent crushes. If possible, a one-way system of movememnt down island platforms should also be established to ensure people leaving trains and people entering trains are both moving in the same direction, lowering the amount of crashes.
-When having a bay configuration, things become much easier. If possible, a temporary island platform should be used, utilising the Spanish Solution. Ensure the direction of movement goes through the train and into the island, which maximises efficency. You should also be ensuring the bay platforms are wide enough to handle the liberal estimate for the amount of passengers, assuming 5 passengers per square metre.
-Getting across the tracks is also extremely important. Normally, this takes the form of a footbridge. Try to add stairs instead of lifts for better throughput. On low-traffic but high-ridership lines, build a railway level crossing to get to other platforms.
-We must now consider other track configurations. Some stations may have 4 tracks, where two are used for stopping and the other two for passing or not stopping. When using two island platforms, a serious risk of death occurs in crowds next to the passing tracks. A train will be moving at what is likely line speed and it may blow some members of the crowd away.
-Thus, follow the advice surrounding island platforms as well as placing platform screen doors, which will certainly prevent high-speed trains sucking away passengers. If this isn't possible, you may reduce line speed of the passing tracks to ensure safety. When two trains have stopped at the same platform, do not open the doors of the second train until the first train has closed its doors. This will prevent overcrowding to some extent, as well as staggering the departure.
-===== Lowering demand =====
-Now, we have finished the capacity upgrades, station improvements, and now we need to figure out how to get demand lower then the worst case.
-The first thing we'll need to do is send out announcments warning about non-essential travel. This could lessen demand by about 25%, which could be the difference between [mass outrage due to unusable tickets] and [crowded trains].
-However, we can do more. We can deter passengers using various techniques which appear as innocent chistmas celebrations. The first is to play a single christmas song on repeat for the entire month. This has the distinct advantage of seeming innocent to unsuspecting passengers ("Look at the rail network getting into the spirit!") whilst annoying the customers so much they will not want to go back. Why not try "All i want for christmas is you" (''Note:'' this only works for the anglosphere; use a local christmas song (like "Feliz Navidad" for Spain) for more cultural relevance)? We can also use ugly decorations and have an annoying Santa actor.
-===== Safety =====
-Safety is massively important during Christmas, where crowds are common. Ensure that people know that any passing train at speed will cause serious turbulence which may blow people off the platform and that people know not to cross the yellow line of platforms.
-Ensure that during the Christmas period that any dedicated passing track is blocked from the public in some way. This prevents them dying as a high-speed train zips past.
-====== Bonus ======
-(2022-12-03) I just found a really cool map of China and their metro systems. Have a look and consider it for catography for your own server. Intercity lines with services could be drawn between a tiny schematic of a metro system for example.
-[[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FjAhQWoXkAEdtOL?format=jpg&name=large|Map (''.png'' hosted on Twitter)]]

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