Best color for a line?

polybalt wrote:The first so-called "rapid transit" lines were the cable cars and early electric cars. The individual lines were typically operated by separate, competing, companies. They differentiated themselves from one another by painting their cars different colors, and they refered to their routes by the color of their cars. So for example in Baltimore, there was a green line, and white line, and I think a brown line.

Of course all that ended when the the different companies were combined about the turn of the last century.

The West End Street Railway Company did the same thing in the metropolitan Boston area as precedent. By the way, the first rapid trainsit lines were omnibusses and horse-drawn cars which pre-dated cable and electric cars.

Weren't most rapid transit cars steam-powered, after the horse-drawn era and before the electrics?

(Horse-drawn omnibi certainly count as "public" transit. But "rapid" transit? Iffy.)

sjp123usa wrote:Weren't most rapid transit cars steam-powered, after the horse-drawn era and before the electrics?

(Horse-drawn omnibi certainly count as "public" transit. But "rapid" transit? Iffy.)

Depends what city you are looking at. Not in Boston (America's first subway) unless you include commuter rail transportation, but steam powered locos did pull coaches in the first true "rapid transit" travel in New York, London, etc. It was found to be a dangerous operation in subways which brought about the development of the "El". I understand that there were fatalities in London which may have banned steam from being used in tunnels by causing laws to be enacted prompting the use of electrically driven trains. (From the perspective of the early to mid 19th Century citizen, I'll bet you that they perceived the omnibus as a convenient and rapid mode of transit compared to what they were used to- either walking or maintaining a horse for travel ! )

you veered off topic a bit, but talking about steam in subways made me think of the black soot on the ceiling, which made me think does anybody know of a route designated the black line?

Or how about a patriotic system with Red White and Blue lines, and they tell someone "You can't take that train, it's the white line".

I do not think I have heard of a "Black Line," or "Grey Line," or "White Line," or "Pink Line." The list goes on.

In NYC, the shuttle's are grey - Times Square Shuttle and Franklin Ave Shuttle. So is the L train. But no one in the city refers to the lines by colour name. Its always the letter name or the number name as in E train or 6 train.

London has many colours on its lines. The Northern Line is black. But again they are never referred to by colours - just the line name (i.e. Jubilee or Bakerloo).

Paris has pink, purple, and lavender lines but again they are referred to by number, not colour.

Montreal had a proposed line 7 which was shown on maps as white. It was to run under Boul. Pie IX.

drewh wrote:

I do not think I have heard of a "Black Line," or "Grey Line," or "White Line," or "Pink Line." The list goes on.

In NYC, the shuttle's are grey - Times Square Shuttle and Franklin Ave Shuttle. So is the L train. But no one in the city refers to the lines by colour name. Its always the letter name or the number name as in E train or 6 train.

London has many colours on its lines. The Northern Line is black. But again they are never referred to by colours - just the line name (i.e. Jubilee or Bakerloo).

Paris has pink, purple, and lavender lines but again they are referred to by number, not colour.

Montreal had a proposed line 7 which was shown on maps as white. It was to run under Boul. Pie IX.

Even moreso, the grey used for the NYC shuttles is a darker, almost black shade, whereas the L train is a silvery shade. I think technically the shuttles are supposed to be black, but that wouldn't provide contrast with the black backgrounds of the rollsigns on the front of the trains.

The Machine wrote:NYC Subway currently has blue, orange, light green, brown, light gray, yellow, red, dark green, purple, and dark gray for shuttles. It used to have pink and aqua blue, which is now being proposed for the new Second Avenue subway.
The letters P, U, X, and Y appear on some rollsigns in a white bullet, but have never actually been used.

The R32/38 and R46/46/68 have provisions on the signs for these future lines, though.