Mister No's Pics & Vids

"over 5 million trips made in an average weekday" That is hard to believe, and if it does make over 5 million trips then that "99.9% on time rate" is remarkable.

It's from Wikipedia. But it's unbelievable, I agree. 5 million passengers, that's more likely. The MTR website states: "With an average weekday patronage of about 5.6 million passengers, MTR is regarded as one of the world's leading railway operators for safety, reliability, customer service and cost efficiency."

But, the most remarkable data is, in my opinion, this:  The MTR is one of the most profitable metro systems in the world; it had a farebox recovery ratio* of 187 per cent in 2015, the world's highest. Dallas has, for example, 14%, Beijing 60%, Berlin and San Francisco 70%, and then there is MTR with 187%!!
If that's true, they really are on the top of the world.

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*The farebox recovery ratio (also called fare recovery ratio, fare recovery rate or other terms) of a passenger transportation system is the fraction of operating expenses which are met by the fares paid by passengers. It is computed by dividing the system's total fare revenue by its total operating expenses.

not really surprise with the farebox recovery ratio.  Majority of the Hong Kong population don't have access to a car. 

Owning a car in Hong Kong is expensive and not to mention very difficult to find a parking spot.  Parking spot is so scarce that you better be good at parallel parking.

[Super]

5 million passengers, that's more likely

Even the 5 Million passengers a day sees hard to fathom.

I agree, Super, but it seems they really have such high numbers... Here is an information from GOV.HK PORTAL: "By end June 2020, the entire MTR railway system carried an average of 3.39 million passengers each day." Wikipedia & MTR website (Rapid transit: 4.962 million Others: 0.702 million) have pre-Covid data (May 2019), so if they had 3.39 million passengers during Covid period, maybe they really had up to 5 million per day in previous years...

The video that follows is not the usual video of a train or a line. This is a new introductory video that is on the cover of the YouTube channel and briefly presents it. So I included a lot of Enodens, other suburban trains and trams from recent videos, and I added (at the end) a couple of rides by Thomas and Friends, which haven’t been introduced yet: there’s the clear Thomas with clear Annie & Clarabel,  Porter who goes to Brendam Harbour where he meets Cranky, and Flora (with two double-decker tram-trailers) who opens a new windmill. I hope you'll like it!

[Super]

Love the music at the beginning as it had me moving in my chair as did the Polka at the end

The Shin-Keisei type 80000 has been running for a 1,5 year on the Shin-Keisei line in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and has now received its Plarail version. As "Takara Tomy", the company that produces these models, often likes to do when it comes to passenger trains, so this one is sold exclusively in 7-Eleven shops, at some of the 24 stations of this line, so it's a bit difficult to get it. I like it so much I bought 2 on Mercary Japan via Buyee (highly recommended).

This new Shin-Keisei train has a characteristic silver-white-pink colour, but pink (the colour is called "gentle pink") has been added this time as a line on the roof of the train, so that passengers, say the Shin-Keisei Railway, can from afar see their train coming. And they can see it often, because the train runs every 10 minutes, and in the morning rush hours even every four minutes!

The line of this train is connected to the regions of Ueno, Tokyo and Shinagawa, and at Shin-Kamagaya station you can change to the train "Narita Sky Access" and in 29 minutes reach the air entrance to Japan - Narita Airport. According to Shin-Keisei website, due to the rich natural resources along the line, activities including picking pears or peaches also make this route full of charm.



















Plarail model is an older type one-speed-train that uses one big C (R14) battery. It's rather quiet and not too fast. It's another great little commuter train! 

[Super]

Very fancy looking with that pink and glittery silver.

Yup, and even the little logo is printed pink on white, it's not a sticker:



They used stickers for the destination boards only (as usual). But, they printed car numbers 80016 and 80011 on the front and on the back only - not on the car bodies - so the middle car didn't get any number at all!

SERIES E233 SHONAN COLOUR WITH CONNECT GIMMICK

The E233 series trains are probably the most common commuter trains in Japan (as many as 3,297 units were produced by June last year) and have already appeared a couple of times in my videos. These two latest trains are the 6th and 7th E233-trains in my collection. But these are special because they contain a special connector that can connect 2 trains and thus get a long train, necessary for traffic during rush hours.

Such a train is actually a correct representation of a real train, since the E233 series trains are always used in pairs, in case something on one of the two connected trains fails.

But coupling the two Plarail models together causes problems on the U-turns, double switches, and the worst is on the ascending the curved slope to the viaduct, which such a large train cannot overcome. Still, running on other lines is possible, and trains this long look really good, so take a look.