Template talk:Amtrak Acela

"Improved diagram"

What I've done is show:

Whether or not the station has disabled access;
Indicate almost all water crossings;
Indicate whether the line/station is elevated, at-grade, or in a tunnel;
Indicate whether a border is crossed over water on a bridge, through a tunnel, or at-grade (no water), and;
Show connecting services stations at stations, no matter how minor they may be.

If you think that I have gone a little overboard on the bridges, I sympathize with you! Much time has gone into this makeover for the diagram. I'm not sure if I will continue to improve it further, but for now, I am publishing it here.
Ben (talk) 23:38, 13 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've left a note on your talk page, but I think the rivers, which have nothing to do with the service, really belong on Template:Northeast Corridor, and not here.. Mackensen (talk) 12:30, 19 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I concur. For situations like this with multiple services running over the same line, the template for the service should show only stations (including ADA yes/no, mileage, and connections) but not geography, while the template for the line can show geography. Rivers are irrelevant to the Acela, so I'll be cutting out the cruft. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 15:17, 31 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

State borders

Does it not look neater to leave simply the state abbreviations, such as:

NY

NJ

as opposed to the full state name:

New York

New Jersey

I have seen the former convention on several other RDTs around. Ben^Yes? 02:25, 1 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have a strong preference either way, so I'm OK with whichever you prefer. Useddenim (talk) 03:46, 1 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I'll go with the former. Thanks. Ben^Yes? 15:58, 1 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Formatting of CR services

Would it be possible to put in null spaces so that all the icons of each commuter rail service provider line up vertically? That would be elegant aesthetically. Additionally, I don't think PATH should be shown; it is primarily a rapid transit service (like Baltimore's MTA light rail and the DC Metro which are not shown) rather than a mainline rail service. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 00:38, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I've removed the PATH connection; I agree that it doesn't really fit in this template. What do you mean by lining up the rail services vertically? So that MTA is in the same column as the other MTAs, and SEPTAs in the same column as other SEPTA, etc? Ben^Yes? 00:47, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, precisely - I would argue that that's more important than alphabetization (which is not obvious to the user when using icons). It's a minor thing but it would look more polished. I have the page watchlisted, so you don't have to bother with talkback, but thanks for the thought. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 01:03, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, this is what I came up with.

Acela Express

Legend

Dist.

Station

231 mi

372 km

New York City

across

10 mi

16 km

Newark

255 mi

410 km

Metropark

289 mi

465 km

across

322 mi

518 km

Philadelphia

PA

DE

116 mi

187 km

Wilmington

I had a problem going from Philly to Wilmington, because before SEPTA was the only service that indicated in the BSmap at Wilmington. To fix this so NJT could stay in the same column from New Jersey, I put a thruway connection at Wilmington, but it still looks out of place because (other than the fact that it's not a train) it comes right underneath a sequence of NJT transfers. Ben^Yes? 01:19, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I was able to easily resolve VRE & MARC at Washington, though. Ben^Yes? 01:24, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I may try tomorrow with a null version of the icons; that should allow for the desired spacing. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 02:10, 6 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Just so you know, when I added them to the Silver Meteor and Silver Star templates, I added the SEPTA icon for 30th Street Station first, because it's primarily a SEPTA station, even though NJT's Atlantic City Line terminates there. Trenton Transit Center commuter rail icons I arranged in the opposite direction for the same reason. ---------User:DanTD (talk) 23:18, 7 July 2014 (UTC)[reply]