Talk:Skytrain (Miami International Airport)/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Steelkamp (talk · contribs) 09:58, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Hi. I will review this article. Steelkamp (talk) 09:58, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Good article criteria

Well written

• The Skytrain was constructed as part of a $3 billion expansion project of the North Terminal... This can be simplified to The Skytrain was constructed as part of a $3 billion expansion of the North Terminal...
• Trains were built in Japan by... I suggest changing to The trains were built in Japan by...
• I'm confused by the starting date for the construction of the terminal. First, the article says The project began in 1998..., and later, the article says Construction on the new terminal began in March 2007... I'm confused.
• It began operations on September 15, 2010. Did the terminal open on the same date? When did the terminal open? Can this be added as well, to provide context.
• numbered D1 to D60. Is that meant to be D1 to D50? There are 50 gates and the route map in the infobox shows it ends at D50.
• The Miami-Dade Aviation Department, which owns the airport and the Skytrain, received an "Award of Merit" in 2011 for the construction of the Skytrain and the North Terminal's Regional Commuter Facility; it was awarded by Engineering News-Record in their annual "Best Projects" competition for construction projects in the Southeastern United States. I think this can be reworded to sound better. How about this: The Miami-Dade Aviation Department, which owns the airport and the Skytrain, received an "Award of Merit" from Engineering News-Record in 2011 for the construction of the Skytrain and the North Terminal's Regional Commuter Facility; it was awarded by Engineering News-Record in their annual "Best Projects" competition for construction projects in the Southeastern United States. This states the awarder earlier.
  • Also, what is the "Regional Commuter Facility"?
• Under the 'Incidents" section, the two paragraphs start with similar wording. This could be reworded to avoid repetition. One example of changing the wording could be replacing On September 27, 2023, Skytrain service was suspended due to structural damage in the system's infrastructure. with Skytrain service has been suspended since September 27, 2023, due to structural damage in the system's infrastructure.
• Optional: Times such as 5:00 am, 8:00 am and 8:00 pm can have a non-breaking space placed between the number and the am/pm, as per MOS:TIME.
• Headways between trains is two to three minutes... As headways is plural, the grammar here is incorrect. I suggest changing to The headway between trains is two to three minutes...

Verifiable with no original research

• and on December 25... Source says "by December 25".
• Optional: Reference 6 and reference 10 seem to not be paywalled like the article says.

Broad in its coverage

• Vehicles are powered by a 750 V DC electrical system. Is this using a third rail or overhead lines or some other kind of system?
• The vehicles seem to have rubber tires. This could be mentioned.
• Rolling stock includes 20 Crystal Mover cars, which are configured into five trains with four cars each, including two fixed married-pair vehicles. I think this can be expanded upon. Reference 9 seems to say that domestic passengers use one married pair and international passengers use the other married pair.
  • ...vehicle separate from other passengers. This can be expanded to say ...vehicle separate from other passengers but on the same train. or something similar. I didn't realise that the two types of passengers were on the single train until reading source 9.

Illustrated, if possible

• I'm glad to see all images have alt text.
• Optional: The article has room for more images. I suggest that File:Skytrain Station 3, approaching with opposing train.jpg be added. It gives a broader overview of the Skytrain's infrastructure.

General

These are the comments I came up with today. I will have another look at the article tomorrow. Steelkamp (talk) 14:59, 13 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for your comments. I've addressed most of them already and I'll provide feedback on the rest:

• Concourse D has only 50 gates, despite the fact they are designated from D1-D60. (I fixed the typo in the route map template.) Some numbers are skipped, for example, there's no Gate D13, D59, etc. [1]
• It's hard to say exactly when the new terminal opened, given the way it was constructed. Technically, the "old" terminal never formally closed; the new terminal was just built on top of and around it while the old one was still being used. I thought about mentioning this in the article, but given the detailed timeline of the various phases in which parts of the new terminal opened, I decided to omit it entirely since I didn't want to go too far off-topic. In my research, I learned that the first phase of the new terminal construction was completed in 2009, which included 3 of the 4 Skytrain stations. The Skytrain opened in late 2010, but the entire terminal was not completed until some time in 2011 (haven't been able to find an exact date).
• The Regional Commuter Facility (RCF) is the most western part of the terminal at Gate D60 which serves regional flights for American Eagle. I mentioned this facility in the section about the award because I wanted to note that the award was given for recognition of both projects, not just the Skytrain. Although details about the RCF itself may be going off-topic.
• Trains are powered by third rails (as seen in this photo), however, I haven't been able to find a source that confirms this. I chose to omit this detail as per WP:OR.
• I added the photo you mentioned, although unfortunately there aren't many relevant photos uploaded to Commons. Also all 3 photos were taken outside Station 3. Photos published by the Miami-Dade Aviation Department should be in public domain (as per {{PD-FLGov}}), but I haven't found any relevant photos on the airport's website or elsewhere.

–Dream out loud (talk) 11:15, 14 November 2023 (UTC)

I've added more comments above. Putting the review on hold now for you to complete the suggested changes. Steelkamp (talk) 05:06, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

For Refs 6 and 10, I updated their subscription status to "limited". If you attempt to read multiple articles on the Miami Herald's website (I think 3 or more), you will be eventually be prompted with a paywall. Regarding the seperation of passengers between the two vehicles, I moved all these details to the beginning of the "Technology" section and rewrote it. I don't think it's as relevant for the "Service" section and seems to cause confusion if it's mentioned in both sections.

I think I've addressed everything. Please let me know if there is anything I missed. Thank you for reviewing! –Dream out loud (talk) 08:57, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

Also I want to note that I'm removing the "Operating speed" from the infobox. Sources note that the trains are capable of a maximum speed of 50 mph (80 km/h), but given the short distance between stations, there's no way they can actually reach those speeds. I haven't found a reliable source that notes the actual operating speed of the trains. –Dream out loud (talk) 10:03, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

Just to confirm what I stated above using calculations: The trains accelerate and decelerate at 0.97 m/s².[2] To reach speeds of 80 km/h would take about 23 seconds,[3] and in that time frame it would have traveled about 257 m.[4] To get from 80 km/h back to 0 would take another 23 seconds, during which the train would have traveled 514 m total. Considering the entire route is only 1120 m long with 4 stations spaced evenly apart, it's not possible for trains in regular service to reach their maximum speed and slow down to 0 between stations.

Using satellite view on Google Maps, I measured the distance between Stations 2 and 3 to be about 320 m. With equal acceleration and deceleration rates, the train would have to stop accelerating exactly halfway between two stations (after traveling 160 m), which takes about 18.2 seconds,[5] giving trains a maximum service speed of 63.4 km/h.[6] Of course, all of this would be too much original research, but I just wanted to include it here for the sake of the article. –Dream out loud (talk) 08:00, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

I think this is good enough to pass the review now. Steelkamp (talk) 03:37, 17 November 2023 (UTC)