Where are the numbers coming from that LIRR needs 12 minutes to clear a train while NJT needs 20???
thats simply not true.
Maybe they would want 20 minutes as a minimum so staff could go through the train, hurry up and flip seats and pick up garbage and do brake tests, etc without passengers, in an ideal situation
but in reality, a train can be unloaded, set up, and loaded and on the move in under 10min now in NYP. Sure its crazy but it can be done, and its done nearly every night. And this is during peak periods.
Anyway, on some/most tracks the access to Moynahan is going to be limited anyway - you can have all the access points you want on the platform, but they have to be near where the train is actually located, for people to use them. Trains are still going to pull all the way east in NYP. Meaning the majority of the passengers will unload towards the current sets of stairways. Sure, a 10 or especially a 12 car train on some of the middle tracks would benefit greatly from an extra set of access points, like an extenion of the LIRR concourse that ends at track 14, but stairs and elevators a block away aren't going to be that benefical.
Now, from what I remember of the plans and its been a while since i looked at them, there would be corridors that would lead up to the main concourse, so its not like it would be a straight shot from the platforms to the Moynahan concourse, and the stairs be all the way on the west end. However, additional stairs and access points to the platforms, and a reconfiguring of the station by the extension of the lower tracks would allow more trains to be "stacked" on the same track, and I think that is going to be more of a reality than simply emptying the platforms faster. Instead its going to pretty much stay as it is now, as most folks on that second train on that track will exit via Moynahan access while east train will use the current station access.
On the RR, "believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see"
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