Railroad Forums
How long/short do Commuter Rail Platforms have to be?
- General discussion of passenger rail systems not otherwise covered in the specific forums in this category, including high speed rail.
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by TR-00
Somehow, even after running trains out of Trenton for several years, I don't remember ever seeing a 20 car platform, let alone several of them.
Max capacity on track one is 12 cars, and it is also 12 cars on track 4. The alleged great "transfer track", track 5, will hold a 3 car SEPTA MU set and an 8 car NJT set.
Newark only holds 14 cars on track 2, 3 and 4, no "30 car" tracks here!
Max capacity on track one is 12 cars, and it is also 12 cars on track 4. The alleged great "transfer track", track 5, will hold a 3 car SEPTA MU set and an 8 car NJT set.
Newark only holds 14 cars on track 2, 3 and 4, no "30 car" tracks here!
by benltrain
M&Eman wrote:Nope. One car now, but I don't really count the Dinky. It's a 1 mile spur to a university. I'm talking about runs of at least 10 miles.Then you wouldn't count three of SEPTAs lines, and it is definetely a commuter agency.
The dinky is a shuttle, so we can say it doesn't count.
Also, SEPTA's routes used to run one car trains, but one still does, the R6, which IIRC is not even 5 miles. But, as it has been referred to on this forum, it is SEPTA's "dinky".
by Semaphore Sam
railfanofewu:
Maybe your plan is moot, as the SouthWest plan to use Boeing Field seems to be a non-starter, but if it goes, there's plenty of money left over from the monorail fiasco, just cancelled (but still being collected for with tax on cars). Seatac is getting a dedicated line from Seatac to King Street Station; better would have been a line off the BNSF North-South line, thru Seatac terminal, connecting back to that line, allowing direct conections to Seattle & Tacoma from the terminal. But, as always, the US is about 45 years behind Europe in its thinking. Sam
Maybe your plan is moot, as the SouthWest plan to use Boeing Field seems to be a non-starter, but if it goes, there's plenty of money left over from the monorail fiasco, just cancelled (but still being collected for with tax on cars). Seatac is getting a dedicated line from Seatac to King Street Station; better would have been a line off the BNSF North-South line, thru Seatac terminal, connecting back to that line, allowing direct conections to Seattle & Tacoma from the terminal. But, as always, the US is about 45 years behind Europe in its thinking. Sam
by benltrain
benltrain wrote:Well, I rode the R6; 5 passengers, and if you want a commuter route that leaves the city and warrants a single car, look there. The line is pathetic.M&Eman wrote:Nope. One car now, but I don't really count the Dinky. It's a 1 mile spur to a university. I'm talking about runs of at least 10 miles.Then you wouldn't count three of SEPTAs lines, and it is definetely a commuter agency.
The dinky is a shuttle, so we can say it doesn't count.
Also, SEPTA's routes used to run one car trains, but one still does, the R6, which IIRC is not even 5 miles. But, as it has been referred to on this forum, it is SEPTA's "dinky".
by AgentSkelly
An ex-employee of GO Transit was telling me during the first year of operation of the trains, not all stations had platforms long as the train such as Oakvile, which was only 4 cars long at the time, that some passengers exited the train at the part not at the platform, despite the fact they could see there was no platform at that door.
by byte
AgentSkelly wrote:An ex-employee of GO Transit was telling me during the first year of operation of the trains, not all stations had platforms long as the train such as Oakvile, which was only 4 cars long at the time, that some passengers exited the train at the part not at the platform, despite the fact they could see there was no platform at that door.A few of the stations on Metra's electric district are like that. In their case, however, rather than opening the entire train's doors, an announcement is put over that only the first X cars will open, and when the train stops a crew member opens each car's door independently (not trainline'd).
by AgentSkelly
byte wrote:Yes, the ex-GO employee told me this was at a time when a certain amount of passengers did not listen to those annoucmentsAgentSkelly wrote:An ex-employee of GO Transit was telling me during the first year of operation of the trains, not all stations had platforms long as the train such as Oakvile, which was only 4 cars long at the time, that some passengers exited the train at the part not at the platform, despite the fact they could see there was no platform at that door.A few of the stations on Metra's electric district are like that. In their case, however, rather than opening the entire train's doors, an announcement is put over that only the first X cars will open, and when the train stops a crew member opens each car's door independently (not trainline'd).
by timz
Irish Chieftain wrote:Only Tracks 1 through 4 at NY Penn have the short capacity thereof—the rest of the platforms can support trains of 16-20 cars (maybe longer).20 cars would be 1700 feet, which is also the distance from the west edge of 7th Ave to the east edge of 9th Ave. As I recall that would make the platform betw tracks 11-12 maybe 1600? ft long? And the rest get shorter the farther you are from the station's E-W centerline.
Princeton Jct platforms are 1040 feet long, so they can handle 12 cars, plus one door (of another car) at each end.
by pennsy
Hi All,
Back in the days when there were REAL snowstorms in the NYC area, the trains going to the Rockaways had an interesting way out. The IND would run trains as long as 20 cars to ensure that most of the cars had solid contact with the third rail all the way through. There were crews with wooden shovels clearing the tracks, but the third rail depended upon the trains passing over it to keep it clear of ice and snow. The train would pull into the station, and only the doors to the first few cars would open. As the motorman told me, the other cars were there to push the train through if necessary. No speeds were achieved, but we did get to the underground subway stations on time. The super long train would then reverse and return to the Rockaways. The stations did take most of the cars, but not all. Not really relevant, since those extra cars were empty anyway.
Back in the days when there were REAL snowstorms in the NYC area, the trains going to the Rockaways had an interesting way out. The IND would run trains as long as 20 cars to ensure that most of the cars had solid contact with the third rail all the way through. There were crews with wooden shovels clearing the tracks, but the third rail depended upon the trains passing over it to keep it clear of ice and snow. The train would pull into the station, and only the doors to the first few cars would open. As the motorman told me, the other cars were there to push the train through if necessary. No speeds were achieved, but we did get to the underground subway stations on time. The super long train would then reverse and return to the Rockaways. The stations did take most of the cars, but not all. Not really relevant, since those extra cars were empty anyway.
by Patrick Boylan
Not really on thread topic, but inspired by the last comment, Rockaway was the first place I ever noticed a subway that didn't leave all doors open at the platform. The crew opened all doors on arrival, but then closed all but 1 door of the train, or all but 1 door of a given set of cars, in order to retain heat during the winter, and I suppose air conditioning during summer.
I just noticed it again this past week in a subway station, a Q train which had apparently changed ends at 57th St and 7th Ave. At first I thought the train was out of service, then I noticed at least 1 door of the multi car train was open, and people were sitting in the adjacent car. Street temperature was in the mid 30's fahrenheit, platform temperature felt not much warmer.
One time on a GO transit train at an outlying terminal I heard an announcement that the doors were being put on standby to save heat. GO is the only railroad style system where I've seen passenger operated pushbuttons to open doors, but that's also the only system I've ridden that used Hawker-Siddley hot dog bi-levels. Perhaps other systems with similar equipment, such as Los Angeles, might have pushbutton doors. I've seen them quite often on light rail, sometimes the operator opens all doors, sometimes the operator just engages the doors so the passengers can press the button and unneeded doors don't open.
Montreal Central station divided the stairways to direct passengers to different ends of the platform depending on destination. I'm not sure if that was to ease fare collection, or because of platform length, but the result was if your destination was one of the first few stops you got the front of the train, the last few stops you got the back of the train. That messed me up for peeking out the railfan window.
NJTransit northeast corridor shuffles people around a lot for short platforms. I heard announcement that station X (Rahway?) only front few cars, if you're in the back move forward. Then they made an announcement station Y (Metuchen?) only the back few cars, if you're in the front move back. And then station Z (Edison?) middle few cars, if you're in the front or back move to the middle. But no announcement for Trenton telling folks to move forward to the only stairs or SEPTA connection.
I just noticed it again this past week in a subway station, a Q train which had apparently changed ends at 57th St and 7th Ave. At first I thought the train was out of service, then I noticed at least 1 door of the multi car train was open, and people were sitting in the adjacent car. Street temperature was in the mid 30's fahrenheit, platform temperature felt not much warmer.
One time on a GO transit train at an outlying terminal I heard an announcement that the doors were being put on standby to save heat. GO is the only railroad style system where I've seen passenger operated pushbuttons to open doors, but that's also the only system I've ridden that used Hawker-Siddley hot dog bi-levels. Perhaps other systems with similar equipment, such as Los Angeles, might have pushbutton doors. I've seen them quite often on light rail, sometimes the operator opens all doors, sometimes the operator just engages the doors so the passengers can press the button and unneeded doors don't open.
Montreal Central station divided the stairways to direct passengers to different ends of the platform depending on destination. I'm not sure if that was to ease fare collection, or because of platform length, but the result was if your destination was one of the first few stops you got the front of the train, the last few stops you got the back of the train. That messed me up for peeking out the railfan window.
NJTransit northeast corridor shuffles people around a lot for short platforms. I heard announcement that station X (Rahway?) only front few cars, if you're in the back move forward. Then they made an announcement station Y (Metuchen?) only the back few cars, if you're in the front move back. And then station Z (Edison?) middle few cars, if you're in the front or back move to the middle. But no announcement for Trenton telling folks to move forward to the only stairs or SEPTA connection.
by M&Eman
The NJT Northeast Corridor doesn't have short platforms, just long trains. Most platforms are 8-10 cars, but 12 car trains will regularly run on the line.
"The Erie only sells 1 way tickets on the NJ&NY because it only has a 99 year lease on the line."
by ljeppson
UTA Frontrunner has platforms which accomodate 3-4 Bombardiers and many more convetional height cars as shown here:
http://www.utahtransit.us/fs1.htm
http://www.utahtransit.us/fs1.htm
by ExCon90
DutchRailnut wrote:On Metro North we even got one that fits only one set of doors.Don't forget Breakneck Ridge (great name) on the Hudson Line; and isn't there another weekend-only stop on the Hudson Line with a platform that short?
The Mount Pleasant Cemetery stop on Harlem line.