How long/short do Commuter Rail Platforms have to be?

I was wondering, can a platform be only long enough for 2 to 3 cars to open up for boarding? I was thinking that a flag-stop for Sounder and Amtrak Cascades could be put in along the BNSF North-South Main(maybe a siding installed too) at Boeing Field, across the street from the King County International Airport passenger terminal, just in case Southwest does move to KCIA. Airlines have negotiated with King County before, but they have never progressed so much that the King County Executive had to anounce that the negotiations were underway to the King County Council.

well, i believe they can be as long or as short as the agency wants. over here in chicago we have a few one car platforms and then some that can hold more than 11

3 would probably suffice at first, and it would also work out well for agencies that want to add service and stations, but may not be able to find the money for a 10 car+ Platform.

On Metro North we even got one that fits only one set of doors.
The Mount Pleasant Cemetery stop on Harlem line.

Now that is really cutting it short.

The Windsor Locks, Connecticut Amtrak stop was several years ago, and likely still is, about 20 or 30 feet in length to accomodate a single pair of doors. It's a regular stop, not a flag stop, unless things have changed recently.

The MBTA's Haverhill/Reading Line Station at North Wilmington is among a few small platforms in the system; is not even a car lenght long.

Thanks everybody for these examples. I hope that the powers that be, now that Southwest has made thier proposal official, plan a rail stop for King County Airport that is at least 300 feet long on the platforms. It is a great site for an infill station, and their are other employers at the airfield, that could provide commuters. I just wished our transportation planners in this neck of the woods would connect this airfield with the rail line that goes right next to the airport. It would make sense, but ever since the airport opened(1928), transportation planning in Puget Sound rarely made sense.

A commuter rail platform can be as short as an engineer can reasonably be expected to spot a specific door or set of doors on every time, in every condition. I'd guesstimate perhaps 25 feet is an absolute minimum, judging from the examples of very short platforms I have seen.

I know of at least one instance where the "platform" is actually a street at a grade crossing, and IIRC a two-lane rural street is a minimum of 26 feet wide.

A coalition mobilizing to fight the proposed move by Southwest to Boeing Field thinks that it could cost a lot of scarce transportation and transit dollars. They all think that a commuter rail platform, which has not been proposed yet, would be expensive and be a 10 car platform. I just got the mailer from the coalition.

While I haven't got the specifics, I understand that some of the SEPTA (ex-P&W/Red Arrow Lines) Norristown Line stations are essentially one door long, at least when the "bullet" cars were operated, and the motorman of course was there up front for spotting.

Vytautas B. Radzivanas
Perth, Western Australia

when you have long commuter consists they really have to be long enough so unfarmiliar passengers don't to get to the one set of doors that is detraining. unless they explain which cars detrain in the platform, which most commuter agencies will NEVER do

benltrain wrote:when you have long commuter consists they really have to be long enough so unfarmiliar passengers don't to get to the one set of doors that is detraining. unless they explain which cars detrain in the platform, which most commuter agencies will NEVER do

The one time I rode Amtrak Cascades from Portland to Seattle, they anounced when they pulled into places like Kelso/Longview, Centrailia, and Olympia, they said that they would only be detraining through a few cars of the train. The platforms look big enough, though, espeically for a TALGO.

amtrak trains will often only open one door when they could open MANY more, but commuter agencies try to avoid this

On NJT, there isn't much of a trend for short platforms. In fact, they have very long platforms at some stations. Trenton has several 20-car platforms. There are some 14-car platforms on the NEC also.