flexliner wrote: ↑Sat Jul 23, 2022 1:48 pm
For rail cars that are NOT high density commuter cars,
What are the pluses and minuses of doors at either end of the car ie amfleet 1 vs at one end only ie amfleet 2 or new Acela?
In theory, the advantage of multiple doors is decreased dwell time, but that advantage can be completely negated by:
- lost seating capacity (if we assume a door takes a row of seats, and car length is fixed, more doors = less seats per car)
- non-level boarding (if an attendant is needed for each door used at low level platforms, then you double the staffing per car if using doors at both ends of the cars)
- additional mechanical complexity (more moving parts means more things that can break)
The more frequently a train stops, the greater the advantage of multiple doors on that train (so local/regional services benefit from more doors than long distance services).
Incidentally, I think the Siemens Venture cars have different door setups based on ADA equipment needs (or the lack thereof) with no difference between the various orders seen so far in terms of vestibule space used. The Brightline sets have 2 doors on each side (but high-level boarding only), the California sets have a mixture of single door or dual door where each car has a single vestibule for low-level boarding, and the dual door cars have either wheelchair lifts or high-level boarding only entries), and the Midwest cars have a single lift-equipped low-level boarding door per car (but only a single door per side).
I don't think I've ever been on a train in the USA, Europe, or Korea where passengers exited from one door and entered from another, so a non-conflicting entry/exit pattern have not been taken advantage of to reduce dwell times (or has not been taken advantage of effectively if crew did try to use it).