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New York City Considers Articulated Subway Cars
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Many of New York City's subway cars are well past their prime and due for fleet replacement, most strikingly those on the C line, known by their model number, R32, and for the tin-can siding that will continue rolling beneath Eighth Avenue for at least a few more years. Now the NYT reports that transit planners have urged the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to consider articulated subway cars for any future fleet upgrades. Articulated cars, already adopted in cities like Berlin, Paris, and Toronto, have no doors between cars, allowing unrestricted flow throughout the length of the train that could increase capacity by 8 percent to 10 percent. Adam Lisberg, the authority's chief spokesman, says that increased capacity could also improve 'dwell time' — the period during which a train is stopped in a station, often because of overcrowding — and allow more trains to run. 'We're one of the largest systems in the world that doesn't do it,' says Richard Barone, the director of transportation programs at the Regional Plan Association. 'Our trains don't function right now to allow people to circulate.' Articulation also has the benefit of making empty trains feel safer. By allowing passengers the ability to move between cars easily and to see passengers throughout the train, the isolation that can sometimes feel dangerous on a late-night subway is less of an issue, simply because the whole train is joined together like one huge car. But not everyone embraces the idea. Elizabeth Kubany who works in the Flatiron district, expressed a fondness for the current configuration, suggesting that the separated cars were more 'intimate' binding passenger to passenger in an increasingly antisocial age. Then she reconsidered. 'You don't really want to be intimate with people on the train.'"
I overheard a 20+ year career subway driver in Toronto talk about why he doesn't like the new trains. On weekends partiers often vomit in subway cars, and the smell used to be isolated to just the affected cars with the old train, but now the vomit rolls up and down the entire length of the train and the driver has to smell it for the entire duration of his/her shift. I can understand this concern and don't have a solution to offer, but personally I love the new trains. They have a subway map with lights showing which stations you've passed by, which one is next, where you're going, which side the door will open on, and all of the announcements seem to be pre recorded or computer generated. I don't have to struggle to understand what the foreign driver is saying. These trains are made by Bombadier, a Canadian company. I've seen these same trains in China (Bombadier). I wonder if NYC will get the same ones.
Most people - yes, even Wall Street - use public transit in NYC. The subway is way faster than a car. There is a reason that they are building a new 2nd Ave line, and it isn't for the poor people.
My issue with the trains is that we are in 2013 and they are still putting new cars out with conductors! Yes, a person paid (and paid more than a cop IIRC) to stand in a little booth and close the doors on the train. I won't even get into why they still have drivers, they can't even get rid of the conductor.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Back in highschool I had a friend who was one of those kids who was obsessed with the subway. His neighbor was an MTA employee for the subway and let him examine the key for the doors. The lock simply takes a zigzag shaped skeleton key with a square rejection notch cut in the center. He took a thick nail, cut the head off and then put a slit on each end. He then brazed a piece of sheet metal on each end of the key, one side for the key part and the other end for a handle. He bent the key into the shape of the lock using a clay form he pressed into an actual lock and filed out the rejection notch. The bend wasn't even square but rounded as all it needed to do was fit through the key hole. It worked perfectly and he made me one as well, I still have it around somewhere. I used to impress my friends when we wanted to switch cars and I opened the door with my key :) You just had to be sure no MTA employee or cop saw you.
Paris Metro has some pretty sharp curves too. Lines 2, 5 and now 9 are happily running MF01 stock, even with quite a few sharp curves (although the sharpest are only in use without passengers, e.g. the Porte Dauphine with its 25-m radius). Line 7bis has been running MF88 stock for a long time, and even if that stock is now considered a failure, the curves per se are not the problem. And 7bis has wicked sharp curves in operational uses (that was the reason for building MF88 in the first place!)
Other lines/stocks with sharp curves: Line 1 (MP05, Bastille), Line 14 (MP89CA), Line 4 (MP89CC, sharp curves especially at Porte d'Orleans former terminal, but also at Les Halles deviation).
Nowadays, even commuter trains use this configuration: Z50000 stock all over North & East suburbs, fantastic machines now the teething problems are over (the hardware was rushed for reelection reasons). Z50000 displays a quite interesting concept: "shorter-therefore-wider" cars, which also boost space.
Not going articulated on busy lines is displaying unhealthy ludditism nowadays.
A big impediment to increasing capacity is the spacing required between trains for safety. Trains have to have adequate stopping distances between them, and rely on signals and blocks to prevent one train from running into the back of a stopped train. You can't just drop a few more trains onto the rails and expect them to fit in the gaps.
They can't simply add more cars to today's trains, because they can have only as many cars as they have platform space. It's possible these fully interconnected articulated cars would allow them to extend the train beyond the ends of the platform, as long as they only open the doors where it's safe, of course. But that would also increase the duration of stops, potentially reducing the number of trains.
Simply swapping cars for cars with more seats seems like the easiest and quickest approach to increasing capacity. But it's not much of an increase.
John
Is it possible to open the doors in an emergency?
The Underground trains in London that don't yet have articulated carriages simply have a red danger sign telling people not to use them -- except in an emergency. It's very rare to see someone using them, as the danger is pretty obvious (adjacent carriages can bounce around quite a bit, relative to each other).
The problem with articulated cars is if there is a problem with a single car, the whole train is unusable. You also can't extend or shorten trains to accommodate differing rider numbers.
Here, it's not unusual to see ten car BART trains at peak hours and only four car trains when there is less demand. It saves on energy and wear and tear.
The subway operators in Berlin have decided for these long trains beacuse the manual labour and logistics needed to extend or shorten trains during the day is more expensive than just letting them roll.
"Is it friday yet?"
The whole NYC metro system is something I really cannot understand about the US. I haven't visited the whole world but NY city metro is by far the worst I have been, starting with the dirty station that includes God knows how many rats and the old equipment. Hell there are places in Latin America that have better stuff. Sure it has a lot of coverage and works 24/7 but either everybody else is doing something extraordinary or I don't know what's the deal.
So now seeing this whole 'debate' about whether to use articulated cars is like watching a discussion about the merits of the wheel to improve transportation. They really need to invest heavily into the system, especially in a city like NY where millions depend on the subway as their primary mean of transportation.