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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.'"
The doors are there. The transit authority just doesn't allow people to use them because most people are too stupid to use them safely.
On Septa and Metro North you can move between cars while the train is stopped to facilitate boarding, and on Amtrak you can move between cars at will.
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.
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
...already articulated, they just don't have a flexible enclosure built around the articulation point.
I don't think that having the coupling area enclosed will make the entire train any less articulated than it is now.
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 deal" is that its the most extensive public transportation system in the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ny_subway) and was built early in the 20th century. As it serves over 5 million riders a day you can't just shut it down and rebuild the whole thing for less than $50 billion and another $100 billion in economic impact. Especially considering it functions well for most people. Of course its dirty because it's old and serves one of the most densely populated regions on the planet. I'm sure you can find many cleaner systems throughout the world but not many (outside asia maybe) are as effective. Articulated cars seem like a good non disruptive improvement that's good for everyone except a few hipsters that will miss the nostalgia of the trains they've been riding since they moved to williamsburg 8 months ago.