5 Ideas That Could Change the Future of Trains

[M II A II R II K]

5 Ideas That Could Change the Future of Trains


10/08/15

By Bryan Lufkin

Read More: http://gizmodo.com/5-ideas-that-coul...ins-1720914816

The Subway, the El, the Tube, the Métro: Trains have been transporting humans around cities since 1863. But too many public transit systems still run like they’re stuck in the 19th century. That needs to change.

- Imagine a future where your city is serviced by fully autonomous trains loaded with amenities, arriving one after another like clockwork, pulling into bigger-than-ever transport hubs that double as nightlife spots where you can transfer to a 300mph maglev. This isn’t just wild hopeful speculation: trains that have at least some of these features already exist in the world. The dream train of the future should have all of them, and more.

- For starters, we’re going to need the metro system to grow with the booming global population — 60 percent of the world is expected live in urban centers by 2030. Here in the US, three-quarters of our economy is already generated by cities. The ballooning mass of humans living and working in cities will need to get around. The good news is, more trains are on the way. In the US, metro systems are being built in cities that aren’t known as public transportation hubs.

- London—home to the first subway in human history, which opened during the American Civil War—hopes to have its “New Tube” up and running by 2022. New Tube will be a wave of 250 fully autonomous trains being added to the Tube, provided customers and stakeholders respond well to the idea. Honolulu, meanwhile, is working to build the first fully driverless rail system in the US. Fully automated trains could mean less waiting around on a sweaty platform.

- Picture this: You’re sipping a beer and eating an onboard meal (that’s actually tasty), and pull into a huge station. But you don’t want to get the hell home ASAP. You actually want to hang out in the train station, where you can catch a movie, ice skate, go clubbing, get sloppy at a biergarten. Stations with cool hangout spots already exist in places like Tokyo and Dubai, and they’re becoming more common elsewhere.

- Most metro systems in the world provide regular commuters an option of buying a hard plastic card that’s digitally loaded with your money and subtracts fares with a simple tap on a scanner. And some systems make those cards so smart and convenient, it’s hard to imagine urban life without one. These smartcards should be a global standard in the near future. Smartcards just don’t act as your subway fare pass; you can them for a bunch of other conveniences: parking meters, vending machines, shops, even hospitals and theme parks.

- Wheeled high-speed rail is also (finally) coming to the US. California has started construction on its high-speed train linking Los Angeles and San Francisco, while a private Texas venture is working with the same company that made Japan’s bullet train to plop a replica servicing Houston and Dallas. Just last month, a private Chinese consortium announced plans to build yet another high-speed rail from Las Vegas to the LA area.

- In a lot of countries, the private sector plays a big role in funding infrastructure like city subways and trains. In Tokyo, for example, real estate companies play a key role in buying land and building trains—and then they also diversify businesses around train stations, like we said earlier. Not only does that make passengers happier, but it’s a great source for money. (Reminder: A lot of these high-speed rail ventures on American soil are being fueled by private dollars, too, at least at first.)

......

Artist’s rendering of Fulton Center, the biggest transit hub in Lower Manhattan, will be filled with restaurants and shops to encourage people to hang out, not just transfer trains. Credit: Fulton Center







In San Francisco, the gargantuan $4.5 billion Transbay Center is being constructed in the heart of the city, and will be a West Coast Grand Central Station. Plus, the organizers are building what they call call “Transbay neighborhood,” a commercial and residential hotspot to complement the modernist transport hub.












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[Busy Bee]

Platform doors, ugh

[upnorthsox]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Platform doors, ugh

What's wrong with platform doors?

[M II A II R II K]

Platform doors prevent service disruptions caused by people jumping or people being pushed, and plus prevents fire hazards if there's a fire on the platform and an incoming train spreads it.

[Nouvellecosse]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Platform doors prevent service disruptions caused by people jumping or people being pushed, and plus prevents fire hazards if there's a fire on the platform and an incoming train spreads it.

Yes, especially important in very busy stations are over crowding caused by things such as late trains can force people off the platform too. And having doors also reduces fire risk by preventing items from falling on the tracks and catching fire.

[fflint]

I wish BART had barriers to keep suicidal people from jumping onto the tracks inside the stations.

[Busy Bee]

Here are a few reasons...

They ruin the rail fan experience.

They turn the platform into a claustrophobic hallway.

They're expensive, diverting resources from other merit projects.

They with broad strokes treat everyone as suicidal, tipsy fools or just idiots that can't stay on the platform to save their lives, literally. As well as serving as a much costlier answer than a suicide pit for accidental falls onto the tracks.

They're clunky looking. Ugly.

They divide the platform/track areas of the station architecturally.

They complicate rolling stock procurement.

They're another costly piece of mechanical equipment prone to breakdowns and malfunctions. (escalators anyone?)

...and finally after city people waiting for trains on subway platforms for over 100 years with 99.9% healthy success (suicides and maniac pushers being clear outliers)...

They are a SOLUTION in search of a PROBLEM.



With that diatribe over, I will say I'd be more supportive of them in theory if they were designed more translucent and less obstrusive.

[Nouvellecosse]

Another benefit of platform doors is that they can allow for better climate control in stations and on trains. You can heat or cool the part of the station where the people will be without the climate controlled air escaping into the tunnels or outside, and you can have A/C more easily in the trains even in a tunnelled system because even though A/C heats up the tunnels, if there are doors separating the stations from the tunnels, it doesn't matter so much if the tunnels get hot.

The last point really affects the Montreal metro which is entirely underground and yet has no platform doors. The tunnels are too deep for it to be cost effective to install the exhaust vents for an A/C system and just having it in the trains would be counter productive since it would make the stations so hot.

[Hamilton]

@BusyBee: Come to NYC and look down from the platform at the rats wallowing around in all the sh*t that morons throw down on the tracks, on a sweltering 95-degree day where the platform is at 105 degrees (no platform doors = no AC on the platforms), and then tell me that platform doors are a solution in need of a problem.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by Hamilton

@BusyBee: Come to NYC and look down from the platform at the rats wallowing around in all the sh*t that morons throw down on the tracks, on a sweltering 95-degree day where the platform is at 105 degrees (no platform doors = no AC on the platforms), and then tell me that platform doors are a solution in need of a problem.

Still not enough reason for a multi billion dollar platform door program. And get real, the rats and trash are part of the charm and there is NO chance in this or anyone's future lifetime that MTA subway stations will be air conditioned with the implementation of platform doors. Dream on.

[ardecila]

Platform doors for subway stations?

Not as important as platform doors for elevated or at-grade stations, especially in cold climates. Sometimes a windbreak is all you need, but on an island platform, it's even worse since you can't easily add windbreaks without constraining passenger flow or causing security/sightline issues.

[M II A II R II K]

Any platform doors that are broken down can remain open, and it's unlikely that a jumper would no in advance what stations have broken down doors.

[The Chemist]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Here are a few reasons...

They ruin the rail fan experience.

They turn the platform into a claustrophobic hallway.

They're expensive, diverting resources from other merit projects.

They with broad strokes treat everyone as suicidal, tipsy fools or just idiots that can't stay on the platform to save their lives, literally. As well as serving as a much costlier answer than a suicide pit for accidental falls onto the tracks.

They're clunky looking. Ugly.

They divide the platform/track areas of the station architecturally.

They complicate rolling stock procurement.

They're another costly piece of mechanical equipment prone to breakdowns and malfunctions. (escalators anyone?)

...and finally after city people waiting for trains on subway platforms for over 100 years with 99.9% healthy success (suicides and maniac pushers being clear outliers)...

They are a SOLUTION in search of a PROBLEM.



With that diatribe over, I will say I'd be more supportive of them in theory if they were designed more translucent and less obstrusive.

Do you know there's half-height doors which serve the same purpose as the full height doors without totally isolating the platforms from the trains?

Speaking personally, considering that almost every station in Shanghai has full height screen doors, I don't notice any of the issues that you raise with them. The best things about them is that you always know where the doors of the train are going to be so you know where to wait, and they allow the inside of the stations to stay fully climate controlled (important in Shanghai's summers).

[drummer]

^^ The vast majority of systems in China as well as Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore utilize platform doors. Very few issues - and it does actually help to manage the crowd. In China, crowd management is difficult because they're not accustomed to lines the way that Western cultures are, so it's actually very helpful. I frequently used the subway in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Beijing when I lived on the east coast of China - I think most of them run just as well as the NYC system. I never once saw a malfunctioning platform door over many years, but even if there were one, leaving them open temporarily seems like a reasonable solution.

[Busy Bee]

I'm not talking about new systems, I'm talking about retrofitting platform doors to old stations in old cash strapped systems without any intent to convert to climate control. I'm a bit of a social Darwinsit on this subject as I don't believe a small number of jumpers intent on ending their lives and an even smaller amount of genuine falling accidents possibly justifies spending multiple billions of dollars on such a program. Though being in Chicago it does give me a comforting thought contemplating the possibility of heated elevated platforms during our hellacious winters - but the heat part would never actual happen as that would essential require rebuilding every elevated station into an actual closed structure. $x$x$

[fflint]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

I'm a bit of a social Darwinsit on this subject as I don't believe a small number of jumpers intent on ending their lives and an even smaller amount of genuine falling accidents possibly justifies spending multiple billions of dollars on such a program.

Neither of San Francisco's subway systems are quad-tracked in the tunnels, so whenever someone falls/jumps onto the tracks and dies, a large part of the system in question gets shut down for hours while police investigate. I want platform doors to prevent these far-too-frequent disruptions.

[M II A II R II K]

I've lost count as to the number of times I've heard cover up excuses like power outages or injury at track level, and then shuttle busses are dispatched that you can never get on, not that you would want to.

[mrnyc]

well realistically you can retrofit old systems with platform doors or you can build new lines and fix up what you got. what do you think most residents would prefer? im going with the latter.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by mrnyc

well realistically you can retrofit old systems with platform doors or you can build new lines and fix up what you got. what do you think most residents would prefer? im going with the latter.

I'll agree platform doors should be safer. Platform doors have additional costs both installing them and operating them. They are easier to implement in new systems with new trains, or in older systems where all the trains have identical door spacing or locations. They will be virtually impossible to implement in older systems with different model trains of different ages with variable door spacings. Finding the money to implement will not be easy everywhere.

[M II A II R II K]

Then just use a gigantically long garage door that opens up after the train stops.