New York City Considers Articulated Subway Cars 237
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.'"
People could already move car to car (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:People could already move car to car (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:People could already move car to car (Score:5, Interesting)
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).
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Some of the trains on the Circle Line are now articulated. I've only been on one, but it was much better than the old way. Of course, that might partly be due to the fact that the stock was brand new. There even seemed to be air con.
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On one today, for only the second time. Still had that 'new train' smell. Definitely nicer, though probably even more popular with buskers, pickpockets and street preachers.
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Not all are locked. It wasn't illegal to switch cars on the subway until 2005. And then it became a 75 dollar fine.
The ones that are locked are the newer models which the locks can be controlled by the conductor. Also, only the trains that have extreme turns or spots where there is a very large gap between the cars, get locked.
The 1/2/3 line weren't locked last time I hit a car with no AC in the summer.
Also, on the 1 line for south ferry you have to move between cars because only the first 5 reach the platf
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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.
Re: Logistics too expensive (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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.
I doubt the effort to shorten the trains would be worthwhile in NYC. Isn't it always going to be busy enough that it's worth running the whole train?
(It's certainly the case in London. Some of the oldest (1970s) trains have driving cabs in the middle, i.e. are two trains coupled together. It's a long, long time since they ran trains with less than the maximum number of carriages. I'm not sure they ever were -- I can't find a reference.)
Re:People could already move car to car (Score:4, Informative)
In Bucharest, most of the subway cars have been replaced with articulated ones. I love them. There's less noise, more space, easier way to access; you don't care where you get up, because you can move inside for the whole length of the train. You can tell someone to meet you in the subway and they can hop in without having to figure out which wagon you're in first. Also, during off-peak hours, if someone in a different wagon faints or has a health issue, you can move across to help them. There's no such thing as overcrowding anymore. There's less noise.
Wear and tear is a non-issue. It depends more on the materials used rather than time. Shitty materials used on non-articulated cars will wear faster than good materials used on articulated cars.
As for "if there is a problem with a single car, the whole train is unusable" - this is totally false. They're just as modular; maybe it takes 15 minutes more to detach one wagon, but that rarely, if ever, happens. It's been years since they were introduced and there were exactly 4 malfunctions that required a train to stop between stations, and they were all due to the underside of the cars, not the articulations.
Extending trains does not exist around here. They are all same length. It's actually helpful because you can wait for it anywhere you want, you don't have to run towards a side because the length is smaller.
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The modern solution to that is to buy train sets that are half as long as the platforms. That way you can run full length trains during normal hours and half length trains when demand is expected to be low.
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You'll get a ticket if you're caught going between cars. And depending on the train type, they can be locked.
It's also quite unsafe. The subway is not a smooth ride and the gap is fairly large. If you don't know what to expect when, one misstep and you'll be less a leg or more.
Cost is the key (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Cost is the key (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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My understanding i that the main problems tend to be:
1. Modern digital signalling performs significantly worse than old analog signalling. Yes, seriously.
2. A single train that spends a few seconds too many at each stop can easily disrupt the whole subway line much like a single bad driver on the highway can cause a traffic jam.
Re:Cost is the key (Score:4, Funny)
If it cost the same it would be a no-brainer ... increased capacity for nothing. The key question is does it cost more, and if so is that the optimal way of increasing capacity for the money? If the same money would allow them to run an extra train each hour then that would be the best option.
Articulated trains is probably really cheap compared to the other options, assuming the easy things have been done (like lengthening the train where all the platforms are long enough).
Anyway, they should last 50 years, so it's a good investment.
(I've not used the NYC Metro for 15 years, but if it's anything like the overcrowded London Underground they'll be increasing capacity wherever they can. I was told off by a public announcement last week "would the man running down the escalator please be aware that now the upgrade work is completed, trains run every two minutes" [on the Victoria Line].)
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One other point - this isn't primarily about increasing capacity. It's about replacing cars that have reached the end of their service life, and must be replaced anyway.
But yeah, they then have to do a bunch of cost benefit analysis. If the cost difference between a regular car and an articulated car is $3 million, and the car is expected to be in service for 50 years, and it costs $20,000/year more to maintain, and it can carry 5% more passengers, but the capacity is only used for six trips per day, and we
Why one Toronto subway driver doesn't like them (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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I also love the new trains. They feel a lot roomier. Part of that is because they really are roomier, but part of it is the more open design that feels less claustrophobic.
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I rode on the articulated subway in Berlin this year during a weekend, including early Saturday morning. Lots of partiers, no vomit. Maybe Canadians drink like teenagers? :)
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Or Canadians party harder than Berliners :)
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Dollars to donuts, those vomiting Canadian drinkers _are_ teenagers.
(legal drinking age in Ontario is 19)
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Legal drinking age in Germany is 16, try again.
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The cars are 300 feet long. That's a lot of barf. (I live in Toronto and have never experienced this). I like these new trains. They're great!
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Sounds like the Toronto subway needs a janitorial staff. How hard would it be to have cleaning crews at a few select stations, and when the driver reports an issue, they jump on at a stop and clean the train up while its in motion? Then they just jump out at another station. Give all workers free subway passes on that day (and make sure they know how to read a subway map so they can get home)
Ahh, the smells of the NY subway (Score:2)
If everyone in a car gets off at one stop...you probably should not enter unless you suffer from (or, in this case, are blessed by) anosmia.
Re:Why one Toronto subway driver doesn't like them (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Why one Toronto subway driver doesn't like them (Score:4, Interesting)
Singapore has done an awful lot in that regard as well. All the trains, stations, escalators and stairs for the underground system (called MRT) is spot less. And I mean absolutely spot less. I had to actually teach myself to look at the seat before sitting in some other metropolitan cities as the trains in Singapore are always very clean. Surely there are drunken people on the train but I guess the SGD 5000 fine goes someway in stopping littering.
A fine? You think all they get is a fine for tarnishing the train? I would not be surprised if they were also caned [wikipedia.org] for it. We all know they are pretty strict with their rules there.
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They already are working on that: Automatic Train Control [www.ttc.ca].
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Vomit is a little more substantial than rainwater or spilled drinks, so it won't run off. Even for liquids that might, their smell remains until it's washed away.
But if the cars aren't discreet compartments... (Score:2)
hmm (Score:3)
isn't the whole point of individual cars so that when one goes bad or needs maintenance, you just disconnect it from the rest and attach something else? I'm sure you can do the same with articulated, but it's probably a lot more of a hassle. That or if you can't and they're all attached for life (like an articulated bus), that would mean any failure along the 8 (I'm assuming it's 8 in nyc) would send the entire train to the maintenance yard.
No one would want to sit on the articulated section anyways. The suspension between the two and the floor moving near where you're sitting would probably be unnerving to some.
Re:hmm (Score:4, Informative)
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You would hope that an articulated train would be modular enough that segments/cars could be decoupled to perform maintenance or swap segments/cars as needed.
It's probably more work than just switching cars in the yard, though, and the segments are probably more specialized so you can't substitute a middle segment for an end/rear car, although I don't know if all existing cars have this interchangeability although visually it looks that way.
Re:hmm (Score:4, Informative)
any failure along the 8 (I'm assuming it's 8 in nyc) would send the entire train to the maintenance yard.
That's going to happen anyway -- where else on a city metro system would you take apart a train?
But anyway, I don't think that's how trains are maintained any more. The carriages are unlikely to be uncoupled except in very rare circumstances (fire/accident, or infrequent maintenance). This article [railwaygazette.com] shows a small part of a lifting machine that is "able to raise a complete eight-car trainset" for London Underground. This The manufacturer [windhoff.it] has some better pictures, including whole high-speed trains (much longer).
No one would want to sit on the articulated section anyways. The suspension between the two and the floor moving near where you're sitting would probably be unnerving to some.
Every articulated train (and tram for that matter) that I've seen has only standing room in the articulated sections. There's usually a semicircular joint where the floor moves -- just don't stand on both sides of it :-)
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Hong Kong also has articulated subway cars, it's actually quite fascinating to watch the cars ahead or behind you twisting and turning at turns and inclines. Millions of people pack those subway trains, including standing in the articulated spaces (too short an area for any seats), without any problem.
Doors between cars aren't the problem to be solved (Score:2)
When you come back from Asia or Europe and see the subway systems they have, and see what we have in New York, you actually get embarrassed, and wonder how we're still #1...
ps. oh, please do all tha
Details on the Toronto "Rocket" (Score:5, Informative)
... Which is the articulated train that we use is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Rocket
It's got more going for it than just being articulated. There are electronic signs that allow people not familiar with the subway system in Toronto to navigate the system better. Plus it's easier for those who have mobility issues.
Outdated trains (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Outdated trains (Score:4, Informative)
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That's about right... I still have fond memories of the 7 line though.
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The sad thing is the NYC metro system is the best in the US. Where I live, you -can- try to bike it places [1], or perhaps find a bus line that goes near your destination, but your commute time will be 2-3 hours for a distance that should be 15-30 minutes at most.
Here in the US, the best bet for mass transportation are autopiloted cars, just due to the distance, and the unwillingness of cities to work on mass transportation as opposed to a new football stadium every 10 years or so.
[1]: Austin is fairly bi
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Keep in mind that the NYC subway is also one of the oldest in the world: they had very few predecessors to learn from and far more limited technology to work with when it was designed and constructed. Occasional retrofits are possible, and several have been made, but any sort of substantive upgrade is hard to implement when you're working on a finished, active subterranean system that runs, as you not, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.
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You're doing it wrong!
- London
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I've been to London, it ain't better than NYC. The gaps between the car and station are gigantic, hence "mind the gap" warnings. The escalators are super speedy and steep, and when it rains very slick. Try going from Heathrow with some luggage and you start notice that London Underground is a death trap.
Paris' subway is better but Paris is small that it probably only takes about 20 minutes for a train to make a round-trip through it's route. Relatively clean compare to London and NYC. Walkways still sm
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I've been to London, it ain't better than NYC. The gaps between the car and station are gigantic, hence "mind the gap" warnings.
Yep, that's one of those "oldest in the world" problems that would be incredibly expensive to fix (the other is the narrow tunnels). Also that some platforms are used by trains with a different height -- I don't know if they'll ever fix that either.
The escalators are super speedy and steep, and when it rains very slick. Try going from Heathrow with some luggage and you start notice that London Underground is a death trap.
I don't find this to be a problem. Maybe because I rarely wear leather soled shoes? The escalators are the normal speed for Europe -- I find ones in the US to be slow.
When did you last use London Underground? I think it's generally clean -- they employ a lot
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I've been to London, it ain't better than NYC. The gaps between the car and station are gigantic, hence "mind the gap" warnings. The escalators are super speedy and steep, and when it rains very slick. Try going from Heathrow with some luggage and you start notice that London Underground is a death trap.
Paris' subway is better but Paris is small that it probably only takes about 20 minutes for a train to make a round-trip through it's route. Relatively clean compare to London and NYC. Walkways still smell like urine though and it lacks escalators in many places. You're very likely to get pick-pocketed and with the articulated subway cars make it easier for them to escape from you if you notice.
Tokyo's metro system is amazing. Trains are on time, stations and cars are clean, but the system is confusing as NYC.
I haven't try Beijing's or Shanghai metro system yet.
The Tokyo system is very easy. Ticketing and payment are very straightforward. You can buy a 1-way ticket or have a declining balance card and just swipe, swipe, swipe. If you stick to JR trains (which is easily possible), routing is easy. The only points of confusion I experienced were with signs lacking English text.
Zurich's system was a nightmare for me. There are a couple dozen different kind of tickets and figuring out which one is needed was less than intuitive. Many train stations did not ha
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I'll take the NYC subway over the London underground any day. Besides being air conditioned, the subway runs 24 hours a day. None of this last train around midnight scramble for people that don't live right in zone 1.
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Re:Outdated trains (Score:5, Insightful)
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But you can make it clean, and make the stations not depressingly grey and dull which just goes to make them seem even dirtier than they actually are. The London Underground is even older but for the most part, the stations are clean, most of them are decorated nicely, and most of them are bright.
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As many have said, it's an issue of money. Based on some brief research, a monthly pass for the London underground costs £213.60, or $344. A monthly pass on the NYC subway costs $112. The residents of my city would rather have an additional $232 in their pocket each month instead of a newly redecorated subway system.
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It's also one of the few systems in the world that run 24/7. Almost every other system shuts down after a certain time each day for maintenance, cleaning, repairs, etc. This includes pretty much every system in Asia. The NYCTA has no such luxury.
The stations also weren't built to handle this kind of density. Early on, subway riding was considered a luxury, and the expectation was only the upper-middle class and above would really use it. So stations were built relatively small. In fact, they started off as
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There's a rumor that they used to have a mercury rectifier running one of the lifts, up until the 2000s. It worked, so no-one ever raised the subject of replacing it until several decades after it should have been considered obsolete.
I don't know how much truth there is to the rumor, though.
More Passengers (Score:3)
This is all bullshit. The one reason to articulated bogies, which is all we're talking about, is that you can cram more seats on each car, which means saving money. Please ignore the weird PR spin.
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If it's anything like the articulated bogies they're introducing on the tube/London Underground, there'll be even less seats. The Metropolitan line - one of the lines that extends out the furthest into the commuter belt - used to run the venerable A Stock which had 448 seats per train, but they've been replaced with the S8 stock which have only 306 seats.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_S7_and_S8_Stock [wikipedia.org]
But great news for people who like to stand for an hour on their morning commute into the Ci
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This is all bullshit. The one reason to articulated bogies, which is all we're talking about, is that you can cram more seats on each car, which means saving money. Please ignore the weird PR spin.
This is true for planes and maybe long-distance trains but not subways. On a busy subway line, you actually want fewer seats because the cars are packed during rush hour. Tokyo even has a few (very new) trainsets with folding jump seats. Standing for 20 minutes isn't going to kill you.
Better for ... (Score:2)
Think of the consequences for Hollywood (Score:2)
No more dramatic subway car to subway car chases with that harrowing split second to open each door; not knowing if it'll be locked or if the international assassin will catch up to our hero before he gets through. No more gratuitous, tortured expressions as Julia Roberts struggles with the unfamilar latches. A subway chase through articulated joints will be like watching 2 guys running through an alley. Boring!
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articulated (Score:3)
Articulated trains? (Score:2)
Yes, because being more intimate with fellow passengers on a MTA train in NYC is high on my list of "wants"...
Re:This is a bad idea and you should feel bad (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is a bad idea and you should feel bad (Score:5, Informative)
Paris has some very wicked curves and grades in its subway as well, and articulated cars are planned for a city-wide deployment within 5 - 10 years.
Make of that what you will.
Hint: articulated means precisely what it means - trains are able to curve almost 360 degrees.
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trains are able to curve almost 360 degrees.
What does that mean? Do you mean form a circle?
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Try to run an articulated car from Clark St to Chamber St. You'll find that NYC subway has some pretty wicked curves and grades (sometimes at the same time) which would tear apart trains like this.
There are articulated buses in many cities that can handle steeper grades and street corners with no problem. This shouldn't be an issue at all.
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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/st
Umm, the current trains are... (Score:5, Informative)
...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.
Re:The New New York is Screw York (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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They have conductors so people won't get stuck in the doors and dragged to their deaths.
They could make the doors automatic, and re-open when someone or one of their body parts is in the way of a door closing, which they do now, but without the conductor there to yell at people to get the hell in or out of the car, the trains would never, ever leave the station. There will always be that one last person trying to get in.
Re:The New New York is Screw York (Score:4, Insightful)
They have conductors so people won't get stuck in the doors and dragged to their deaths.
Were you in prison for 50 years or something? This is a solved problem.
They could make the doors automatic, and re-open when someone or one of their body parts is in the way of a door closing, which they do now, but without the conductor there to yell at people to get the hell in or out of the car, the trains would never, ever leave the station.
Why is this problem unique to NYC?
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This is a solved problem.
Is it? Is it a solved problem like, a human is a part of the solution, or is there some magical device that can determine your backpack straps (with the little notch at the end) haven't been caught in the doorway on your way out?
As recently as last year, I've seen video footage of people getting dragged by trains (in other systems, not NYC). You really think it would work on a system as busy as NYC? This is the system where some stations are so packed during rush hour that there are people standing from the
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A double-door system such as in Singapore would seem to address your concern.
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I lived there for 5 years, and like most of NYC I took the subway. The conductor has no authority whatsoever, and simply throws the switch and maybe uselessly yells or makes a don't hold the doors announcement.
Why do you think that NYC cannot do what other transit agencies all over the world can do? Singapore is 100% automated (driver and doors) on their newer MRT lines. They even have 2 sets of doors in some of the stations.
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It has the side effect (primary effect?) of letting them air-condition the stations. Very nice.
Re:The New New York is Screw York (Score:5, Informative)
without the conductor there to yell at people to get the hell in or out of the car, the trains would never, ever leave the station. There will always be that one last person trying to get in.
In London they have someone standing on the platform to do that (shout at people). They are in a much better position: they can see the whole train, and can walk along the platform if necessary.
Also, they're only at busier stations, and only when it's busy.
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They have this in NYC in rush hour too, again at busier stations (which are basically all of the 4-track, express stations). But try doing this on the 4/5/6 at Union Sq. and you'll have another thing coming. Just to give you a picture, the station's curve is so sharp that there are extending floors along certain points of the platform that roll out to meet the train after it's stopped, and then roll back before the train can leave.
Oh, and if you do something for one line, you have to do it for every other l
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This isn't a (huge) problem in most other subway systems I've used. Never been to NY tough, so maybe people are completely different there - but I would suspect not.
Having frequent departures also helps this - missing a train isn't a big deal if there is another one comming in ~5 minutes or so, worse if you have to wait 15 or more.
Re:The New New York is Screw York (Score:4, Funny)
Those tough talking weenies are always so amusing. "My neighborhood is the baddest in the world" but they've never been anywhere to compare it to.
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Boston has its negatives, and Philly's up there, but neither one of them is quite as challenging to live in as NY.
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The London Underground has "dumb" automatic doors- that is, they slam close with considerable force and pay no attention to whether there are any limbs trapped in them. There are no conductors and rarely staff on the platform. Nobody ever seems to get dragged to their death. I think the doors have an "emergency release" on them for "being dragged to death" situations, but I'm not actually sure...
People are grown ups. I'm sure the inhabitants of New York, of all places, don't need to be treated like babies.
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Yes, I would agree that unions are an impediment to automation upgrades. Capital budgets are also weird, with money often being directed by politicians and not managers. So the MTA might get money for new cars or even an additional line, but no money that can be used to improve signalling (or clean the stations... yuck!).
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Nein! They are all in a meeting. Until Wednesday. They can not be disturbed.
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Yes...we have nonarticulated cars on the Denver Light Rail, and it's common to have standing room only on one car and plenty of seating on the next.
(Semiarticulated, actually, because each car bends in the middle.)
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Yes, I do! I find it quite amusing that America was schooled by Putin on exceptionalism.
For a country one who claims to boast its own national exceptionalism and moral superiority. Yet, forgets to mention they are the holders of the largest national debt known to man. If you ask me. I find this fact hardly exceptional or superior ... heck it's not even moral!
It fits my definition of exceptional.
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Because there is nothing nerdier than arguing, in 2013, about what kind of train is the best. NOTHING.
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Or just another case for Slashdot to compare the US to those more forward thinking awesome European cities?
You know, if you click on the "articulated cars" Wikipedia link above, one of the images visible from the top of the page is one of similar cars in Portland, Oregon. I've ridden them, and they're pretty neat the first few times when one takes a turn. Plenty of US cities already have them, but they're an interesting solution to an old design issue, and it's always nice to highlight good engineering.
It's a better read anyway than someone whining about news they don't like appealing to other nerds while show