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| Re: American Railcar gone (1005923) | |||
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Re: American Railcar gone |
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Posted by Jersey Mike on Mon Nov 22 17:29:14 2010, in response to Re: American Railcar gone, posted by WillD on Mon Nov 22 02:07:41 2010. No, it only needs to be as long as the first door of the rear pair of cars. If we cannot afford to build a 160-175 foot platform, then why are we bothering to spend the money for a train in the first place? The platform is such a marginal cost of building a rail line that it is utterly ridiculous to build a line if you cannot afford proper platforms.Most commuter rail systems need to run trains longer than 175 feet. If there's a football game downtown you can't just couple 6 LRV's together and run them because they'll be off the platform. Re cost the new RiverLINE/ACL trainfer station was budgeted for 40 million. That's about 20 million per station, hardly chump change. But those are light rails and exceptionally poorly designed light rail lines, not commuter operations. Were we to introduce FRA compliant DMUs, especially with an organization like MARC or NJT, they'd simply be able to substitute diesel push-pull equipment for the DMUs. It does not make economic sense to operate a DMU longer than 4 cars anyway, so if we want five or six cars, then just roll out a diesel locomotive and the appropriate number of cars. Why does NJT needs DMUs? They already have a fleet of railcars providing a full schedule of service. DMUs are a solution to new build lines as a way to contain costs. I don't mind DMUs, but I think that they should not hit people with hidden costs like full length level boarding platforms that accommodate a lack of passing through. Energy must be dissipated in a crash, and a completely rigid railcar only ensures it will be dissipated in the most catastrophic manner possible, either through buckling or jackknifing. And their new cab cars not only kill any possibility of a railfan view they lock MetroLink into semi-fixed trainsets. The hexagonal Bomber bi-level cars are simply a poor design made of aluminum and with an internal layout that offers very little end to end rigidity. What is needed is stronger railcars, not ones that suffer huge amounts of damage after every little fender bender. |
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