by superbad
i wonder if we'll ever see the middle sections of the vehicles in the states like they have in europe? they did it in dallas, correct?
Railroad Forums
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superbad wrote:i wonder if we'll ever see the middle sections of the vehicles in the states like they have in europe? they did it in dallas, correct?Yes, it can happen. Having middle sections added to trains require higher ridership. When ridership increases, decisions will have to be made on how to add seats to these trains. It is cheaper to add middle sections to the existing vehicles than it is to add more new vehicles.
gardendance wrote:Maybe I should defer to the posters who started talking about middle sections, but I think they meant extras added to existing 3 section articulated cars to make them 4 or more section cars. I believe that's what Dallas did. Can somebody correct or confirm me?Here's what Dallas (DART) did:
superbad wrote:another thing I have been wondering about, this does not just apply to the A-train, but the Capitol metro(stadler) and the The san diego county sprinter DMUs. Is it possible at a future time, if the transit disctrict wished to convert to overhead electric to make modifications to these DMU's to run on overhead power? if im not mistaken these particular DMU's are also manufactured as EMus??Yes, that can happen. It will be expensive to hang catenary wires and to convert the DMUs into EMUs. The key to the possibility lies whether the DMU is diesel-electric drive, or diesel-hydraulic drive. The Stadler GTW "Metrorail" is diesel-electric, the Siemens Desiro "Sprinter" is diesel-hydraulic. Diesel-electric is good to go with some modifications, diesel-hydraulic is not. To make the costs sustainable for these small transit agencies, ridership will have to increase significantly to make this move affordable.