mtuandrew wrote:Tad/ keep in mind the current crew can’t feasibly open more than 3-4 doors at a time in Horizon cars. That changes with the Siemens cars, which presumably will have trainline-controlled automatic doors. I can’t say whether the new platform is needed but it won’t be as simple as what you describe.
I've considered that side of the issue, and here's my hangup: The layovers at the terminals are about 25 minutes. There is plenty of time to open all doors to ease boarding, but instead they cram 5-7 cars worth of people through 2-4 doors at the terminals. Given that they don't bother to open more doors at terminals where there is plenty of time, I take it that they just don't want to open all the doors rather than having a manpower issue. It's borderline unsafe with the amount of people and suitcases jamming up stairs and down the aisles.
At intermediate stops like the airport, it significantly lengthens dwell time to the point where the cost-benefit ratio to opening more doors is definitely tilted in favor of opening more doors. Dwell time at the airport can be big, and that's what's causing those 10 mile traffic jams mentioned above. Open a few more doors and the train will unload faster.
Frankly, given that track 19 at Chicago and 1 at Milwaukee are defacto exclusive to Hiawatha, I'm not sure why they didn't make them high-level. The Builder always uses adjacent platforms in both terminals. Freight uses tracks 3 & 4 in Milwaukee.
Back to the airport. It sucks getting off the train there. I've done it and they do the same pair of door sets that they do at terminals, and there is a big line.
The new Acela: It's not Aveliable.