Who is responsible to regulate car heat/cooling?

[R5Dailyrider]

Many of my recent trips on the older cars have less than satisfactory heat. the newer SLV's seem better regulated .

When I have asked a trainperson about the heat/cooling in a particular car they look puzzled and walk on...
Any thoughts?

[R3 Passenger]

It is automatically regulated. There are no controls for the heating/cooling. I think that any HVAC regulation needs to be done in shop.

Frequently on the Silverliner IVs, one of the trainmen/women place a piece of cardboard (usually an old ad) over one of the cabin air intakes in front of one of the vestibule doors. It is probably to heat the car quickly, but it makes it hot as heck if it is not removed.

[bikentransit]

I've had the same observation regarding the under-heating of cars. The vinyl seats don't help.

[zebrasepta]

I have experienced the air conditioner not working during the summer and the conductors just open the doors and the vestibule doors on the SL IVs
opening the doors barely helps cool the car especially when it's hot outside and since SEPTA has close distances between stations

[boomer]

A but intrusive as no option for anonymity, but this is only way to get results.

http://www3.septa.org/customerservice/V ... /index.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[R5Dailyrider]

THE SLV's are inadequately heated now and poorly cooled in summer. The SL IV's are completely without heat and SEPTA should be ashamed to use them. I would welcome hosting Mr. Casey( a man of the people) for coffee and a frigid ride in on the Doylestown line.

[R3 Passenger]

THE SLV's are inadequately heated now and poorly cooled in summer. The SL IV's are completely without heat and SEPTA should be ashamed to use them. I would welcome hosting Mr. Casey( a man of the people) for coffee and a frigid ride in on the Doylestown line.

From what I understand, Mr. Casey is a regular on the Elwyn line.

[bikentransit]

SEPTA really doesn't care about passenger comfort, or total quality of experience. Access to heated stations is practically non-existent, as mentioned by others, the new and old trains are frigid, at best. However, I will say the new buses are quite cozy. I wonder if part of this is the mentality of making things uncomfortable to keep the "degenrates" away from the services.

[NorthPennLimited]

if you want passenger comfort, spend $55 - $112 to ride business class on a Regional or Acela between 30th St and NY Penn.

AND THATS ONE-WAY.

Yea the older cars are cold (especially by the vestibule door). But I look at it like this, I get what I pay for on my $6 ride.

I doubt there is a big enough market share to provide luxury commuter service.

[bth8446]

Heating and cooling aren't THAT bad. Its been a long time since I have encountered an unheated train car. As for cooling, there are always 5 cars somewhere baking its passengers on a 95 degree day. usually there is room in the next car to accommodate, except rush hour timeframes.

What bugs me is the early open-door policy. Pretty much this isn't a problem with SLV now, but was and is issue with SL IV
With some trains running perhaps 1 conductor per 2 cars, they like to run up and down the train while its in motion to get the
stair well set up for platform height and open up both doors into vestibule and leading to the outside. So they open the doors while the
car is in motion. The air inside has momentum. If front and back door of a train have same open door setup, and engineer puts on the breaks,
out the one door goes the climate controlled air, and in the other comes either a nice 95 degree blast of humid air (summer) or 20 degree cold air (winter).

They used to hang a flyer in the little plexiglas window to the right of the SL IV door openings for passengers to keep doors closed
until the train comes to a complete stop. If only the conductors who do this would adhere to the same rule

[bikentransit]

if you want passenger comfort, spend $55 - $112 to ride business class on a Regional or Acela between 30th St and NY Penn.

AND THATS ONE-WAY.

Yea the older cars are cold (especially by the vestibule door). But I look at it like this, I get what I pay for on my $6 ride.

I doubt there is a big enough market share to provide luxury commuter service.

That's a pretty pathetic answer dude. Instead of blaming the public because they don't "pay enough", how about SEPTA learn to just regulate the car temperatures properly? It just aint that hard, and doesn't require the public to pay Amtrak fares to ride in a car with normally functioning climate control. Get a clue.

[NorthPennLimited]

It's the nature of the beast. When doors open every 3 minutes on a train trip, cold air is going to travel inside the train. It's expected. Especially on commuter cars that are 40 years old.

If I buy you a coat, will you stop complaining?

[bth8446]

I dunno, it just doesn't seem that difficult to keep the passengers comfortable. This PROBABLY isn't even a case of conductor problem. there is probably some rule that says the doors should be opened to speed the boarding/disembarking processes to keep the train on schedule.

BUT if I were king of SEPTA, here is how it would work for SL IVs.
Conductors can open/close the vestibule doors to the outside and set up the steps/platform rigging for the appropriate level.
BUT for the door from passenger compartment to the vestibule, if they MUST open a door, just open one. Most preferable, the door opposite the direction of travel (i.e. if travelling north, just open the south door on each car. This accomplishes not giving air an open path from front to back to freely travel each time momentum changes (breaking/accelerating). The passengers at the closed door side will just have to rough it and lift a finger
and open the door.

For me? I know we could never train SEPTA folks to do this consistently. SO, I choose to ride in the front or back car of a train. They never open both doors of those cars (except on rare occasions of an energetic conductor on a ride where they are not taxed for time - i.e. frequent stops with platform/non platform level stations and lots of cash paying customers they have to punch out tickets for . . .). I know its not as easy as it looks running back and forth setting up doors AND taking care of tix, so I don't complain too loudly. But just leaving one passenger/vestibule door closed in each car would really help, and it doesn't consume time.

Why leave the door on side of car that is same side of direction of travel closed? Well some of the door latches don't grab that easy. Breaking time is usually the biggest change in momentum over shortest period of time. That kind of force can swing an unlatched door open, or push a door closed.
IF the opposite door configuration was made, the 'front' door would be open already, and the 'back' door that is possibly unlatched can be pushed open by change in momentum and air pressure from change in momentum, and that would end up with both 'front' and 'back' doors open, and nothing would be accomplished. Of course, next issue is the latch that keeps the open door open. Upon leaving the station we all hear the click, but, some of the latches don't let go of the door anyway, so, this all may be for nothing if you are in one of THOSE cars. SL IV cars are pretty good though, for that mechanism being functional most of the time.

[Broadway]

When the Silverliner IV's are laying over in a yard the layover heat is set to around 40-45 degrees unless a control plug is in the controller, then the HVAC is running. If your on the first train out of the yard after a layover it's going to be cold/hot untill the HVAC catches up.

[ekt8750]

Does NJT have this problem with the Arrow IIIs or do they have a better method of keep them comfortable?