by orulz
$77m + $80m = $157 million for new trains in NC. Wow!
NCDOT seems to be moving slowly toward high platforms. This makes sense, because level boarding is probably the lowest hanging fruit for making the Piedmont faster. With this in mind, I think it would be a worthwhile investment to:
(1) Get coaches with retractable bridge plates
(2) Rebuild all stations to have high-level platforms.
Raleigh already has high level platforms, and Charlotte's new high level platforms are already under construction at the future Gateway Station.
These stations have been planned with bypass tracks for freight, but the retractable bridge plates would mean that high platforms could be built on the footprint of the existing platforms, without any track work, at the remaining stations.
Most platforms are basically a slab on the ground accessed by a ground-level walkway. Kannapolis, Salisbury, Durham, Burlington, and Cary are all that sort. Cary doesn't even have a canopy; raising the platform by 40" would be laughably trivial. The others do have a canopy, which would either have to be raised or rebuilt; figure $2m per station.
The only stations where this would be even remotely challenging right now are Greensboro and High Point, but the for those stations. This is pretty big project, involving revisions to vertical circulation (ramps, stairs, elevators, and, IIRC, escalators at Greensboro) in addition to the platforms and canopies themselves. This would be a *really* big project if bypass tracks were needed, but bridge plates should make that unnecessary. For Greensboro, you'd only have to do it on the H-line platform, at first at least. Figure $5-10m per station?
There are challenges, like how to handle the Carolinian. You could use one of these new trainsets for the Carolinian as well, but then you have to handle the low platforms in Eastern NC and Virginia. Trap doors do this, but is there a solution for bridge plates AND trap doors in a single door? Not sure.
All I know is, level boarding = faster trains. This seems to be on NCDOT's radar, given the high platforms in Raleigh and Charlotte, but I hope they have a plan for level boarding at their *other* stations, and I hope this new rolling stock can accommodate it.
NCDOT seems to be moving slowly toward high platforms. This makes sense, because level boarding is probably the lowest hanging fruit for making the Piedmont faster. With this in mind, I think it would be a worthwhile investment to:
(1) Get coaches with retractable bridge plates
(2) Rebuild all stations to have high-level platforms.
Raleigh already has high level platforms, and Charlotte's new high level platforms are already under construction at the future Gateway Station.
These stations have been planned with bypass tracks for freight, but the retractable bridge plates would mean that high platforms could be built on the footprint of the existing platforms, without any track work, at the remaining stations.
Most platforms are basically a slab on the ground accessed by a ground-level walkway. Kannapolis, Salisbury, Durham, Burlington, and Cary are all that sort. Cary doesn't even have a canopy; raising the platform by 40" would be laughably trivial. The others do have a canopy, which would either have to be raised or rebuilt; figure $2m per station.
The only stations where this would be even remotely challenging right now are Greensboro and High Point, but the for those stations. This is pretty big project, involving revisions to vertical circulation (ramps, stairs, elevators, and, IIRC, escalators at Greensboro) in addition to the platforms and canopies themselves. This would be a *really* big project if bypass tracks were needed, but bridge plates should make that unnecessary. For Greensboro, you'd only have to do it on the H-line platform, at first at least. Figure $5-10m per station?
There are challenges, like how to handle the Carolinian. You could use one of these new trainsets for the Carolinian as well, but then you have to handle the low platforms in Eastern NC and Virginia. Trap doors do this, but is there a solution for bridge plates AND trap doors in a single door? Not sure.
All I know is, level boarding = faster trains. This seems to be on NCDOT's radar, given the high platforms in Raleigh and Charlotte, but I hope they have a plan for level boarding at their *other* stations, and I hope this new rolling stock can accommodate it.