Railroad Forums 

  • Why no center platform at busy stations.

  • General discussion of passenger rail systems not otherwise covered in the specific forums in this category, including high speed rail.
General discussion of passenger rail systems not otherwise covered in the specific forums in this category, including high speed rail.

Moderators: mtuandrew, gprimr1

 #1550369  by west point
 
ExCon90 wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 4:29 pm
I think I remember that at Chambers St. in New York the C (8th Ave. local) terminated at an island platform with two tracks, and a side platform on the opposite side of each track; a terminating train would open the doors at the side platform, and then after most of the passengers had left, the doors were opened on the side of the center platform, to which all boarding passengers had been directed.
The PATH trains at 33rd street have the same type of boardings. Since have not visited the WTC since the rebuilding do not know if that procedure is still done there ?
 #1550851  by kato
 
ExCon90 wrote:In Munich in the 1970's a double-track S-Bahn tunnel was constructed beneath the city center, with five intermediate stations, each having two side platforms and one wide center platform.
Only two stations apply this principle:
- Munich Central Station
- Munich Karlsplatz / Stachus

At a third station, Munich Marienplatz, the two tracks are arranged in parallel tunnels on top of each other; each of the tunnels has platforms on both sides at this station.

These three stations all also serve as transfer stations to the subway network located in further sub-levels, although at Munich Central Station only indirectly (gotta get one floor up, walk through the entire station at level -1, then go back down two to three levels).

The remaining two stations of the tunnel
- Munich Isartor
- Munich Rosenheimer Platz
were built conventionally with a center platform only.

As for "essential" that's very relative. Plenty of tunnel stations with higher train frequency and no Spanish Solution in Europe...

For the new second S-Bahn tunnel under construction, located at level -5 or -6 and about 40m underground, the two stations in the city (Central Station and Marienhof) will both get Spanish Solution platforms. Additional cost for these platforms at the two stations was about 100 million USD in planning - since then costs for the overall project have risen from 1.2 to 4.5 billion USD though.
 #1550872  by Arborwayfan
 
In Boston, Park Street Under (the Red Line part of the station) has side and center platforms, although there's no attempt to separated boarding from detraining. (There may have been in the past.) Upstairs, the main eastbound Green Line trolley track basically runs right on the platform; now there's a little curb-like lip on each side but the space around the rails is filled like a grade crossing and passengers can just walk across when there are no trains. Again, there are no designated on and off sides.

The Buenos Aires Metro, at least as of 1987, had a similar arrangement at Plaza Constitución. The line terminated in a single track surrounded by platform. IIRC detraining was on one side and boarding on the other.
 #1551182  by kato
 
The "Spanish Solution" is what that thing with center and side platform is called where people exit to one side first, then new passengers enter from the other side to separate passenger streams. Apparently the concept was first used on the Barcelona Metro in the 1930s.
 #1551424  by electricron
 
Center platforms do exist at some stations world wide apparently, which should make the initial poster's question mute. It also proves the point that there are no original ideas when it comes to transit and trains. Engineers, accountants, and transit agency's boards of directors mull over how stations should be built. What they decide to build is based upon many variables. There is no best way to do it, there is only the way that transit agency's board, engineers, and accountants decide is the best way for them.
 #1551482  by electricron
 
David Benton wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2020 5:11 am I guess I should have called it , "Why are center platforms not more common at busy stations".
Why there aren’t more Spanish solutions platforms at train stations can be answered just like before, what the local transit agencies prefer to do follow a different path.