Out west, out of high platform territory in the Eastern US (not sure about Canada), the FRA is requiring new or renovated platforms to be 8" above top-of-rail. That interferes with some freight equipment, in particular the omnipresent container well car (possibly car carriers as well?), and Class I railroads are resistant to allowing these platforms to be installed without gauntlets or some other sort of exotic solution.
How do we fix this problem? I know why well cars are constructed the way they are, the deep walls keep containers stable and cradled so they don't easily tip. I also know that the FRA is rightly following ADA guidance for roll-on, roll-off passenger boarding. Can we start to reconstruct well cars with a notch at low platform level? It would take perhaps five years to reconstruct all the well cars being actively used in America and change the AAR Plate H standard.
It is easier to just give every Superliner/California Car/Surfliner/Talgo a ramp at each door, most likely, and would cost several orders of magnitude less, but humor me here.
How do we fix this problem? I know why well cars are constructed the way they are, the deep walls keep containers stable and cradled so they don't easily tip. I also know that the FRA is rightly following ADA guidance for roll-on, roll-off passenger boarding. Can we start to reconstruct well cars with a notch at low platform level? It would take perhaps five years to reconstruct all the well cars being actively used in America and change the AAR Plate H standard.
It is easier to just give every Superliner/California Car/Surfliner/Talgo a ramp at each door, most likely, and would cost several orders of magnitude less, but humor me here.