Federal regulators and passenger railways are both concerned about passengers with mobility impairments that limit their abilities to use stairways. Toward that end, federal policy and railway practice strongly encourages developing services that allow for level boarding and alighting from commuter rail trains without using stairways. Beyond benefiting individuals that have trouble using stairs, level boarding can also lead to significant improvements in service delivery for the rest of the public by reducing unproductive station dwell times, improving safety and creating opportunities improve crew efficiency.
One principal obstacle to level boarding has been the concerns of freight railroads that operate over (and often own) trackage shared with the passenger trains. The freight operators wish to maintain a full horizontal clearance envelope allowing unrestricted operations. These concerns often limit the close door/platform interface necessary for level boarding.
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Your comments would be very much appreciated
Please define all accronyms, like NJIT.
ReplyDeletePlease use consistent units -- do not mix feet/inches and inches.
Please use agency names, rather than just the state.
Please improve the quality of exisiting figures.
All the geometric discussions can be confusing. Can you simplify?
Please provide name of car builder and model year, if appropriate.
Please give example car widths.
Please specify if you are discussing a lighter wieght car or an FRA Compliant Car -- meaning are you discussing commuter rail or light rail.
This paper is not about shared corridor issues, so you do not need to discuss that -- it just adds to the confusion.
Please provide an illustration or figure of each type of car discussed and figure of the interaction or configuration of the boarding door and area and platform.
Please describe freight rail cars in general, and given the wheel diameters and floor heights of various cars, discuss the possibility of freight wider than 10 feet at levels of less than two feet above the rail head.
Please discuss the possibility of a standard that could apply to more than one type of vehicle. For example, a standard that applies to gallery cars as well as single level cars, or a standard that applies to both bilevel cars and light rail cars.
It appears from the discussion that a standard of 120 inches at 24 inches ATR seems to be screaming for attention. Can you discuss this and make a meaningful recommendation regarding this as a possible standard for light rail and bilevel cars.
Revisions to the paper are available at
ReplyDeletehttps://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByGG0TLIU2FWNDczN2Y0NDAtNDNkYy00OGY4LWFlMGQtODc2ZmUwZmUzMGYx
Atlanta Airport Limo & Car Service provided by Pal Transportation of Atlanta, PAL TRANSPORTATION
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