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One competitive advantage of trains is that if they sell more tickets than anticipated, they can (capacity permitting) add an extra car at relatively low cost.
by paledot 6y ago
One competitive advantage of trains is that if they sell more tickets than anticipated, they can (capacity permitting) add an extra car at relatively low cost. An airline has to add another plane or bump passengers. Equally, rail companies can scale more easily to different social distancing guidelines.
- CydeWeys 6y agoDoes this ever actually happen though? I'm not aware of variable length passenger trains along a single route. And the stations for boarding are only so long.
- nikhilsimha 6y agoNot your ideal train system, but happens in India. Quite often.
- robga 6y agoMore often what happens (London) is the inverse. They’ll take two carriages off and squeeze you in tighter. Mornings always 10 carriages comfortably seated? So, Let’s take two off and let them stand for their expensive season pass.
- Asuchug4 6y agoThere is no automatic process but it common to add cars for events, school trips or other organized groups.
- mtnGoat 6y agoAmtrak does this.
- londons_explore 6y agoMany rail networks are designed for trains of a specific length. Primitive signalling systems risk trains colliding if trains are longer than the design length, or there are places a longer train would get stuck (a pair of long trains each cannot move forward because each requires the other to move first due to the design of the signalling and safety systems)
- bobthepanda 6y agoYou can definitely run shorter trains though. IIRC the NEC in America can accommodate 16-car trains but not all trains are that long.