5 ms·

Yes, and the Shinkansen faces stiff competition from budget airlines, so speed has become a competitive advantage JR wants to push. There's also a couple more

Yes, and the Shinkansen faces stiff competition from budget airlines, so speed has become a competitive advantage JR wants to push. There's also a couple more reasons, namely that a double deck train takes longer to board/deboard, and that they're not very accessibility friendly. Plus Shinkansen have drink and food carts and those don't go up or down stairs.

Ekaros 5y ago
Food carts are no problem if the company wants to. Finnish IC2 trains have elevators for food carts in 2-decker railcars. Nothing inherently prevents same in Shinkansen.
- Freak_NL 5y ago
  The VIRM double deckers in the Netherlands used to have those food cart elevators. Interesting to hear those are still in use in some parts of the world. The food cart service on our intercity expresses was removed, so in the course of the years those mini-elevators were taken out as well during scheduled revisions of those EMU's. Now some third party is allowed to provide a mediocre rail catering service, which amounts to students doing a side-job wearing backpacks with hot water and cups and a tray filled with instant coffee and tea and a few cans and packets of crisps and cookies strapped to their bodies making the rounds at seemingly random times and places on the journey. Not quite the same… Add to that the lack of the frankly brilliant concept of can-coffee (缶コーヒー) from vending machines on the platforms and eki-ben (駅弁) and I suddenly really miss the Japanese train experience.
  - tinus_hn 5y ago
    I would happily deal with the lack of coffee vending machines if the Dutch railway had any semblance of the Japanese punctuality.
- coryrc 5y ago
  No problem except it was built without elevators...
bombcar 5y ago
A line built around double deckers could remove some of these (basically all you need is double decker platforms and upper doors) but it’s also easier to just run more trains.
- bobthepanda 5y ago
  That's easy to do for a new line but pretty much impossible for existing lines, because the clearances are not tall enough to fit a normal double decker train where the first level is at existing platform height. (In the current ones, you step down to the first level.) It would be hard to retrofit tunnel heights and bridges after the fact. You also run into the problem where these special trains are only permitted on parts of the network and stations that can handle them, which severely limits their utilization. It's why even basic iterations of technologies requiring modification are often market failures, like the A380 requiring special gates to handle it. Boutique technologies like monorail or maglev fail even harder. For most cases it is profitable to use the less optimal but more flexible solution.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    IIRC there’s a single tunnel that prevents Amtrak’s normal double decker trains from getting to New York.

Ekaros 5y ago

Food carts are no problem if the company wants to. Finnish IC2 trains have elevators for food carts in 2-decker railcars. Nothing inherently prevents same in Shinkansen.

Freak_NL 5y ago
The VIRM double deckers in the Netherlands used to have those food cart elevators. Interesting to hear those are still in use in some parts of the world. The food cart service on our intercity expresses was removed, so in the course of the years those mini-elevators were taken out as well during scheduled revisions of those EMU's. Now some third party is allowed to provide a mediocre rail catering service, which amounts to students doing a side-job wearing backpacks with hot water and cups and a tray filled with instant coffee and tea and a few cans and packets of crisps and cookies strapped to their bodies making the rounds at seemingly random times and places on the journey. Not quite the same… Add to that the lack of the frankly brilliant concept of can-coffee (缶コーヒー) from vending machines on the platforms and eki-ben (駅弁) and I suddenly really miss the Japanese train experience.
- tinus_hn 5y ago
  I would happily deal with the lack of coffee vending machines if the Dutch railway had any semblance of the Japanese punctuality.
coryrc 5y ago
No problem except it was built without elevators...

bombcar 5y ago

A line built around double deckers could remove some of these (basically all you need is double decker platforms and upper doors) but it’s also easier to just run more trains.

bobthepanda 5y ago
That's easy to do for a new line but pretty much impossible for existing lines, because the clearances are not tall enough to fit a normal double decker train where the first level is at existing platform height. (In the current ones, you step down to the first level.) It would be hard to retrofit tunnel heights and bridges after the fact. You also run into the problem where these special trains are only permitted on parts of the network and stations that can handle them, which severely limits their utilization. It's why even basic iterations of technologies requiring modification are often market failures, like the A380 requiring special gates to handle it. Boutique technologies like monorail or maglev fail even harder. For most cases it is profitable to use the less optimal but more flexible solution.
- bombcar 5y ago
  IIRC there’s a single tunnel that prevents Amtrak’s normal double decker trains from getting to New York.