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Simply bridging the platforms is not enough. You’d also need to get those people off the platforms before the next train arrived, and you would need something m
by bobthepanda 3y ago
Simply bridging the platforms is not enough. You’d also need to get those people off the platforms before the next train arrived, and you would need something more permanent than platform bogies to support wider stairs and escalator banks.
- amluto 3y agoA bridge gets passengers off the other side of the train to the escalators on the next platform over (I think), which could double or more-than-double the egress throughout. (More-than-double because, at least with some gates or careful monitoring, you don’t actually need the passengers off the platform to move the train - you just need the passengers off the train. Similarly, to board the train, the passengers could already be on the platform when the train arrives, allowing all cars to board simultaneously. (Of course, this isn’t terribly helpful for train cadence — you can’t board the next train until those passengers get to the platform.) As currently configured, unlike most sensible train stations, a train full of passengers can’t fit on the platform.)
- bobthepanda 3y agoIt’s still pretty narrow, because the individiual stairs themselves are only about one to two people wide, and they’re far enough apart that people would probably ignore any left/right directional flow that you would see on a double-wide set of stairs. To give some perspective on how long a reconfiguration like this takes, JR East has been working on platform optimization like this at Shibuya Station since 2015, and the last elements will complete in 2027; and that’s at a station that started more optimally than Penn Station.