Outrage on the Web over NY Post photo capturing subway death

[The Brain]

Obvious answer, not an engineering "nightmare."  Set the barricade back from the lip of the platform, say 6-12 feet.  Barricade doors locked until a train is at the platform.

My knowledge of New York platforms (I have seen Crocodile Dundee) suggests that there isn't enough room for this.

[Josquius]

The NYC subway system has 660 miles of operational track, 468 stations, and runs 24 hours a day, 7 days/week, 365/6 days per year.   It is only an NYC system: the commuter lines (which share funding with surrounding governments) are separate.  Because it is an amalgamation of completely separate former private systems, nothing is standard including platform length, even the "lines" are not fixed and change around pretty regularly, and the switching system is a nightmare.

Enormous sums are being expended now to maintain, upgrade and repair ancient infrastructure; rationalize and automate the lines, and complete a major new line on the east side of Manhattan that was originally planned in the 1950s.  So this kind of upgrade is not likely to be a priority for a while.

How does the non-fixed lines thing work?
They don't have a set map ala the London Underground and most metros and instead work like a regular national train system?

[The Minsky Moment]

How does the non-fixed lines thing work?
They don't have a set map ala the London Underground and most metros and instead work like a regular national train system?

There is map, but the routes change at nights, weekends, and holidays.  They also shift around periodically depending on construction and maintenance and ridership levels.  The bigger lines that tourists might use have more stability for their Manhattan segments, at least during the day.

[The Minsky Moment]

24 hours a day?

Yes.
Obviously this creates unique issues for maintenance and upgrades that most other systems don't face.

[DGuller]

Obvious answer, not an engineering "nightmare."  Set the barricade back from the lip of the platform, say 6-12 feet.  Barricade doors locked until a train is at the platform.

I'd just like to point out that most rail stations in the US don't even allow passengers on the platform until a train's loading/offloading passengers.

As is usually the case, the ideas you come with are unorthodox and not something I could've ever imagined someone could come up with, but I see a couple of problems.  The first problem is that the back walls of the many open stations are going to interfere with the barricades if you're going to stick with 6-12 foot distance.  They can't easily go up and down if there is a retaining wall in the way.



It's going to be even worse for double-sided platforms, as passengers would be forced to stand on parallel tracks while the barricade is up, which presents its own safety issues.

Secondly, subway is not exactly like passenger rail.  There are some differences in operating parameters between subways and trains.  No subway system that I know of waits until the train comes in to let passengers on the platform.

[garbon]

I'd just like to point out that most rail stations in the US don't even allow passengers on the platform until a train's loading/offloading passengers.

I don't think that's true. Maybe at stations in major cities.

[katmai]

Yeah I've never seen that policy.

[Tonitrus]

Was just reading a story on a young woman who stumbled and fell onto the tracks in front of train...it also that there is about one fatality a week due to a subway accident.

[jimmy olsen]

24 hours a day?

Yes.
Obviously this creates unique issues for maintenance and upgrades that most other systems don't face.

If Tokyo and Seoul can get by with shutting it down at night, I'd think that NYC could do so far at least a few hours (1:30-4:30 maybe) in order to do some regularly scheduled maintenance.

[garbon]

No thanks.

[jimmy olsen]

Tokyo and Seoul are bigger and drunker cities than New York, if they can handle it then so can New York.

[CountDeMoney]

Tokyo and Seoul are bigger and drunker cities than New York, if they can handle it then so can New York.

Solutions from homogenous, mindless hive mind cultures have no place in the Big Apple.  So fughedabboudit.

[Brazen]

The newer Jubilee Line platforms have a separate platform barrier that aligns with the train doors, presumably to stop drunken MPs staggering onto the line at Westminster.


Interestingly, I first saw an arrangement like this in Moscow in the mid-80s.

[Josquius]

24 hours a day?

Yes.
Obviously this creates unique issues for maintenance and upgrades that most other systems don't face.

If Tokyo and Seoul can get by with shutting it down at night, I'd think that NYC could do so far at least a few hours (1:30-4:30 maybe) in order to do some regularly scheduled maintenance.

I wish Tokyo wouldnt.
Thats one of the big problems with Tokyo, the trains stop so darn early
But then they mostly are standard trains that people use, the metro isnt anywhere near as popular.

[jimmy olsen]

They seemed as packed as any line in Seoul and the Seoul metro has 7 million passengers every day.