Philadelphia Transportation & SEPTAHow we get around this city - above ground, underground, bike, train, foot, you name it heres the place to discuss it.
I was not that impressed with the new Silverliner. Looks like a regular old subway car to me. I like the bench seat in the old cars. I am guessing I am in the minority with my dislike of the new car.
Can the new car be boarded via the center door and the end doors? That would be a great improvement.
I was not that impressed with the new Silverliner. Looks like a regular old subway car to me. I like the bench seat in the old cars. I am guessing I am in the minority with my dislike of the new car.
Can the new car be boarded via the center door and the end doors? That would be a great improvement.
The new car has quarter-doors(doors at the first and third quarters of the length of the train) rather than end doors. It speeds up loading/unloading over regular end doors, as the train can unload people exiting from two directions rather than one. One of the quarter-doors is also a double-door (don't ask why they didn't have both be double doors; that would be too common sense for a transit agency), which speeds up loading and unloading immensely.
One set of doors is double due to the fact that it will be used to load at both high-level platforms as well as low-level platforms; the single door will only be used at high-level platforms. With the double-doors, one door will be strictly for high-level boarding, and the other will have a trap which can be removed to reveal steps to allow boarding at low-level platforms.
I heard from a SEPTA employee that the conductors aren't too happy with the Silverliner Vs. One reason is that there are no vestibules by the doors. This means that passengers may feel a blast of cold air (in the winter) or hot air (in the summer), whenever the doors open.
I heard from a SEPTA employee that the conductors aren't too happy with the Silverliner Vs. One reason is that there are no vestibules by the doors. This means that passengers may feel a blast of cold air (in the winter) or hot air (in the summer), whenever the doors open.
The shops on the Boardwalk don't even have doors, and they don't get too hot. It's not like they don't have light rail vehicles or even el's in Philly already, or in extreme climates like the desert or Sweden or Russia. I'm sure the climate control can be engineered to allow speedier loading and unloading via quarter doors, and thus quicker rides.
Actually, the new cars are going to have full-cabs. The unions and some others fought hard on this and won. The 3 pilot cars-the ones currently awaiting their ride from S. Korea-will arrive with half-cabs while all the cars built in S. Philly will have full cabs. When a significant number of the new cars are in service the 3 pilot cars will return to the factory to have full cabs installed.
Actually, the new cars are going to have full-cabs. The unions and some others fought hard on this and won. The 3 pilot cars-the ones currently awaiting their ride from S. Korea-will arrive with half-cabs while all the cars built in S. Philly will have full cabs. When a significant number of the new cars are in service the 3 pilot cars will return to the factory to have full cabs installed.
It's been reported on the railroad.net forums by Septa employees and generally accepted as fact.
It's unfortunate. I'd love to ride around the regional rail system in the "rail fan" seat.
+1
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You can read the long, long thread on Railroad.net about the full cab thing. I'm pretty sure Dr. Matthew Mitchell chimed in and assured everyone the cars will have full cabs.
Enough with everything in Philadelphia being RED-WHITE-and-BLUE.
Those cars are brand new but so dated looking. I hate that everything here has to reference our history and the liberty bell. It is just one component of our image as a city, and to me, conveys that we are just stuck in the past.
I would have loved to have seen something very sophisticated looking, like the Metro North cars in New York and Connecticut, which just have a wide solid band in dark blue all the way down the sides of the car, or something completely over the top, like the fire-engine red Tram Cars in Portland OR or the bold yellow train cars in Amsterdam. The former is conservative done well without being kitschy, and the later are just 21st Century.
Enough with everything in Philadelphia being RED-WHITE-and-BLUE.
Those cars are brand new but so dated looking. I hate that everything here has to reference our history and the liberty bell. It is just one component of our image as a city, and to me, conveys that we are just stuck in the past.
I would have loved to have seen something very sophisticated looking, like the Metro North cars in New York and Connecticut, which just have a wide solid band in dark blue all the way down the sides of the car, or something completely over the top, like the fire-engine red Tram Cars in Portland OR or the bold yellow train cars in Amsterdam. The former is conservative done well without being kitschy, and the later are just 21st Century.
But, we're stuck in the past.
This is what's currently in our fleet:
We're not in a position to bitch and moan about aesthetics. Be happy SEPTA is getting new cars at all.
__________________
The fundamental difference between modern liberalism/progressivism and most other similar ideologies is that liberalism seeks to make everyone equally mediocre, while other ideologies seek to make others equally excellent. In other words, liberalism/progressivism rewards the worst of the worst, whereas other ideologies rewards those who actually care.
They do work very well (although for how much longer can SEPTA keep them running is another topic). They just look like they've been through hell, so no matter how the SV's look it will be an aesthetic improvement. Even that terribly-welded exposition car that was in Suburban looked better.
It's been reported on the railroad.net forums by Septa employees and generally accepted as fact.
It's unfortunate. I'd love to ride around the regional rail system in the "rail fan" seat.
As the Communications Director at DVARP, I can assure you that it's far from being "generally accepted as fact." We could see full-width cabs, or we could see half-width cabs. We're not sure yet.
I'm really excited about the new Rotem cars. I think they've done a good job with the interior.
I know the TVs in everything is a meme and they're not necessary now that everybody's got smartphones to play with to pass time but I still think it's a nice feature.
The only thing that I found odd was the HVAC vents on the cieling are still those circlular 1950s era vents you see in the bathroom ceilings in a 1950s public school buildings which is really dated, but I think the rest is cool.
I'm OK with the livery as well. I'm still jealous that I don't get to ride RRD everyday since it's way nicer than the MFL. There's nothing really wrong with the Adtranz cars that I ride... it's the people :P
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