Post by ed110220 on Nov 18, 2008 2:35:47 GMT
Jul 10, 2008 20:40:03 GMT @stephenk said:
Jul 10, 2008 13:06:52 GMT @cetacean said:
Tokyo's Yamanote Line can apparently fit 3,500 on it's 220m trains. However, these trains are wider than Crossrails, have all longitudinal seating in some cars and no seating in a few cars, have 4-6 doors per 20m car, and have staff to squeeze people in. This is not forgetting that the Japanese are smaller, and can tolerate being packed like sardines more than the British!
The Yamanote Line is truly an amazing experience. Apparently it carries 3.55 million passengers on an average day (compared with 4.25 million for the entire London Underground).
However the Yamanote Line is only a metro insofar as it runs a frequent service in an urban area. Otherwise it isn't much like the Circle Line or any other LU line at all.
First of all, the Yamanote Line is part of the wider Japanese 1067mm national network with full-sized trains and stations. Secondly (and this crucial point is overlooked in my opinion) the Yamanote Line runs above ground and so there are fewer restrictions to channeling large numbers of people to and from the trains.
Because of the comparatively small vertical distance from street level to platform level the main access to the Yamanote Line platforms can be by way of multiple and broad stairways.
As Crossrail will presumably be built deep underground, escalators will be the only practical way for the bulk of passengers to reach the platforms.
I would imagine the capacity of escalators and the size of underground platforms and pedestrian tunnels will limit capacity well before the capacity of the trains themselves. An LU-type station surely couldn't handle anything like the number of passengers that could be carried by 220 m trains running every 150 seconds.
