Tonight I went to a presentation by TTC staff about the new subway car design.  I am pleased to report that the original scheme discussed here with all perimeter seating was given roughly equal billing with a version much like the current subway cars where some of the seats are at right-angles to the walls.

The rationale for the perimeter seating goes like this:  in our post 9/11 world, the new standards call for there to be no space under seats where someone could hide a package.  This is easier to do with transverse seats than with perimeter seating.  This is supposed to be an FRA (US Federal Railroad Administration) standard, and I plan to check out the details.

A very simple question:  Are commuter railroads, Amtrak, the bus and airline industries going to eliminate all transverse seating?  There is more going on here than just an FRA standard. Continue reading →

The TTC has done quite a job of massaging press coverage for its planned order of new subway cars.  The new cars will run as unified trains with the ability to walk through the entire train as one continuous unit.  This is expected to add about eight percent to train capacity.

You can look at two posts on this scheme here:

spacing.ca transit.toronto

Continue reading →