Amtrak Car Doors

[josephr33]

I was wondering whether the Amfleet cars in the Northeast corridor have automatically opening doors for high platforms.  I haven't been out there for a while.  The horizons in the Midwest don't.  If they were ever to move the horizons to the NorthEast corridor (It would make more sense considering they're built for high platforms) could they install automatic doors?  Are doors on any other Amtrak trains automatic?  Could they be installed?

[oltmannd]

As I recall, the trainman can either open his local door or all the doors from the control panel at in each vestibule on the Amfleet I cars. 

Note sure what you mean by the Horizon cars are built for high level platforms.  Don't they have the same trap/step arrangment as most any other passenger car?

[josephr33]

Yeah, they do have a trap arrangment.  I just meant that cars with lower level boarding can better serve the Midwest.  I often take the train between Chicago and Kalamazoo, MI and it takes a long time for everybody, especially elderly folks to climb all the steps to get on.  Superliners and the California cars board a lot quicker--except when you have high platforms and then you'll need a horizon or amfleet.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Horizon and Amfleet cars had to be built to handle both high and ground level platforms since they theoretically could be assigned anywhere.

The platform height issue also crops up in the Chicago area.  Bi-level gallery coaches have center doors that open at ground level, this isn't a problem since all of Metra's diesel-powered lines have ground level platforms only.  The ex-IC electric lines are exclusively high-level platforms, and the Highliner bi-level MU cars have center doors for high-level platforms only, although the side doors by the motorman's cab have traps and steps for emergency use.  The South Shore has platforms at both high level (Hammond and the stops on the former IC) and ground level.  Some of South Shore's single-level MU cars have a center door for high level platforms only but the doors at the end vestibules have traps and steps.  The mix of platform heights caused problems in the past when South Shore leased diesel-powered consists from Metra during winter equipment shortages and they couldn't stop at the stations on the IC.

[JT22CW]

I seem to recall seeing the doors on Amfleet IIs operated manually (never saw electric door controls on them either)…but then again, they were always mixed in with Viewliners and (before that) Heritage cars.  Got to be the last car of its kind built with a vestibule at one end.

Amtrak is given a very small budget year to year.  Manual doors last longer than automatic doors and require far less maintenance.  Given the distances that Amtrak travels over, dwell times are less of a concern than on shorter trips.

Always disagreed with the high-platform-only configuration of the Acela Express cars.  They paid for that recently at Baltimore Penn Station; passengers took a long time to get off via the "emergency ladder" when the train was switched to the center track and were subjected to a form of egress that ought not even be necessary in an emergency. 

[hf1001]

Do some horizon cars have vestibules where you only open the window to look out like "supers"

[PaulWWoodring]

Former Amtrak OBS employee from DC here.  Amfleet I vestibule doors can be opened with an Amfleet coach key from either end of the car on the side you want to open.  There are three choices:  the door you are at; the doors ahead of the one you are at, or the doors behind the one you are at.  To open all doors, push all three buttons.    There is a movement sensor cutout feature that prevents the doors from opening automatically before the train stops.

Amfleet II vestibule doors are totally manual.  Working in the NE, I'm unfamiliar with the Horizon cars.

[DMUinCT]

Acela:

  Power Doors: No steps, must operate on high platforms.  Each vestibule has 2 rescue ladders.

  Conductor opens under power when stopped.

  Power closed on command, doors must be closed and locked before the engineer can start.

  If doors are confirmed closed and no signal to the locomotive (not engineer), the engineer can overide to get the train moving.

  To open a door in motion, the conductor has a "card reader card".  In the photo below, The YELLOW bar lower left is an Alarm, the top line on the left indicates the Alarm, a set of doors with the "card reader" bypassed.

[JT22CW]

Amfleet II vestibule doors are totally manual

That's what I thought.  Thanks a lot for confirming that.

Working in the NE, I'm unfamiliar with the Horizon cars

Where in the NE?  Horizon cars have been on the Lake Shore Limited.  I've even seen them on trains operating south of NYP on the NEC (on the Three Rivers, for example). 

They're the Bombardier knockoff of the Pullman Standard aluminum-bodied cars that were introduced on the Erie-Lackawanna as the "Comet"; they resemble NJ Transit's Comet II, Metro-North's Shoreliner I, and the MBTA's BTC/CTC fleet.  They also have manual doors; some of the vestibules have folding steps (like the Amfleet) and others have fixed steps in the vestibule.  Two vestibules per car.  Numbered in the 53000/54000-series.