How do they board 20+ car passenger consists in India?

[aegrotatio]

 I was watching videos of passenger trains in India. They are extremely long, I think it's the intercity type, and they can have 24 passenger cars on them.

How are these trains boarded? Are there really long platforms or are the trains split or do they move them along the platform as the cars fill?

 And how does that one electric locomotive pull 21 passenger cars, too?

 

[ndbprr]

 

Well I just came back from New Delhi.  First of all I am no expert and  the smog was so thick that even from a couple of hundred feet photography was impossible.  That being said it appeared Indian passenger cars aren't 85 footers.  They are more like 65-70'.  So a 21 car train  is more like 15 18 cars here so the platforms aren't that much longer.  How does one electric engine pull them?  A GG1 handled 18 car trains with ease.  Most of India is flat.  Acceleration may be slower but no reason why one engine is not up to the task.

[blue streak 1]

I have ridden French TGVs and the new routes all have platforms that will handle 22 cars + four power cars. (Two trains coupled together). Don't know the length of these cars so cannot compare with US trains but believe lengthning US platforms may be less expensive than adding more tracks. (fewer train starts for number of passengers carried).

[BaltACD]

Boarding Indian passenger trains

[aegrotatio]

 Thanks for the info!

The riders in the vestibules and hangers-on are frightening to watch.

 

[HarryHotspur]

BaltACD

Boarding Indian passenger trains

 

So apparently they start at the bottom.  

[ndbprr]

If you look closely this train is on an unelectrified section of track.  I did not see anyone under the catenary attempting to become a crispy critter.

[HarryHotspur]

ndbprr

If you look closely this train is on an unelectrified section of track.  I did not see anyone under the catenary attempting to become a crispy critter.

 

In that case, they should be perfectly safe.  

[BaltACD]

HarryHotspur

ndbprr

If you look closely this train is on an unelectrified section of track.  I did not see anyone under the catenary attempting to become a crispy critter.

 

In that case, they should be perfectly safe.  

Until the slack runs in or out!

[BaltACD]

Approaching maximum capacity......

[HarryHotspur]

It seems I was wrong.  Apparently they do not begin boarding the train from the bottom, but rather from underneath. Is there a shortage of trains in India?

[blue streak 1]

One of my daughters just got back from Bombay (?) and she said it is lack of capacity. Many of the same thinjgs as here except multiplied by 1000. Rolling stock, infrastructure - tracks, signals, bridges, stations, etc.