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Siemens single level car designs

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Siemens single level car designs
Posted by blue streak 1 on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 5:50 AM

Designs of Siemens single level cars for California and the midwest. Production schedule seems conservative enough that early delivery might be possible ?  Guess that trying to avoid CAF fiasco ?

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/transprog/ctcbooks/2017/1217/Presentations/Tab52_Single_level_Railcar.pdf

 

 

 

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Posted by YoHo1975 on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 10:34 AM
Why are they going with single level for these? I assume based on the rendering that these will be Capital Corridor/SJ trainsets. Maybe the california car sets are going down to Pacific Surfliner?
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Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 12:34 PM

There was a thread about the Nippon Sharyo bi-level car desaster:
http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/743/t/263036.aspx?page=1
Regards, Volker

Edit: Here is a presentation of February 2018: http://www.highspeed-rail.org/Documents/NGEC_annual%20meeting%202018_CALIDOT%20presentation.pptx

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Posted by YoHo1975 on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 2:17 PM
So, it looks like ADA and Time to market were the big ones. Makes sense.
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Posted by MidlandMike on Wednesday, March 21, 2018 8:55 PM

It looks like the seats are fixed, and half will always face the wrong direction.  Transit type cars seem to be spreading to corridor trains.

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Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, March 22, 2018 6:42 AM

MidlandMike

It looks like the seats are fixed, and half will always face the wrong direction.  Transit type cars seem to be spreading to corridor trains.

 
The arrangement makes a certain amount of sense.  On some of the lines in the Midwest, facilities for turning the cars around, such as a wye or a turntable, may not be easily available.  The alternative would be walkover seats or something similar.
The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
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Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 22, 2018 11:47 AM

The narrow seats bother me more than that they are not-rotating, which was required in the specification.

The aisle width seems to be an Ada requirement?

Aisles in the new German ICE 4 are just 20'' wide in second class. Wider aisles (32'') for wheelchairs are only required in the area of specified wheelchair spots and the according restrooms. Food service for handicapped is by railroad personnel in these dedicated spots.
Regards, Volker

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Posted by YoHo1975 on Thursday, March 22, 2018 11:54 AM

Those for sure look Airline seat levels of Narrow. And I already disliked the California car seating. When I lived down in SoCal, I'd always head for the Superliner car to luxuriate in the wide huge legroom seat.

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Posted by ATSFGuy on Thursday, March 22, 2018 1:48 PM

Will the interior seating arrangement be similar to the Amfleet/Horizon cars or will the floorplan be setup in a whole new way?

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Posted by Jim200 on Saturday, April 7, 2018 8:30 AM

These cars are supposed to be made in conformance with PRIIA single-level passenger rail car specs, but there are choices or changes that can be made, as evidenced by a change in the car weight which could not be met by Siemens. Interior specs start on page 197 in the link below and on page 224 are some suggested arrangements. In the middle of the coach car are likely to be a couple of face to face seats with a table in between. Unfortunately in the past, the table itself has been associated with severe abdominal and spinal injuries and will be made with a larger vertical dimension and crush capability.

The aisle between seats cannot be less than 20.5 inches according to the spec, but the connecting doors between cars are to be 34 inches wide to meet ADA specs. If California and Illinois have decided to have a wide aisle and narrow seating, then they will have to answer to the complaints of discomfort.   

 

http://www.highspeed-rail.org/Documents/PRIIA%20305%20DocSpec%20and%20other%20NGEC%20Documents/PRIIA%20Single%20Level%20Spec%20305%20003%20Approved%20Initial%20Release.pdf

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Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, April 7, 2018 9:11 AM

The February 2018 presentation (linked above) for the single level cars shows a wide aisle. The brightline cars have 32'' aisles leading to 19'' and 21'' narrow seats.

I thought this might be required by ADA. Nobody answered my question so I looked into 49CFR section 38 and as I understand it now, a 32'' wide aisle is only needed as access to wheelchair spots.

Next week they use a Brightline coach as mock-up. Perhaps we'll see changes afterwards.
Regards, Volker

 

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