Passenger Train Variations

There was a time when most British train seating was fully upholstered, with metal springs and soft padding. Even for local 'all stations' trains it was known that ample and comfortable seating attracted passengers. However, as times changed the degree of seat comfort has been reduced and especially since railway privatisation - when the Department For Transport civil servants started specifying train types, seat types and passenger capacities - train seats stopped being about comfort and indeed some newer types of train have become known for being actively uncomfortable.

For urban and suburban travel where there are many stations in close proximity to each other three or even four sets of doors per train side are a requirement.

These multi-tasking trains link outer-suburban destinations around Paris on exceptionally busy routes that also pass through the inner suburbs and city centre. At the busiest times these routes could be carrying as many as 60,000 passengers an hour, per direction.

To allow for passengers to exit from / enter the entire train double deck trains often require longer station dwell times than single deck trains. When compared to trains formed of solely single deck rolling stock this can reduce overall train throughput, which means that there will be fewer trains per hour on that section of track. This may not matter however if there are other constraints on train frequency, such as the overall size of the fleet of trains or that the signalling system restricts how many trains can pass through the area in a given amount of time.

For outer suburban and even regional services two sets of doors will often suffice - especially on routes with fewer stations and more journey time is spent travelling between the stations. Usually the doors will be spread out along the side of the coaches, at ⅓ and ⅔ or at ¼ and ¾ positions. Many British trains have their doors at the 'thirds' positions although some passengers claim that the 'quarters' positions are better - because then all passengers will be no more than a quarter of the carriage length from a doorway. Doors at coach ends is only really suitable for longer-distance trains that call at comparatively few stations. Whilst station stop dwell times will be longer (especially at busy stations) their advantage is that passengers will usually find them more comfortable / less draughty - this also depends on whether the seats themselves are comfortable (alas, not always) and the heating and ventilation system within the carriage are working optimally..

Typically doorways with two leaves that open in opposite directions will be faster to open and create wider openings than single-leaf doorways - although the width of the individual doors is also a factor here. For the fastest passenger flow the opening needs to be wide enough to allow several passengers to pass through (side by side) at the same time - perhaps then with them walking in different directions so that they do not get in each others way. Obviously doorways used by 'personal wheeled transport'. (PWT) passengers (wheelchairs, rollaters, pushchairs / buggies / strollers) need to be wide enough for the PWT device. This does not rule out single-leaf doorways, if the doors are wide enough.

The train shown in the three pairs of pictures above were designed by the former British Railways and except perhaps for the liveries (paint / colour) when introduced into service were more or less identical nationwide (within the type of train). However, following railway privatisation the various train operating companies repainted their variants in a range of different liveries and in some cases have also refurbished them so that they look different and / or feature different types of seating - typically 'more comfortable' high back seating.

Nowadays virtually all British trains* feature power operated doors that are controlled by either a guard or driver. Even if the trains also feature passenger operated 'open' and 'close' buttons the train driver or guard will still (usually) have the ultimate control.

A specific problem often faced by trains with power operated doors is that rather than spread out evenly throughout the carriage many passengers congregate in the doorway, which at stations blocks access to the rest of the carriage and extends the time it takes passengers to board and alight (ie; the 'dwell' time). A solution which has been adopted on some trains is to redesign the entrance area inside the train to create a larger circulating space just inside the doorway. Sometimes this involves removing seats and making a space that is setback from the doors, other times it sees transverse seats replaced with longitudinal seating - which also makes more space for standing passengers.

A Look Outside Of The UK

The Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) provides a suburban service linking coastal communities to the north and south of the city via a route which skirts just to the east of the cities' central business district. Essentially DART is an electrification and high-profile rebranding of existing diesel rail services, DART trains share tracks shared with other Irish longer-distance regional and Inter-City services. For this reason they use the 5ft 3in (1,600 mm) Irish track gauge.

DART trains are electrified at 1,500v DC via overhead wires and along with the LUAS trams (also in Dublin) are the only electric trains in Ireland. Servicies are operated as four, six or eight car trains.

There are several generations of rolling stock and with network expansion in mind more trains are expected in the the near future - with some (all?) also being fitted with batteries so that they can also travel over non-electrified sections of railway.

Some DART trains were built with excellent real-time passenger displays in the form of LED light route describers where green indicated the route which had already been travelled, orange the route expected to be followed, solid red the train's destination station and flashing red the next station. Unfortunately they were deactivated in 2010 - it is noteworthy that this is the same year as when a new DART station was opened and its possible that the information displays were deactivated instead of being updated. Nowadays liquid crystal LCD displays should be easier to update to network changes.

Much of the route of the DART is close to the coast and is noted for being very scenic, with the southern section offering fine views of sailboats, islands, the granite walls protecting the tracks from the sea (especially noteworthy at high tide) and the northern section being popular for dramatic cliff walks, lighthouse, and harbour views. Seapointis noted for being an attractive historic station and an area with much coastal charm and the area near to Killiney Hill station for panoramas of Dublin Bay and the city.

In Australia urban rail services (where they exist) are operated regionally, based on the various State Capitals - Perth, Western Australia (WA); Melbourne, Victoria (Vic); Brisbane, Queensland (Qld); Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) and Adelaide, South Australia (SA) which have electric urban systems. Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney also have electric tram systems.

Melbourne started electrifing its urban railway in 1919, Sydney in 1926. Both cities chose 1500v DC, which was very much a well-proven accepted technology in those days. Brisbane started in 1979 and Perth in 1992. Adelaide was somewhat late at only getting electric urban trains in 2014 - and even then only on some routes. These three cities electrified at the present-day international standard, which is 25 kV AC.

In addition to different power supply voltages, Australia has to contend with different track gauges. However this does not affect any urban / suburban rail systems as all these networks are self contained within their own areas. Melbourne uses the same broad gauge as Ireland - 5ft 3in (1,600 mm). Brisbane's trains use narrow (Cape) gauge, 3ft 6in (1,067 mm), whilst Sydney and Adelaide use standard gauge (4ft 8½in / 1,435 mm ). In Perth the suburban railways use Cape gauge track whilst the regional trains use standard gauge.

Queensland choosing to use narrow gauge was controversial but the government wanted the fastest possible construction timeframe at the lowest cost, and the narrow gauge facilitated this because it was possible to have sharper curves and a lower axle load than with standard gauge. This reduced the estimated overall costs to a mere 25% of a standard gauge line.

Queensland and New South Wales also have electrified regional / InterCity services, and especially in Sydney there is much overlap where some services which act as urban / suburban trains within the city then continue their journeys to serve nearby regional towns. By way of contrast, Melbourne's electric network is strictly within the Metropolitan area and has actually contracted with some routes being converted to light rail / tram or even closed.

In Sydney, Melbourne and Perth city centres some of the trains also travel through city centre tunnels, calling at underground stations. In many ways this is a very similar arrangement to that which exists in the English city of Liverpool. In 2026 the expected opening of the Cross River Rail project will mean that Brisbane can be added to this list.

With decades of experience of both single and double deck trains in the Australian state of New South Wales, when the city of Sydney built its first true urban metro service it chose to use single deck trains - because these benefit from faster alighting / boarding at station stops than double deck trains.

Double deck passenger trains are looked at in greater detail on a different page.

To optimise service frequency via the new Cross River Rail tunnels the Brisbane NGR fleet (New Generation Rollingstock) uses ETCS (European Train Control System) signalling.

If there is a shortage of rolling stock, Brisbane suburban trains are occasionally used on Queensland interurban routes. Whilst this increases operational flexibility, it is suboptimal as the interrurban trains have toilets and high-backed seats - these being features that are not found on suburban trains.

Built to use in the new Metro rail tunnel the HCMT comprises a fleet of 7 coach trains which have a capacity of 1380 passengers. The body shells were built by CRRC Changchun in China, but 60% of their construction uses "local content" from within the manufacturing supply chain in the State of Victoria. To reduce the likelihood of train surfing the train ends have aerodynamic nose cones and retractable coupling covers.

Unlike the older train fleets, the HCMT has three wide doorways per side. This will minimise station stop dwell times by allowing faster alighting and boarding. The electronic passenger information display screens show the next station, the time and route maps that include identifing the location of the train as the journey preogresses. Standing passengers will appreciate the provison of straps and grab handles and there are 28 wheelchair spaces per train.

the Metro Tunnel has communications-based train control and platform screen doors, both a first for Melbourne. In addition to relieving the peak-hour ridership pressure on the existing underground City Loop that encircles the city centre, Metro Tunnels' new stations new urban localities which previously relied on trams and buses for last-mile travel to and from a railway station.

Nowadays all of Melbourne's trains are single-deckers - in times past the fleet included one double-deck train (primarily for evaluation purposes) but it was decided to stay with single-deck trains.

In New Zealand only two major cities have suburban networks. Because of the mountainous terrain it was decided that to reduce construction costs
New Zealand's railways will use 3ft 6in (1,067mm) Cape gauge.

Wellington started electrifying its urban railways in the 1930s, using British-built trains, Later the fleet was augmented with electric trains from Hungary. Since 2016 all services have been operated by South Korean rolling stock and to increase their performance the voltage was raised from 1500v DC to 1800v DC. Trains are formed of two-carriage multiple-units and run singly or with up to four units coupled-up to form eight-carriage trains.

Auckland's railway network was electrified in the 2010s at 25kV 50Hz AC using British designed overhead infrastructure. The trains are operated by Auckland One Rail for the Auckland Regional Transport Authority under the AT Metro brand. Trains are formed of three-carriage multiple-units and run either singly or with two units coupled-up to create six-carriage trains.

Previously Auckland had been using heavily rebuilt / modernised diesel trains of late 1960's vintage which it bought from Perth, Australia, but were no longer needed when Perth electrified its own suburban services. When these diesel trains became life-expired Auckland decided to replace them with new electric trains because overseas experience had shown how electric trains would be cheaper to run in the long term. It was also understood how overseas cities with high-frequency urban rail services tended to always use electric trains - partly because of their quieter operation, but also because of their faster travel between stations and greater environmental benefits.

New Zealand also has a small fleet of former British Railways InterCity Mk2 carriages. Bought between 1996 and 2006 these have are used on a range of services, including suburban services in Auckland - for which they have been very heavily rebuilt with suburban style sliding doors and one end of some carriages also fitted with drivers cabs, so that the trains can operate in 'push-pull' mode, being powered via a diesel engine which always remains at one end of the train. However it is planned to replace these British trains with a fleet of electric multiple-unit Tühono (meaning to connect or unite), trains built in India. Whilst travelling on non-electrified sections of railway these will be powered by onboard batteries.

Paris, France, has several marketing brands of urban / suburban railway services. These include "Transilien", which mostly involves trains that travel into mainline terminal stations around the centre of Paris, and the "RER" (regional express railway) which involves suburban trains that link up suburban railway routes on opposite sides of the city, mostly by means of new-build subterranean linking tunnels below the city centre.

The RER is jointly operated by both the mainline railway (SNCF) and the citywide urban transport company that also runs the métro, funicular, trams and buses (RATP).

Together these serve the wider built-up area plus close communities which form what is known as the Île-de-France region of France. This is in addition to the Parisian métro, which primarily serves the part of the entire Parisian conurbation that comprises the historic city of Paris.

Overseeing all transport operations and co-ordinating the different transport companies in the region is a body called STIF - Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France.

The name Transilien is a variation on the word Francilien, this being a term that is frequently used to describe the inhabitants of the Île-de-France region of France.

Launched in 2009 the Z50000 urban / suburban trains are painted in a livery which combines elements from three transport organisations:-
The green leaf of Transilien,
The red doors of SNCF
The long gray banner on each side of STIF.

To maximise passenger capacity they feature articulated short-length passenger carriages of just 16.53m / 54ft 3in [end carriage], 13.24m / 43ft 5in [most intermediate carriages] and 8.29m / 27ft 2.5in [central carriage on shorter trains only]. The main benefit of shorter carriages is that they need a less wide swept path on curved track, so as a result at 3.06m / 10ft 0.5in they are appreciably wider than more traditionally dimensioned types of train which typically have carriages that are circa 24m - 26m / 79ft - 86ft in length and 2.89m / 9ft 5.5in in width.

These trains come in two train lengths. Eight carriage trains seat 472 passengers, including 92 folding seats. The shorter seven carriage trains provide 380 seats, 74 of which are folding / tip-up seats. Thanks to the extra width of the train it is possible for some of these seats to be in 3 + 2 format and still maintain a central walkway between them that is 55cm / almost 22in in width. The seats are cantilever in design, which means that they only cling to the side walls, this creates space below them for luggage and also makes it easier for the cleaners to sweep the train's floor.

As the images suggest, the seats are upholstered in a range of eight different colours, these being raspberry, gray, yellow, burgundy, orange, red, soft green and purple. The trains also feature blue coloured underseat lighting As if that is not enough, the ceiling lights in the areas between the doorways also vary the colours shown, with white being for when the doors are open, blue when the train is accelerating and orange when it is coasting or braking! The change between colours is by fading, so many intermediate tones and tints are also seen.

The two end carriages include space for passengers who use wheelchairs, pushchairs / buggies / strollers, etc., ie: personal wheeled transports. In addition elsewhere along the train is shared space for cycles, although this too requires the tip-up seats to be closed.

In addition to real-time travel information displays these trains feature TV / video screens which are located at carriage ends / one per each corner. These show the digital terrestrial television (DTT), cultural information and local weather. Passengers must wear wireless headphones to listen.

By 2005 restoration of most of the Berlin S-Bahn (suburban / city railway) and replacement of the vintage trains from the 1920's had been completed after the long "hibernation" of the post-war period when the city became divided and the system contracted.

The name S-Bahn dates from 1930, with the letter S being used to differentiate it from the U-Bahn (ie: underground urban railway). As such the S-Bahn was more of a city-specific marketing name for urban / suburban / commuter 'rapid-transit' services that sometimes also extended to nearby towns in the Berlin hinterland which were (still are) operated by the main line railway. However this name is now used more widely - especially (but not exclusively) in German-speaking towns and cities.

In Berlin the S-Bahn network serves many outer-suburban areas with trains then converging to either pass through the city centre via an elevated east - west route called (the Stadtbahn), or an underground north - south alignment called (the Nord - Süd Tunnel), or travelling along the Ringbahn - which is an approximately circular service that links many urban districts - but not the city centre. All trains are electrically powered collecting 750v DV from a bottom-contact third rail.

In an effort to maximise passenger loadings the S-tog trains in the Danish capital (Copenhagen) which date from 1996 use these revolutionary short wheelbase articulated walk-through trains that when first introduced totally re-wrote the "rule book" on modern train design.

Short wheelbase single axle passenger carriages were known in the early days of the railways when passenger carriages emulated horse-drawn stagecoaches, but for various reasons fell out of favour when longer carriages with bogie wheelsets at each end became possible.

To facilitate the extra width of these trains they use very short carriages which on bends neither stick out so much at the ends nor have the middle of the carriage 'cut the corner' on the inside. To reduce the trains' weight and consequential power consumption they are articulated and use single axles (2 wheels) instead of 'bogie' units (which usually use twin axles / 4 wheels). Most trains are constructed as 2x4-carriage units permanently joined together. The outer carriage (with the driver's cab) has a wheelset at each end whilst the other carriages have one wheelset of their own and partially 'hang onto' the previous carriage. Despite using single wheels the ride quality is very acceptable.

For those who would like more detailed information on these Danish trains: The driving carriages are 12m (metres) in length and the trailers 10m. The fleet consists of 136 trains; 105 of which have 8 carriages (and are known as Litra SA) and 31 of which have 4 carriages (and are known as Litra SE). At just under 84m in length an 8 carriage train is comparable in length to a 4 carriage version of the older trains. Especially at busier times two units operate in multiple, giving 16 carriages in total. These new trains are 3.6m wide (the older trains were 3.0m wide) and at 312 (plus 28 folding seats) they seat about 33% more passengers than the older trains - without the need for expensive lengthening of station platforms! In total 8 of the 10 axles per 8 carriage new train are motored, giving them a maximum acceleration rate of 1.3m per second and top speed of 120km/h (about 75 mph), although signalling or track limitations means that this speed is only reached on some routes. They are powered at 1650v DC and feature regenerative braking, reducing the energy requirement from the power station by approximately 40%. The shorter 4 carriage trains are a little under 43m in length, they offer 134 fixed seats plus 16 folding seats,

Faced with rising traffic congestion the people of San Francisco USA did not want to emulate their southern Californian neighbours in Los Angeles who were trying (and failing) to solve traffic congestion through massive road building and after much discussion / campaigning the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) scheme developed. The system opened in 1972 and has been extended many times.

The main BART system operates five different sets of services which mostly interleave so that much of the system is served by trains on two or more routes. Four of these share the Transbay Tube which runs under San Francisco Bay (ie: under water) and at busy times congestion occurs as the multiple lines vie for shared resources. In the longer term a second tunnel is planned. This will feature four tracks - two for BART and two for other rail services - including the proposed California High Speed Rail system. The Transbay Tube is 3.6 miles (5.7 km) in length, although including the approaches from the nearest stations (one of which is underground) it totals 6 miles (9 km). At a maximum depth of 135' (41 m) below the surface it is also one of the deepest vehicular tubes known about in the public domain in service today. (Although the suggestions remain unsubstantiated it is possible / probable that the military have access to a 4000+mph [6400+km/h] maglev located approximately 4 miles [6.4km] below ground).

BART also operates two feeder services - eBART travels over existing rail infrastructure and uses standard gauge Stadler GTW diesel multiple-unit trains similar to others used elsewhere in the USA and the Oakland Airport Connector which serves Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport. This is an AGT (automated guided transport / transit) that uses the DCC Doppelmayr Cable Liner system.

There is some debate as to whether BART is a subway/metro or a regional service. Some people suggest that its acts more like a regional commuter railway because whilst it links two cities (San Francisco and Oakland) with their hinterlands it was not designed to provide frequent local services. So whilst it is often thought of as a subway / metro the service it provides is more akin to London's Thameslink, the Paris (France) RER, the Berlin (Germany) S-Bahn (and others) except that it does not have to share its rights of way with other railway services.

In 2024 BART retired the last of its original rolling stock. Nowadays it uses trains type D and E. One major change based upon operating experience with the older trains is that to expedite passenger flows alighting from and boarding the trains at stations the new trains have three pairs of sliding doors on each side. The original trains only had two sets of sliding doors.

(NB: ' means foot; " means inches; metric conversions are approximate).

Another form of 'short distance' trains are undergrounds, subways, métros and mini-métros.

These are generally 'city-specific' transit systems which are operated by a specialist urban transit authority which often also runs the street-based transport (buses, etc,.) too.

Most of these systems use traditional 'steel wheel' on 'steel track' technology however a few systems use trains that run on rubber tyres. This page makes no distinction

The principal difference between a métro and mini-métro is that the latter will be designed for routes with lower traffic flows and therefore will use shorter trains. In other respects they are both more akin to 'heavy' rail in nature with fixed infrastructure, tunnels, etc., costing roughly the same to build except that where shorter trains are used there will be some savings in the cost of constructing the smaller stations.

Sometimes métro and mini-métro trains will be able to negotiate sharper curves and steeper gradients than the other types of 'heavy rail' trains. As with the difference between 'light' rail (aka trams / streetcars) and 'heavy' rail the dividing line is indistinct - there are no fixed rules; instead the philosophy is that 'if it works / suits the location' then "fine".

The first underground railway "anywhere" globally was the Metropolitan Railway which opened in London in 1863.

Traditionally London Underground trains were painted red, however from the 1960's onwards all new trains featured aluminium sides that did not need painting to protect them against the weather. One small fleet of trains which date from the 1970's featured painted doors, this might have been to distinguish it from an earlier batch of similar rolling stock. One of the advantages of not painting the trains is that they then weigh less - and consume less energy. However, following problems in the 1990's with graffiti vandalism and a desire for a corporate image there was a rethink in policy and nowadays the trains painted red, white and blue. Even without the graffiti problem a change of policy would have been necessary. because nowadays disability legislation requires that train doors are painted in such a way as to be easily discernable by people with limited vision.

After London and Budapest (not illustrated) Glasgow became the third city "anywhere" globally to open an urban underground railway system. Built by the Glasgow District Subway Company it 1896 it is in the form of a 6.5 mile (approx 10.4km) circle with trains travelling both clockwise and anticlockwise. Because of Glasgow's geology the subway had to be cut with great difficulty through solid rock; this accounts for both the small size of the tunnels and why the system remains the same size as when it was first opened. Between 1936 and 2003 this system was officially called the Glasgow Underground, but the name has now reverted back to Subway.

Between 1977 and 1980 services were suspended to allow for significant rebuilding / modernisation which included procuring brand new rolling stock and modification to the stations which amongst other things permitted longer trains. When the system reopened it was often affectionately nicknamed "Clockwork Orange" after the plain orange livery of the new trains, although in circa 2005 they were repainted in a carmine and cream (with a small orange stripe) livery.

At the time of writing (2025) the Subway has just been fully re-equipped with a fleet of walk-through Stadler trains (as seen here) and in 2025 work started installing platform screen doors, with an eventual aim of running driverless trains.

In modern terminology the Glasgow Subway would be classified as a "mini-metro". This would be because when compared to mainline railway systems the Subway uses short 3 carriage trains of a smaller size which operate at high frequencies.

As an aside, the subway is not the oldest underground railway in Glasgow itself; that distinction belongs to a 3-mile stretch of the North Clyde line which nowadays is part of the mainline ScotRail franchise and runs in a sub-surface tunnel under the city centre between High Street and Charing Cross (not illustrated).

Liverpool also has some underground stations but here too services are provided by inner-suburban mainline trains operating as part of a mainline rail franchise. Known as the Loop & Link the system features two lines - one where trains travel under Liverpool City Centre linking lines to the north and the south of the city and another where trains from Birkenhead and the Wirral peninsula travel in a clockwise loop around Liverpool City Centre before returning back under the River Mersey towards the Wirral.

Whilst the Loop & Link opened in 1977 the tunnel under the River Mersey actually dates from 1886. The tunnel was built by the Mersey Railway, as a steam railway, and depite its use of condensing steam locomotives that routed waste gases via a water bath the air inside the tunnel was so foul that most passengers continued to use the ferry boat across the river. In 1900 the railway was declared bankrupt and in 1901 it was bought from the liquidators by people who converted it to electric traction. The line reopened in 1903, since when it has been a tremendous success. Nowadays it forms an important part of the Merseyrail Wirral line.

At one time similar 'city centre suburban mainline railway tunnel' systems were also planned for Sheffield and Manchester but it is understood that the people of Sheffield wanted to spend the available funds subsidising local bus fares whilst the national government point blank refused to provide sufficient investment funds for Manchester's scheme to be brought into reality. (It is said that the national government had declared "never again" after building the Tyne & Wear Metro's underground section, even though in Manchester the aim was solely to improve access to the city centre by merging two existing suburban electrified services which terminated at edge-of-city-centre mainline railway stations so that they became one service that served the heart of the retail and business district.).

Nowadays both cities have surface light rail systems - with Manchesters' Metrolink having started off as a street level variant of the failed Picc-Vic Link scheme which has become so successful that it has been extended to other destinations within the Greater Manchester region, some of which have included re-opening formerly closed railway routes.

The Tyne & Wear Metro is a regional rail system based on the city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne where some stations are underground. When it first opened (in 1980) most of the system was effectively a re-electrification of mainline services that the former British Railways converted to diesel trains in the 1960's, although the underground section was brand new construction.

When it first opened the Metro used what are essentially light rail vehicles (trams), albeit of a design that was at the 'heavy' end of the scale. They were designed to be compatible with mainline trains - a feature which stood them in good stead for the 2002 extension to the nearby city of Sunderland, which is (mostly) over pre-existing main line tracks where the Metrocars provide local services and main line trains operate longer-distance regional services.

Light rail / trams are also (usually) seen as a type 'short distance' transport; to avoid making this page too large they are looked at on a dedicated Trams & Streetcars page.

Of course Britain is not the only place with urban rail systems, but there are so many in
major towns and cities around the globe that it is only possible to mention a few of them.

Another city (in addition to London) which has both "smaller" and "larger" profile underground railway trains is the German capital of Berlin.

These three images show a recent type of train which was built in two versions depending on lines served.

Full-width inter-carriage gangways also feature on metro trains in other European cities too...

To avoid making this page too big automated (self driving) railway services are looked at on the Automated 'Driverless' Metro Systems page.

Although transport systems have not traditionally been seen as being places of beauty there is no 'law' as such which requires that stations should be solely functional but visually mundane / utilitarian.

Realising this, and that visually uplifting buildings represent environments where people may 'wish to be' many systems have built (at least some of) their stations with good design in mind. Sometimes this will add a comparatively small amount to the overall cost (often less than 1%) but it also helps attract passengers to the system and creates something which local people can be proud of. In the former Soviet Bloc nations politics also entered into the mix, with the cities deemed to be more important being given impressive stations that were designed along the theme of Palaces of the People. Often these featured valuable materials - such as different coloured marble and semi-precious gem stones sourced from various parts of the Soviet Empire, and were lit using chandeliers, adorned with mosaics, paintings, etc., so that they would often rival many an ancient stately home, chateau, art gallery etc.

Nowadays when building new systems or extending existing systems some cities employ architects of the highest calibre from around the globe, with the express intention of their designing stations to a cutting edge artistic brief - and apart from attracting passengers who just wish to travel from A to B these stations often also attract a global audience of students plus other people whose primary interest is in design & architecture who wish to see and photograph these visually distinctive buildings (stations). For similar reasons some systems also include works of art in their stations - busts, sculptures, bronze figures, stained-glass windows, etc.

It is only the intention of this page to mention this aspect of station design 'in passing', and even then only with respect to short distance urban transport railways. Further information and many photographs can be found on this excellent page at the Metro-Bits website
http://mic-ro.com/metro/metroart.html

Two Metros In Moscow???

Although not (yet) confirmed officially it has been suggested that Moscow has a second metro system at a deeper level than the public system.

This is said to be under military jurisdiction and was built to facilitate survival during a war / natural disaster and to act as a secret escape route for key personnel, should it ever be needed.

The only sort of validation which could be said to be in the public domain comes from other cities - such as Prague, Czech Republic - where rumours which talked of similar during the Soviet era were later found to be true, although the facilities were considerably less extensive than the rumours had led people to expect they would be. For the record, rumours also exist of a planet-wide deep level high-speed maglev system which links subterranean military bases and other facilities in the USA, Australia, etc.

The Flood Risk

In August 2002 heavy rains and consequential rivers bursting their banks resulted in severe flooding of large areas of Central Europe, and that included a large portion of the Prague metro. So severe was the damage that it took until March 2003 for the system to fully reopen.

The reasons why this occurred are not for this page to discuss, however with climate change (and more) in mind it is to be hoped that every conurbation which has an underground railway / metro / subway system has adequate and working flood protection systems, and would remember to use them if there was a credible risk of a flood event.

There would be nothing worse than trains full of passengers becoming stranded in deep level tunnels which are filling up with water. The risk is equally severe in cities where tectonic activity is a known issue (San Francisco, Japan), as it is in any city where there are rivers / waterways - including London, Liverpool, New York, Boston, Berlin, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, etc.

Contradictory Camera Policy / Breach Of Human Rights

Finding Stations

When stations are entirely below ground potential passengers need a way of knowing that the station is there!

Often a transport system will have a special symbol which is used to denote station entrances - such as the stylised green 'M' symbol seen here adorning the roof of what would otherwise look like just an entrance to a pedestrian underpass to cross a road.

The topic of finding stations is looked at in greater detail on the Halts, Stops & Stations page.

Between Street And Platform

Stations which are 'under the ground' need to be linked with the surface, and for the majority of stations this is usually done by means of moving stairways - aka: escalators.

Sometimes these stations are very deep and it can take several minutes to travel between the platform and the street, making the escalators almost seem like a mode of transport in themselves.

Escalators are looked at in greater detail on the Niche Transports page.

In Boston, Massachusetts USA they colour-code their urban transports according to the line on which they operate. For the subway there are four lines (Red, Orange - which I was advised serves some of the best avoided areas of the city - Blue and Green). The first three of these use 'proper' subway type cars and contrary to the international 'norms' feature red marker lights at both the front and the rear of the trains. The Green Line uses street compatible streetcars and instead features green marker lights at the front. Other colour-coded lines include "Purple", which is used for heavy rail commuter trains and "Silver", which is used for a Bus Rapid Transit service which also includes surface and subterranean operations.

Toronto's subway and streetcar networks use a unique track gauge of 4ft 10 7/8in (1,495mm) rather than the usual standard of 4ft 8 1/2in (1,435mm). Although there are several theories there is no definite known reason for this, although it may be significant that the use of this gauge was established in 1861 (for the streetcars), this being ten years before Canada adopted standard gauge for rail systems. Although the subway system only dates from the 1950's it may be that the same track gauge as the streetcars was chosen because at one time serious consideration had been given to running streetcars through the tunnels and possibly having some subway routes run partially in tunnels and partially on city streets (possibly with the streetcars). Bearing in mind the cost of converting all the tracks and vehicles (and the lack of any real benefit in doing so), the unique gauge has remained to this day.

The use of standard-gauge tracks on the former Scarborough RT made it impossible for there to be any track connection between it and the other lines, and so when its vehicles needed anything more than basic maintenance they had to go by road to the suitably equipped subway maintenance facility. The Scarborough RT service used an automated urban transit technology and even thought it has now closed it is still seen on the Automated 'Driverless' Metro Systems page.

Traditionally Toronto's subway trains featured half-width train driver's cabs, with passengers also being able to sit at the front and enjoy a clear view of where the train is going. However the newest trains (2009) do not offer this facility. Also deprecated are the corrugated metal sides.

On the island-state of Singapore they use what effectively is a high-capacity urban rapid transit metro as the basis for its still expanding regional transport system. In Singapore city itself the trains operate underground; elsewhere they mostly operate on viaduct. Internally the air-conditioned trains are designed for crush loads with just limited longitudinal seating and plenty of standing space. To encourage passengers to travel in less crowded parts of the train they all feature full-width inter-carriage gangways.

These images show the MRT's original (and now replaced) trains from when the system first opened in the late 1980s. As with other Asian urban transport (transit) the Singaporean MRT has gone from strength to strength and expanded very significantly.

Bangkok, Thailand is a very large city where traffic congestion is such that gridlock is commonplace. Whilst it does have some rail-based urban transport the system is not as nearly as extensive as large conurbations in countries such as Japan, China, Singapore, etc. The trains are also a rather short 3 carriages in length.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis is often blamed for the failure of one combined road and urban railway transport scheme (which was to be located over State Railway Thailand tracks), resulting in over 1000 part-built concrete pillars littering the planned routes, sections of which were subsequently blocked by the building of a new elevated toll road.

In March 2012 thieves stole metal scaffolding helping to hold up a structure which had been involved in weight testing. As a consequence a few months later some of the concrete beams then fell onto the railway tracks below them.

Nowadays the Hong Kong MTR (Mass Transit Railway) has many types of rolling stock which operate over its 10 lines. Virtually all of them feature longitudinal seating and four (or five) pairs of sliding doors on each side.

Note that this section includes four animated images, these were all sourced from still image photographs and assembled in to working animations for this web page. The sequences shown were chosen to demonstrate some of what is possible - most images change every one or two seconds, this timing is not necessarily the same as on the real trains.

LCD displays show a much wider range of information than either route maps with flashing lights or LED dot-matrix displays. But each image is only seen for a while, so if (for instance - as seen in the animated image above) the next station is the 'end of line' and you wish to decide upon which train you need to catch for the next stage of your journey then you only have a limited amount of time before the image changes. In other words, there is still an important place for paper full route maps and network maps

The Kowloon Canton Railway KCR dates from 1910 and when built was more of a main line type of railway which extended right in to China than an urban railway for Hong Kong.

Nowadays this route is operated as the MTR East Rail line but one of its unique features is that the signalling system is designed for both computer controlled Hong Kong trains and human-driven freight (goods) and long-distance trains.

The human-driven trains follow the usual railway four-aspect red / amber / double amber /green colour light signals whilst computer controlled train drivers see a blue signal. A similar solution is to be applied on two sections of London's Metropolitan line where human-driven and automated computer driven trains (will) provide jointly operated services on the same tracks.

The blue signals will be between Raynors Lane - Uxbridge (jointly operated with Piccadilly line tube trains) and Harrow-On-The-Hill - Amersham (jointly operated with main line Chiltern Railways services).

Another unique former KCR feature is that East Rail trains still offer first class seating. Travelling first class costs double the usual fare and does not guarantee a seat.

Whilst most urban railways use conventional steel wheels running on steel rails, a few use rubber tyred wheel systems.

Although rubber tyred trains had already existed on the mainline railways, the French city of Paris is credited as having pioneered the use of rubber tyres on urban transport systems. The impetus behind this is said to be that at the end of WW2 the many years of heavy use but relatively little maintenance had left the métro system in a very run down condition and converting to rubber tyres was thought to be a way in which the system could be renovated and rejuvenated.

The first Parisian rubber tyred train was introduced in 1951. Experimental in nature it operated a shuttle service between Porte des Lilas - Pré St Gervais over a section of track that was not in public service. The line closed again in 1961, although it is now proposed to re-open it as part of a new métro line. In 1956 line No.11 became the first full line to be converted. It was chosen because of its steep grades. Since then another three lines have been converted to rubber tyred trains, these being Nos. 1, 4, 6. Line 6 was converted in 1974 to cut down noise on its many elevated sections. However converting existing rail-based lines proved to be a very expensive process and is no longer done. For the record, whilst line 14 also uses rubber tyred trains this is because it was built this way from the outset.

More information about rubber tyred metros and their genesis can be found here:
http://www.emdx.org/rail/metro/principeE.html

Nowadays métro trains using French rubber tyred technology operate in half a dozen French cities as well as several major global cities including Montréal Canada, Chicago USA, Santiago (Chile), Taipei, Taiwan / China and Mexico City. Other rubber tyred systems also exist, especially in Japan and with short distance airport people-mover systems.

Whilst there are several variants in the implementation of rubber tyred systems, the core theme is for the rubber tyres to use twin parallel rollways, each of which will be the width of a tyre. Depending on city and the system builder these are typically formed of concrete, H-Shape hot rolled steel, or flat steel. Some systems also locate regular railway track between the rollways and the vehicles also have railway-style steel wheels with larger (taller / deeper) than normal flanges. In normal use these will be at small distance above the rails, their primary function being for guidance at points (switches/turnouts) and crossings. They are also needed in the case of a flat tyre. In Paris the steel rails also enabled mixed traffic with rubber-tired and steel-wheeled trains using the same track, particularly during the conversion periods. This use of two systems operating in parallel increases building / installation and maintenance costs. Systems without these tracks use other solutions for dealing with flat tyres and switching tracks at junctions.

The essential difference between rubber-on-concrete and steel-on-steel is that rubber-on-concrete generates more friction. This increased friction results in various advantages and disadvantages...

Advantages of using rubber-tyred trains (compared to steel wheel on steel rail):

• Smooth ride (with little "jostling" around)
• Faster acceleration - although more modern steel-on-steel rolling stock using distributed-traction with a high-proportion of powered axles has narrowed the acceleration/performance gap with rubber-tyred rolling stock.
• Shorter braking distances, allowing trains to be signalled closer together.
• The ability to climb or descend steeper slopes than would be feasible with conventional rail tracks. For steeper gradients conventional rail tracks often need to use a rack + pinion (cog wheel) technology.
• Quiet ride in open air (for residents and those outside the train).

Disadvantages of using rubber-tyred trains (compared to steel wheel on steel rail):

• Higher energy consumption than steel-on-steel
• A larger quantity of excess heat is generated.
• Weather variance - loss of traction-advantage in inclement weather (snow and ice).
• Heavier; especially where steel rails remain too.
• Tyre replacement cost.
• In-tunnel noise is higher than normal trains due to the roaring sound caused by the tyres.

Rubber tyres have higher wear rates and therefore need more frequent replacement. Although a pair of steel wheels are more expensive than a pair of rubber tyres, the frequency of their respective replacements makes rubber tyres the more expensive option. In addition, additional rubber tyres are needed for guidance using the side rollers. In tunnels heat dissipation can be an issue as eventually all traction energy consumed by the train - except any electric energy regenerated back into the power supply system during braking - will end up as heat. Often this necessitates ventilating the tunnels. For fire resistance reasons the tyres are inflated with nitrogen.

As the VAL system does not include steel tracks and wheels so to ensure correct route selection at junctions it uses a centrally located guidance rail. Away from junctions the mere presence of the side guidewalls is sufficient to provide the required steering functions.

By way of contrast, the entire rubber tyred network on the Parisian métro was designed to also be suitable for steel wheel trains and at junctions guidance is obtained by lowering the rubber tyre rollways so that the steel wheels engage the metal tracks and the trains are steered in the traditional railway way, which is by the wheel flanges.

Apart from Paris and Lyon the only other French city to have a rubber tyred métro system which uses twin axles is Marseilles.

More information about the several French (and other nation) métro systems which use the single axle VAL system can be found on the Automated 'Driverless' Metro Systems page.

Inspired by events in Paris, which at the time was converting some métro lines to rubber - tyred operation, the Montréal Canada métro - which opened in 1966 - became the first 'new build' system to choose rubber tyred technology. Being a more modern métro system it was engineered to avoid the sharp curves that are a feature of its Parisian rôle model; this allows the trains travel more quickly between stations and gives it an overall higher 'average' speed (ie: the total 'point to point' speed which includes the time spent during station stops).

To reduce weather disruption in the severe and very snowy winters, the Montréal métro is fully enclosed with almost all the system underground - although some stations were designed to allow natural daylight to reach the platforms.

Real-time passenger information display system inside the Montréal métro trains. Information supplied includes the name of the next station and (as here) interchange possibilities. When not showing travel information the displays show other local information, news, weather forecasts, etc., and paid advertising.


A video showing this system in use has been placed on YouTube and can be watched (in a new window) by clicking either the projector icon or this link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG_zyodzp7g .

The French have also sold rubber tyred métro technology to a few others cities, sometimes with these cities also using localised variants of the same types of rolling stock that were being built (at the time) for the Parisian métro.

In Japan there are almost a dozen rubber tyred systems, these use home-grown technologies.

Sapporo's Nanboku Line opened in 1971 when it became the first such system to use a central guiding rail.

Other Japanese rubber tyred systems include the Kobe Port Island Line (also known as Port Liner) and New Transit Yurikamone.

Both of these use side guidewalls for guidance and are automated driverless systems so are often known as 'automated guided transits' (AGT).