"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:40:02 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

The vestibules are quite large! Partly because of the need to
accommodate the stairs, but they are impressively big.

And what that means is that, together with the fact that you can't
have double-decker accommodation over the bogies and at the vehicle
ends, the capacity of a double-decker set of a given length tends to
be about 1.5 times that of a similarly-appointed single-decker set of
the same length, not double as some seem to think.

Given that the UK tends to use 2+3 seating, which the Netherlands and
Germany tend not to, that means that (because of the limited width on
the top deck meaning 2+3 would be impractical) it's nearer about 1.2
of the seated capacity of a typical British commuter train - and
probably about the same crush-loaded, as the low ceiling tends to mean
standing on the top deck isn't practical unless you're a midget.

You should see the double-deck trains used by the Chinese on the Shanghai to
Nanjing runs. 3+3 seating in moulded seats with a little bit of padding.
Plenty of room to stand up on the upper deck, although they are seat
reservation compulsory, from what I remember. They have a soft class, I
believe, but have never had the pleasure.
--
Terry Harper, Web Co-ordinator, The Omnibus Society
75th Anniversary 2004, see http://www.omnibussoc.org/75th.htm
E-mail:
URL: http://www.terry.harper.btinternet.co.uk/