"Han Monsees" wrote in message
...

"Marratxi" wrote:

The RER double-deckers are good for shifting more people but they are a
bu**er to get on and off. The vestibules tend to get extremely crowded
with
people who don't want to go up or down the stairs to the seating areas.

This certainly is a problem in doubledecker trains. It is not possible to
have more doors than the ones above the bogies at the end of the carriages
(it takes way to much space to make doors + stairs in the middle; it would
cancel out the gain of having a doubledecker). Therefore, twice as many
people have to use fewer doors than in an ordinary metro-like train.
Therefore, I think doubledeckers are not very suited to railway lines with
many stops and little distance between stops.

That was similar to the problem that was encountered with the BR Southern
Region double-deckers (4001 and 4002), when they were tested on the suburban
services on the Dartford lines (in addition to the appallingly cramped
conditions required to fit within the British loading gauge). Although there
were additional doors between the vehicle ends, the additional time taken by
passengers from the upper decks detraining cancelled out the benefits.