Zermut wrote:
wrote:
"Michael Bell" wrote...
Boltar wrote:
Michael Bell wrote:

There is (or maybe was) a project to lower the floors of new tube
stock and/or maybe only the trailers of existing stock by redesign
and fitting smaller wheels - only fitting smaller wheels in the case
of existing stock - to allow wheelchair access, and much more
commerically important, though with no legal need, to make it easier
to use children's pushchairs and shopping trolleys.

Can't see how they'd do it. Theres little enough room under the floors
for the equipment as it is.

For new stock it shouldn't be too hard - power electronic equipment is
continually getting smaller, and the possibility of articulated trains
provides more opportunities. The existing stock is an example of very
bad design - the Northern line trains have HIGHER floors than the stock
they replace, and yet the seats are nowhere near the walls, so capacity
is limited.

I've seen drawings of the proposals. I must look for the book I saw it
in. If you do this only on trailer cars, smaller wheels are not a
problem. It would be quite enough for wheelchair, pushchair and
shopping trolley access to have only half the vehicles with
platform-level floors, and well distributed along the length of the
train. But the plan was for the WHOLE train be lowered in new stock.

ITYM lower. To be lowered they would have to have high floors first!

Also , what happens at stations where the platform is already at the
level of or higher than the trains floor such as the new section of
the jubilee line , the bakerloo north of queens park, some on the
piccadily etc..?

Ah yes. There is indeed a problem.

No it isn't! There's no rule that says all lines must use stock of the
same floor height. Jubilee and Piccadilly trains would have higher
floors than Victoria Line trains etc.

There's only a problem where trains of different floor height use the
same platforms: Rayners Lane to Uxbridge, and the Bakerloo beyond QP.

But you notice that after a burst of
enthusiasm for raised platforms, things have gone quiet. Second thoughts?
Investigations into other possibilities?

Or alternatively, an appraisal of the system followed by an understanding of
the possibilities?

The only option would make the platforms level with the train doors,
instead of stepping up or stepping down. If you look at the tube
system in Toronto, Canada (Metropolitan Line type stock), the
platforms are level with the train doors and floors to enable
wheelchair users to roll on and off. That is why the tube stock and
surface stock in London needs to have the platforms raised to be level
with the train doors and floors to enable wheelchair users to roll on
and off.

And you can do that on every station at the DLR and a few on the Tube,
but extending this to the whole Tube network would not be so easy. The
trouble is that making it level would not make it RORO - there's this
big gap to mind...

Lowering the floor on the tube stock and using smaller wheels is dumb,
unrealistic and unworkable.

Do you have proof it can't be done? I suspect it can't, but your claim
is meaningless without evidence.