THE BEST DESIGN OF CAR
FOR SUBURBAN TRAFFIC AT MELBOURNE
BY THOMAS TAIT,
Chairman of the Victorian Railways Commission.

 

The type of car best suited for the passenger traffic on the Melbourne suburban lines is a subject which has been receiving the consideration of the Commissioners for some time past, and I lost no opportunity of acquiring information which would be of help in determining this important question, visiting Hamburg and Chicago mainly for that purpose.
The latest standard car in use on the Melbourne lines for suburban traffic is of the cross compartment type, with two side doors for each compartment, and no corridor. The body of this car is 50 ft. long, and 8 ft. 6 in. wide, and will seat about 80 passengers. The principal advantages of such a car are maximum seating capacity for its length and width, as no space is taken up for corridors. and the celerity with which passengers can enter and leave the car owing to there being side doors for each compartment.
One of the disadvantages of such a car is that there is no means of getting from one compartment to another, which results frequently in some overcrowding with passengers standing in some compartments, while, at the same time, there is seating accommodation to spare in other compartments on the same train. Passengers from a way station boarding a fairly well filled train (that is a train in which a number of the compartments are already fully occupied), have not much time to select a compartment in which there is unoccupied seating accommodation, and are apt to enter compartments which are already fully occupied, in which event, owing to the absence of any means of access to other parts of the car or train, such passengers must either stand or overcrowd the seating capacity of such compartments, and this, although there may be seating accommodation to spare elsewhere on the train. The provision of corridors in the cars and of vestibule connections between the cars would overcome this and permit of a better distribution of passengers throughout the trains, and the use of the seating accommodation to the fullest extent. Investigation of some of the complaints received as to overcrowding on our suburban trains shows that while some of the compartments had more passengers in them than there were seats, there was seating accommodation on the train as a whole for all the passengers on it.
Another disadvantage of the existing type of car is the swinging side door. Although the gage of the Victorian lines is 5 ft. 3 In. (with the exception of three short narrow-gage lines), we do not derive as great an advantage as we should from this wide gage In the direction of being able to run wide carriages, etc., as contrasted with a 4-ft. 8½-in. gage, owing to the fact that the tracks on double-track lines and elsewhere have been built so close together, viz., 11 ft. 8 in. center to center, whereas in America the 4-ft. 8½-in. double tracks are built from 12 ft. to 13 ft. center to center.
It has not been considered advisable to use so wide a side-door car that the side door, if open, would strike the head or arm of a person projecting from a car on a contiguous track, and this has limited the width of the body of the cars for use on our suburban lines to 8 ft. 6 In. The use of sliding, instead of swinging side- doors would, I think, permit of the width of these cars being increased to about 9 ft. 6 in., with a considerable increase in the floor area available for seating accommodation and corridors.
Another disadvantage of the swinging side-door is the fact that it requires—In the interest of the safety of the passengers in the compartment, as well as those on trains running on contiguous tracks and of persons standing on station platforms—to be closed and fastened, and that this requires the services of the guards and platform staff, as well as involves some delay at stations, and the closing of these doors is accompanied by objectionable noise, which cannot be entirely avoided. Moreover, a swinging side-door closed but not fastened is an element of danger, especially in the case of children riding in the compartment, as it may swing open if leaned against.
The closing and fastening of side-doors will become a very important matter if electric traction is adopted, for with the increase in acceleration on electric trains (that is, the increase in speed when starting from stations) it will not be possible for the present staff to close and fasten such doors, and to restrict the acceleration on electric trains would be to abandon to some extent one of the chief advantages of electrification.
The adoption of a sliding side-door on the cars employed, at least for the suburban traffic, would enable us to safely widen those cars sufficiently to provide a corridor without diminishing their seating capacity, thus with vestibule connections, between the cars, enabling the passengers to distribute themselves throughout the train, and utilize the seating accommodation to its fullest extent.
Sliding aide-doors could not, however, be closed and fastened by the guards and platform staff, but I see no reason why such doors could not only be opened, as the swinging doors are at present, by the passengers themselves, but the closing and fastening of them be left, with safety, to the passengers, as in the case of the electric cars on the Southport line of the Lancashire & Yorkshire. Thus, not only would some time at stations and labor of staff be saved, but the noise accompanying the closing of swinging doors be got rid of. Less danger would be attached to failure to fasten a sliding door than in the case of a swinging door, for, in the event of a child or other person leaning against it, it would not swing outwards and would not slide. The liability to catch and seriously injure fingers would be less with the sliding than the swinging doors, as also the liability to injure persons standing on station platforms. I may add that sliding doors at the ends and the center of cars have been lately adopted on the underground railways in London, and opposite each pair of seats on the Illinois Central for its suburban traffic at Chicago.
As I have mentioned, the adoption of sliding doors would enable us to safely use wider suburban cars and provide a corridor without much, if any, reduction in the seating capacity. On the underground railways in London the cars with sliding doors have a central corridor, or, more property speaking, a central aisle, while in the Illinois Central company's new type of suburban car there is an aisle on each side. This latter is, no doubt, the best arrangement to facilitate the movement and distribution of passengers throughout the car and the celerity of ingress and egress, but two aisles occupy too much space, and the advantages gained as contrasted with one aisle do not justify the sacrifice of so much seating accommodation. The extra space gained by the use of sliding instead of swinging doors for suburban cars will not be sufficient to provide more than one aisle without a serious diminution in seating capacity, which we cannot afford, but a corridor or an aisle along one side only would appear to have an advantage over a center aisle in that passengers entering the car on the aisle side could. In the event of there being no vacant seat in the compartment immediately opposite the door by which they entered, pass along the side aisle to a compartment with vacant seating accommodation without in any way disturbing the passengers in the compartment immediately opposite the door by which they entered the car as they would with a center aisle.
It would be possible, as a rule, to so run cars with one side aisle that the aisle would be next the station platforms on the trains bringing passengers into the city, especially during the busy hours of the morning, the seating capacity of which trains is fully taxed, and for which passengers have little time to select a compartment with vacant seating room. The aisle being on the side of the car away from the platform at the central terminal stations on departing trains would be no disadvantage, as passengers taking such trains at those stations have, as a rule, ample time to select a compartment which is not fully occupied. Nor would the aisle being on the side away from the platform be of any disadvantage in the case of passengers disembarking at any station, as it would not be necessary for them to use the aisle to reach the door of their compartment. The Prussian State Railways have adopted an aisle on one side for their suburban cars in Berlin and Hamburg.
The accommodation for passengers in a number of our suburban ears is somewhat too luxurious and too liberal as to space, and consequently too costly, having regard to the comparatively short time suburban passengers occupy such accommodation. The average length of all journeys on our suburban trains during the year ended June 30, 1907, was only 4.76 miles, and the average time occupied per journey about 17 minutes—the average fare being 2.41d., which is equivalent to about .5d. per passenger per mile. Not only do partitions and high seat backs and luxuriously leather upholstered seats and backs with upholstered arm-rests add appreciably to the cost of suburban cars, but they add materially to their weight—a very important factor in view of the numerous starts which the suburban trains make, and the heavy gradients on some of our lines. We can undoubtedly save considerable expenditure in the construction and maintenance of our suburban cars by the adoption of comfortable low-backed seats upholstered in leather or other suitable material without arm-rests, and the elimination of all partitions except between smoking and non-smoking compartments, in combination smoking and non-smoking cars. The abolition of partitions and high-backed seats will not only increase the air space and improve the ventilation and light, but allow passengers to see at a glance where there are vacant seats, and reach them by way of the proposed aisle.
The seating and other accommodations provided for suburban travelers at the various places visited by me fully confirm me in the views I have just expressed.
Reprinted from The Railway Gazette, 31 January, 1908