
Making trains run on time - crunchiebones
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/11/03/making-trains-run-on-time
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r00fus
So the major issues listed are a) passenger exit/entry crowding and b)
passengers too close to the cars.

Why not look at the amusement park industry- they have bypassed these by
having strict controls on ingress/egress for the ride - you get on one side
and exit the other. Also they have guardrails or sliding doors preventing any
suicides or dangerous behavior from interfering with the ride (trains in
HK/Shenzhen had that years ago).

I fail to see why AI or a panopticon is needed to solve these problems.

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zakki
I don’t think strict control on ingress and egress solve the problem. It is
probably add more delay. Imagine in a train in Japan. There are hundreds
passenger with different destinations. How do they line up to get on and get
off the train?

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dsr_
Left side: entrance. Right side: exit. Right side always opens N seconds
before the left side opens.

This requires every station to have platforms on both sides of each track, but
that's fairly often the case anyway.

~~~
DanBC
> This requires every station to have platforms on both sides of each track,
> but that's fairly often the case anyway.

This is almost never the case in the UK.

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niftich
Load balancing between doors is an interesting problem.

Sometimes, people have reasons for picking a particular door. They may be able
to see inside and tell that there's fewer people in that part of the carriage,
or they might intend to disembark at a station where that door's placement
will confer an advantage: this is especially common in grade-separated rapid
transit systems, where the placement of paths towards exits varies from
station to station.

But at other times, people will try to board wherever they are able. This is
likely the case if they try to board after the 'scheduled departure', which is
the situation the article points to as a source of delays. And herein lies the
problem: presumably, the passengers' concern about catching the train at all
outweighs their desire to pick the best door. This solution is least likely to
solve the situations that cause the most disruption, and is most likely to
improve boarding at times when passengers have time and ability to make a
discretionary choice anyway.

A low-tech strategy to try is to designate one door per carriage as an exit
door, and the rest as entry doors. At a station, open the exit door first, and
the volume of exiting people will curtail attempts to embark. Then after a
few-second delay, open the rest of the doors and allow people to enter. This
is made more effective with physical separation between embarkation doors and
exit doors, such that the two streams of people don't interfere. Some newer
airport people mover stations have two tracks and 3 platforms: trains
discharge passengers to the outer platforms, while people wait on the center
platform until the entry doors open a few seconds later. This setup is also
common in amusement parks.

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tmjwid
The problem with a single designated exit door is that on super busy trains,
if you on the wrong end you'll cause more problems trying to get off through
all the people who aren't. Japan has already solved this with a very low tech
solution. The right hand side of the door is where people line to to enter,
the left hand side is where people exit. As a commuter in the UK that can't
remember when my train home was last on time, I find it hard to believe that
it's the passenger fault when we are told it's either infrastructure failure
or no reason is given.

I've switched to the tram train route that's just opened in Sheffield and that
is seeing the same problems. Northern trains running late causing a backlog.

I really miss Japan's rail system.

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benjiweber
The Jubilee line on the Tube has platform doors which help;
[http://citytransport.info/Digi/P1170633a.jpg](http://citytransport.info/Digi/P1170633a.jpg)
people queue by the doors until train arrives, safely separated from the
train.

People stack up on each side of the doors and let passengers off through the
middle before boarding
[https://i.pinimg.com/474x/19/91/b9/1991b9aa93463b7fa254e1d59...](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/19/91/b9/1991b9aa93463b7fa254e1d598708f01
--london-transport-the-tubes.jpg)

Some stations have multiple routes to the platform to improve spread
[https://i.pinimg.com/474x/d0/75/91/d075917d0c293cf183461e99b...](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/d0/75/91/d075917d0c293cf183461e99b93de3cf
--poster-design-london-transport.jpg)

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Animats
A classic on this subject, from British Rail: "The Pain Train".

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGMSFWv4Vgk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGMSFWv4Vgk)

