The Anonymous Widower

Do We Need Double-Deck Trains In The UK?

You regularly see articles like this one in the Guardian extolling the virtues of double-deck trains. Here’s an extract.

Consultants have drawn up blueprints for double-deckers up to 400 metres long, carrying more than 1,000 passengers, on the network. Supporters of high speed rail say tackling the limited capacity offered by existing lines is crucial.

Greening told the Sunday Times she was excited by the idea of “continental-style double-decker trains that immediately give you more seats and more space”. The trains could have glass viewing ceilings and meeting areas.

Have any of these advocates of double-deck trains ever travelled on one?

They may work on the Continent, but UK railways are different to the rest of the Continent and probably the rest of the world, in that we’re increasingly going for walk-in step-free access to our trains, whereas everybody else has low platforms and several steps up into the train, as I pointed out in this article. In the article I quoted from  the specification issued by Crossrail for their Class 345 trains.

Wide through gangways between carriages, and ample space in the passenger saloons and around the doors, will reduce passenger congestion while allowing room for those with heavy luggage or pushchairs.

From what I have read here on First Capital Connect’s web site, the Class 700 might be very similar.

If you’ve ever tried to get in and out of a French, German or Italian express train in a hurry, you will realise that they’re designed to different principles. And they are a total nightmare with a heavy case, in a wheelchair or pushing  a buggy. And I’m generally tslking about single-deck trains.

You must also consider the Health and Safety aspects of double-deck trains. If the British public felt they were dangerous and didn’t like the climbing up and down, they would get angry and Disgusted from Tunbridge Wells would get his computer out.

But the biggest problem of double-deck trains is that they need infrastructure clearance everywhere they might go. So if say you might want to run say one of the trains to an important event off its usual haunts, you would have to make sure that line was cleared to accept it.

With normal height trains, like the Class 800, they are designed as go-anywhere trains, that can accept the far corners of the network.

You could argue that the double-deck trains would only stay on high speed or high-density commuter lines, but then for reasons of efficiency trains they must also be able to run on other lines.

Double-deck trains are one of these ideas that look good to politicians, but create more problems than they solve.

July 21, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Design, High Speed Two, Trains