Glass Platforms May Calm Sweaty New York Subway Riders

Comrades,

The St Petersburg Metro does something similar but without the glass. After the train arrives doors slide open on the platform to allow passengers to leave and enter the carriages. You never see the outside of the train.

The motivation is to seal off the platform if there is a flood in the tunnel. This is a possibility because St Petersburg is built on a marsh and the metro crosses under the River Neva in many places. The tunnels are very deep down and passengers travelling down on the escalators will often sit down and read a book on the trip down to the platforms.

Greg

Most countries have badly designed subway systems who purpose is to maximize the number of workers. At one time there were elevator operators whose task was to grab the rope clutch and move the car up/down. Times went on until we had push button operated elevators...yet we had guys in there whose job was to push the button. This was the elevator unions.

Now a subway car has two men. one to drive it and one to close the doors. People get on and get off via the same doors. There should be a set to get on and a set to get off, slightly staggered. The doors should be like elevators. One on the car and one on the track side. No driver needed = full automatic. Totally closed car way so no-one can get in. Why is this not done? unions hate the idea, just like the elevator operators who warned of global death and destruction if we pushed our own buttons on the elevator. A subway should be even simpler. No buttons needed.

I remember an elevator I rode with a rope clutch. I threw it myself. It was pretty cool to run such an antiquity. Actually it was a steel cable. It had 2 big 4" or so iron oval slugs clamped to the cable at the top and bottom of the cable that caught in a trap in the elevator to keep the elevator from running past the basement or top floor.

The London Underground Jubilee line has had these Glass platforms for a number of years now. They certainly make you feel safer in the rush hour squeeze and the stations feel a whole lot cleaner as well.

I agree the New York subway needs to be renovated and times like this new ideas will be the best time to implement them. From the comment above, "walling off the baking platforms would allow them to be air conditioned using a new kind of water-cooled system, preventing summer heatstrokes and the fouling of fine silk shirts", air-conditioning the platform would not save on the utility expenses for such a big place like a subway, unless there is a way to keep the cool air inside the building. The train itself generates heat only at the engine compartment but the actual blast of air is cool at the time it arrives, so may be by blocking off the entire side of the platform will stop the rush of air from disturbing the air-conditioned air. This barrier will also damper down the noisy trains and eliminate all of the above mentioned problems as well. It's a go on my part, just how it will be designed is another problem. I hope my complete barrier idea will be picked up on, on the other hand I like seeing girls with their skirts flying up in the air as the trains comes in, drools.