Where was bignosemac today, 2nd March 2019

[whole diary]

[Bmblbzzz]

Thanks. So that would imply a one-way movement of passengers within the station, eg they enter on the west and exit on the east? I've encountered track with platforms both sides in Poland (I think in the area that would have been Germany when the stations were built in the 19th century) but they didn't have the one-way flow.

[bradshaw]

The platform at Crewkerne was raised and widened for the introduction of the Cl 159s. It was also lengthened to accommodate 6 car trains at the same time. The downside to this was the prevention of reusing the down platform if a loop was needed here as one or two studies have suggested. Any loop would need to be east or west of the station, ending up with a Tisbury/Templecombe situation.

[grahame]

Thanks. So that would imply a one-way movement of passengers within the station, eg they enter on the west and exit on the east? I've encountered track with platforms both sides in Poland (I think in the area that would have been Germany when the stations were built in the 19th century) but they didn't have the one-way flow.

Within recent years, I've seen the double sided platforms on the S-Bahn in the centre or Munich - joining passengers enter the station and go onto a platform between the tracks, and there are outside platforms too.   Doors open on both sides, passenger leave on the outside and join on the inside.   Would do wonders and places like King's Cross on the Circle / Met / Hammersmith and City platforms ... if you have ever joined an evening peak train there toward Paddington - a crowded platform when the train arrives, and though that crowd pushes another crowd of City types from Liverpool Street / Moorgate / Aldersgate / Farringdon making for their trains up north.

Don't I recall both side opening at Arnos Grove for Piccadilly line trains turning back there?    I recall in my schooldays there were double sided platforms at Sevenoaks too, with commuters arriving back from London on platform 4 passing through the train standing in platforms 5 / 6 to reach the station exit on platform 6.  Just make sure the standing train wasn't about to leave - a slammer with no interlocking of doors to train movement in those days!

[rogerpatenall]

Very common, of course, on intra airport light rail systems.

[stuving]

Very common, of course, on intra airport light rail systems.

In those, often the doors don't open on both sides at once, as a security "air-lock" - which is a bit different.

[Bmblbzzz]

And of course in lifts in all sorts of places.

[Surrey 455]

What is the Spanish solution (and what does it solve)?

One track, platforms both sides, one for people getting on and one for people getting off.  Tower Gateway is a current example?

I'm sure I've seen it at one or two underground stations too. Possibly on the eastern part of the Jubilee line.

[eightonedee]

Oddly, Guildford platform 7 is still unfenced, though never used.

It has been - I've boarded at least once from 7 at Guildford during my 18 years' commuting there. The occasion I recall was quite some time ago, and I think it was during disruption when a "fast" ex-Gatwick caught up with a slow ex-Shalford or Redhill which was held at Guildford, the latter arriving at 6, the former held on 8. The sensible decision was made to allow the Gatwick to leave first, and passengers for its stops (North Camp, Blackwater, Wokingham & Reading) invited to cross to the Gatwick, whose train crew obligingly opened the platform 7 side doors to avoid having to go up and down the stairs or subway. I cannot recall if the doors on the other side of the train were open at the same time. 

[stuving]

And of course in lifts in all sorts of places.

Of course the big old lifts on London's deep tubes were like that, but I think the sequence of closing their exit gates before opening the entry ones had more to do with the kind of gates and the way they were manually operated.

Now, what about horizontal lifts, and I mean really horizontal ones? Wikipedia only seems to have that phrase to describe ones that go up and down and sideways too, which is another matter (quadrature lifts?). I mean ones that just go sideways, letting you in one door and necessarily out of one on the other side. I have never heard of one being built, but you never know - it's a funny old world, after all.

[Bmblbzzz]

That might be called a conveyor belt?

[rogerpatenall]

What is the Spanish solution (and what does it solve)?

One track, platforms both sides, one for people getting on and one for people getting off.  Tower Gateway is a current example?

I'm sure I've seen it at one or two underground stations too. Possibly on the eastern part of the Jubilee line.

Not on the Jubilee line. However, there are double faced roads at Canary Wharf on the DLR^▸ (Docklands Light Railway). Both sides available for entry and exit.

Before Sevenoaks (Tubs Hill) was rebuilt (in the 90's??) passengers arriving from London and exiting the station could avoid the footbridge by crossing through any train waiting between platforms one and two. And most did.

[Timmer]

I'm sure I've seen it at one or two underground stations too. Possibly on the eastern part of the Jubilee line.

Stratford - Central Line.

[stuving]

That might be called a conveyor belt?

Only in the way that a lift might be called an escalator - i.e. it's another way of providing a function that's similar but clearly different.

[Bmblbzzz]

Yes. I can envisage the sort of thing you mean (I think): a metal box that you get into and it moves horizontally, a sort of travelling room basically (German has a word for lift translates literally as "rising room" though I can't remember what the word is... ). I don't think I've ever seen it though, unless you count a cable car.

[froome]

Yes. I can envisage the sort of thing you mean (I think): a metal box that you get into and it moves horizontally, a sort of travelling room basically (German has a word for lift translates literally as "rising room" though I can't remember what the word is... ). I don't think I've ever seen it though, unless you count a cable car.

Transporter bridges are an example of what you are describing. You get in at one end, it moves across the gap, and you exit from the other end. They were built to cross rivers where a bridge couldn't be built due to height restrictions for shipping that they would create. We have two here, in Newport and Middlesbrough.