Sounds like it might speed loading and unloading, but does it? Getting a bike from one end of the car to the other, in the narrow aisle between seats, is pretty tricky--especially on a crowded moving train!
I think conductors have decided this is a bad idea since they never seem to enforce it.
It might actually work if the cars' interior layout were rearranged a bit--make one side of the lower level just for bikes, and the other just for seats. I hear that other operators that use these cars (like ACE) do have different layouts, though I haven't seen this myself (but they still impose the stupid 16 bike limit, which is apparently mandated by the feds).
2 comments:
I saw those new stickers. The conductors I've spoken with think this new arrangement is kind of ridiculous.
I've experience one conductor enforce this and it was a disaster. Pulling into Palo Alto, 8 bikes had to go from one side to the other through the seats. This was very tricky so nobody could board through this side - the "entry" side.
I was complaining on the train one day about how of all the simple ideas Caltrain could implement to improve their service for almost no money - this is what they came up with. Amusingly, someone who was boarding and heard me talking about the signs - but not that I thought they were a horrible idea - waddled up and said "That was my idea! Caltrain actually listened!"
ARGH!
Here are ideas I think are good.
"Bikes board first on the bike car". People without bikes will sero-sort to car #2 and reduce overall dwell time.
"Dispatcher twitters 2 bike car trains 30 minutes before departure. Trains subject to last minute changes." Certainly the dispatcher has a computer with web access.
I saw something that sums up Caltrain's ability to adopt "high-tech" solutions. There is an ad for a special train to a concert at AT&T park on their signboards at the station. Only it says "AT*centsign*T park", not AT*ampersand*T park. Their signboards don't even have a character for ampersand. This in Silicon Valley. They probably paid millions for sign boards with the capability of a Senior Project for someone's BSEE.
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