Azur riders to become true straphangers
Azur trains are to get straps for real straphanging, the STM having finally caved in to complaints from short people who can’t reach the ceiling bars. (Thanks to SMD, who sent me the link, even though he’s too tall for it to apply to him.)
jeather 14:23 on 2019-09-04 Permalink
Fucking finally. If the designer thinks this is such a massacre of his beautiful cars he should have taken actual human sizes into account. I am just about average height for women and I can’t reach the bars, I’m not even close.
Spi 16:23 on 2019-09-04 Permalink
I agree with the designer the bars needed to be higher, you see it on busses and older metro’s when the bar is lowered to eye-level (or an average height male) everyone stands a few steps back from them because no one wants to be that close to a metal pole. What happens is that people that are standing back to back then end up blocking the aisle of the metro and if the whole point of having an accordion metro is to allow people to move easily from one end to the other then lowering it defeats the whole purpose.
The solution was always straps or more vertical poles.
Kevin 17:20 on 2019-09-04 Permalink
The bars were designed with the idea that people in the folding chairs would give up their seats.
So maybe he should have just not have installed seats …
denpanosekai 17:54 on 2019-09-04 Permalink
So what are we going to do about the screeching noises INSIDE the trains? Was that also part of the design?
Kate 18:52 on 2019-09-04 Permalink
denpanosekai, if you read back a day or two, you’ll see that the STM knows about the noises, which are caused by an after-market device installed to keep the Azur’s doors from getting snagged on gravel tracked in by passengers in wintertime. Apparently the motion of the air inside the train is causing the screeching, and they’re already working on a solution.
(Given the cussedness of things in general, whatever solution they find to the screeching noise will cause a different problem, which will need another new solution, and so on.)
Kevin, people do give up their seats for the frail and the elderly. They also give up their seats to make room for people in wheelchairs, but I’ve noticed they’re not so fast to get up for someone pushing a baby carriage, although sometimes they do.
But I very much doubt it crosses anyone’s mind that they should stand to make room for more standees. You stand up randomly, and someone else is going to grab that seat and sit down.
Chris 19:38 on 2019-09-04 Permalink
Kate, maybe denpanosekai is referring to the same noise I’ve heard since day 1, a high pitch constant whistle.
Kate 19:58 on 2019-09-04 Permalink
Chris, would you call that a screech? This sound we’ve been discussing is a real crescendo of a screech.