I was thinking again about how a metro rail system would work if I designed it. I wrote about this before in a previous post but the design in my head is different now. It has been upgraded. I will try to keep the design ideas as bullet points.
Firstly, all trains that come to the station are express trains. They all go directly to one station.
Secondly, There is a separate platform for people getting off the train and they are kept separate from people getting on the train.
Thirdly, all trains are very small and all people that go on the train only sit down in single-file facing 90° to the train's direction facing the doors and the doors are only on one side of the train.
Fourthly, the trains sometimes separate themselves into smaller trains when they are parked in the exiting platform to adjust to the number of people that are getting on the train in the boarding platform, because some stations don't have many commuters compared to others.
Fifthly, there are two boarding platforms, one going a to b and one going b to a. Both the boarding platforms have two sets of tracks on both sides and there is a barrier with sliding doors that line up with the doors of the train. Both tracks on the boarding platforms have trains that are heading in the same direction but they are going to different stations.
Sixthly, There are no stairs or escalators in the station, just gentle ramps that zigzag all the way down to the platform zone, the walk is longer but the station does less work and a counter machine at the entrance knows how many people are in the station so it has time to order more trains in if there are large crowds.
Seventhly, As you enter the station the hall splits into two, one path goes to a slow but free service and the other goes to a fast but priced service.
The slow but free service is not a train but two conveyor belts that go to the same stations but they are very slow. One belt moves at walking pace and the other half that speed. You step onto the slow belt then onto the faster one. The faster belt has an endless row of seats on it. In the little world inside my head most people will use the free service in some way, like if they only want to go to one stop or if they are cheap skates and want to get across the city for free and don't mind taking a long time.
I really need to do some artwork to show how it all works.
