#1365: Lesstanding

Railways again. This time I’m interested in improving the use of space in carriages and the process of moving people about.

Passengers currently have to jostle to board through one of many side doors (after wondering where exactly those doors will end up). Instead, today’s invention is a train in which only the front and rear coaches open their doors when it halts (with door locations marked on the platform).

This allows people to leave, two by two, via one and enter via the other. The space around all the other (closed) doors would be filled with (~8*3) extra seats for the poor paying passengers to actually sit down on.

I’m sure the (parallel) boarding/ unboarding time would not be increased, since everyone would know which direction to move in, causing minimal turbulence.

In an emergency, even the closed doors would be flung open and people could climb out over the seats.

(The extra seats could be relocatable, in case a carriage was required to be used in front or rear position. Bicycles? Rent them at the station).