Theoretical plan to tell how busy a train will be

[najaB]

In ideal world, rather than passengers choosing less busy services, the railway would have sufficient capacity that if it knows a specific journey has more reservations than normal it can add extra carriages.

Not going to happen, for many reasons. For one thing, many routes are already using the longest trains that the infrastructure can support - you're not going to get five carriage trains if the shortest platform can only take four, unless you introduce 'part time' SDO with all the potential for cock-ups that introduces.

Then you'll find that the extra carriages will often not be where you need them to be - so costs for ECS moves to shuffle them around.

Not to mention the cost of buying these carriages and leaving them sitting around in depots 'just in case'.

 

[noddingdonkey]

I'm not suggesting that they be "just in case", but more used intelligently where they are added to different services each day to manage demand. With a bit of foreward planning they can be coupled to other services rather than needing ECS moves.

I did acknowledge it's not beancounter friendly, but more a blue skies idea of how the railways perhaps should be run rather than how they are now.

 

[fredk]

I'm not suggesting that they be "just in case", but more used intelligently where they are added to different services each day to manage demand. With a bit of foreward planning they can be coupled to other services rather than needing ECS moves.

I did acknowledge it's not beancounter friendly, but more a blue skies idea of how the railways perhaps should be run rather than how they are now.

The issue is nearly everything is unit operated these days which is not flexible in terms of adding and removing single cars in a short timeframe. When everything was loco hauled carriages got swapped and changed far more often and quickly.

 

[najaB]

I'm not suggesting that they be "just in case", but more used intelligently where they are added to different services each day to manage demand.

That is just having different length units allocated to services to match demand - which already happens, just in multiple units rather than single carriages.

 

[krus_aragon]

A similar system was part of the IEP specification for the class 80x, for example.

Here's the relevant part of the specification:

4.16 Passenger Counting System

TS299
Each IEP Vehicle must be installed with a system that automatically records the number of passengers boarding and alighting the IEP Train at each station. The system must record the individual journey, time and date for which this information applies. The system must provide data which shows for each IEP Vehicle:
• the number of passengers aboard the IEP Train on approach to each station;
• the number of passengers which alight the IEP Train at each station;
• the number of passengers which board the IEP Train at each station; and
• the number of passengers aboard the IEP Train on departure from each station.

TS1993
The passenger counting systems must, in addition to the requirements of TS299, automatically record the number of people moving between IEP Vehicles to facilitate the calculation of the number of passengers per IEP Vehicle.

TS1857
The system must be able to record the passenger numbers to within 5% or one person (whichever is the greater) of the actual number of people on board the IEP Train between each station stop.

TS1859
Recorded data for the entire IEP Train must be downloadable via the TMS

TS1860
All passenger count data must be accessible remotely and in real time from a control centre and operating depot.

 

[noddingdonkey]

That is just having different length units allocated to services to match demand - which already happens, just in multiple units rather than single carriages.

But that isn't really flexible enough if you're TPE and your choice is 3 or 6 carriages.

 

[infobleep]

This is incorrect as it's also available on VTWC website. After choosing how to collect your tickets, the next screen has an option to choose your seat from a carriage layout. This is not available on the mobile website but it works on a mobile if you use desktop version of the website or just use a computer

Would it be impossible or not worth the design hassle to make a seat selector that is mobile friendly?

 

[ys123]

Would it be impossible or not worth the design hassle to make a seat selector that is mobile friendly?

Sure they could, airlines have it