Glass platform doors? What next…silk covered seats?

Posted on April 5th, 2007 by The SUBWAYblogger in Second Avenue, This just in

How ’bout this for extravagant: Glass, floor to ceiling doors/walls that line the subway platform. Kinda like the glass doors at the AirTran stops or the monorail in Las Vegas. Ooo…I wanna go to Vegas.

In a nutshell, the doors and walls would provide a barrier between the tracks and the passengers on the platform. The idea actually sounds nice. They look kinda cool too. But unless the glass door company starts handing out free doors, it’s going to cost an ass load. Ohh, and it would only be for a few stops along the new 2nd Ave line.

So what’s the point? Well, they apparently help keep the platforms cooler by about 10 degrees!! That would be pretty sweet. Sure, shaving 10 degrees off of the already 105 temperature still leaves you with 95 sweaty degrees…but hey, at least it’s something.

Also, the doors keep trash off the tracks. Oh, and people too for that matter! It’s much harder to jump in front of a train when there’s no way to get out on the tracks.

Anyway, the MTA is looking into it. Sounds like a pipe dream though.

6 Comments
Tags:

Todd said on April 6th, 2007 at 12:09 am

Oh yeah, this is totally the thing to be thinking about when the company is almost a billion dollars in debt…
Reply
Alex said on April 8th, 2007 at 2:59 am

I don’t understand… so many metros/subways have this is in Europe and Asia. Why can’t NYC? Although the MTA is in debt and running a deficit, the actual city is running a SURPLUS. A good transportation system must be possible..
Reply
Todd said on April 9th, 2007 at 12:18 am

Europe and Asia? That’s a pretty wide generalization. Some European cities might have glass doors in their subway systems, but they also have 30+% taxation rates to pay for them.

Thanks, but I’d rather keep my money and deal with the lack of glass.
Reply
Berry said on April 11th, 2007 at 4:10 pm

sounds like a tagger’s delight!
Reply
Patrick said on September 10th, 2007 at 8:22 pm

Of course the MTA is in debt and running a deficit. If they told the truth (many billions per year) then they would have no excuse for giving crappy service while they sit on their ass.
Reply
Let's Revisit the Subway Air Conditioning Question : SUBWAYblogger.com: Blog from the New York Subway said on July 9th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

[...] in April, SUBWAYblogger laughed at the idea of having glass doors as a barrier to the subway tracks on the new Second Avenue line. The doors would work just like [...]