Passenger Trains > About That Caltrain Stadler KISS Door Arrangement

Regarding the recent TO post about the movement of a new Caltrain Stadler-built KISS
EMU to the test center in Pueblo there was much discussion about the double sets of
doors(high and low level) on the cars.

When first delivered to Caltrain the low level doors will be in use to match Caltrain's
low platforms at all stations.  The high level doors will be temporarily sealed and 
longitudinal seating(passengers seated with their backs to the doors/window) will be
placed up against them.  It is Caltrain's long term goal to switch to high level platforms
at which point the arrangement will be reversed: low level doors sealed up with seats
against them and the high level doors then brought into use.

Attached photo shows seats blocking those upper level doors.  Floor plans show three seats at
these locations.  There may be a transition period where Caltrain has both low and high
platforms in use at different stations in which all doors would be in use with some loss
of seating capacity.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/21 10:46 by milepost20.

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You may lose some seating capacity but there will still be room for standees so it won't be a total loss.

What are those two tubular objects on the end of the car??  Is there a coupler in the shadow??

Regarding 2 sets of doors, NJT uses cars with 2 sets of doors because all stations are not one OR
the other.

MBTA commuter cars all have a single door at each end with a trap to handle stops with hi-level
platforms.

Frank30 (Boston)

The "tubular" objects are semi-permenant couplers between intermediate cars.

The lower doors is at 22-inch ATOR, still needs gap-filler/extenable steps we saw below the doors as current Caltrain platform height is at 8-inch ATOR, and mini-high platforms would still need to be use for handicap boarding. 

The top doors is at 50.5-inch to be compatible with California HSR so Caltrain can share platform with CAHSR trains where platform space is at premium, such as Millbrae and San Franciso Transbay Center. CAHSR picked 50.5-inch height as all existing HSR trainsets capable of 200-mph have floor heights at around 50 inches. Only when all Gallery and Bombardier cars are retired can floor-height raising construction proceed.

Frank30 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What are those two tubular objects on the end of
> the car??  Is there a coupler in the shadow??
>
> Regarding 2 sets of doors, NJT uses cars with 2
> sets of doors because all stations are not one OR
> the other.
>
> MBTA commuter cars all have a single door at each
> end with a trap to handle stops with hi-level
> platforms.
>
> Frank30 (Boston)

Classic government thinking--poorly thought out from the get go.  

What is the seating capacity of these cars?  How does it compare to the Metra Electric bilevels?

These cars seem to be extremely heavy despite the propaganda about them (208,400 lbs per Wikipeida), and a large amount of the car appears to be vestibules instead of seats.

Compare to a Silverliner IV at 120,600 lbs., HIghliner II at 140,000 lbs.

Maybe I am missing something here, would love to know.

abyler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What is the seating capacity of these cars?  How
> does it compare to the Metra Electric bilevels?
>
> These cars seem to be extremely heavy despite the
> propaganda about them (208,400 lbs per Wikipeida),
> and a large amount of the car appears to be
> vestibules instead of seats.
>
> Compare to a Silverliner IV at 120,600 lbs.,
> HIghliner II at 140,000 lbs.
>
> Maybe I am missing something here, would love to
> know.

How accurate is that weight in Wikipedia? What is the source for that?

Some of the information I've found for European versions of Stadler KISS gives weight for an entire 6 car set. A couple of the specs I found come to around 109,000 pounds for a single car.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How accurate is that weight in Wikipedia? What is
> the source for that?

No idea, but Stadtler products are notoriously low on the seats/train length ratio.  They've become a meme because they look "cool and modern".

Some Caltrain KISS trainset data can be found in Stadler's official website:
www.stadlerrail.com/media/pdf/kcal0220e_us.pdf