I was just reading up on Medium Capacity Metro systems, and one column listed capacity per hour as a criteria (20,000-30,000 persons per direction per hour) and it made me wonder how the UTA Trax stacks up. Years ago, a Portland planner explained the virtues of SLC's long blocks--we can run four car trains, when Portland can only run two-car trains. So, how does SLC's capacity stack up?
The Siemens S70 can hold 225 people, at crush loads. SLC can run four cars per train. And I know there are segments of the network that run trains every five minutes (where the blue, red and green lines share track), which is 12 trains per hour. So: 4*225*12 is 10,880 persons per direction per hour. Which suggests that Trax is not at it's max, it is pretty close to it (10,000-12,000). 12000/4/225 is 13.3 trains per hour, or a train every 4.5 minutes. So Trax is (in certain sections) very close to capacity. And in sections with curves/turns (900 S to 400 S) probably at capacity, and starting to generate delays.
UTA should probably be looking at either an alternate alignment (400 west) through downtown for the green line, or a transit tunnel under the 400 south intersection.
The Siemens S70 can hold 225 people, at crush loads. SLC can run four cars per train. And I know there are segments of the network that run trains every five minutes (where the blue, red and green lines share track), which is 12 trains per hour. So: 4*225*12 is 10,880 persons per direction per hour. Which suggests that Trax is not at it's max, it is pretty close to it (10,000-12,000). 12000/4/225 is 13.3 trains per hour, or a train every 4.5 minutes. So Trax is (in certain sections) very close to capacity. And in sections with curves/turns (900 S to 400 S) probably at capacity, and starting to generate delays.
UTA should probably be looking at either an alternate alignment (400 west) through downtown for the green line, or a transit tunnel under the 400 south intersection.
No comments:
Post a Comment
And your thoughts on the matter?