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The main downside of double-decker train cars is the time it takes passengers to to board them. And, since this is one of the main factors limiting metro frequencies and thus capacity, they’re not that suitable for subways. To maximize metro capacity, you want long trains with many doors and very high frequency.
Double-decker cars are much more suitable for lower-frequency service (S-Bahn, regional, long-distance,…) where they’re also commonly used.
Of course, you could still use double-decker cars in a metro (and maybe some places do), it’s just suboptimal.
Two level platform? Then you’re actually boarding double the number of passengers, could be useful in very busy stations.
It sounds like a weird idea at first, but maybe it could actually work. Kind-of like running two trains on top of each other instead of after each other. I guess the downside would be the need for bespoke rolling stock and larger platforms. I think, it would generally be preferable to double the frequency or run longer trains. But it could be interesting if you’ve already exhausted those.
I think one of the bigger things keeping metro rolling stock from using double decker units is the need to go underground. Increased height means larger tunnels or deeper cuts and that can get cost prohibitive. This is especially the case when simply lengthening the tunneling needed for longer station boxes/platforms to support higher capacity single deck trains is less costly.
Some subway cars in Sydney are double decked. The seats are a half floor up or down from where the doors open.
As in a traincar with a staircase inside, or as in two stacked rail tracks in parellel along a subway route?
I dunno where you live but Metra in Chicagoland (connecting the city center to the surrounding suburbs) are double decker already. The L trains downtown don’t really need them.
Metra is more of a commuter system than a metro system… but when looking at systems like San Francisco’s BART, the line between a metro and a commuter railway gets blurry.
New York has some of the longest subways at 600ft (160 meters)
Next up is shanghai and Beijing.
Paris is 6th.
So we could go longer but maybe more frequent is better?
High-frequency systems with shorter trains are often more effective at moving passengers quickly during peak hours, because the trains come more often, reducing platform overcrowding and wait times. For example, the Tokyo Metro system, despite having relatively shorter trains compared to New York, serves a much higher passenger volume because of its incredibly high frequency and reliability.
What I’m thinking is double decker lets people who are going through the downtown (so cities not on the coast) to be out of the way.
Most subway lines were dug after the city they go under was built, and, for example, there’s a whole lot of London on top of the London Underground. Very difficult to dig upwards, very expensive to dig downwards. In the above ground sections you’d have to rebuild all the road bridges.
Much easier and cheaper to run the most efficient service possible with a high throughput of trains.
Here in Boston a lot of the commuter rail cars are double decker. I guess it’s an upgrade to carry more people rooms but a better upgrade would be running more trains. That costs money though
Like other people said, I don’t know about subway. You want to be quick on quick off. I don’t usually even sit (even when there’s room )
I went on the Naples subway once, and they were running full size 2-deck commuter trains on the subway. It was way overkill.
