Re: New Melbourne trams have fewer seats than the old ones but they're longer!

[james <lansdowne11@home.com>]

Exile on Market Street wrote:
> 
> 
> >
> >  Why can't the Melbourne transit authorities specify an
> > > interior seating design that meets their needs?
> >
> >
> > 
> I understand everything you're saying except the built-in-Melbourne part.
> 
> Understanding the local conditions is essential if you're going to have
> equipment that works properly and keeps the passengers happy, but it
> doesn't logically follow that the equipment has to be built where it will
> be used.
> 
> Else we shouldn't have gotten our new M4 Market-Frankford El cars from a
> Sydney manufacturing plant owned by a German company (I think the Swedish
> firm had already sold its share to the German one).

In the case of the poorly-designed Market-Frankford cars, SEPTA got what
it ordered. No matter where the cars were built, they would still have
come with small seats and poor passenger flow. SEPTA wanted them that
way for some reason. The cars look much better than the old Budd cas and
they're much cooler, but the Budd cars were much better designed when it
comes to seating arrangements and door locations. The Budd cars also had
a sturdier interior. The seats were not as "plush," but they withstood
the average wear and tear the average overweight American posterior puts
on transit seating. SEPTA had almost no choice but to order new el cars
due to safety concerns and outlandishly costly maintenance practices for
the Budd cars, but I can't imagine these cars will not be as difficult
to maintain in the near future. 

SEPTA has a way of having problems with new car orders. The Broad Street
Subway cars built by Kawasaki had problems with the doors soon after
their arrival. The Kawasaki trolleys had wheel and break problems, the
AM General trackless trolleys had electrical problems, and the new el
cars were delayed for years for various reasons. I don't know if the new
Norristown High Speed Line cars had problems, but I imagine they did.
One wonders if all transit systems experience such problems with nearly
every order of new cars they receive. Since SEPTA had problems with
various manufacturers, I wonder if SEPTA's design requirements are at
fault.  I cannot imagine a rail car manufacturer believing it could
build cars for SEPTA without enduring years of painful rebuilds and
redesigns.