Bi-directional Car with Doors on Both Sides
A.5
It is recommended that the car should be fully bi-directional
with a driver's cab at each end and doors on each side.
Doors
A.6
A.7
on the offside of the car are required in order to serve Admiralty and Pedder Stations since the design of these stations (which are
being partially constructed as part of the Modified Initial System of the Mass Transit Railway) requires the use of a car that can
load on both the nearside and the offside. The car would also
be able to serve island platforms on any further underground
sections; island platforms represent a more economical and
narrower design of underground station than side platforms.
Once offside doors have been provided, it makes sense to provide
a full driving cab at each end, so that the car is bi-directional
in the same way as a conventional rapid transit train. A bi-
directional car can be turned back at a crossover, reversing
siding or stub-end terminal and does not necessitate the
provision of turning circles or triangles at termini. Several of the existing loops at termini are unsuitable for modern single-
deck cars because of their curvature or limited length clear of
the through tracks; the purchase of bi-directional cars would
permit their replacement by new terminal layouts. Bi-directional
cars also facilitate the provision of termini or intermediate
turn-backs on underground sections where the high cost and
alignment constraints would rule out turning circles.
A bi-directional car also has advantages in the event of emergencies
involving blockages of the track, since it can simply be reversed
at the nearest crossover. This ability to turn back at crossovers may also prove useful for short periods during tunnel construction
when cars could be turned back on either side of an obstruction or
working site.
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