High/Low Platform Operation
A.16
A.17
A.18
The proposed LRV must be capable of operating both in street and on segregated rights of way in tunnel. Although it may prove possible to construct high platforms at certain street stops that
would be accessed by means of pedestrian subways or bridges, most
on-street stops will remain low platform. It is therefore essential
that the car should be capable of operation from low platforms.
In the tunnel sections,high platform operation is desirable to speed loading and alighting. It is particularly desirable at Admiralty
Station where it is important to provide cross-platform interchange
with the Mass Transit Railway without steps in the platform. How-
ever if low platform stock were used, it might be possible to raise
the LRT tracks to platform level to avoid the need for intermedia te
steps in the platform. The adoption of high platform operation in
tunnel sections from the start of operations would also reduce the
problems of ultimate conversion to conventional rapid transit
operation if required.
Several modern designs of LRV's are available with folding and
retractable steps that permit the same car to serve both high
platform and low platform stations. Several years' satisfactory
experience have been gained with this type of vehicle in Frankfurt, Cologne, Hannover and Bonn, and this type of arrangement is
recommended for Hong Kong. There may however be some design
difficulties in providing this feature on a narrow car; to date the narrowest cars with high/low platform capability are 2.35 metres wide (a batch of 30 cars of the P8 design delivered to Frankfurt). If difficulties were encountered in incorporating this feature, it could be omitted, and low platform operation
be adopted through the tunnels. Many of the older LRT subways,
for instance those in the United States, Brussels, Stuttgart
and Antwerp, work satisfactorily with low platform operation.
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