Passenger Emergency Equipment

[BayParkwayW]

Hi all,

I’m aware that MANY years back, some subway trains had fire exinguishers (as well as emergency door releases, similar to present-day buses.) I’m wondering if the following things would be feasible.

1) Put fire extinguisher in every functional full width cab (if they aren’t there already). Leave the intermediate “abandoned” cabs alone, and in the case of R32/R42 trains, only put a fire extinguisher in the front/rear and middle car.

2) Add an emergency door release lever, if there’s no emergency intercom already installed for passengers

 

I’m particularly targeting this at the 75’ cars (R46, R68, etc) that have their end doors locked. When the infamous F train got stuck in a tunnel, there was no way for passengers in “isolated” areas of the train to get help. Customers were left in the dark unsuccessfully trying to pry the side doors open. This is a safety issue because no passenger should be stranded in a car. Ideally, every car should have either an intercom or a door release.

 

In my humble opinion, I think investing in safety is more worthwhile than spending money on LED lights, digital ads, and full cabs. What do you guys think?

[RTSTdrive]

As much as I wholeheartedly agree with this idea, there's a reason why the end doors are locked on the 75' cars and it's purely due to hazardous clearance issues. When clearing curves, the anti-climbers produce gaps that are larger than the ones seen on standard 60' BMT/IND cars. Thus unlike other car types, they're truly restricted to being unlocked by authorized personnel.

[BayParkwayW]

27 minutes ago, RTSTdrive said:

As much as I wholeheartedly agree with this idea, there's a reason why the end doors are locked on the 75' cars and it's purely due to hazardous clearance issues. When clearing curves, the anti-climbers produce gaps that are larger than the ones seen on standard 60' BMT/IND cars. Thus unlike other car types, they're truly restricted to being unlocked by authorized personnel.

Exactly right. But I’m saying if the doors need to be locked, people should be able to “escape” the car by some means, without having to break the big window on the storm door (which is possible only because of the rubber window frame)

[bulk88]

21 hours ago, BayParkwayW said:

Exactly right. But I’m saying if the doors need to be locked, people should be able to “escape” the car by some means, without having to break the big window on the storm door (which is possible only because of the rubber window frame)

Breaking the glass is the MTA's point. For an example why some Metros/rail operators like NYCT NEVER have any emergency egress,  read  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/547c8fe040f0b6024100016d/R072012_120523_Kentish_Town.pdf . It is so "20 minute delay" in tunnel doesn't turn into a million dollars of regulatory fines for self evacuation. Let the insurance companies and judicial system handle any medical deaths or madmen with a knife on a stuck train. For the A train 135 street derailment, a number of storm door windows were kicked out. Too bad nobody knows about the 75 foot open switch in the exterior doorway. I keep a mini screwdriver to jimmy the R46/R68 door if needed. The latch is 2 hooks, in an updown config. Door hook faces down, frame hook faces up. You can see on R44 SIR trains how it works. 1 out of 10 75 foot doors can be opened if you shake them the right way.