Well this is a first.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/nyregi...ion®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
What’s Next for the New York Subway? Toronto Already Knows
By EMMA G. FITZSIMMONSAUG. 22, 2016
the New York Times
TORONTO — Step on board, and the subway car immediately feels different.
With a clear view down the length of the train, commuters walk from car to car searching for a less crowded spot to stand. Others gather in the accordion-style passageway between cars, an area once separated by doors.
Nearly five years after Canada’s largest city introduced the spacious new cars, subway riders here — usually quick to find fault with the transit system — have given the trains a ringing endorsement.
“You can fit more people, especially during rush hour,” said Louis Molnar, 43, an accountant who stood in the shifting connector between two cars on a recent evening. “In the past, sometimes you’d have to wait for the next car, and this makes it so much better.”
Now, officials in New York City are embracing the car design to create more breathing room for subway riders as the system struggles with booming ridership and increasingly overstuffed trains.
The new subway trains, which could start to appear in New York by 2020 or earlier, do not have doors between cars, creating up to 10 percent more space. These so-called open gangway trains are common in cities like London and Shanghai, but subway systems in the United States have not adopted them.
Not far from New York on the other side of Lake Ontario, the trains have become popular in Toronto, a city that is also grappling with a growing population and an overtaxed transit system. Some riders even enjoy standing in the bouncing connector, comparing it to surfing or skateboarding.
“It’s just kind of fun,” Chantal Wall, 33, a stylist, said as she balanced on a connector in heels. “It makes it a little bit more interesting. I feel like I get a little bit of a workout.”
The full article can be read from the link above.
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