(The following article by Michael Lavitt was posted on the Trenton Times website on December 11.)
TRENTON, N.J. — The man standing at the train station stooped down to peer in the window of the train car’s lower level, just a foot or so above the platform in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.
“You can ride it starting Monday,” said someone who was getting off the train.
“NJ Transit?” asked the man, who was waiting for one of NJ Transit’s more conventional trains.
Yes, NJ Transit. The state’s first production set of multilevel vehicles or MLVs will start carrying passengers starting today with a noon departure from Trenton that is scheduled to reach New York at 1:27 p.m.
The late Tuesday night-early Wednesday morning trip along the Northeast Corridor was one of the final shakedown trips for the all-new train cars that will be NJ Transit’s first without a middle seat.
NJ Transit allowed a journalist to ride the three-car train that was staffed by the railroad’s engineering and operations personnel as well as some contractors who worked on the project.
The idea was to simulate day-to-day operations as closely as possible without actually carrying passengers, stopping at stations along the Northeast Corridor as it would in normal service. The crew opened the train doors as they would when picking up passengers.
But there were a couple of notable differences. First, the train had just three cars. And they were pulled by a diesel engine that night instead of one of the electric locomotives that normally ply the Northeast Corridor.
Also, in order to avoid having this special train delay other traffic on the corridor, Amtrak dispatchers told the crew to skip stops at Princeton Junction and Hamilton.
Based on my round trip between New Brunswick and Trenton, the new cars appear to live up to their promise of providing a better experience for commuters and other riders.
Cruising along at more than 80 mph between New Brunswick and Princeton Junction, the ride was smooth and quiet on the upper level. “You really don’t feel it,” said John F. Squitieri, NJ Transit’s director of equipment and design and program manager for the MLVs.
The train cars will be qualified to run at 100 mph and eventually 125 mph, he added. But you won’t see them running that fast in regular service.
The sculpted seat backs provide better support while also offering 25.27 inches of seat pitch or leg room, a full inch more than you get on NJ Transit’s Comet V cars, the newest before today’s introduction of the MLVs. Each seat is 2.2 inches wider than those on the Comet Vs, and you’ll never have people sitting on both sides of you.
In fact, there will be two single seats at each end of the cars’ upper levels, one with a small luggage rack next to it, near the stairs that lead to the mezzanine level where passengers will enter and leave the train.
Commuters have a way of finding the best place to sit, so you’ll have to be one of the first few people to board if you want one of those coveted seats.
The seats are covered in two tones of blue vinyl that have a clothlike look and texture. A focus group of passengers from different NJ Transit lines helped select the covering.
“Ninety-nine percent of the people voted for vinyl,” Squitieri said. They believed the vinyl seats would stay cleaner than cloth.
The seat backs are made of a white plastic that Squitieri said has a coating that will make them resistant to graffiti and easy to clean.
One tradeoff with the sculpted seats is that they won’t flip in different directions, so half the people on a car will be facing backward. But Squitieri said the focus group members felt the tradeoff was worth the additional comfort.
In addition, not having latching mechanisms means there will be one less thing for NJ Transit to maintain.
“There are a lot of features that I like and the passengers will like,” Conductor Douglas Ritchey said. “You have a clear line of sight from the vestibule. I can see all of my passengers.”
The conductor said some passengers on current trains flip seats so they face each other, put their feet up and place their bags next to them, effectively taking up four seats. They won’t be able to do that with the new seats in a fixed position.
Ritchey said he didn’t think the four steps up and down would present a problem for crew or passengers. Crew members “basically walk back and forth to Manhattan all day,” he said. “I don’t know anybody who’s going to be afraid of some stairs.”
In addition to the customer focus groups, NJ Transit engaged conductors, engineers and maintenance staff in designing the new trains, Squitieri said.
“There are definitely a lot of things that will help us in day-to-day operations,” Ritchey said.
Squitieri said months of testing had shown the need for minor changes, mostly adjustments to software for such things as the public address system, brake forces and environmental controls. Temperatures couldn’t be well maintained on older trains, but the MLVs have four temperature zones per car, each with its own sensor.
All three levels have adequate headroom with a ceiling height of 6 feet 4 inches on the upper and lower levels.
Only the upper level has overhead racks, while the lower level has coat hooks that fold down from the walls. A fairly full backpack designed to hold a laptop computer was a tight fit on the rack but could be squeezed in.
Passengers with large suitcases or a lot of packages will probably want to stay on the mezzanine.
The mezzanine level at each end of the car will have seats that flip down from the side wall of the train. Those seats have lower backs than the ones on the upper and lower levels.
When the seats are folded up, the area can be used for passengers with wheelchairs or bicycles. There’s also a padded “leaning station” that several passengers will be able to use to take the weight off their feet without sitting.
Most cars will have two doors at each end of the car leading to the mezzanine level. Cars with engineer cabs will have only one door on the end where the cab is located.
The new cars pack in a number of other passenger-friendly features. There will be call buttons in each car and in each restroom that passengers can push to request help in an emergency.
Destination signs in the cars will show where the request came from, so crew members will know where the problem is. They will be able to ask what the problem is over the intercom, and passengers will be able to respond.
“More than 50 percent of the cars will have toilets,” Squitieri said. All 127 cab cars will have restrooms, while 132 coach cars will also have rest rooms. There will be 142 more without restrooms.
The sinks also have a lip around the corner that should help to keep water from splashing onto the floor. The restrooms have a more finished appearance than the industrial-looking ones on older trains.
All the restrooms comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, providing enough room to turn a wheelchair around with the door closed.
“You almost have a sheltered, private cove” on the upper and lower levels, Ritchey said. The trains have more seating, more comfortable seats, new technology and a quiet ride, all factors that should make them popular with passengers.
“I kind of like it,” said Marquis Smith, the “rear brake” or assistant conductor on the train. “The passengers will like it, too.”