Noticed the Siemens coaches have built-in fold-down bridges for the platform gaps. The gaps look fairly wide; are the Siemens coaches a little narrower than the standard American coaches, or does the Brightline have wide gaps? Or is it just an illusion?
This is interesting to me because both of my local MBTA commuter rail stations have low-level platforms, which don't meet ADA standards, and they are threatening to close them rather than perform necessary upgrades. But high-level platforms don't work because both stations are built on curves, and the gaps would have to be too wide. The current stations are very convenient walking distance to two large neighborhoods, but the proposed solution is to build a new station on a straight stretch of track halfway between them, which isn't convenient to anyone, no parking, too far for most people to walk from either neighborhood, etc. (A very problematic "solution".)
High-level platforms with wide gaps and built-in fold-down bridges on the cars would (I think) solve the accessibility problem. The only issue would be getting the T to update its equipment, which they would probably be willing to do in about 40 years when the systems that have bought these cars second-hand from Amtrak decide to sell them off because maintenance is too expensive. (I remember when I was commuting daily in the earl/mid 1970's when the T bought a whole bunch of "new" cars, about 30 years old, from the LIRR, which were much better than their existing cars.)
Bitter much? Not me...
