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Comment by sascha_sl | Hacker News Reader

Not even that. Most lines are already at maximum capacity, and the number of cars is usually dependent on the shortest platform on the line already.

We take this so seriously, any stop, even unplanned, where the doors might open aside from absolute emergencies must be on a platform of sufficient length.

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In the UK it's quite normal, I think, for them to tell people who want to get off at stop X that they have to be in carriages Y-Z because the platform isn't long enough for them to open the doors of other carriages. There seems to be a Wikipedia page on the general topic:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_door_operation ("Selective Door Operation enables trains to call at a station where the platform is shorter than the train.")

It's my understanding that the capacity of the UK train network is mostly limited by the granularity of the signalling.

That's one of the situations where the UK seems like a halfway-honorary US state, in a "Hold my damn beer--you're all right!" sort of way.

>Not even that. Most lines are already at maximum capacity, and the number of cars is usually dependent on the shortest platform on the line already.

Here in the UK we run trains that are longer than platforms quite frequently. I'm talking about 9 car trains stopping at 2 car platforms here as well, not 9 car trains where the front and rear doors of the first and last carriage don't open.

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