I feel like they would be reduce incidents of people/things falling into the tracks as well as help with queues in front of the doors (i.e., people know where to queue, as opposed to just following the train until it stops).
I feel like they would be reduce incidents of people/things falling into the tracks as well as help with queues in front of the doors (i.e., people know where to queue, as opposed to just following the train until it stops).
In practice the incidents are rare (even in case of metros, it's something you read in news papers every time it happens), and the few attempts to implement them were generally underwhelming. And, if anything, the risk of a person getting between them and the vehicle means you're just swapping risks around.
So yeah, they're costly, of dubious use, they're yet another part that can break, and a general eyesore. And, if you want dense networks (and you do, trust me on that), then increasing the amount of space required for a stop is also a Bad Thing.