Mr Finish Line
Active Member
This is indeed a problem, but can easily avoided without needing to run unnecessarily long trains.
Most importantly, the station needs to announce the size of the train before it arrives, so people can arrange themselves accordingly. Like you said, with a 6-car train, the cab car is 150 metres from the end of the platform, so it could take up to 2 minutes to walk to the nearest door if someone's waiting at the wrong end of the platform. Which is longer than the trains typically stop. Here in the Netherlands, the length of the next train is displayed on the screens, as you can see below. Dutch platforms are also 12 cars long like ours, yet it's no problem that this particular train is only 4 cars long. As in Ontario, you can see the stopping markers along the platform, so you just need to make sure you are between the <4> signs in either direction (you can see the blue <4> sign in the background).
View attachment 439566
Additionally, the accessibility car doesn't really need to always be the 5th car back from the locomotive. With a 6-car train, it could easily be the 3rd car back from the locomotive, allowing those trains to stop near the middle of the platform rather than all the way down at one end. It makes no difference to someone using the accessibility coach where in the train it is. Wherever it is, it will stop at the mini-platform at the station where you board, and also at the station where you alight. The only change required would be to install a second set of stopping markers for 6-car trains in the direction where the locomotive is leading. There are already separate stopping markers for 6-car trains while the cab car is leading.
As I mentioned in my reply to smallspy, I doubted our networks ability to do this right now. I figured putting signs at parts of the platform that say something like "Off-peak trains may be shorter and not reach this end of the platform - please walk towards the accessibility area".
I definitely agree that for 6 car consists it makes absolutely no sense to have the 5th car be the accessibility one. That's an easy fix. I can guess why they don't do that already, simpler and less error prone, but it can't be that big of a deal to change that.
Also I understand that eventually this will be moot when we get level boarding.