Trip Reports The rail infrastructure in Buenos Aires is poorly designed.

[Andriu23]

Why do people walk on the tracks knowing it is dangerous? Why do people jump the turnstiles? Simple, the infrastructure is not efficient, what am I getting at?

People walk on the tracks for two reasons, not paying or bad access, many stations have only one entrance and exit that is congested when a train arrives or departs, and people do not want to waste time or their connections to the bus, so they choose to walk on the tracks.

In the average station there is the main entrance in the middle of one of the platforms, and a tunnel or bridge connecting the other platform.

What is not taken into account? THE POINTS, these are where most people break the rule of not walking on the tracks, many stations have streets at the ends and people do not want to go all the way around and take longer.

And the issue of turnstiles and evasion, although we are in a delicate moment, the service must be paid but as it is so easy not to do it, there are problems later.

The solution? Install high doors in the style of London/Paris, or without going that far, the ones at the Constitución transfer center.

If you have more criticisms leave something,it is Sunday and there is not much to do Ps: photo of Ezeiza station,I had no other photo to add.

 

[Eltion]

How nice it would be to see the return of those trains that used to take you to every corner of the country...

 

[ClintonGr]

I hope one day they will come back, I would like to see streetcars in the city and in the cathedral.

 

[Melody13]

I have had the good fortune to take trains in several countries much more developed than this one, and the designs are quite similar. In some places the stations are bigger. But the design is still the same. The problem I think has more to do with 3 factors:

Transport services work over capacity so getting on and off is always a hassle.

The users either because of the former or because we are brutes, we love to travel like cattle, so we do not respect the roads, we do not pay a damn and if we can we push an old woman or jump head first into the available seat.

Street vending in "strategic places".

 

[Antoni 23]

Why do people walk on the tracks knowing it is dangerous? Why do people jump the turnstiles? Simple, the infrastructure is not efficient, what am I getting at?

People walk on the tracks for two reasons, not paying or bad access, many stations have only one entrance and exit that is congested when a train arrives or departs, and people do not want to waste time or their connections to the bus, so they choose to walk on the tracks.

In the average station there is the main entrance in the middle of one of the platforms, and a tunnel or bridge connecting the other platform.

What is not taken into account? THE POINTS, these are where most people break the rule of not walking on the tracks, many stations have streets at the ends and people do not want to go all the way around and take longer.

And the issue of turnstiles and evasion, although we are in a delicate moment, the service must be paid but as it is so easy not to do it, there are problems later.

The solution? Install high doors in the style of London/Paris, or without going that far, the ones at the Constitución transfer center.

If you have more criticisms leave something,it is Sunday and there is not much to do Ps: photo of Ezeiza station,I had no other photo to add.

View attachment 2582

Installing doors is expensive and no system is infallible, and with how cheap trains are nowadays, it is an investment that you will never recover again.

 

[Simongutler]

The problem is not that it is poorly designed, the problem is that the needs and mode of use changed over time.

When the stations were designed, the platform was low. The entrance to the station building was just a formality and people walked along the tracks to get on the platform because it was just a step. There were no turnstiles, you went to the ticket window and collected your ticket and the guard checked it as you got on.

When the concept of elevated platforms to enter and exit faster, and many doors per car so that more people could enter and exit at the same time, the stations already existed and the accesses were not necessarily analyzed, only the platforms were raised. People kept doing the same thing, but even by those times passenger volumes didn't show as much of a bottleneck of having only one platform access.

They're not poorly designed, they're just outdated. The issue is that there are very large adaptations to be made, in the major urban centers which is where the local lines are. Level crossings would not even have to exist anymore, in high density areas they would have a viaduct, and there you win on two sides: First you eliminate level crossings with the insecurity that accompanies them, and second you stop having people walking on the tracks because they have nowhere to go on the tracks.

But for that you have to spend money. I am surprised that they have done it in the Mitre and the San Martín and the Belgrano Sur, and although I think it is good that it has been done, I think that the change was too partial and the elevated areas should have been more extensive.

 

[MaxBTF]

There are stations with more accesses, but they are closed thanks to the (bad) behavior of the people. They would only have to be rehabilitated, but we are back to the same thing, with 20 years of cultural regression, multiplying the problem and not solving it.

 

[TripMe]

Most people walk down the road to avoid paying. Eventually this will increase exponentially if the ticket is adjusted to a market price. This is precisely explained by the fact that it is done at the points, where there is usually less control, and there are no guards that although they will not prevent the event, they have an intimidating role.

Some gates are not necessarily going to prevent stampedes. Maybe you have to see what is beyond. Except for the terminals, in my experience, in my experience, the herd of people fleeing in packs is to connect with other transport, in particular a local bus, where the fact of arriving last means not being able to get on the next one and having a wait of +20 to +40 minutes during rush hour.

Besides, the train loses a lot of money, and not even charging European fares will be able to maintain the current service without making a loss. So they will surely try to bastardize the service to have more justification to privatize, as it was done before.