An open coach is a railway passenger coach that does not have compartments or other divisions within it [1] and in which the train seats are arranged in one or more open plan areas with a centre aisle. The first open coaches appeared in the first half of the 19th century in the United States. The prototype for their design were the passenger cabins in the river steamers which were then widespread in America. As a result of their origin they were originally known in Europe as American system passenger coaches or American coaches (Personenwagen amerikanischen Systems or Amerikanerwagen) and the idea soon caught on in European railway companies. Initially they were mainly used for rural regional services, whilst urban local trains and local-distance services were dominated by compartment coaches. Several European railways such as the Royal Württemberg State Railways and the Swiss Northeastern Railway (Schweizerische Nordostbahn), however, preferred open coaches from the start for all types of train.
From the beginning of the 20th century open coaches became commonly used in local trains and began to spread to long-distance services too. High-speed trains often consist only of open coaches.
The seats in open coaches are either arranged in groups opposite one another or behind one another aeroplane-style, and sometimes seats can be rotated to face the direction of travel. Seats facing one another may be provided with fixed tables, seats arranged one behind the other often have folding trays in the back of the seat in front.
Open coaches are almost always equipped with gangways. Originally these were open platforms at the ends of the coach, but from the end of the 19th century the gangways have usually been vestibuled train protected with bellows or rubber connectors.
On tramways, an open coach is a six- or eight-wheeled driving car or trailer, which has an especially high volumetric capacity. Unlike the earlier, typical platform coaches, open coaches do not have partitions with doors between the entrance area and the actual passenger compartment. These coaches were popular in central Europe in the early 1950s and replaced the old (mainly four-wheeled) platform coaches. Whilst in West Germany, Austria and Switzerland this type of vehicle was rapidly replaced by articulated trams, in East Germany, the Tatra trams were the norm during the 1960s in many cities. The same was true in the former Eastern Bloc countries.
Rail transport is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road transport. It is used for about 8% of passenger and freight transport globally, thanks to its energy efficiency and potentially high speed.
The sleeping car or sleeper is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car.
A railroad car, railcar, railway wagon, railway carriage, railway truck, railwagon, railcarriage or railtruck, also called a train car, train wagon, train carriage or train truck, is a vehicle used for the carrying of cargo or passengers on a rail transport network. Such cars, when coupled together and hauled by one or more locomotives, form a train. Alternatively, some passenger cars are self-propelled in which case they may be either single railcars or make up multiple units.
First class is the most luxurious and most expensive travel class of seats and service on a train, passenger ship, airplane, bus, or other system of transport. Compared to business class and economy class, it offers the best service and most comfortable accommodation.
A bilevel car or double-decker coach is a type of rail car that has two levels of passenger accommodation as opposed to one, increasing passenger capacity.
The Mumbai Suburban Railway consists of exclusive inner suburban railway lines augmented by commuter rail on main lines serving outlying suburbs to serve the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Spread over 450 kilometres (280 mi), the suburban railway operates 2,342 train services and carries more than 7.5 million commuters daily.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) inherited several styles of coaching stock from its constituents. Stock built by the LMS itself can be categorised into three separate periods, numbered I to III.
A travel class is a quality of accommodation on public transport. The accommodation could be a seat or a cabin for example. Higher travel classes are designed to be more comfortable and are typically more expensive.
A passenger railroad car or passenger car, also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach, or passenger bogie is a railroad car that is designed to carry passengers, usually giving them space to sit on train seats. The term passenger car can also be associated with a sleeping car, a baggage car, a dining car, railway post office and prisoner transport cars.
The Composite Corridor is a railway coach with a number of compartments, some of which are standard class and some first class, linked by a side corridor.
The Belmont railway line is an abandoned coal haulage and passenger rail line from Adamstown, New South Wales to Belmont, New South Wales. This was a private railway, being the property of the New Redhead Estate and Coal Company and was generally known as the Belmont Branch. The line closed in December 1991. It has since been converted into a cycleway or rail trail - The Fernleigh Track.
The Wells and Walsingham Light Railway is a 10+1⁄4 in gauge heritage railway in Norfolk, England running between the coastal town of Wells-next-the-Sea and the inland village of Walsingham. The railway occupies a four-mile (6.4 km) section of the trackbed of the former Wymondham to Wells branch which was closed to passengers in stages from 1964 to 1969 as part of the Beeching cuts. Other parts of this line, further south, have also been preserved by the Mid-Norfolk Railway.
City Night Line, abbreviated CNL, was a train category of German railway company Deutsche Bahn for overnight passenger train services between Germany and neighbouring European countries. In late 2015, Deutsche Bahn announced that it planned to terminate all night train services in December 2016, and this plan was implemented on 11 December 2016. The service on some CNL routes was replaced by ÖBB Nightjet services.
A Lokalbahn or Localbahn is a secondary railway line worked by local trains serving rural areas, typically in Austria and the south German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Lokalbahnen appeared at the end of the 19th century before the use of cars became widespread.
The Prater Liliputbahn is a 381 mm gauge light railway in Vienna, Austria. Opened in 1928, and extended in 1933, the railway operates primarily as a tourist attraction, but also provides transport links around the wider area of the Prater park, the amusement park (Wurstelprater), and the sports stadium. Although a year-round service was provided for many years, it is now more common for the railway to close during the months of December, January, and February. Originally steam-operated, the railway now uses a mixture of steam and diesel motive power. The railway can be reached by bus, tram, or metro from central Vienna, followed by a short walk, but following the extension of tram line 1, there is now an almost direct interchange with the Vienna tram network at the railway's Rotunda Station.
A compartment coach is a railway passenger coach divided into separate areas or compartments, with no means of moving between compartments.
The Eilzugwagen was a type of railway passenger coach specially developed for German semi-fast trains, known as Eilzüge. These coaches were first built in the 1930s and continued to be produced until the 1950s. Today all coaches of this type have been retired. A number still run on museum railways.
Railway coaches are classified under an international system developed by the UIC. This UIC classification of railway coaches replaced earlier national classification schemes in many countries, such as Germany. The coach class is expressed as a combination of letters. It is sometimes followed, for example in the Deutsche Bahn AG, by a three-figure class number. In a broader sense the vehicle number displayed on the coach is also part of its classification, because it encodes other technical details such as the top speed or the type of heating system used.
A gangway connection is a flexible connector fitted to the end of a railway coach, enabling passengers to move between coaches without danger of falling from the train.
The PwPost Bay 06 was a combined mail and luggage van designed for Lokalbahn branch line train services with the Royal Bavarian State Railways in the early 20th century. It was built to their Design Sheet Number 606.