"Andrew P Smith" wrote in message
...
In article , Stephen Furley
I've used the NYC subway and the 'gap fillers' aren't wheelchair
compatible.

They simply stop someone falling into a void - they do not provide a
smooth, slat bridge between the platform adn the carriage.

This may be true of the existing ones, but I don't think it would be too
difficult to design ones which were usable by passengers in wheelchairs. On
systems such at the DLR and Croydon Tramlink the position of the vehicle
relative the the platform edge is controlled very closely, both horizontally
and vertically, and wheelchairs can easily get on and off.

If track and or platform hights on other systems were adjusted to elininate
the step, then a gap filler could reduce the gap which is inevitable at
curved platforms to one of a centimetre or two, which a wheelchair is
capable of crossing. With a bit of thought it would probably be possible to
design a gap filler that could tilt as it extended to form a ramp if the
platform was not quite level with the train floor.

Such a system may not be ideal, but I believe it could enable passengers in
wheelchairs to get on and off trains at somewhere like Bank Central line,
where it is difficult to see how it could be done otherwise, other than by
total reconstruction of the station, on a new site.