On average how much is the wait time for a train on a line that's 14.5 kilometers or 9 miles?

Question

I'm trying to figure out how the schedule might be like for the new metro in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The first line will have 16 stations and someone told me it would take about 30 minutes from station 1 to station 16. How far apart would trains run on average? 10 minutes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santo_Domingo_Metro

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=560557&page=20

http://www.myspace.com/santodomingometro

Answer 1

How long the train takes will depend upon the speed allowed on the track, and how long (as you're asking here) the wait time at each stop is.

But if you say an average of 25mph over 9 miles (which includes stops) that works out at 25 miles in one hour, or 12.5 miles in 30 minutes, or 9 miles in 23 minutes.

That is assuming a wait time of 30 seconds per stop - adding up to 8 minutes total out of the 23. That leaves 15 minutes to actually do the mileage - which means the train would need to do an average (including acceleration and braking) of just over 30 mph. So a top speed of 35-40 mph would be necessary to achieve this.

Most likely on such a line that the trains would be about 10 minutes apart, and down to 5 minutes at peak times.

Answer 2

how many people will ride it? What time of day? Rush hour or midnight?

How many people will the train hold? One car? Two cars? people per car?