Jon and Rich Hunn --
Thank you both for putting reality into this discussion.
I am quite sure that none of those EMUs would pass current
FRA buff forces requirements, and that will make them much
less safe to be in in a crash.

Stronger means heavier and longer-lasting -- if made well
by people who have the ability to and are allowed to build
high-quality rolling stock.

I really dislike Caltrain's wasteful plan to junk its entire
fleet and replace it with EMUs.

Max Wyss wrote:
"If I remember correctly, the current bi-levels have single-width
doors, which means that it takes at least twice as long to get
people on and off the train, increasing the dwelling time at
the stops."

Max, your memory is incorrect. The current gallery cars, which
copied the design of the 1955 Southern Pacific gallery cars, used to
allow 3 people to exit and enter simultaneously side by side. This
was reduced to 2 people side by side when Caltrain needed to
install on-board lifts in the doorways of some cars for mobility-
impaired passengers. To do this, Caltrain had to remove one
pole from the doorways of those cars and moved the other
poles to the center, thus reducing to 2 the number of people
who could enter and exit simultaneously. For the sake of
consistency, they changed all cars to the new pole configuration,
so today's Caltrain gallery cars now can only allow 2 people
to exit and enter simultaneously per car -- the same as the
old 1920s-built Harrimans. Allowing 3 people to enter and
exit side by side was a big selling point to the public by the
SP when those gallery cars were new.

Max -- if you are referring to the tri-levels (built by Bombardioer),
2 people can enter and exit simultaneously per doorway, and
there are 2 doorways per car, so 4 people can enter an exit
simultaneously per car.

In the 1970s, the SP used to run 8- and 9-car gallery car
trains in the PM rush hours, which is 3 or 4 cars longer
than Caltrain ever runs now. My son saw this himself,
and says this was a regular practice by the SP.

Caltrain has made big changes to most of its stations,
greatly shortening most of its platforms. This prevents
the use of trains longer than 5 cars. Palo Alto's University
Avenue station is the only current exception to
this, aside from San Jose and San Francisco.
Burlingame's Burlingame Avenue station used
to have a very long platform, but Caltrain shortened
it, too.

I know these things from first-nand experience because
I commuted on the old SP in the mid-1960s and on Caltrain
1990-2006.

Margaret