>>966313In 2020s, when the next try on automation may happen, as the transit authority has decided and I'm fairly certain that only concerns M100. I suppose the train that will replace M100 or even M200 as well will be ordered with the trains that will be needed for west metro phase 2.
Let's run the numbers:
- There are 84 M100 units, or 42 doublets, or 14 six unit long trains or 21 four unit short trains.
- There are 12 M200 permanently coupled doublets, or 4 long trains or 6 short trains.
- There will be 20 M300 short trains, four units long and permanently coupled.
When the west extension opens, long trains will no longer be operated, meaning 47 trains, or 45 if "nokkajuna" will be discarded, leaving one M100 doublet as spare.
The original 21 short trains worth of M100 was enough to operate the current network of 21.1 km, Vuosaari, the last track extension was opened in 1998 and M200 was delivered only in 2000-2001 to improve redundancy or something.
Indeed, it is now 14.30 o'clock and HSL-live shows there are 14 trains in operation on 10 minute headways on two lines. When west metro opens, the headway will be reduced to 5 minutes, or 2.5 min on shared section. This means doubling the amount of trains needed. 28 trains on the current 21.1 km.
The west metro first phase will add 13.9 km to the current 21.1 km, making the system 35.0 km total, this means 66% increase to the system lenght. Assuming the average speed of the trains remains about same in the larger system, this would give a ballpark estimation of 19 more trains to run the system, or about 47 total, give or take a few.
tl;dr: there is no way M300 alone is enough to operate the whole metro when the west extension opens.
