Station Platforms.

[Doneldon]

I would think that would be needed on all railways these days not just commuter lines.  Amtrak for example has handicapped accessable cars.

Joe-

Many of the AMTRAK cars have very low entries, like the old El Capitan high-level
cars on the Santa Fe, with handicap preference seating on the lower level.
                                                                                                                --D

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

I would think that would be needed on all railways these days not just commuter lines.  Amtrak for example has handicapped accessable cars.

Many of the AMTRAK cars have very low entries, like the old El Capitan high-level
cars on the Santa Fe, with handicap preference seating on the lower level.
                                                                                                                --D

That's a fact. The sleepers on the Capitol Limited, the Empire Builder, the Coast Starlight, and the California Zephyr are all bilevel cars with very low entries, and "platforms" in Washington, Chicago, Seattle, Emeryville, Sacramento, and Denver are correspondingly low. I guess the coaches are the same, but on those trains I've only traveled in sleeper. 

[Jhanecker2]

 I believe the heights of the platforms  were kept low at the time of the building of the Chicago Union Station in the 1920's  because of the consideration of the possible variations of passenger car construction. Considering the cost of raising the heights of the roofs covering the passenger platforms that were required when double deck cars came into use that may not have been a bad idea.  John II.

[Doneldon]

Paul-

I've never seen freight platforms that were anything other than car floor height. It's one thing to have people walk up and down a few stairs; freight would obviously need to be carried which is dangerous and time consuming, and therefore expensive. I don't think I've ever seen boards used to bridge the gap between a freight car and a platform, or between freight cars, but I'm sure it happens. Usually there are steel bridges and I suppose those are nearly a requirement today since just about everything is moved on pallets by fork lifts.
                                                                                                  -- D

[Jhanecker2]

Baggage platforms would have been heighted to allow for the carts that the baggage was placed on to load the cars.  I agree that boards would not currently be safe to use if you are driving forklifts to load box cars by driving the forklifts into the cars .  Some box cars are built to be unloaded from the side with all door sides with cargo palletized or on removable racks . Most cars on multiple parallel tracks would have boxcar doors aligned to allow loading multiple cars by bridging the gap with  removable plates.  John II.