There's going to be a subject on push/pull operations for commuter trains.
This issue comes up after numerous crashes with vehicles at intersections, alot of these have resulted in the trains derailing. One of the most recent was the one here in Kali. where the guy wanted to commit suicide and then bailed out at the last moment. When the train hit his SUV it derailed because the cab car was running forward not the locomotive. The resulting crash hurt numerous people and killed 11 if I remember correctly.
If you ride a commuter train to work and it crosses over public intersections, watch this episode. You might change your mind about riding the train when it's running with the cab forward. One of the things to remember is that when running cab forward the locomotive is pushing all the cars and continues to do so when it derails. It will only stop pushing when either the Engineer places it into emergency or the train breaks in two.
Here's some other food for thought, a locomotive weighs about 200 tons and has a plow in the front. One of the passenger cars weighs around 50 tons or less and has no plow on the cab forward car. If they hit a car/truck it goes under and hits the trucks and wheels, which can ride up on what it hits. This could lift them off the tracks and cause a derailment.
Anyway, I can't wait to see the episode to see how the try to dodge around the issue. It all comes down to MONEY!!! They don't want to put a locomotive on each end or turn them around when they reach the other end of the line.
