Reply to "Weird question of the day"

I think Rich hit the nail on the head, the maintainence of the pickup equipment under the units would be more difficult than with an outside third rail. Safety wise they could potentially have built the third rail into a trough of sorts, similar to what they did with streetcars in Manhattan and the Bronx where overhead wire was not practical or banned, but I think the maintainence would likely be the primary reason for not doing the inside third rail.  Good thoughts all!