Rethinking Rail Travel: Boarding a Moving Train 357
PolygamousRanchKid tips this article about an idea for revolutionizing the rail system in the long-term:
"The idea is to have a city-wide network of trams that travel in a loop and connect with a high-speed rail service. But instead of passengers having to get off the tram at a rail station and wait for the next HSR service to arrive, the moving tram would 'dock' with a moving train, allowing passengers to cross between tram and train without either vehicle ever stopping. 'The trams speed up and the high-speed train slows down and they join, so they dock at high speed,' explains Priestman. 'They stay docked for the same amount of time that it would stop at a station,' he adds. While Priestman admits that it will be some time before his vision could be implemented, he says the time has come to rethink how we travel. 'This idea is a far-future thought but wouldn't it be brilliant to just re-evaluate and just re-think the whole process?' he says."
Is Sandra Bullock Driving? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Asimov. Strips. (Score:5, Funny)
If you mean Rule 34...no thanks.
Re:China has been thining about this for a while (Score:5, Funny)
What if you are too slow or someone puts their foot into the gap, or if there is a stone or wobble on the neighbouring track?
Oh you Americans ... always letting liability lawsuits stand in the way of progress!
Re:WEDWay People Mover (Score:5, Funny)
This is nothing new. Disney has been doing this for decades. In fact, the rest of the world could take a lesson or two from Disney's playbook. Notice that Disney designs its rides such that the line (queue) is constantly in motion. By contrast, Six Flags and other theme parks, you have to wait while the people on the ride are off. We should take this a step further and design aircraft with a removable passenger compartment akin to the 747 air freighter. The nose would open up and the incoming passenger module would slide out to be replaced by another outgoing module. This has the advantage of eliminating the one door bottleneck.
Just use the standard pallets that they use in air freighters. You could probably stack 15 -20 people in a container. Just lock'em in. No worries about feeding them, dealing with the bathroom or various security issues.
Have you thought about a career at RyanAir?