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."
Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
Already foreseen? (Score:5, Interesting)
Had to read the article (Score:4, Interesting)
Okay, so the obvious first question is - how do you get on the trams? Do they stop? Unfortunately the article is a hand-waving fluff piece and doesn't explicitly answer that (or, really, any other) question; but it strongly implies "yes, they do stop". So what's the real advantage to the traveler here?
It seems to me the main thing this guy is proposing is actually a transit system with connections on every street, so you don't have to own a car at all. But that's nothing new and exciting, so he had to "jazz it up" to get attention - and that's where the "high-speed trains that never stop" idea comes in. But, really, that's not going to save a traveler any time. Plus, frankly, as soon as I started thinking about the potential details of this system... I quickly came to the conclusion it would seem logistically sub-optimal.
Exit the train (Score:5, Interesting)
Disney has been doing this for decades. The ride slows, the passenger steps onto a moving belt and from there onto the platform. It requires one or more attendants available to help and occasionally hit the emergency stop when the slow and/or unwary find themselves rushing toward the dark chasm at the end of the platform.
Now if they would just install parachutes and ejection seats in airliners ...
Heinlein - The Roads Must Roll (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Is the real problem here? (Score:5, Interesting)
See, this is a thought that should get modded up. We walk around with smartphones and tablets, our laptops carry more power then most mainframes, yet there is still this requirement that we get into a vehicle and travel some distance to sit in a cube or office and do work. Seriously?
Granted, not all jobs are suited for telecommuted, but more and more these days we have tools to start sending people home, with jobs. The energy savings would be huge I feel. It could help local business as more people shop near home and not work. Were I able to work from home, the savings in gas and food would be worth a raise. Companies would not need to spend so much on heating/cooling large buildings. They would also be able to save money by not having to maintain large networks for inter/intra office communication. As far as productivity goes, if an office is preferred, open smaller local offices or shops where people could go to work riding a bike, walking, or other mode other then a vehicle.
Instead of trying to re-invent how to move the drones to and from offices, lets figure a way to bring the office, the work back home.
Re:How do you get on? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
The most annoying thing about taking the train (or a public bus or subway, for that matter) is when it stops to let other people on or off. To a passenger, that's just a huge waste of time that could be spent actually moving towards his or her destination.
The reason continental rail travel in the US is so slow compared to auto travel is because it has to stop all the time to let people on and off. When your train weighs 50+ tons per rail car, it takes a long time to speed up and slow down. I've heard it said that the trains themselves almost never reach full speed because they have to begin decelerating before they ever reach full speed.
The buses in Brasil already do this.... (Score:5, Interesting)
In Rio de Janeiro, when I lived there, if you looked at all agile the bus would not completely stop to let you on. It would slow down to a walking pace so you could grab the handle next to the door and let the momentum of the train swing you aboard. Since you boarded at the rear door and exited at the front door you never go in the way of disembarking passengers; who also often exited while the bus was moving.
It was great sport and probably saved a lot of fuel. Not sure I'd like to do it at my age now (68) but I might just for old times' sake. LOL
Re:God no! (Score:5, Interesting)
There are already solutions to this where you go to work at a generic office within waling distance of your home. You have co-workers, coffee machine or water cooler, a work-style environment with no family interruptions. There is a reception for deliveries if needed. You have the "commute" of a ten minute walk, which allows you to switch between home and work modes.
Re:Already foreseen? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry, I think the Russians published this stop-less train station concept. Instead of a stretch of linear tracks they used concentric tracks. The HSR arrives at the station on the outer rail and docks with the slower moving inner rail. The HSR transfers the passengers and the inner rail then transfers passengers to the second inner rail slowing down slightly and then speeds up again to wait for the next HSR.
Well too bad most of the world including Russians never read Russian "Propaganda" from books like science can be fun or physics can be fun et al. If they had we could trace the ideas further back. I read this a looooong time back in the 80's in one of the MIR publication books.
Well here is a thought. Maybe it goes back further than the Russians and was an idea thought of by others.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
This.
Why have trams catch up to HSTs, engage in a complex procedure of transferring passengers, then needing to circle back round (potentially taking ages to get back to their 'route')
Much better to have the trams double as carriages. When you want to get off at a destination you simply go and sit in one of the last few carriages and when the train passes the station they automatically detach and roll up to the platform. At the same time trams with new passengers leave the platform, catch up with the train and attach as replacement carriages to the end.
Re:Is the real problem here? (Score:5, Interesting)
Funny, I get at least the same amount of work done, but I waste less time on the company dime.
At home, I don't have to deal with
- office gossip
- stressed out coworkers yammering all day about their psychological issues
- walking over to a boss/manager/secretary/idiot's desk to stare at an error message they could have pasted in an email
- petty one-upmanship
- bathrooms halfway around the building
- staff managers timing my shit breaks
- pointless unit meetings that exist solely to justify having so many goddamned staff managers
- playing bejeweled for hours because the office environment depresses me
- noisy coworkers threatening to call the union and/or burn down the building if I deprive them of their precious Kanyé
If I want to waste time playing video games or watching TV, it's my problem and my boss/clients don't pay for that idle time. The corollary is that I am motivated to work more efficiently and waste less time, because that time is now MY money and not my employer's. In that sense, I get a heck of a lot more done since I started telecommuting, and cutting out that hour or two of bus/traffic every day makes a huge difference in my energy level and mood. I have no trouble pulling a 10 or 12 hour work day at home, when inspiration strikes, but in an office those 7.5 hours seem like eternity.
You sound like an America (Score:5, Interesting)
I've found that living 10 min walking distance from work eliminates most advantages of telecommuting while granting all the advantages of the office. People should live in smallish but densely packed cities with few cars. And exorbitant gas prices should help keep the cars away.
There are of course people who must commute for personal reasons, mostly couples with serious jobs in different cities. European style high speed rail serves them infinitely better than automobile gridlock. Read on the train vs. stress out in the car.
Just fyi, there is a Bahn Card 100 for 3500 Euros per years which gives you unlimited train usage in Germany without buying any tickets. Ergo, if your commute costs like 130 Euros per week without any Bahn Card, then you might as well buy a Bahn Card 100 and enjoy the freedom of never even needing to buy a ticket! Amtrack won't sell you any ticket without requiring ID by comparison.