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Clever Chinese trains without stops at stations (concept)
- WingForward 16y agoWouldn't this destroy a bullet train's aerodynamics?
- obeattie 16y agoWasn't this on HN a few weeks ago?
- jcl 16y agoA couple months ago (among others): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1274655 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1274655
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- w1ntermute 16y agoThis was invented and tested by the British over 150 years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip_coach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slip_coach They stopped using them 50 years ago.
- Semiapies 16y agoSlip coaches manage the drop-off, but not the pick-up.
- w1ntermute 16y agoTo reverse the journey, the passengers would board the slip coach at the intermediate station, which would then form part of a local train to the next station on the line where the express was scheduled to stop, and coupled to the express train there to be taken to its destination. The concepts behind the drop-offs and the pick-ups are basically the same.
- Semiapies 16y agoYou might watch the video. The train in this concept does not stop, unlike the case you describe above. It is certainly not "basically the same" unless you think this, slip-cars, car ferries, and modular cargo containers coming off a ship are all equivalent.
- electromagnetic 16y agoYes, but this is not a dramatic new concept, it's a minor improvement in implementation because of decreased engineering costs and simply time. This is nothing more than an elevated rail system and using a linear braking system to accelerate the stationary vehicle. Beyond that, we're talking simply precision and as the concept has yet to be implemented, the Chinese are no way more advanced with the concept than 50 years ago. For all intent this is a worse design than having a tandem acceleration system in the trains and allowing the slip-car to simply accelerate itself to rejoin the express. You wouldn't even have to redesign your fleet, you'd only have to implement it in the slip-cars initially for the concept to work.
- Semiapies 16y agoWhether it's a good concept, I don't much care. It is simply and obviously wrong to say it's the same as a slip car, just as it's simply and obviously wrong to say a motorcycle is the same as a draisienne. Whether it's "dramatic" enough a new concept for someone is not my concern.
- seanos 16y agoThe slip coach concept involves simply decoupling the last coach of the train so that it coasts into the station, therefore there is no equivalent for pick-ups - you can't just couple a coach to a fast moving train.
- VMG 16y agoWhy not?
- srgseg 16y ago"In an era when the railway companies were highly competitive, they strove to keep journey times as short as possible, avoiding intermediate stops wherever possible". Anyone know what made the railway companies less competitive? I had always assumed that since they each had a monopoly over the tracks in each region, they had no real incentives to innovate.
- coin 16y agoIn the US, air travel made rail obsolete. For long distances (>500 miles) rail just can't compete with air. The was one of the main points in the book "Turbulent Skies: The History of Commercial Aviation" by T. A. Heppenheimer.
- ashbrahma 16y agoAnother reason is that the freight companies own a vast majority of the rail tracks in the US which means freight trains get priority over passenger trains..
- evgen 16y agoThis only happened after the airlines stole most of the passenger traffic. By the 70s the rail vs flight curves had crossed and most passengers were on planes, after deregulation of the airlines the market for long-haul passenger carriage was owned by the airlines; the only thing left for railroads was freight and short-haul passenger traffic in populated corridors. When passengers were the bulk of the rail revenue stream the system was optimized in their favor, and when fright took over the conditions were inverted.
- ams6110 16y agoThe airlines did not "steal" the passenger traffic... they offered something people wanted... a journey lasting hours instead of days.
- 16y ago
- dm_mongodb 16y agoPerhaps a better solution is to make trains more cell-based. (Think ATM.) Each "car" holds just 2-4 people. they run on the tracks and switch on and off at the right stops. Very granular. But still like a train in that you have tracks and power from the tracks. There is no conductor then, so everything would have to be computer controlled.
- Groxx 16y agoI've thought of that as well, but you've got serious problems with air resistance (and associated vibration) at high speeds unless you've got contoured fronts and backs. So you'd have to drop and add cars in the middle of the train... added complexity and you'd need every unit to be powered independently (true, many are, but this would be a requirement). So picture parallel tracks with a merge-point somewhere ahead (or a few, in case one doesn't work). You've gotta split the train, merge in the new car, and merge it all back together, at moderately high speeds. Not much of a fun engineering challenge, methinks. The top-car probably makes more sense in this case. At low speeds, where all cars can be the same shape, certainly. Just remove / add to the front / end as needed.
- CoryMathews 16y agoSo how many people would end up having "fun" in these?
- hallmark 16y agoYou may be thinking of something very much like Personal Rapid Transit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit My favorite design of PRT was always SkyTran, featured in a Popular Science or Popular Mechanics magazine years ago: http://www.skytran.net/phpsite/home/Home%20Intro.php http://www.skytran.net/phpsite/home/Home%20Intro.php Real world engineering issues aside, my gut feeling was that a suspended/hanging pod would offer more stability and ability to accelerate than a traditional pod resting on top of tracks. If the pod could swing back and forth, acceleration and deceleration would push riders down into their seats rather than back or forward toward the windshield. The Big Bad Wolf and Batman roller coasters come to mind. :)
- cmalpeli 16y agobut how does one exit the train?!
- jrockway 16y agoThe mini-train on top stops at the station, detaches from the main train, the doors open, and you exit by walking through the doors. Later, passengers board, the doors close, the mini-train waits for the next main train, and the mini-train attaches and off you go.
- xster 16y agowhat would happen if half of the train needs to disembark at the same time?
- lincolnq 16y agoThen the train stops? This is intended to reduce the time to stop at small stations. There is ample time as people are loading onto the slip coach to discover that the train needs to stop, although I think in practice this would never happen (the train operators would never be surprised by a large number of people trying to get off all at once).
- jodrellblank 16y agoThey wouldn't be surprised that it was crammed uncomfortably full of people; that doesn't mean they'd do anything about it though.
- macmac 16y agoThis would make for some quite spectacular accidents...
- astrodust 16y agoI can imagine some fussy grandmother disembarking all too slowly on the one car, and since the next one has to come in, no matter what, they'll have to launch it, and the old lady, out on to the tracks or risk crashing two of these cars together at extremely high speed. This whole concept is insane. It would only work with pre-packaged cargo.
- jonah 16y agoSeeing this reminded me of continuous elevators: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx3MHm9WjBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx3MHm9WjBE
- docgnome 16y agoErm. What if you need to get off 3 stations down the line?
- yoshiks 16y agowhat happens if some people still onboarding when next under-bullets comes?
- thefool 16y agoIt seems like it would be very easy for people to get on the wrong mini train and end up leaving at the wrong place, because it would likely take significantly more time to get ready for a disembark.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- CountSessine 16y agoLooks like a pretty spectacular way to get yourself killed. Am I the only one thinking about what would happen if the slip coach didn't fully lock and then came loose while passengers were leaving or entering it from the main train?