4 ms·

We don't need countdown clocks, we need door-to-door commutes at 200kph with no stops or train changes. The Boring Company should be able to drill around and un

We don't need countdown clocks, we need door-to-door commutes at 200kph with no stops or train changes. The Boring Company should be able to drill around and under. The Subway is like something from a bygone era: > All track on the New York subway (and on most American rail) is broken into sections, here about 1,000 feet long. An electric current is constantly running in a loop through each section. When a train enters a section, it short-circuits the loop, which allows the system to know that the section is occupied. The signals behind it automatically turn red. > Fixed-block signaling systems, in use since the late 1800s, keep trains from getting too close to one another. The neat thing about subway signals, as opposed to the ones you find on the road, is that they actually force you to stop. When a signal is red, a footlong metal T called (appropriately) a “train stop” protrudes above the track; each train car has a corresponding “trip cock” on its wheel frame connected to the emergency brakes. If you were to drive by a stop signal the train stop would hit the trip cock and you’d screech to a halt.

sschueller 8y ago
Public transport will always be a loss business if you want to serve all areas and not just the rich. Private companies are always going to try to make as much profit as possible, this includes profit over safety if they can get away with it. What we need is a reorganization of the public transport sector with competent long term planning and the funds to achieve it. But as long as corruption, incompetence, cronyism and a complete lack of the public willing to pay for it. It won't happen.
- tokyodude 8y ago
  Japan's train system is the envy of the world and is privatized. There are at least 10 different companies running public transportation in Tokyo alone. 3 to 5 in Kyoto.
  - jimktrains2 8y ago
    Don't those companies also control a lot of details development arouns stations, which essentially subsidizes the trains?
- contrahax 8y ago
  The majority of the NYC subway system was built by private companies, just FYI. The city acquired the privately owned systems in 1940 and unified them into the single system we have today.
jellicle 8y ago
The MTA moves 5.5 million people daily, why don't you do the math on door-to-door individual vehicles for all of them? Like, major office buildings can have 10,000 workers in them, and there may be a bunch of such buildings in a complex. Do the math, figure out what sort of station you need to build to let those people arrive at work in the morning in their individual pods. And the safety devices you describe are what keeps stories like "subways crash, 500 killed" from being commonplace. What exactly happens when a couple of Boring Company vehicles crash in a tube at 200kph? How do you extract them? What happens to them, and what happens to the other 75 vehicles approaching in the tubes behind them at 200kph? Has any thought at all been given to this?
- paulsutter 8y ago
  The Boring Company is planning multipassenger pods, you'll learn more next week. Capacity planning would be more similar to elevators than subway stations. Stations would be in the building basement levels. Those hardwired safety mechanisms certainly work, but are primarily needed to overcome human error. We're all willing to fly on planes with autopilot, and self-driving vehicles in tunnels will be safer. Elon is talking about building 30 or more levels in dense cities. A guy who lands rocket boosters for reuse has certainly thought through the details of an underground transportation system.
  - jakecopp 8y ago
    You can't just appeal to Elon Musk assuming he knows all and has figured this out. Have you ever travelled beyond the US and seen an international subway system? I haven't travelled much but there are some amazing systems out there. Japan had 130mph bullet trains in 1964, can you believe that? They're maxing out at 375mph with levitating trains now, and they actually exist unlike Elon's ideas. Why do you give ideas more credit then something that already exist and work brilliantly? Last year Japan Rail issued an apology because one of their trains left a station 20 seconds early [1]. Even in my town of Sydney, with huge suburban sprawl, we have beautiful, quiet, air conditioned, double decker trains that go to most suburbs and cost $1.50 to $4. The future has already arrived, the US just doesn't have it yet. https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-17/japan-train-apology-for-leaving-20-seconds-early/9161456 https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-17/japan-train-apolog...

sschueller 8y ago

Public transport will always be a loss business if you want to serve all areas and not just the rich. Private companies are always going to try to make as much profit as possible, this includes profit over safety if they can get away with it. What we need is a reorganization of the public transport sector with competent long term planning and the funds to achieve it. But as long as corruption, incompetence, cronyism and a complete lack of the public willing to pay for it. It won't happen.

tokyodude 8y ago
Japan's train system is the envy of the world and is privatized. There are at least 10 different companies running public transportation in Tokyo alone. 3 to 5 in Kyoto.
- jimktrains2 8y ago
  Don't those companies also control a lot of details development arouns stations, which essentially subsidizes the trains?
contrahax 8y ago
The majority of the NYC subway system was built by private companies, just FYI. The city acquired the privately owned systems in 1940 and unified them into the single system we have today.

jellicle 8y ago

The MTA moves 5.5 million people daily, why don't you do the math on door-to-door individual vehicles for all of them? Like, major office buildings can have 10,000 workers in them, and there may be a bunch of such buildings in a complex. Do the math, figure out what sort of station you need to build to let those people arrive at work in the morning in their individual pods. And the safety devices you describe are what keeps stories like "subways crash, 500 killed" from being commonplace. What exactly happens when a couple of Boring Company vehicles crash in a tube at 200kph? How do you extract them? What happens to them, and what happens to the other 75 vehicles approaching in the tubes behind them at 200kph? Has any thought at all been given to this?

paulsutter 8y ago
The Boring Company is planning multipassenger pods, you'll learn more next week. Capacity planning would be more similar to elevators than subway stations. Stations would be in the building basement levels. Those hardwired safety mechanisms certainly work, but are primarily needed to overcome human error. We're all willing to fly on planes with autopilot, and self-driving vehicles in tunnels will be safer. Elon is talking about building 30 or more levels in dense cities. A guy who lands rocket boosters for reuse has certainly thought through the details of an underground transportation system.
- jakecopp 8y ago
  You can't just appeal to Elon Musk assuming he knows all and has figured this out. Have you ever travelled beyond the US and seen an international subway system? I haven't travelled much but there are some amazing systems out there. Japan had 130mph bullet trains in 1964, can you believe that? They're maxing out at 375mph with levitating trains now, and they actually exist unlike Elon's ideas. Why do you give ideas more credit then something that already exist and work brilliantly? Last year Japan Rail issued an apology because one of their trains left a station 20 seconds early [1]. Even in my town of Sydney, with huge suburban sprawl, we have beautiful, quiet, air conditioned, double decker trains that go to most suburbs and cost $1.50 to $4. The future has already arrived, the US just doesn't have it yet. https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-17/japan-train-apology-for-leaving-20-seconds-early/9161456 https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-17/japan-train-apolog...