4 ms·

I want the world to move to a system of very large and spacious and cool aircraft for major hub-to-hub travel, and then nice and comfortable high speed rail fro

I want the world to move to a system of very large and spacious and cool aircraft for major hub-to-hub travel, and then nice and comfortable high speed rail from hub to destination. I’m tired of cramming into a narrowbody with no service. Let me fly on an engineering marvel like the A380 or 747 and then relax or work in a comfortable train seat.

aghastnj 3y ago
We've got that, already. They're called "trains." We just need to make them faster.
ramses0 3y ago
The real answer is "wings clipped to tubes". Load the cheap tube at your leisure, drag it by semi under the waiting "wing". Clip, clip, vroom... There was a great concept video of a train/bus station that did something similar, divorcing the loading of people into the tube from the attaching the tube to the train. It allowed the train to keep going nearly 100% full speed, "magically" grabbing the tube loaded with passengers, and letting them pass into the moving portion (below) without stopping the train. The passenger pickup capsule was then dropped off at the next station for the process to repeat. See dead links here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-high-speed-train-picks-up-passengers-without-having-to-stop-180948281/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-high-speed-tr... Saves kinetic energy (no stopping and starting), and time because you're not incurring +5min per each stop/station.
- usrusr 3y ago
  That's an age-old fantasy technology. Today you'd do it with electric buses(/trucks) that run on dedicated highways, or at least on dedicated lanes that are not only electrified (bus operates from a pair of pantigraphs except for that "last mile" part of the trip in regular roads or when there is some maintenance situation), but also exclusively run computer controlled in paceline formations. No physical connection (or perhaps physical connection for power crossfeed, to share pantograph wear, but no physical connection for push/pull), just a low latency, ack-heavy data link so that they would all accelerate and brake perfectly synchronized. Those buses (or trucks) would benefit from slipstream just like train cars do, but still be able to independently branch away or join at any exit. Of course the power bill would have to be shared by the whole formation, no need to rotate the lead (like a bicycle paceline would do) except perhaps in an unelectrified segment or during a power outage. This would offer point to point connections, have all the efficiency benefits of trains except for the energy cost of rubber-on-tarmac relative to steel-on-steel, and would also offer greatly increased throughout compared to trains because a formation like that would retain almost all of the emergency breaking capability of trucks (and realistically speaking, have better capability than a queue of human-operated trucks that keep almost but not quite enough safety distance for human reaction). The only reason I see why this is not the obvious future is that it requires enormous critical mass to pick up. It probably needs electric trucks first, then electric trucks with pantograph on some main lines, and only then pantograph electric trucks joining into robotic pacelines at some even later point. (the absolute end game state of course would be dedicated rights of way with a rail option useable to dual mode vehicles that could quickly drop on their road wheels not only for exiting formation but also for braking - note that breaking should not even exist in a formation like that, outside emergencies.
  - ramses0 3y ago
    http://www.robertames.com/blog.cgi/entries/future-of-public-transportation.html http://www.robertames.com/blog.cgi/entries/future-of-public-...
usrusr 3y ago
What buffer for solving delays would you consider acceptable for that mode switch? Train schedules are inherently fragile because there's so much interdependence. Every tiny bit of the trip is locked into a signaling segment block time slot and one train causing a shakeup leads to wild butterfly wing effects fanning out in all directions. Rail networks in places that have more than just a trivial amount of service tend to run very close to saturation, even if they don't look like that at all. But you can't cram trains on a line like you can cram cars on a highway (or planes in an approach pattern), that's just not how safe signaling for wheel-on-rail works. And no, I won't accept "but it works in Japan!" as a counter, because Japan does not really have anything resembling a train network. They have a number of lines going up and down one corridor, plus two appendices branching off to the west coast. Compared to that, even the French star of lines separated by metro rides appears complex.
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  cf https://network.sbb.ch/en/ https://network.sbb.ch/en/

aghastnj 3y ago

We've got that, already. They're called "trains." We just need to make them faster.

ramses0 3y ago

The real answer is "wings clipped to tubes". Load the cheap tube at your leisure, drag it by semi under the waiting "wing". Clip, clip, vroom... There was a great concept video of a train/bus station that did something similar, divorcing the loading of people into the tube from the attaching the tube to the train. It allowed the train to keep going nearly 100% full speed, "magically" grabbing the tube loaded with passengers, and letting them pass into the moving portion (below) without stopping the train. The passenger pickup capsule was then dropped off at the next station for the process to repeat. See dead links here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-high-speed-train-picks-up-passengers-without-having-to-stop-180948281/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/this-high-speed-tr... Saves kinetic energy (no stopping and starting), and time because you're not incurring +5min per each stop/station.

usrusr 3y ago
That's an age-old fantasy technology. Today you'd do it with electric buses(/trucks) that run on dedicated highways, or at least on dedicated lanes that are not only electrified (bus operates from a pair of pantigraphs except for that "last mile" part of the trip in regular roads or when there is some maintenance situation), but also exclusively run computer controlled in paceline formations. No physical connection (or perhaps physical connection for power crossfeed, to share pantograph wear, but no physical connection for push/pull), just a low latency, ack-heavy data link so that they would all accelerate and brake perfectly synchronized. Those buses (or trucks) would benefit from slipstream just like train cars do, but still be able to independently branch away or join at any exit. Of course the power bill would have to be shared by the whole formation, no need to rotate the lead (like a bicycle paceline would do) except perhaps in an unelectrified segment or during a power outage. This would offer point to point connections, have all the efficiency benefits of trains except for the energy cost of rubber-on-tarmac relative to steel-on-steel, and would also offer greatly increased throughout compared to trains because a formation like that would retain almost all of the emergency breaking capability of trucks (and realistically speaking, have better capability than a queue of human-operated trucks that keep almost but not quite enough safety distance for human reaction). The only reason I see why this is not the obvious future is that it requires enormous critical mass to pick up. It probably needs electric trucks first, then electric trucks with pantograph on some main lines, and only then pantograph electric trucks joining into robotic pacelines at some even later point. (the absolute end game state of course would be dedicated rights of way with a rail option useable to dual mode vehicles that could quickly drop on their road wheels not only for exiting formation but also for braking - note that breaking should not even exist in a formation like that, outside emergencies.
- ramses0 3y ago
  http://www.robertames.com/blog.cgi/entries/future-of-public-transportation.html http://www.robertames.com/blog.cgi/entries/future-of-public-...

usrusr 3y ago

What buffer for solving delays would you consider acceptable for that mode switch? Train schedules are inherently fragile because there's so much interdependence. Every tiny bit of the trip is locked into a signaling segment block time slot and one train causing a shakeup leads to wild butterfly wing effects fanning out in all directions. Rail networks in places that have more than just a trivial amount of service tend to run very close to saturation, even if they don't look like that at all. But you can't cram trains on a line like you can cram cars on a highway (or planes in an approach pattern), that's just not how safe signaling for wheel-on-rail works. And no, I won't accept "but it works in Japan!" as a counter, because Japan does not really have anything resembling a train network. They have a number of lines going up and down one corridor, plus two appendices branching off to the west coast. Compared to that, even the French star of lines separated by metro rides appears complex.

082349872349872 3y ago
cf https://network.sbb.ch/en/ https://network.sbb.ch/en/