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I've long joked that modules should be made easy to swap with a forklift. Trains are usually full of small defects that aren't serious enough to take them out o
by econ 1y ago
I've long joked that modules should be made easy to swap with a forklift. Trains are usually full of small defects that aren't serious enough to take them out of service.
If they are comfortable you could rent out the cabins when not in use either fitted on the train or not. You could also retire the units there.
You could make a platform only and make it easy for others to design modules in a broad price range. Maybe most modules should be in storage until booked.
You could park the "hotel" module on the destination and put it back on the train for the return trip.
- ant6n 1y agoI sometimes her proposals like that, and it sounds kind of attractive - you get into your pod and forget everything until you arrive. But in a sense, night trains are already like that. Since they can stop at multiple places, you can depart and arrive downtown. In the meantime you’re in your cabin and forget everything. Entering the train „with“ the pod instead of just yourself is gonna make boarding and alighting take forever, and the logistics of storing and moving the pods are a nightmare. It’s going to reduce capacity by a lot because you cannot optimize the layout and every pod needs to be „insertable“ as a whole. (3x reduction in capacity means 3x increase in ticket cost). Homologation is going to be a nightmare - in Europe, realistically, it’s gonna take more than 10 years or develop something like that. You need a new infrastructure because right now stations are for people - that’ll probably take 20 years (in Europe).
- Freak_NL 1y agoBesides, sleeper trains really are modular already, using existing standard rail infrastructure. Wagons are the natural unit of a train consist. Ideally, we end up with a big enough network of sleeper lines that it makes sense for ÖBB, European Sleeper, or whichever operator to have the luxury of taking some wagons out for maintenance and standby, and even scale up and down depending on the season.
- danpalmer 1y ago> I've long joked that modules should be made easy to swap with a forklift. Trains are usually full of small defects that aren't serious enough to take them out of service. I assume the implication here is that with more granular swap-outs, you might get more regular maintenance of those minor issues? While I agree it's a problem and could be improved, I don't find train maintenance any worse than hotel maintenance in general – most hotel rooms aren't in perfect condition and they arguably don't have the same restrictions.
- econ 1y agoYou don't have to shut down the hotel and cancel reservations for a leaking sink. Hotel rooms are also pretty cheap to make.