4 ms·

"Independently moving" is the distinguishing part there

• Avshalom 11mo ago
  Yeah, which is to say not a train of trains but just individual cars, packed as closely as possible together, on a track... you know what the closest you can pack two cars on the same track is? touching each other. It's a fucking train.
  • albumen 11mo ago
    No. The aim is to “increase the density of freight transportation in a particular area.” That would be maximum tonnage carried through an area over a period, eg a year. It’s possible more tonnes of independently moving wagons could move through an area over a year by being individually dispatched 24/7 in close proximity versus larger traditional freight trains that only run a few times a day.
    • general1465 11mo ago
      Which would need completely different signaling systems, where sensors for sections are every few meters instead of like now having sections hundreds of meters or even kilometers long. That's investment of hundred of billions + maintenance. In Europe we are integrating ETCS since 1996 and it is still not done.
  • ascorbic 11mo ago
    They're not independently moving if they're coupled together. You can fairly argue that the idea is bad, and I know it's not as fun a dunk as "you invented a train", but multiple wagons that can move independently (and can therefore be switched to different destinations) are fundamentally a different thing than a single train.