The train that never stops

[Vultch]

Mad as hell yet I hope they build it

A Chinese design for a train that does not need to stop...slow down maybe but not stop

Train

[dieselboy]

No holding the doors, or squeezing in on that train!

[KERRSURF]

Hope it takes off, our company makes these People Movers for a lot of the major airports, that thing looks like it could be right for us to build.

[BUSHWHACKER]

This is mad....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw4zn...eature=related

especially @ 1:25.

[Apache]

I like the idea... but...

The mass of the wee pods & passengers needs to be accelerated by the main train so there is still considerable expenditure of energy at each station. The amount of energy depends on how much the main train needs to slow to make the acceleration bearable, and the length of the station.

I expect the amount of energy used is less than accelerating the whole conventional train, but not that much less, especially if the conventional train uses some sort of kinetic energy recovery system when decelerating.

I reckon the complexity of it, the obvious risks and lack of obvious failsafe possibilities will prevent it getting off the drawing board. Just imagine if the sub-train failed to 'pick up' on the main one, and there were other sub-trains coming? Huge collision with no way to avoid it.

As for efficiency, if they were to independently accelerate the sub-train to main train speed before the end of the station, you'd avoid any energy loss in the main train, which is probably more efficient than decelerating / accelerating the larger mass of the main train.

I think they tried the same sort of idea with planes in WW2 to pick up spies from hostile areas. Have a feeling they may have also tried it in Vietnam and Korea to pick up downed CIA pilots.

[Apache]

Hope it takes off, our company makes these People Movers for a lot of the major airports, that thing looks like it could be right for us to build.

Who do you work for Alan? We had some small autonomous ones (for terminal 5) in for EMC testing a while back. Every time they passed the end of one of the runways, they crashed into the concrete guide channel. Turned out the control system was susceptible to interference from one of the radars. Not good for airport transport really!

[KERRSURF]

Alexander Dennis.

I think the idea of the Chinese non stop train is to save time, not energy.

[Apache]

Alexander Dennis.

I think the idea of the Chinese non stop train is to save time, not energy.

Ah OK, safety issues remain though! Mind you, when you've got China's population, you probably wont miss a few thousand per year wiped out by the transport system - its only a similar amout to what their air carriers used to take out per annum.

Cant remember the name of the company who built this weird little transport thing for terminal 5. They looked like stormtrooper helmets on wheels, and sat 4 people per 'pod'.

[dieselboy]

Hope it takes off, our company makes these People Movers for a lot of the major airports, that thing looks like it could be right for us to build.

I've been on something like that in Charlotte North Carolina