Imagine If Trains Didn't Have to Start and Stop
The railroads were built long, long ago. And while much of the innovation thathas occurred has been centered in other transportation industries such as air travel and autos; railroad travel continues to be a major part of people's every day lives.
It can be said that there has been a creative disconnect within the railroad industry. If it isn't broke don't fix it seems to be the strategy that the industry has followed. Today commuters travel across some of the same railroad tracks that have been in place since the 1800's. The railroad stations that we have in the US are some of the oldest and most historic buildings in the respective towns that they are in.
UK based design group, priestmangoode, has unveiled a revolutionary concept involving train travel and their stations. The traditional way trains have worked of course is to stop at each station to pick up passengers. This process causes the train to slow down, come to a full stop, wait for passengers to get off, wait for passengers to get on, and then the train slowly increases back to its desired speed. This process obviously takes time and it ends up making train trips take longer for passengers each day.
This new and exciting concept will allow a train to pick up passengers without stopping. Basically, the local train which travels Throughout a given city will ride along side the main train which travels from city to city. This local train would of course ride along the main train only for a short period of time while the main train is passing by the local train's city. Without stopping, the local train will have its doors connect to the main train's doors so that passengers can get on and off. The doors would then close, and the local train would go back into its originating city while the main train travels to another city.
This ingenious solution would allow people from a given city to get onto a train going to another city without getting off their local train. At the same time, people could also get off of the main train which originated in another city and get onto the local train to take them deep inside a different city.
In addition to being a tremendous time saver for all train travelers, this process would result in a boost to the fuel efficiency of train travel as trains wouldn't have to slow down, completely stop, and then speed back up as often. And for commuters, in addition to faster train rides, they also would spend less time waiting at stations for the next train to arrive.
This is a big idea which would obviously be a massive project in terms of cost and time. It also has a ton of safety risks which would need to be vetted and tested. However, it truly is a revolutionary idea, and it makes sense for us to begin to consider ideas to improve railroads, trains, and stations given that this widely popular mode of transportation doesn't seem to have gotten enough of a share of the innovation pie.