Stopping and accelerating again at each station will waste both energy and time. But in this brilliant new Chinese train innovation No time is wasted- get on & off the bullet train without the train stopping. The bullet train is moving all the time.
A mere 5 min stop per station (elderly passengers cannot be hurried) will result in a total loss of 5 min x 30 stations or 2.5 hours of train journey time!
How it works (view the movie):
1. To board the train : The passengers at a station embarks onto to a connector cabin way before the train even arrives at the station. When the train arrives, it will not stop at all. It just slows down to pick up the connector cabin which will move with the train on the roof of the train.
While the train is still moving away from the station, those passengers will board the train from the connector cabin mounted on the train’s roof. After fully unloading all its passengers, the cabin connector cabin will be moved to the back of the train so that the next batch of outgoing passengers who want to alight at the next station will board the connector cabin at the rear of the train roof.
2. To get off the train: As stated after fully unloading all its passengers, the cabin connector cabin will be moved to the back of the train so that the next batch of outgoing passengers who want to alight at the next station will board the connector cabin at the rear of the train roof. When the train arrives at the next station, it will simply drop the whole connector cabin at the station itself and leave it behind at the station. The outgoing passengers can take their own time to disembark at the station while the train had already left. At the same time, the train will pick up the incoming embarking passengers on another connector cabin in the front part of the train’s roof. So the train will always drop one connector cabin at the rear of its roof and pick up a new connector cabin in the front part of the train’s roof at each station.
(ht Mark Perry)
I hope the system is entirely passive and exhaustively tested. The potential for a catastrophic failure is huge.
ReplyDeleteGuess they got that fly ash problem fixed, because they are already on to bigger and better things... Right?!
ReplyDeleteYeeeaahhh, right...
"Professor Wang Lan , lead scientist at the Cement and New Building Materials Research Institute under the China Building Materials Academy, said that given poor quality control on the mainland, the use of low-quality fly ash, and other low-grade construction materials, was "almost inevitable" in high-speed railway construction.
And that could have fatal consequences, Wang said. With a catalytic function almost opposite to that of good fly ash, the bad fly ash could significantly weaken railway line foundations and shorten a railway's lifespan by about half. That would mean China's high-speed rail tracks would last only 50 years."
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2011/02/speculation-investment-scandals-fraud.html
I have a feeling the ones responsible figure they will either die of old age before this is discovered, or will have quietly left the country...
Clever new twist on an old idea. Placing and removing parts on a moving line is at least as old as Henry Ford's assembly line. And old movies clearly show that jumping on and off moving streetcars was commonplace in the early 1900's. But it is good to see the Chinese making economic progress. I hope it continues internationally since free trade is the only true peacekeeper.
ReplyDeleteEven if the train has to slow to something like 10kph to make engineering out catastrophic failures much less likely, it will still save a ton of time. Most trains that stop spend a lot of time with people dicking around getting in and out, idiots standing in the doorway so it won't shut, etc. If you can get all that dicking around finished before the train even arrives, it will save a ton of time even if the train has to slow to a crawl.
ReplyDeleteScary Chinese materials engineering notwithstanding, this is still a pretty neat idea.