Read before viewing the video link below as it is in Mandarin Chinese.
A brilliant new Chinese train innovation - get on & off the bullet train without the train stopping.
No time is wasted. The bullet train is moving all the time. There are 30 stations between Beijing and Guangzhou , just stopping and accelerating again at each station will waste both energy and 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...
1. Those who are boarding the train at a station get into to a connector cabin before the train arrives at the station. When the train arrives, it will not stop. It just slows down to pick up the connector cabin which will move with the train on its roof. While the train is still moving away from the station, those passengers will board the train from the connector cabin stopped on the roof. After fully unloading all its passengers, the connector cabin will be moved to the back of the train so that passengers who want to get off at the next station will climb up into the connector cabin at the rear of the train roof.
2. When the train arrives at the next station, it will simply drop the whole connector cabin at the station and leave it behind. At the same time, the train will pick up another connector cabin on the front part of the train's roof. So the train will always drop one connector cabin from the rear of its roof and pick up a new connector cabin in the front part of the train’s roof at each station.
Check out the video to see how it works.
I wondered about that when we were building the light rail....if people could load onto a train at the platform, and be ready when the next train showed up....massive amounts of time would be saved. Doesn't seem too high tech, although I guess here in the US, govt doesn't think of those things. It would take private sector involvement and a profit motive to actually try to make the trains more efficient.
Too bad future generations aren't here to see all the great things we are spending their $$ on!!
RenegadeCJ wrote: Doesn't seem too high tech, although I guess here in the US, govt doesn't think of those things. It would take private sector involvement and a profit motive to actually try to make the trains more efficient.
Well, in this case, it looks like some commies invented it. Then again, for all I know, they may of stolen the idea from someone else.
Nice idea, though!
BTW, and somewhat off topic. But did you hear Obama mention high speed trains in his State of the Union speech? He said there would be no need to go through security like in airports. Seems to me one could cause a lot of damage on a train too with a bomb, though at least it won't fall from the sky like a plane. Plus high speed trains would seem to be very vulnerable to attacks from the outside (blow up the tracks, RPG attack, etc.).
RenegadeCJ wrote: Doesn't seem too high tech, although I guess here in the US, govt doesn't think of those things. It would take private sector involvement and a profit motive to actually try to make the trains more efficient.
Well, in this case, it looks like some commies invented it. Then again, for all I know, they may of stolen the idea from someone else.
This theroy and several other varations have been around in sci fi stories and novels for many years.
RenegadeCJ wrote: Doesn't seem too high tech, although I guess here in the US, govt doesn't think of those things. It would take private sector involvement and a profit motive to actually try to make the trains more efficient.
Well, in this case, it looks like some commies invented it. Then again, for all I know, they may of stolen the idea from someone else.
This theroy and several other varations have been around in sci fi stories and novels for many years.
Well that's not quite the same as inventing it for real. If I were to develop a real transporter, I don't think Star Trek (or earlier sci fi) should get the credit.
So I was just wondering if someone else had already developed the concept, or if this is something developed for the first time in China. And I'm not even sure how far along the idea is. I think the video just showed an animation and a model of the thing. I'm not sure when or if it's been put to real use yet. No link was provided.
It’s almost the same concept I’ve seen for intellegent cars and highways. As cars enter the intelegent highway, the system takes over and allows the cars to run together, closer than possible with human drivers, allowing draft and making commute time productive time. Imagine I-70 on a Sunday afternoon with every car going exactly 70 mph, inches apart, from the tunnel to the C470 interchange.
