Crossposted from Carectomy.com

Taiwanese inventor Peng Yu-Lun has an innovative idea to make train transportation even more efficient: get rid of the stops. No, he's not proposing that passengers are thrown on and off of fast-moving trains or that passengers are eliminated from the equation altogether. Instead, Yu-Lun envisions a small separated car perched atop the train. When the train enters a station, this car slides along on elevated rails that smoothly and gradually remove the car from the rest of the train and bring it to a stop.

Another identical car travels from these elevated tracks and gradually slides along the top of the train to pick up speed for boarding passengers. The end result: a train with no need to stop at stations.

Check out the video demonstration below, in Taiwanese, of what such a train would look like:

Sure, regenerative braking – the process that converts the energy typically wasted as heat when slowing down and storing it as electrical power in batteries – is a terrific energy saving solution. Many hybrid cars, such as the Prius, use regenerative braking and it's starting to appear aboard hybrid diesel/electric trains as well. But more efficient still is to maintain your momentum and dispense with a train's need to make stops.

Huge amounts of power go into bringing an entire train's mass to a halt at stations and then reaccelerating it back up to speed. By keeping the main portion of the train on the move, the energy savings could be huge.

Via Boing Boing.

Comments (12)

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Wow
written by Danno , July 01, 2008

This is a rather innovative idea. I think the gains in shortened travel time dwarf the energy saved. Trains take forever to get places, not just because they are slow, but because they must stop frequently. Instead of having to stop at every station, your trip would only be interrupted when you had to transfer to the station car. Brilliant!

The main use of the trains?
written by William , July 01, 2008

It seems like the trains would have to be freight trains to begin with, otherwise the whole train is useless, if it's passenger then you are still stopping and starting. The problem with using freight trains as a base is they are slow, and often do not go the same paths as passenger trains. So the only real use of the lower train is for very very long trips, and the only use for the top train is very very short trips, because you can't stay on till the next stop, you have to get off at the next stop no matter what.

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written by Ken Roberts , July 01, 2008

@William,

My thoughts were that the top train could be used to board the bottom train, through a simple connecting staircase. I'm not sure if this is the actual proposal or not, perhaps someone could clear this up.

Personally, I love the idea. If you could ride a train without stops, that would totally transform the public transportation system.

The inventor
written by ZC , July 01, 2008

Despite the description from the youtube clip, from the video itself, which is in Chinese, the inventor appears to be a Chinese from Hubei province.

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written by Clinch , July 01, 2008

I can't confirm it, but it seems (from the design of the train and such [e.g. windows, permanent roof structure]) that the intention is for passengers to ride in the lower train, rather than it being for cargo.

And another potential benefit (that I don't think anyone has pointed out yet) is that the trains can go slower (saving energy) and still have the same timetable (because they don't have to wait for passengers to get on/off)

Crowding
written by ChrisAN , July 01, 2008

It seems to me that between everybody boarding the train having to get into one cart and then all those people going down the staircase into the main train and spreading out through the train and then all the people in the train moving to the staircase and then going up it to get out there would be a lot of crowding. Everything bottlenecks at that staircase.

Re: Crowding
written by AndyM , July 01, 2008

I don't see the concern. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think we are talking about five minutes between stations. And the idea is clearly for situations in which a relatively small percentage of the total number of passengers are getting on and off at each station. If _everyone_ is getting on or off, then I suppose the train would just stop. A full train's worth of people certainly can't fit in that "small separated car perched atop the train."

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written by Andy Mo , July 01, 2008

Here in Hong Kong our underground railroad tunnels slope downhill leaving the station, and uphill coming into the station. Gravity assist saves a lot of energy.

Acceleration
written by Don , July 02, 2008

From the video it looks like the g force from acceleration or braking the extra car could be serious (depending on the speed of the main train). So fasten your seatbelts guys -- and no drinks aboard anywhere near a station Wooshhhh!

I also second the concern about too many people wanting to enter or leave the train. Would that be computer calculated and allocated via ticket sales? Then every passenger would have to register in advance.

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written by Clinch , July 02, 2008

I don't think there would be a space problem, as the main train would have seats as normal, but the "shuttle-train" would be standing only, so you'd be able to get more people on it.

And (from one of the videos) it looks like there could be more than one shuttle-train, so at small stations, there's the exchange of only one shuttle-train, and at larger stations, they'd exchange more (depending on time of day, and how many people want to get on/off the maid train).

As for the acceleration/deceleration, as I said earlier, these trains wouldn't have to go as fast as normal trains, and the length of the train and the 'joining platform' increase the space that the shuttle-train has to get up to speed (therefore decreasing acceleration). I'd guess that the g-force wouldn't be much more that that experienced when standing on(/in) a bus.

Improvement: Eliminate the Up-Down
written by Ryan Baker , July 06, 2008

I like the idea, but I see a problem. Luckily I see a solution too.

Some other posters have mentioned the staircase bottleneck. With far enough between stops you could get by the time problem, but staircases have two other big problems. Number one, people with luggage will find them a real bother, which will make the whole thing less popular. More catastrophically, people with the right disabilities will require the train to stop because they can't do stairs.

You could put in an elevator, but that's more of a bottleneck. Here is my idea.. raise/lower the entire car. Make one of cars in the train a "loading car" which is essentially a hollow receptacle for the boarding car.

The train catches the boarding car, then lowers it into the hollow car and people exit from the front and rear, while those departing at the next stop others enter. As the train approaches the next stop the boarding car locks up and is raised back into position.

It adds a few mechanicals, but nothing science-fiction like and solves the issues of time, disabilities and luggage rather nicely with very little hassle.

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written by Darkware , July 13, 2008

or you could just have a ramp instead of stairs

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