

The experimental railway in London that never stopped - davidbarker
http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2015/03/28/wembleys-experimental-never-stop-railway-line/

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teddyh
Current HN title “ _The experimental railway in London that never stopped_ ”
implies that the railway is still operating. THe _actual_ title “ _Wembley’s
experimental “never stop” railway line_ ” is much better, as it uses the
actual name of the train – the “Never Stop Railway”.

Don’t we get enough clickbait titles here so we have to make the HN titles
even worse?

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svisser
There is also this Chinese concept train that never stops at a station:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Ig19gYP9o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Ig19gYP9o)

~~~
jimmcslim
And a European concept that is similar:

[https://vimeo.com/25403519](https://vimeo.com/25403519)

Side-by-side instead of on-top. The Chinese concept has the benefit of using
less space. I don't know if either could be engineered to be practical or
safe.

At any rate, the most important question is... Did you NUGGET your boots this
morning?

~~~
Someone
Practical or safe? Probably. Practical and safe? I doubt it. On a standard
railway platform, leaving late because some passengers hold up the train is a
nuisance. With systems such as these, it is lethal.

For the EU one, the critical timing is in detaching from the fast train. It
_has_ to happen before the two tracks split up.

For the Chinese one, detaching can be postponed indefinitely, if slow cars in
front know it soon enough, and can pull up fast enough. I think that makes
this system slightly safer. Worst-case, an emergency command 'all trains to
full speed' will 'just' move most passengers to stations a few hundred miles
from where they wanted to go.

In either case, I would expect that, to guarantee proper timing of detachment,
the doors between fast and slow trains would have to close at least a minute,
probably more, before separation. For the EU design, that means long side-by-
side tracks. For the Chinese one, it limits the distance between stops of the
docking train. One could solve that by allowing two slower trains to dock at
the same time, but that increases the risk of collisions tremendously (two
half-width trains docking side by side might be the best solution here)

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twelvechairs
Same concept for elevators

[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster)

Hint: they are dangerous

Also like the old busses which had no doors so you could just jump on

~~~
Surio
+1 for mentioning them. I have used paternosters, and I don't consider these
dangerous at all. Paternosters are G.R.E.A.T fun :)

I am very aware that this type of response is anecdotal, and has a tendency to
degenerate quickly into "he said, she said" style of tangents, but can we
please stop calling these things "dangerous" every time they are mentioned
anywhere?

I have also used old school trams that you hop on and off of, and I was a wee
little kid back then and had to hop in and out, holding my father's hands.
Those experience always felt more fun to me than dangerous.

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aluhut
Please don't hide youtube video controls.

~~~
muyuu
[https://youtu.be/EX_MlWL7YKM](https://youtu.be/EX_MlWL7YKM)

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Animats
That's one of the more successful "fast in the middle, slow at the ends"
conveyor-type systems for people. Several moving walkway systems have been
built with similar properties.[1] None were very successful. There was a
system where escalator-like plates made of twin combs expanded and contracted.
There have been systems with belts moving at different speeds. There was a
system which went from slow and wide to fast and narrow as it turned a corner.
So far, none have been successful enough to be installed in any quantity.

The SF version, in Arthur C. Clarke's "The City and the Stars", used a
material that was solid in the vertical dimension and liquid in horizontal, so
it could be both used as a moving floor and pumped.

[1] [http://www.liberation.fr/culture/2009/08/01/l-echec-au-
bout-...](http://www.liberation.fr/culture/2009/08/01/l-echec-au-bout-du-
tapis_573818)

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mhielscher
Reminds me of the rides at Disneyland that run continuously. The Haunted
Mansion cars don't stop to let people on; people step onto a moving walkway at
the same speed as the cars.

(The exception is to let someone who can't use the walkway or get on quickly
enough, like a wheelchair user, to board.)

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calgoo
What about using some type of pod system that you get into, and then get
picked up by the train while moving. Then when you arrive at your destination
your pod jumps on a different track and comes to a halt at the exit from the
station. This would also allow for a inter-train exchange point, so you stay
in your pod from start to end of your trip. The pods could be individual, or
multi person, and hook on to different train wagons. The entire system could
be close to 100% automated, and inter passenger crime could probably be
lowered.

I think it could be done relatively easy, if the train slows in the stations
etc. We have the advantage that it could be speedup in the future when the
tech allows it.

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xaetium
I like when the nanny state is occasionally thwarted by its toddler citizens'
wants: the New Routemasters in London are a great example. Rather than the
agonising 20-metre, 10-minute wait to the stop, you can assess the road
yourself and hop off (and on if you just miss it).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Routemaster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Routemaster)

Boris, the London mayor, re-introduced these. I look forward to his PMship
after Cameron, mainly because of the points he makes about freedom in this
piece, using the Routemaster metaphorically (paragraph 7 on).

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/10067598/Hop-on-and-
off-...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/10067598/Hop-on-and-off-the-bus-
for-a-ride-to-freedom-and-growth.html)

~~~
cpcallen
> you can assess the road yourself and hop off (and on if you just miss it)

Unless it's evening, or there's a staff shortage, or it's being run on one of
several routes which now never have a second staff member and hence always
shut the door between stops.

Such a shame.

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spiritplumber
[http://www.museoscienza.org/approfondimenti/documenti/gamb_d...](http://www.museoscienza.org/approfondimenti/documenti/gamb_de_legn/)
Milan had something like this.

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rgovind
Pretty Interesting. Anyone knows the economics of this today?

Or a related note, what happens is one can use light rail tracks in SF Bay
area as extra car lanes? Does it help in any way? Lets say we have special
cars which can run on rails when train is not coming.

~~~
brudgers
Cars generate more congestion simply because they take more space:

[http://tlcminnesota.typepad.com/.a/6a00e553d253af88330176173...](http://tlcminnesota.typepad.com/.a/6a00e553d253af88330176173b2740970c-pi)

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jagermo
Isn't that similar to how skiing lifts work?

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wmil
Sadly constructing new public transit that isn't wheelchair accessible is
impossible in 2015.

~~~
m_mueller
As long as we don't have bionic limbs for, let's say 80% of cases, and can pay
taxis (self driving cars?) for the rest, I don't think we should be sad about
this. One important aspect of a civilised society is to leave noone behind, or
at least have that as a goal.

