To load a train moving at 200 mph you would need 3 miles of platform track for every 1 minute of passengers moving between the platform and train. Do you honestly see 300 people including elderly couples and families with strollers and toddlers moving between the platform and the train in under 1 minute? You would need miles of platform track to do this safely.
And guess what guys? There are virtually no express rails left in the US. So retasking those for this idea is not happening. Why do you think the trains running today between Boston, NY, Chicago and a dozen other cities run hours slower than trains with steam engines did during WW II. Our brilliant government ripped up thousands of miles of track and sold it for scrap metal in the 1970s while they were busy expanding the highway system.
Because of those facts you just added hundreds of millions, possibly billions, to the setup cost of the HSR system to build hundreds of miles of additional high-speed rails and the power grid for them and to build the platform trains. Your per passenger operating costs just went through the roof.
For what? Gaining a few hours on a transcontinental trip?
This kind of ill conceived, poorly thought out idea is why HSR in the US is a joke.
Rail travel as we know it may be about to change.
Trains that stop at stations? Waiting on a platform for your next transfer? Driving to the station before boarding your train? How very 19th Century, says U.K.-based transportation design firm Priestmangoode.
Moving Platforms, the group’s innovative design for rail transportation, would allow passengers to board a local train in their town or neighborhood, which would then connect — literally — with a high-speed train on a neighboring track.
Using a docking mechanism (see photo), passengers could then transfer on and off the high-speed train without it needing to stop at a station. With Moving Platforms, you could conceivably board a local train in Boston and get off in San Francisco without ever stopping.
Take a look at this video to see the plan in motion:
Moving Platforms from Priestmangoode on Vimeo.
While there is much talk both in the U.S. and around the world these days of creating high-speed rail networks, the designers at Priestmangoode argue that existing plans for high-speed rail would involve a costly and environmentally damaging network of new train stations. They say that high-speed trains also waste energy and time by having to continually speed up and slow down to stop at stations.
“I can’t believe that across the world we are spending billions on high speed rail, making it run on a network that was invented in the 19th Century,” said Paul Priestman of Priestmangoode.
The company’s plan envisions the use of local rail networks, limiting the need for large train hubs - and in some cases, the need to drive to a station.
The Moving Platforms system would make use of pre-existing rail lines, which usually run express and local lines alongside each other. By maintaining a consistent speed and not having to stop, the trains would also be much more energy-efficient, according to the designers.
“I’m under no illusion that Moving Platforms is a big idea, but if we really want high speed rail to be successful and change the way we travel, getting people off the roads and reducing the number of short haul flights, it is imperative that the infrastructure we use works with, not against, this new technology to enable a seamless passenger journey from start to destination,” Priestman said. “The days of the super-hub train station are over, connectivity is the way forward.”
While Priestmangoode’s proposal may seem revolutionary, the group is not the first to propose non-stop rail travel. For a glimpse at Taiwanese designer Peng Yu-lun’s 2008 vision of non-stop rail, watch this clip:
