Why is it always these goddamn pods that are supposed to improve public transit? What's wrong with trains?
this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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Simpsons did it!
Its kinda cool how by making it mono-rail, they can use a single track rail to have pods moving in both directions, and the rail could still be used during the night for regular cargo trains.
It looks monorail at first but if you look closer its not.
I also wouldn’t want to be the forgetful dumb person that forgot how late it was before taking this thing home because those cargo trains ain't gonna stop.
It actually is monorail. It looks like the stabilizing arm is for when the vehicle is off and not moving. It uses a gyroscope while moving for stabilization
Using that for monorails and regular cargo trains would require the monorails to follow regulations and I don't see that happening.
Not if it is strictly time separated. Like I wrote, I could see these pods operate exclusively during the day and regular/cargo trains operate exclusively during the night. Or any other such time based system.
That isn't acceptable. One person who for whatever reason is out late (emergency at work, or invited to a party) will be screwed when they can't get back home and tell everyone else.
At 3am? Come on. And that's also true for all public transport.
I know it is true almost everywhere, but that doesn't make it acceptable. People need to get places, transit is just a tool.
Better than nothing still, don't let perfect be the enemy of good and all that
While you are not wrong, you should always strive to perfection. Running train transit 24x7x365 is low hanging fruit (modern fully automated trains exist - note that the topic here is trains not buses). You do need to do something about maintenance, so I'll let you get by with 30 minute headways overnight, while during the day you should be running every 5 minutes.
Man I wish our trains ran anywhere near that constantly. They stop the public transit around midnight in my city, but that doesn't stop it from being tremendously useful during the rest of the time. You learn to plan for it, and advocate for improvements whenever you can
It is stupid not to. It doesn't cost much and makes transit so much nicer.
And then you can widen it to fit more people abreast. Then lengthen it to fit more people front to back. Then hook them together because a lot of people are going to the same destination... The new becomes old again.
You put it best, but I approve seeing more trains made.
Me too. Why are we constantly fucking around with pods? Just use that money to build a train.
I like the idea, but there doesn't seem a way for a pod to temporarily move into the other track, which raises questions. Like, how do they handle rebalancing the pods? Ideally, you want a free one at each station for the next person who comes along, but if you come into a station with pods already there, do you have to get out and move to the first pod? Or when you leave your station, do all the pods on the line automatically move one station up the line, making a new pod available for the next person and leaving you a smooth trip to your destination (but limiting energy savings)? Do the pods have to cycle all the way to the end of the line to turn around (again, energy inefficient if most of the traffic is between a lesser number of stations)?
I like the idea, I really do! I'm just curious how they handle balancing availability and traffic.
Good questions. I guess given how lightweight these pods look there could be probably some sort of lifting device at some of the stations to move the pods between the two rails.
Since they're light weight, they don't need the heavy rail for freight trains that put >25 tons per axle. It would be incredibly easy to make little switching stations that could pass, turn, and store these pods. Having mini train infrastructure like that everywhere would complete my autism. Life would be complete and I could die happy in a monorail pod crash.
I searched train rail bikes: https://www.riverfoxtrain.com/experiences/railbikes/
https://www.trains.com/trn/railroads/tourist/pedal-the-rails-railbike-excursions-guide-2024/
Tho' what I was imagining was a 'regular' bike fitted with an outrigger to keep the wheels on the track.
Interesting idea. Would only realistically work on abandoned lines rather than rarely used lines, with special permission from the railroad infrastructure owner and the national governing body for railways (Federal Railroad Administration in the case of US, Eisenbahn-Bundesamt in Germany), since normal railway signalling systems for single track wouldn't work with the bidirectional monorail system.
oh boy a brand new gadget bahn
at the least it is (presumably) cheaper than fully restoring those old railways and getting actual two-track trains running on them
Project founder Thorsten Försterling tells us that the team is working on a track-installed machine that will be able to lift individual pods off of one rail and place them on the other (without passengers in them at the time), keeping them from all collecting at either end of the route.
Still sounds dumb to me. How much effort would it be to lay down a second track, rather than invent a gyroscope-balanced pod that can propel itself along a single railroad rail, along with a specialized machine to move it over to the other rail?
invent a gyroscope-balanced pod that can propel itself along a single railroad rail
No need, it was invented over a century ago.
Here's a good video about it: https://youtu.be/kUYzuAJeg3M
Just dealing with with land rights for the extra space the second track would need is a nightmare. And the very idea of these is to use existing tracks without getting into new track construction.