Rail Pods?

Lrfox

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This is an almost laughable prospect, but how cool would it be if these guys could pull it off?

Rail-Pod hopes to use empty tracks for small rail cars
Friday, April 3, 2009
Brendan Lynch



MBTA patrons may not believe this, but a local startup has taken a look at public transportation, and ? you might want to be sitting down for this ? found it?s not quite as efficient as it might be.

Rail-Pod Inc. wants to make public transportation more efficient, and more cost-effective, with an off beat approach, according to co-founder Brendan English. The Belmont-based startup?s automated pods would carry two people and run on half of an existing set of railroad tracks to the passenger?s destination without stopping. Minor modifications could make the other half of a track available as a passing lane to avoid backups.

While public transportation is only profitable during rush hour, Rail-Pod?s on-demand service would make money on every trip, since it wouldn?t have to run near-empty trains at off-peak hours, English said. Since they?re automated, the electric-powered pods could run 24-7, after last call or the last inning of a late-running Red Sox game.

Such pods, an example of personal rapid transit, aren?t new ? the concept has been around for 30 to 40 years, according to Jose Gomez-Ibanez, a professor of urban planning and public policy at Harvard University?s Kennedy School of Government. He said the technology may be appealing and may have niche applications, but isn?t practical on a wider scale.

?It?s almost as if you?re reproducing the highway system,? Gomez-Ibanez said.

Rail-Pod isn?t looking to supplant the MBTA or the Mass Pike just yet. The company plans to focus on establishing feeder routes to existing rail-lines, running on existing routes when traditional trains are not running behind the little cars, and running routes on unused tracks in tourist destinations. One such feeder route, English cites as an example, could run on unused track from the commuter rail station in Needham through Dover and Medfield. English said he doesn?t see dealing with transportation bureaucracies as a problem.

?Politics are a part of every startup,? he said.

The four-person, bootstrapped startup was founded in late 2007 by English ? an engineer on unrelated aviation projects at the U.S. Department of Transportation?s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge ? along with Blair Morad, and twins Steve and Allen Mackey, all of whom are University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni. Rail-Pod, which is starting to look for funding, plans to have a prototype ready for demonstration by the end of the year, English said.

The automated pods are run by a small on-board computer, which takes information from a gyro-stabilization system; forward-looking obstruction sensors, which uses sonar and lidar to sense people, other pods or branches on the track; and ?skids? ? electromechanically controlled ski-like protrusions that lower to stabilize the pod at stops or during emergencies.

MIT startup Course Zero Automation, based in Boston, provided the pod with its inertial navigation unit, slightly modified to the specifications of the Rail-Pod?s hardware. Course Zero, which is putting the finishing touches on its final production unit, let Rail-Pod use the system as a way to demonstrate its technology, according to Course Zero founders Ted Blackman and Josh Siegel. The system balances the pod on the single rail and tells the computer whether the pod is leaning, and its rate of acceleration and deceleration.

?We get our logo on it,? Blackman said.

link:
http://www.masshightech.com/stories...-to-use-empty-tracks-for-small-rail-cars.html
 
It's a great concept I think. Merging the practicality of trains with the individual demands of a car via technology. But what if I am in greenbush and want to go to boston and some people in boston want to go to greenbush. The route is largely single track with only a couple two track stop overs. This would need every route to have 2 tracks to work (as well as numerous other things to go its way)
 
This concept has been around for decades. There's a reason it's been adopted nowhere.
 
Do you think there are reasons other than cost?
 
This concept has been around for decades. There's a reason it's been adopted nowhere.

I believe Heathrow airport is in the process of installing this type of system to get around the terminals and garages.
 
Isn't the Morgantown WV 'personal rapid transit' system a bit like this?
 
This concept has been around for decades. There's a reason it's been adopted nowhere.

Nowhere important, anyhow. Why don't we focus on fixing what's there before radically reinventing mass transit?
 
This might make more sense as a replacement for regular cars though:

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/gm-conjures-up-a-people-moving-pod/

480-GMSegway13.jpg
 
Fine, no (widespread) adoption of the technology.
 
I don't know how I feel about the idea of personal rail pods feeding into larger stations and primary mass transit lines, but couldn't it be done on a slightly larger scale.

Couldn't this company adapt the same type of technology to work on a slightly larger scale. I'm thinking it could work in a similar way that trams do in major ski areas. Not the technology of course, but the function. Individuals could pay to enter a gate to a platform and wait for an automated "Pod" to show up (that would have a capacity of 20-40 people maybe) and board, ride the few minutes to the last stop, get off and go from there.

I can imagine this being successful (and profitable) if done properly. It won't be a new form of mass transit, but a feeder for existing mass transit (also increasing MBTA ridership). It would be a rail shuttle of sorts and an automated one. It would of course require a very heavy amount of up front costs, but I think that in time, (again if done properly) it could turn a profit if it actually ran fully automated.
 
I think the main reason something like this has not gotten off the ground is because no one wants to be the first to put up the money and commit to a transportation technology that has not been proven on a large scale. Asking a mayor or governor to try to sell this to the public and he/she would get crucified. Heathrow is a good test case and will serve well as a stepping stone to a larger scale project.

How do you make automobile travel more efficient?

- Reduce the need for parking through car sharing (ZipCar)

- Make traffic flow better on highways by automating the automobiles

- Reduce the size of roads by making cars smaller and more appropriately sized for carrying a single human body (which is the case about 80% of the time). This could conversely increase the capacity of existing roads.

- Eliminate emissions and pollution from traffic. Sure an electric car can accomplish this but only if the source of power is emission free (i.e. solar, wind, nukes). If all the cars are powered off a coal fired plant then you are just displacing the pollution, but as soon as the plant is replaced then the whole fleet is now emissions-free.

- Design cars to use less energy overall. It takes more energy to roll a car on rubber tires than it would to roll it on a steel wheel on a steel track... I think you see where I'm headed with this...


How do you make mass transit more convenient? Make it more like automobile travel.

- Have it available on demand.

- Give passengers a single seat ride to their destination.

- Make it fast. The train is always running express to your station instead of stopping at each station along the way.

- Make the rail network more extensive. This is difficult because finding room for a set of tracks is no trivial task. And getting people to go along with having a train rumbling by near their house is no trivial task either. What if you needed less space for tracks and the trains were virtually silent?

Personal rapid transit aims to take the convenience of automobile travel and the efficiencies of mass transit and combine them. Of course this is a good idea! Yes, reinventing the highway system is exactly what we are doing because it's severely broken. I say go for it. Take a road like Rt. 1 and cover it with trees and bike paths. Silently up above personal rapid transit pods whisk by on a small single track while I nap inside the giant, glowing, disembodied head of Buckminster Fuller.
 
^^

Personally, I would prefer to have hover cars...

79055_f520.jpg


...and teleportation for long hauls:

amc0478l.jpg
 
I was going to post a photo of the pods from "Sleeper" but couldn't find any online. Just assume I did and that we all thought it was hilarious.
 
orgasmatron_sleeper.jpg


Your Google-fu is weak JohnAKeith-san.
 
How do you make mass transit more convenient? Make it more like automobile travel.

- Have it available on demand.

- Give passengers a single seat ride to their destination.

- Make it fast. The train is always running express to your station instead of stopping at each station along the way.

- Make the rail network more extensive. This is difficult because finding room for a set of tracks is no trivial task. And getting people to go along with having a train rumbling by near their house is no trivial task either. What if you needed less space for tracks and the trains were virtually silent?

Personal rapid transit aims to take the convenience of automobile travel and the efficiencies of mass transit and combine them.

What efficiencies? This sounds just like the plans that were dismissed by experts in the article that started this thread. It's a replacement of the road network with rails (and maybe automation). Sounds as inefficient as automobiles to me, maybe more given the cost of implementation.
 
Mass Transit is called MASS Transit for a reason. It is more efficient because more people can get around using less energy and less space. Technology will only continue to improve this efficiency, they're already coming along nicely with MagLev technology-it's only a matter of time before it can be applied to LRT/Mass Transit systems. Automation will further increase the efficiency. And engineers now, instead of trying to develop more and more features, are trying to improve and simplify the systems and features already in existence.

The T in the future (not really, but whatever)

-will be MagLev
-will be automated
-riders will know exactly where the trains are
-it will run 24/7, as maintenance will be vastly simpler and more streamlined-a computer will find the most efficient way to take a train out of service when it needs maintenance.
-as RFID and similar technologies advance, riders will be able to sign up for a Charlie Card online, have it billed to their credit card, and swipe with their all-in-one card-all from their smartphone.

Automobiles will not go extinct, however, mass transit will be far more and convenient, affordable, and commonplace than the car. Rail Pods will be a passing trend for airports, amusement parks, and ski resorts.
 

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