Friday, November 25, 2011

Non-stop high speed rail

The basic premise is to find out how to let passenger board and unboard a moving train, without the train stopping. Here I'm tracking the ideas.
  • 2007/4/18, top boarding design by 陳建軍, titled "不停站可上下乘客的火車."
  • 2011/6/21, side boarding design by Paul Priestman, titled "Moving Platform."
  • 2011/11/24, cloverleaf (rear detach, front attach) design by a Slashdot commentator.
All of the above designs suffer poor aerodynamics.

Inspired by a Mythbuster study that a vehicle drafting behind a "big rig" improves mileage, I would suggest a rear boarding design where a passenger car will approach the speed of a moving high speed rail train from behind, dock for a few minutes while boarding and unboarding passengers, and detach from the train again from the rear.

I believe this docking mechanism will be safer and also energy efficient.