'Moving Platforms' Could Make Rail Travel More Efficient

Paul Priestman from London design consultancy Priestmangoode has come up with a way of letting passengers board trains while they're moving, making the rail network more efficient.

His "Moving platforms" concept would see long-distance trains in continuous motion. Separately, a tram system would collect passengers from local stations. Those trams would then speed up alongside the long-distance trains, and dock alongside them -- while both are moving at speed -- so that passengers can transfer from one to the other. The carriages would stay connected for approximately the same amount of time that the train normally spends stopped at a station.

Once the transfer is complete, the tram would slow down again to make another trip around the local stations to allow passengers to embark and disembark locally. Tickets would be checked using an RFID system, not unlike an Oyster card, to ensure that each passenger pays the correct fare. The system would not only let the high-speed trains be more efficient and have a more predictable schedule, but also decrease the amount of time passengers spend waiting on cold platforms for a connecting train. You can see Priestman explain his thinking in the video embedded below.

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On Priestmangoode's website, the agency says: "Our experience of various systems has led us to conclude that it is hugely inefficient to run a new 21st century high tech, high speed train service on a 19th century infrastructure that was invented for steam trains."

Priestman adds: "I'm under no illusion this is a big idea, but we have to think big. The world is going to a be a very different place in 10 to 20 years time and we have to think of alternative ways of travel."

Paul Priestman introduces Moving Platforms from Priestmangoode on Vimeo.

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Posted in: environment clean generations,moving platforms,technology,trail,train

The Solar Tunnel

• The first "green train" in Europe to harness solar energy is running between Paris and Amsterdam.
• Sixteen thousand solar panels produce 3,300 megawatts per hour of electricity.
• The electricity generated on-site reduces energy losses and transportation costs. 

High-speed international trains linking Paris and Amsterdam as of Monday became the first in Europe to use electricity generated by solar panels installed in a tunnel on the line.

At a cost of 15.6 million euros, project managers say the 3.6-kilometer tunnel crossing Antwerp, in northern Belgium, is fitted with 16,000 solar panels covering 50,000 square meters, roughly eight football fields.

The panels produce 3,300 megawatts per hour of electricity, or the average annual consumption of nearly 1,000 families.

The first "green train" left Antwerp on Monday for the Dutch border. While it was filled as usual with commuters and students, for a dozen or so kilometers, its engines plugged into the solar energy source fitted along the line.

The electricity produced feeds into the line's infrastructure, for lighting, signals and in-train power points, said Frederic Sacre, spokesman for Infrabel, which runs the rail network.

"By using electricity generated on-site, we eliminate energy losses and transport costs," said Steven De Tollenaere, head of project developers Enfinity, which leans on state subsidies backing energy use that meets clean climate goals.

The company hopes the project will allow it to develop new installations in the United States and other parts of the world, citing train hangars as ideal sites for such charging points in the future.

by "environment clean generations"

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Posted in: electricity,environment,environment clean generations,megawatts,rail network,solar tunnel,train

What if i Would Fire a Gun on a Train Moving as Fast as a Bullet?

This is a good question because it involves the concept of reference frames. The quick answer is that relative to you, the bullet will always travel at the same speed. In other reference frames, however, unexpected things can happen!

 

You may have heard of Newton's first law:

"Every body persists in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed on it."

We could rephrase this a little and say that a body in motion tends to stay in motion and a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted on by an external force.

Imagine you are on a perfectly smooth speeding train, moving at a uniform speed (not accelerating or turning), in a car with no windows. You would have no way of knowing how fast you are going (or if you were moving at all). If you throw a ball straight up in the air, it will come straight back down whether the train is sitting still or going 1,000 mph. Since you and the ball are already moving at the same speed as the train, the only forces acting on the ball are your hand and gravity. So the ball behaves exactly as it would if you were standing on the ground and not moving.

So what does this mean for our gun? If the gun shoots bullets at 1,000 mph, then the bullet will always move away from the gun at 1,000 mph. If you go to the front of a train that is moving at 1,000 mph and shoot the gun forward, the bullet will move away from you and the train at 1,000 mph, just as it would if the train were stopped. But, relative to the ground, the bullet will travel at 2,000 mph, the speed of the bullet plus the speed of the train. So if the bullet hits something on the ground, it will hit it going 2,000 mph.

If you shoot the bullet off the back of the train, the bullet will still be moving away from you and the gun at 1,000 mph, but now the speed of the train will subtract from the speed of the bullet. Relative to the ground, the bullet will not be moving at all, and it will drop straight to the ground.

 

What's true for bullets, however, is not true of some other things that you might "shoot" from the front of the train. A great example is sound waves. If you turn on the stereo in your living room, sound waves "shoot out" of the speaker at the speed of sound -- something like 700 mph. 

The waves propogate through the air at that fixed speed, and they can go no faster. So if you put a speaker at the front of the 1,000 mph train, the sound waves will not depart the train at 1,700 mph. They cannot go faster than the speed of sound. This is the reason why planes traveling faster than the speed of sound create sonic booms.

  by "environment clean generations"

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Posted in: bullet,gun,motion,physics,sound waves,speed,train