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truck-hauler for goods and people carriages on trains
i've noticed that sometimes traffic can be good on some days for trains, and not so good for transportation via the road surfaces, but sometimes, when trains are delayed, there is an opportunity for currently out-of-work trucks to deliver not only the goods that the trains carry, but also the carriages themselves to their destination.
for people, since it is possible for more than one carriage to be used dynamically, groups of people can move themselves into seperate carriages for their destination, and multiple trucks can automatically lift each carriage on to their assigned hauler, and take them as close as they can to their destination according to the grouping of people inside the carriages.
a high amount of automation would be required, but also an amount of common sense for truck-drivers for situations that need precision guidance. i would expect teams to be working for each carriage to ensure people get on to their destination carriage, and also for safety.
to ensure smooth transit between carriages and trucks, and also for the journey on road, trucks may need a higher priority on roads to ensure that public transport is faster than driving by car.
for areas where trains are stuck in a place that is not near a road, helicopters that are currently not on stand-by and are usable for transportation according to degrees of safety, could be used to transport the carriage to the nearest road where the truck can pick them up. i'm not so sure it should be placed on to the truck directly.
i'm not so sure this is a useless idea when it comes to transport times, especially if mathematical algorithms determine the shortest route and/or if the carriage should be transported via other means at all.
an _extremely_ high amount of hydraulics and safety measures would be required in each carriage itself to prevent tilting/rolling by computer-controlled safety systems with probability algorithms to help make the ride not only safer, but smoother.
Ken brown 30+
Wouldn't it be easier to have a triple stacked drop down maglev system running down every major street and that the carriages will be autonomous?Why i said stacked is that the maglev track will be sectioned so they can be lowered or raised between each other for quick interchange.
Even that would be a headache.
griffin tucker 10+
if these helicopters were modified for such use where railways are near-by, the logistics is just a matter of a direct-line. train stations would indeed need to be modified, though.
the mag-lev idea is a good one, i've heard of similar scopes of ideas for charging the fuel cells in electric cars via magnets built into the road as they travel through these types of systems. applying electrical current to electrical helicopters is a much, much bigger conundrum.
is there any other safety measure currently abound, or in progress for such measures of being stuck on a train that won't move - with such speed and comfort? (aside from walking..)
this system of isolated carriages that you mention would function best like this for comfort - and encourage even people like you to use it, as it would be more efficient that driving, even during a disaster - because the disasters are prepared for to not only ensure safety but make the quickest trip out of any scenario....then again a tunnel disaster would be difficult, but feasible in the mag-lev sense to make emergency transport for carriages according to priority (transport-time insurance, anyone?) through even water.
when i was a kid i had an ant colony of sand between 2 thin pieces of clear perspex. i noticed the intricate designs of the tunnels the ants built were designed so that if one tunnel were to collapse, there would be other options to exit, often with more than one exit at the top. perhaps nature can still teach us yet...
Ken brown 30+
I had a similar idea for our roading system but not to recharge cars but to turn them into big dynamo's for the city power grid.the recharge idea is much more plausible.
The reason i said autonomous carriages is so it can leave once it's full hopefully cutting down waiting time.Safety is a big issue,if through a major disaster or a de-coupling from the track,maybe a fullbody airbag.Like you said nanotech or nanotubes to be used in it's construction,sadly thats light years away.If your really interested in pursuing it further i would spend a day googling but here's a site i always use for cutting edge science.
http://scitechdaily.com/graphite-foam-could-harness-energy-from-temperature-gradient-in-oceans/
I'm not technically minded or have any engineering background,limited education,so everything i've written is speculation,i should ask my work partner hes a naval engineer.
griffin tucker 10+
i think you may be on to something with the autonomous carriages, why not use existing carriages for multiple direction transport independently, but this would require drivers (or pilots) however autonomous it would seem, a fail-safe would be required because sometimes computers just don't cut it.
development for air-borne devices that are small and light-weight have already begun, such as minauture helicopters and interactive drones. the idea here i guess has changed, more so that individualisation of transport could occur as a result of these minauture helicopters and drones being able to carry the equivalent of one person plus a handful of luggage.
i would expect that some level of interaction while transporting oneself on one of these drones would also mean a level of automation to avoid obstacles such as other people and other air-borne objects, but i am speculating. i'm not an engineer.
do i think such drones would be capable of carrying people now? definitely not. not with current technology.
griffin tucker 10+
with the advent of nanotechnology making materials much safer (cracks in aeroplanes can be detected much earlier than to the visual eye) i think short transportation from a railway to a road/truck could happen much sooner than anticipated and could allow for a whole different meaning for the airline industry when it comes to transport, but the airline industry is a way off yet.
as the air-line industry saves on repairs (and prevents danger) for investing in transport helicopters (aeroplanes that can hover? -not sure) the mean-time situation means that trucks will provide to be much more useful in the short-term as numbers of helicopters/jets that can lift such heavy weights aren't in the high numbers as yet to provide direct transportation to destination.