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One Per Cent: A New Scientist Blog

How to board a non-stop train while it's moving

Jacob Aron, technology reporter





pic2Priestmangoode_Moving-Platforms_tram-and-high-speed-train-docking_birds-eye.jpgArtist's depiction of the local tram and non-stop high speed train docking to allow passengers to transfer from one train to another. (Image: Priestmangoode)

"You could get onto a tram on your street and then seamlessly travel from that onto the high-speed line and then get off at your destination in another city, then onto a tram and then end up at your destination without ever having gone in your car or perhaps got on a bus," Priestman told CNN.

The tram would speed up while the train slowed down, allowing the two to safely dock for the same time a train would normally spend sitting in a station. Passengers could also use trams to transfer from one high-speed train to another.

But while the idea sounds innovative - New Scientist first featured it in an article in 1969.

pic3Priestmangoode_Moving-Platforms_tram-and-high-speed-train-transfer-2.jpgArtist's depiction of the docking system viewed from the inside of the local tram (Image: Priestmangoode)

The idea echoes a similar scheme created by Taiwanese inventor Peng Yu-lun in 2007. Yu-lun's concept keeps regular platforms, but passengers use them to board a small shuttle that attaches to the roof of a high-speed train.

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Okay, so what if an old lady walks too slowly from one side to another? Just drop her between the rails? Pull the emergency breaks?


I've never seen any thing quite as ludicrous and absurd !


what happens when you arrive at the tram stop too late?


@Sander van Rossen,
It would be remarkably easy to have built-in safety features... Worst case scenario if someone gets stuck and the door is unable to close, then the trains would just slow down and come to a stop.

@Jason H,

What happens when you arrive at a bus stop too late? You just catch the next one.


Hardly a new idea; Isaac Asimov described this in "The Caves of Steel" (1954) which was an expansion of the ideas from "The Roads Must Roll" (1940) by Robert A. Heinlein.


Both Asimov and Heinlein probably took the idea from H.G. Wells' "When the Sleeper Wakes" (1899)


I love the concept and it could play a starring role in the next Hollywood sci-fi film, but in reality would it actually solve a somewhat minor problem by introducing another problem (ability to miss the tram instead of the train)? Why have more frequent high speed trains!


Trains are for commoners


Sounds good, as long as you con get everyone moved in time.


Why even have the non-stop train stop at the ends? Make it a loop and really be non-stop. In this case why even have separate trains? Why not a complete loop of cars running constantly. Suddenly: Asimov's Caves of Steel.


Full of flaws. This is probably the stupidest idea ive heard. probabaly proposed by people with IQ of 20. It wastes energy, and is more complex than a stopping train. Why cant they just follow the chinese idea of a non-stopping train


What if the high speed train is full and you can't get on? That's a long way to go for uncertainty.


I wonder why this is only being put forward for handling highly variable and quick to sue people.

Why not use the obvious variation, that of full speed, ulta high acceleration flatbeds and container load, offload. You have two sets of un/load units on your train, compact high speed for bulk commodity containers, and extensive low speed for livestock containers. These can include passenger containers, which saves the problem of trams ateach end as well.

Something to note thats been commonplace in the UK recently with stolen cabling, what happens to the passengers when the power goes. 6 hours without water violates livestock transport regulations etc.


I had a similar idea in the 60s, but worried about how you would arrange for safe undocking. Would need a long emergency rail for the tram, staying parallel with the fast track, to cover the emergency braking distance. Emergency braking while docked would be an engineering nightmare, no? And that's assuming you could detect the need to make use of it.


great idea like it a lot, would reduce congestion at train stations and take cars off the road. not sure how affordable it would be right now but defo one for the future @ jason h why is it ludicrous and absurd? the increase in efficiency would be v high indeed no more waiting at train stations for a start.


Why not have still standing carriages (loaded with people while waiting) that are connected to the passing train by some sort of mechanism ("bungy rope" ;--). I.e. for each station a carriage is left behind and one connected. Maybe equally stupid but more fun.


Baggage handling is an obvious problem, also the huge parallel tracks required.. say 10 minutes of transfer time, the train moving at 150 kph, needs a minimum of 25 km of parallel track. A simpler implementation,.. passengers leaving the train move to the last car, it breaks off and becomes the tram into the destination city. It is replaced by the tram for new passengers, who, at their leisure, take spaces in the main body of the train.


1) How much energy/money is used to accelerate and break the local tram, to construct the local tram, the new train lines, the infraestructure....
2) What if... "something happens", people is slow moving from one train to another, or the local train has a delay, o there is a technical glitch connecting the two trains...

I think it's such a good idea the "tug" concept to go to Mars, but in trains??? Next step is to use acceleration skates to take non-stops buses...


that was great. what an interesting invention!


Just build the teleporter from Startrek...stop wasting money on this...

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