Train with no station stops

[Dogod]

This train never stops at a station, instead having a connector train which it picks up at each station and drops off at the next station. The purpose is to save all the time and energy it takes to stop and start at every station on the line.
YouTube- New Chinese Innovation. (The train that never stops at a station) !â€!
The audio is in Chinese, so I would be glad if someone here could translate it.
There are a few problems with this design.
First, the passengers would only be able to get on at a certain part of the train, and would only be able to gt off at another part, which would force them to walk across the train to get off, only to find a huge crowd also waiting there.
Second, there is a huge potential for disaster. Although there would obviously be plenty of safety measures,, there would also be plenty of ways for disaster to happen. Not to mention that you're giving people an easy way to commit suicide or murder - there's no way someone cold get out of the way of that if they fell off the platform.
There are possible solutions to these problems, though. For the first problem, it might be possible to make the connector car larger, so that it is possible to get on at any station.
For the disasters, there are a few safety measures that could save lives. For example, setting up an electronic gate at the platform that closes as the train is approaching (which is already done in some places, and is a good idea for all railroad systems). The track that hold the connector train could be extended the whole length of the railroad, so that if it does somehow slide off it won't fall and crash.

I'm sure there's other problems which I didn't list with this, but it is at least a good idea. I don't know if it's practical or not.

 

[citrusbreath95]

Well, it is a fairly interesting idea, but with all the safety precautions, it seems like it'd be too much of a hassle. I heard somewhere that the Chinese, or Japanese (I can't remember which one) has these grocery stores where you sit in a cart and you just pull the item you want off the shelf. It seems very innovative and helps to eliminate the need for walking, but if you forget something, you have to cross the entire store again just to reach that destination. (You can see how that might arise a major problem for absent-minded people) , so in a way, this is similar to the train. Of course, you could take many safety precautions but is it worth going through all the trouble? Of course, I don't live in China and with its population being large, it could be well worth it, as to avoid the many stops at various stations.

 

[Kuu]

My high school physics teacher once told us that the russians (or was it the germans? can't remember... all his stories were about russians or germans (maybe he made it up...?)) came up with a system for a train that never stopped but gave up on it because there were safety problems with the design. The trains would approach the station and then get inside a loop, and there would be a circular rotating platform that matches the speed of the train so that people could get out normally. But I don't remember what the problem was, something about wind drag or centripetal forces I think... the point was that people would die gruesomely and they couldn't solve it efficiently with the technology of the time (curse you, bad memory)...

This seems like a simple, nice approach to the old idea though how exactly is the car grabbed? Electromagnets? And/or mechanical latch?

And citrusbreath, I don't see how "all the safety precautions" would be such a hassle. How much extra safety precautions does this involve when compared to a normal train, to the end user? I don't see much...

more info: http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=79655&CtNode=39

 

[walfin]

A transfer carriage that moves forward and is on top of the train.

The train going from Beijing to Guangzhou, no 168, which does not stop at stations, is going to pass by our station. All passengers travelling to Guangzhou, please enter the transfer carriage at the platform.

Dear passengers, we have arrived at Wuchang station, please disembark. See you again.

Darn. I thought it was gonna be explanation.

Why have a train below? Why not some other kind of moving platform?

Anyway it's pretty cool, you could have two trains, and when they reach the end, they simply reverse.

 

[Pants]

I wondered why there had to be a train as well. Passengers getting on at any particular station could be going to any number of stations further down the line. The train serves as a sorting and staging area, allowing passengers to move to carriages that will be detaching at their respective stops. But, yeah, I'm still not sure why this has to be done on a full-blown train.

I'm not sure how many people move around on Chinese rails, probably quite a few, but I'd not be surprised if, at any one time, most of them would be in carriages atop the train rather than on the train itself. I think on-train congestion would likely be manageable.

Perhaps a considerable portion of the train could be used for freight, though I don't know how that would affect the never-stop principle. Maybe just detach freight cars at the appropriate locations and let local crews move them to exactly where they need to go.

 

[Cognisant]

How do they get from the transfer carriage to the train itself?
I suppose you could have a stairway inside the train leading up to a hole in the transfer carriage's floor, but if there's someone standing on the staircase when the transfer car moves...

My high school physics teacher once told us that the russians (or was it the germans? can't remember... all his stories were about russians or germans (maybe he made it up...?)) came up with a system for a train that never stopped but gave up on it because there were safety problems with the design. The trains would approach the station and then get inside a loop, and there would be a circular rotating platform that matches the speed of the train so that people could get out normally. But I don't remember what the problem was, something about wind drag or centripetal forces I think... the point was that people would die gruesomely and they couldn't solve it efficiently with the technology of the time (curse you, bad memory)...

Russian, heck they probably built one anyway.
Because in Soviet Russia, you don't catch train, train catches YOU!

 

[walfin]

Oh. I understand now.

 

[Kuu]

How do they get from the transfer carriage to the train itself?
I suppose you could have a stairway inside the train leading up to a hole in the transfer carriage's floor, but if there's someone standing on the staircase when the transfer car moves...

Timed opening-closing, with warning sounds and stuff? Like on, you know, subways?

There could be a mechanism that gently pushes any person standing on the staircase back into the shuttle before the door closes...

This is such a non-issue, I don't know why I even bothered to reply.

 

[GarmGarf]

I thought of something similar to this a while ago. However, I conceptualized pods which would move along the platform when the train came near and would match its speed at a certain interval allowing the passengers to go through. The same pods would then slow down after the interval and rest at the other side of the platform. The pods would only transport passengers at request (i.e: either a passenger inside the train or one on the platform would have to press a button to make the next pod work), to save energy.

My idea is probably worse but it conveys another way this non-stopping train concept can be designed.