System and method for boarding and letting off passengers in trains efficiently so that the train does not have to stop at the stations

Abstract

One of the biggest problems of efficiency in trains is the time wasted for boarding and letting off passengers at the stations. Since trains carry a very heavy mass, typically it can take a few minutes for the train to decelerate and come to a full stop and a few minutes to wait till all the passengers who want to get off or board the train finish boarding or exiting, and then again a few minutes to finish accelerating, and thus each stop at a station can typically slow down a train by 5-15 minutes. This is especially noticeable in fast trains, such as for example trains that go at 150 Mph or more, so that the same trip with the same type of train can take for example 3.5 hours when no or almost no stops are made on the way and 7.5 hours if the train stops at every station. The present invention solves the above problem by enabling passengers to board the train or to get off at each desired station without needing the train to stop or even slow down, based on using an intermediary device of one or more coaches that are used for getting on or off the train while the train is traveling preferably at full speed. The invention solves various problems involved in implementing such a solution.

Description

[0001] This patent application claims priority from Canadian application 2,431,636 of Jun. 20, 2003, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to trains, and more specifically to a System and method for boarding and letting off passengers in trains efficiently so that the train does not have to stop at the stations, preferably by using an intermediary device of one or more coaches that are used for getting on or off the train while the train is traveling preferably at full speed. [0004] 2. Background [0005] One of the biggest problems of efficiency in trains is the time wasted for boarding and letting off passengers at the stations. Since trains carry a very heavy mass, typically it can take a few minutes for the train to decelerate and come to a full stop and a few minutes to wait till all the passengers who want to get off or board the train finish boarding or exiting, and the...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006] The present invention solves the above problem by enabling passengers to board the train or to leave it at desired stations without needing the train to stop or even slow down, based on using an intermediary device of one or more coaches that are used for getting on or off the train while the train is traveling preferably at full speed. Preferably the passengers that want to get off at the station have to go to the last coach (or coaches, if one is not enough) before reaching the station, and preferably a little before reaching the station the coach is disconnected and slows down and comes to a stop at the station. Similarly passengers that want to board the train at the station preferably board in advance a similar coach (or coaches, if one is not enough) that, after the train passes the station, caches up with the train, preferably at full speed, and connects preferably to the back of the train, and preferably continues with it till the next station, thus becoming the getting-off coach for the next station that uses this method. This has also the advantage of saving a lot of energy, since keeping the train running at full speed (especially if most of the way is more or less through a plane) is much easier than the energy needed for stopping and for accelerating again. Another possible advantage is that the tickets can be for example already examined at the boarding coach (for example while waiting at the station or before the passengers are allowed to pass over to the train itself), thus saving in manpower and in time, since that is easier than going all over the train checking if everyone has a ticket.

[0009] 1. Preferably the coordination between the boarding coach and the train is assisted by automatic sensing of the location and speed of the train and especially for example the position of the last coach and preferably also by computer control (As explained below, this can be done for example with sonar, laser, and / or automatic sensors at the tracks and / or for example reading an automatic signal transmitted for example by the last coach or coaches in the train and / or for example automatic computer controlled communication between the boarding coach and the train to coordinate speeds, etc.), since if the boarding coach returns from the side track to the main track before the train has finished passing (or for example if the train has to make a sudden emergency stop before the boarding coach has been able to connect to it) this can lead to dangerous accidents (however this is not more dangerous than the normal correlation required when two trains that travel in opposite directions have to go though the same place where one of them is in a side track, and in fact the situation of two trains moving in opposite directions can lead to much more deadly accidents if anything goes wrong with the coordination). In addition, the side track is preferably at least a few miles long and preferably has multiple crossing points with the main track, so that if there is some error that causes the boarding coach to reach the first crossing point before the train has finished passing, the side track has enough room to go on in the site track and can preferably simply slow down a little and cross over in the next crossing point. However, there is another problem—that normal crossing points are typically limited in the speed that can be used on them, for example only 100 Kph (Kilometers per Hour). So either the boarding coaches have to accelerate to a higher speed only after crossing over to the main track, or for example the crossing point is made with a less sharp angle and / or for example with additional stabilization so that higher speed can be used on it. Another possible variation is that the boarding coach starts accelerating only after the train has passed, which requires less coordination, but that is less desirable since it means that the boarding coach needs more time to catch the train and must accelerate to significantly higher speed than the train itself. On the other hand, letting the boarding coach start accelerating to high speed only after moving into the main track (with or without using two engine carts) has the advantage that the side track can be much shorter and the additional crossing points are not needed, which can thus save additional costs.

[0013] 5. Preferably if the number of people that have to board the train and / or the number of people that want to get off at a certain station is very large, the train can stop normally, and in that case the boarding coach that would have been used can be for example connected to it anyway while it is stopping. This can be decided for example dynamically on a need basis, or for example be defined in advance for a few large cities. This is similar to the normal tendency to allow the express train to stop in at least a few major cities, which has two advantages: a. People who travel to or from one of these major cities do not have to take the slow collector train that stops in much more stations. b. People who need to go to a small city that has only a slow collector train that stops there can take the fast train to reach the nearest major city and then transfer to the next slow train that goes by in order to reach the small city. However, in this prior art design the large cities that the fast train stops at are not necessarily evenly distributed along the way, so if for example there is a larger gap between two large cities, people who have to go to some place in the middle between them will have to take the slow train for a longer part of the way. (Alternatively, the express train can be made to stop in such cases also in at least one point in the middle between two such far large cities, so that the point is chosen by distance instead of by size of the nearest settlement, but that can slow down the express train even more). On the other hand, the present invention allows much more flexibility in deciding where the train has a normal stop, since the consideration of distances between the major cities is no longer important since people can get on or off at any station that has been modified to allow the invention to work. In addition, some express trains in Japan for example do not stop at all even in the major stations along the way, so with such trains the improvements offered by the present invention are even more important, since the passengers in those trains in Japan don't even have the option of getting off at the nearest major station and switching there to the slower train that stops in the smaller place that they need to reach.

[0021] All of the above solutions for cargo have the further advantage that arrival times can be known more exactly, unlike the prior art where cargo trains typically have to be taken apart at each station where cargo has to be added or removed from the train by removing or adding coaches and re-arranging the train while the train is stopping at the station, which can take a different time in each station depending on the things to be done.

Problems solved by technology

In addition, this site does not explain for example how such a shuttle would be able to travel both in normal roads in order to pick up and distribute passengers from various points in the city, and also be able to travel on the tracks at a great speed.

However, to the best of our understanding, this device was very limited in nature, and was only used for letting passengers off, and the train still had to slow down to release it.

Thus, if it could not be used also to board passengers at the same station, it was of course of very limited usefulness, since if there was even just one passenger that had to get on the train at the station, the train would still have to stop anyway, and, in addition, the train might have to carry in advance a sufficient number of slip carriages for each potential station.

This solution is less expensive since it saves one of the engine carts, but it requires a 2nd side track and it causes more time to be lost before the boarding coach can start trying to catch up with the train, which means that the boarding coach might have to travel at a speed significantly higher than the speed of the train in order to catch up with it.

Another problem, in both of these solutions, is that since this special coach (or coaches) preferably connects to the end of the train, if the engine cart is connected at the back of the coach (or coaches) so that it pushes it, the driver has a limited view of the tracks, and on the other hand if the engine cart is connected in front of the coach and pulls it then it means that any passengers that want to get from this coach to the train itself or vice versa have to pass through the engine cart.

However, if for example only one coach was used for the boarding but at the next station too many people want to get off so more than one cart is needed, then the driver will again have only a limited view of the tracks since the engine cart will become in the middle between the 2 (or more) carts used for disembarking.

However, additional problems can also be involved in implementing such a scheme.

However, there is another problem—that normal crossing points are typically limited in the speed that can be used on them, for example only 100 Kph (Kilometers per Hour).

Another possible variation is that the boarding coach starts accelerating only after the train has passed, which requires less coordination, but that is less desirable since it means that the boarding coach needs more time to catch the train and must accelerate to significantly higher speed than the train itself.

However, in this prior art design the large cities that the fast train stops at are not necessarily evenly distributed along the way, so if for example there is a larger gap between two large cities, people who have to go to some place in the middle between them will have to take the slow train for a longer part of the way.

Of course it is also possible for example to collect the passengers on a shuttle with normal wheels and then transfer them to a boarding coach at the train station, but that could be very uncomfortable for example for passengers that are carrying luggage.

However, the problem with cargo is that, unlike human passengers, the cargo is much less mobile between coaches, so unless the cargo is moved between coaches, a lot of the advantages of the present invention can be lost.

However, even after increasing this way the speed and efficiency of trains, there is still the problem that many people will not use the train simply because they need to use their car in the destination area.

Images