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, cac

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

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