h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Would you bother with rail for passengers? Would you keep freight off major roads?

PP.

When I used to play Sim City (probably 20 years ago because I don't suppose I had time once the kids arrived) my city *only* had railways. The electorate were always nagging me to build more roads. I refused. I quite enjoyed being a virtual despot.

But that was just one city - I didn't have to worry about connections to other places - and of course it was just pretend, so I also didn't have to worry about shipping goods to and fro.

I think I'd have as much as possible on trains, though. People *and* freight.

Mol

Pneumatic tubes!

http://youtu.be/xA_goQ_qEMA

I would ship freight underground on automated fast-moving trains and use whatever is the safest, most ecological and economical form of transport for passengers.

The most important thing for the passengers would be that the service provided was suited to the demand. If less people were about, but still needed to get home, say, late at night, I would run the trams (or donkeys, or whatever) no less frequently, but use smaller vehicles. More people = more people space (e.g. rush hour). Frequency of service remains pretty much the same.

In remote areas, you should be able to call a "request tram" (they would probably all be automated anyway) to carry anything from 2 passengers upwards.

For long distances .... hot air balloons??



(not that I would personally ever get in anything that swung and lurched about several hundred feet above the ground.)

Other important criteria for passenger travel: comfort, cleanliness and accessiblilty.

........ and plenty of loos along the way.

Comfort is so important. I was amazed by how comfortable Deutsche Bahn train seats were when I visited a couple of years ago. It's difficult to believe that the cramped cattle trucks that pass for passenger transport in the UK were also built in Germany.

Oooh... Synchronicity!


This story about Personal Rapid Transit was on NPR this morning.


http://www.npr.org/2015/09/24/440859459/why-nonstop-travel-in-personal-pods-has-yet-to-take-off


This sounds like a great solution. The main reasons given in the story for it not being adopted is A) many cities would like to be the second to adopt PRT, but so far no one has volunteered to be first (yet); B) Well funded opposition from existing transit systems like buses and light rail.

The problem with trains for people is that they hardly ever go from where you want TOO where you want. Close to London, Stevenage for instance, getting to Milton Keynes (but why would you?), is hopeless. And if you don't want to go centre to centre it's even worse.

And people deteriorate on long journeys more quickly than say, cheese.

Goods containerised in a variety of standard sizes should be relatively simple.

PP.

I want my own portal

http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20150923-in-the-netherlands-the-minibus-that-drives-itself

Here's another project with those sinister ghost-driven affairs. I must admit that I think those people who commented on the pods in the link that BG gave above may have a point - who's going to keep the things clean?

Would you bother with rail for passengers?

Rail rules when it comes to energy efficiency. At optimum loads, a train hauls things for only a quarter as much fuel as a truck would. Only watergoing vessels could do better. So, yes, I'd have as many people and as much freight as possible on trains. Just remember that solar trains go slowly at night . In any event, I imagine that many passengers like to ride on trains, assuming that the price is right, and that they can get where they're going at the time they want to go there. Trains transformed sprawling countries like the USSR, the USA, and India. Much smaller countries might manage okay without. I imagine that Monaco and the Vatican are small enough that you walk from one end to the other without much trouble.

"Would you keep freight off major roads?"

As compared with what? Putting it on secondary roads instead? Many rural areas might not have generous budgets for road repair, which would be a shame, as heavy trucks ruin roads much more than passenger cars do. Also, if the country your designing a network for is, for instance, and archipelago [Philippines, Indonesia, Hawaii], water transport would be more useful.